10.10.3 improves performance for games, report Mac game devs

If you like to play games on your Mac, you’ll be happy to know that OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 includes updates that improve game performance.

Still on the fence about whether to update to 10.10.3, which came out last week? Back up, back up, back up, but once you have and you’re ready to go, expect some core optimizations to Apple’s graphics drivers that are netting significant gains in some OS X games.

In its release notes for OS X 10.10.3, Apple didn’t outline any changes to OS X graphics drivers, but that doesn’t mean some optimizations didn’t get made. They’ve caught the notice of OS X game developers like Feral Interactive, which recently posted a message to social media:

Good news for Yosemite gamers! The OS X 10.10.3 update fixes certain issues with SHOGUN 2, DXHR – Director’s Cut, Tropico 4 and GRID 2.

— Feral Interactive (@feralgames) April 13, 2015

I checked with other game developers, and a few confirmed off the record that they’re seeing improvements in some of their games too, including performance boosts. Not all games are seeing better frame rates or improved reliability, but it’s a positive step.

It’s a bit maddening that Apple’s buried the information on what’s changed without making the information customer-facing (or even developer-facing, for that matter), but ours is not to reason why sometimes…just to accept and move on.