Anyone Tried SL on M2 Macbook Pro 13"?

[Extrude Ragu]

See Title.

Does SL run on it? What does it perform like? What graphics settings can you get away with?

[Anicha Heartsong]

SL will run on any of the new Macs, but clearly the more cores, RAM etc you have, the faster and better the performance. I use an M1 Mac Mini, which is lower spec, and SL runs well most of the time. But... when I go to crowded sims, things get swirly.

You need to watch out for 'thermal throttle' - this is how macs these days control heat, by using software to cool the machine down. How can that work? A thing called 'kernal_task' fires up and seizes control of all the CPU activity, locking you out of your app until the system has cooled down a bit. Or a lot.

There is a way around this - which is to increase the fan speed and so deliver better cooling. There are apps which enable this, such 'TG Pro' and 'Mac fans control'. (Or it might be 'Macs fan control'. Not sure).

The moral of the tale - tried to avoid getting a machine which has no fan at all. Which rules out the Macbook Air, for one.

(By the way, this should probably be moved to the Technology section.)

Edited July 22, 2022 by Anicha Heartsong

[Modulated]

Judging from what I've seen in viewer support chat, people running M1's have hit or miss experiences. Those things are excellent pieces of machinery but if one spends a lot of time in Second Life, a Mac is probably not money well spent, considering what you could get for the comparable hardware that you build yourself and will give you a great experience in SL IMO.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Modulated