Diablo 3 is undoubtedly the biggest game release of the year, and is also now officially the fastest selling PC game of all time with over 4.7 million copies sold on launch day alone.

While financially successful for Blizzard, the launch was widely criticised by users who encountered full (Error 37) or off-line servers (Error 3003) amongst a number of other bugs not fixed by the launch-day patch.

The biggest complaint by far for Diablo 3 Mac users however, has been performance – especially if you own a Mac with an NVIDIA 9400M card. If you play Diablo 3 on a MacBook Pro, the following tips may help improve your in-game frame rates as well as overall game performance.

General Tips for Better Diablo 3 Performance

  • Reboot your MacBook prior to loading up the game, as this will clear the memory.
  • Reset the System Management Controller
  • Close down all background applications
  • Reset all game settings to default

For Diablo 3 Players with MacBook Pro 15-inch (2008), 15 and 17-inch (2009)

Enter System Preferences and find ‘Energy Saver’. This pane allows you to adjust the graphics performance of your MacBook. Select “higher performance” rather than “better battery life” as shown below. You can change this option at any time if longer battery life is required, or when you don’t have access to your MagSafe adapter.

For Diablo 3 Players with MacBook Pro 15-inch and 17-inch (2010) and later

For users with a MacBook Pro built in 2010 or later, again enter into System Preferences and find ‘Energy Saver’. You want to un-check the box that enables “automatic graphics switching”. This box is enabled by default.