Diablo IV Forum

MacBook Pro 14-inch, Nov 2024
Chip: Apple M4
RAM: 16GB
macOS: Sequoia 15.3.1

I'm able to install Battle.net, install D4, enable D3DMetal/Msync, and even play the game with an acceptable frame-rate for anywhere between 5-15 minutes before it just comes to a near halt. It doesn't quite entirely freeze, but it gets to a point where even during cinematics, I'm getting shown one frame every 5-6 seconds. It becomes absolutely unplayable.

So, I looked through the "tips" section here, and took a wild guess that the problem could be CPU throttling because macOS apparently really hates turning the fans on, for any reason. Following the tip here, I purchased TG Pro to attempt to force my fans to run so the potential throttling wouldn't occur. Turns out, TG Pro won't do anything to control the fan speeds, regardless of many attempts at new settings, when macOS determines the temp is low enough to "hardware disable" them.

My guess here is that macOS hardware disables the fans after a few minutes of play, the temps get high enough that the fan control is temporarily turned on, TG Pro takes over for a few seconds while macOS has determined the temp is too high, but then it seems to be throttling the game down to avoid having to reactivate the fan. Same behavior with/without TG Pro.

There are so many factors here that I'm not sure where to go to for support or solutions, if I'm on to something here with throttling and basically macOS hates fans being on, or if I'm missing something entirely different.

I should point out here, it is only D4 that slows down to an unusable level. The rest of my system remains entirely responsive. Any suggestions would be appreciated.