Games on a Mac.

I am thinking of selling my macbook and upgrading to a macbok pro, because I want to play games. How good is the gaming perfomance on a macbook pro? Will I be able to play games such as oblivion on high settings?

Thanks

 

No, no laptop can play Oblivion on high settings. It's a beast. Even SLI systems have problems running it on high (the 8 series is about the only one that can run it at high settings). But it CAN play it pretty well. Even using the underclocked version in the old MBP with the Mac drives (Omega's improve performance) it is still playable.
For benchmark comparisons, it's a bit faster than a x800 XT.
The C2D version shoudl be much faster.

 

The only laptop I have seen that is able to play it maxed out is a fully loaded dell 1710

 

For that matter, even desktops have trouble.. You can't max everything and turn on HDR with out the nvidia geforce 8800. Got $500?.. But it should look nice even with a lowly x1600. You can always pickup an xbox 360. Oblivion plays great and looks awesome.

 

"High Settings" is really too much to ask for for that game for any laptop below 17 inches. My Compal will run it decently at mediumish settings, around 20-30 fps mostly. Even my desktop chokes with everything maxed, and it's fairly fast. (It's not a hardcore gamer's rig, but it does have a couple gigs of ram and an x1900xt.)

 

That can't play it maxed out. It only has a single 7950 mobile GTX... 2 7800/7900's can't run it at maxed settings. HDR simple kills any video card around right now.

This is due to a mix of poor programming (as Bethesda is famous for) and the fact that until the 8 series, no video cards could really efficiently render HDR lighting. At least, not with the LoD that Oblivion has.

 

The Macbook Pro handles games exceptionally well provided you turn Antistrophic Filtering to a low setting. It's better than what I expect from a laptop that's 1" thick and 5 pounds. If you're an extreme gamer then I would recommend a different 17" laptop more suited for games as it will cost you close to the same.

 

If I bought an old macbook pro with the following spec core duo 1.83ghz, 128mb graphics card. How well would oblivion play on it?

 

It would play fine, provided you were willing to turn down the graphics options.

 

Alright, but with low detail. Understand really, this game is a monster. I believe only the 8800's are able to pretty much turn up the options. And I'm not sure they can turn them up all the way. Those are $600 cards too.
But turn off bloom, turn off AA, turn off grass and it should run okay. You'll still get slow downs around the Oblivion Gates and some places outside, but it should run okay. The ground will look barren and boring, but even with settings turned down, it looks good.

I wish I had 2 8800's in SLI so I could really see what this game should look like. Regardless, it's still an immensly fun game. Very immersive and in-depth. I just wish I could port my PC save game to my 360 and vice versa.

 

Hi, I am going to buy the MBP tomorrow but I only have 1 quesiton, would the one with the 128mb graphics memory do good if I upgraded to 2gb of ram? I have used Macs before and I know that they ARE NOT gaming machines. They can game, but not very well. I'll only be gaming on the side though, i'll more than likely only be using things like word processing, music, video, web browsing, and the occasional movie making. Thanks for any help, Peace.

 

Sure, it'll make a difference but it depends on the games as well. On some games you'll notice a marked increase in performance but on others you'll barely notice the difference. I presume you'll be gaming on the Mac side?

 

Yes, but im not too worried about having the settings high, I have another desktop (Fragbox) and I use that mostly for gaming.

 

With bootcamp, this can become a gaming laptop.

 

Can it become a gaming laptop even if I only get the 128mb GPU?

 

Yes, the X1600 128mb is a decent card. I believe Apple "fixed" the current mBp version by increasing the clock rate. And since your requirement are modest, it shouldn't be a problem at all.

 

Do you think that games like Prey and Splinter Cell will work on it? Even Oblivion on low levels?

 

Yes, it can play all of those. I have the underclocked version, and I play Oblivion on low-med settings at 1440x900 res. Keep in mind, there is not a single laptop on the market that can come close to running Oblivion on med-high settings smoothly. For a game that can kill 7800gt's in SLI... can only expect so much from a laptop.

But yeah, they're just as much a gaming machine as any other laptop with the same video card.

But really, the only games I either play or have played on here are Oblivion, Dark Messiah, Civ 4, the LOTRO MMO (sucks), Indigo Prophecy (awesome game), and WoW (under OS X). So yeah, it can play games. But it's also not a DTR monster. But hey, do you really want a 10lb laptop just to play games? I thought I did once... biggest waste of $2000 ever.

 

Just remember the 128MB does not do justice for X1600's power.
The 3DMark05 for a 128MB X1600 is around 3000 while it's 4000 when it has 256MB.
BTW the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro's are much much cooler than Core Duo one's.And the GPU is clocked at what it should be (rather than being underclocked) - Go to my siggy for more info.

 

To Hollownail: Another thing to keep in mind is that I am not a "hardcore" gamer, I just like games and want to put my money to good use. This is a big investment for me and I just don't want to end up with something that I don't want.

To Everybody: Does using Boot Camp to run WinXP void your warranty?

To the guy whose name starts with an M: I am also considering to get the 256mb GPU to take full advantage of it. Because I plan to get 2gb anyway, it might be worth the extra $200 to get it. I also will get about a $300 discount because I have a relative that is a Spanish teacher .

 

No, Boot Camp does not void the warranty. But if you can, I think it's better to game on the Mac side. It's always nice to help out the Mac Game Developers.

 

Heh, I was just at the Mac store and when I said that I wanted to use bootcamp to get XP the person working with me got all offended... It was funny.

 

lol. Yeah I can almost understand that. when I first got my MBP, I was fairly resistant to putting XP on there under boot camp. I wanted the least amount of reliance on XP as possible. Especially since I wanted to learn OS X really well (first time user). After a while, I felt like putting bootcamp on to use XP was ... dirtying my mac

But the 256 meg version is pretty expensive compared to the 128 version, I don't think you get enough performance increase to justify $300+ more for it. Especially since you say you are not a hard core gamer. It will give you a little more lifetime on your system on the other hand...

I would recommend trying to upgrade the ram yourself. Also, go for the largest HDD you can (I recommend the 160GB drive) as you cannot upgrade this without voiding the warranty.

 

I wouldn't worry about the 128 vs. 256 on the MBP; not for the price. On other machines, where the upgrade is just 50-100 bucks, it's worth it (the performance difference is actually pretty large since the x1600 can effectively use 256 meg), but for a minimum of $500 difference, it's just not worth it. Sure you get a processor upgrade, but that's not really worth it either IMO.

 

Your numbers are incorrect. If you look at my review (sig) of a Core2Duo MBP with a 128MB x1600 you will see that it score around 3870 in 3dMark05 while the 256 version in a MBP only score a couple hundred points higher.

 

you get a processor, a ram, and a vram upgrade.. for me it's worth it..

 

Yup, you mention dual-booting and they start looking for their pitchforks and lederhosen...



"Heretic! Burn the heretic!"

 

AWESOME!

FRAU BLUCHER!

 

Ok, I just went and bought my first MAC!!!! YAY! It is great. I got 2gb of ram and the 256mb gpu. The good thing is that I was able to use my Aunt to get about $200 off with her elemantary school teacher discount. So, it was about $2,300. I think its great, im going to go ahead and use my old copy of XP Pro to install it with Boot Camp. Yes, im doing it, I am a Mac heretic, just please don't burn me.

 

I am currently installing Halo as we speak.

 

lol man... Halo? Get Oblivion :-D
And F.E.A.R. BTW, I love Halo, but it won't push that card.

Grats though man. I'm sure you'll love the machine. Just make sure you get a backpack/messanger bag withe plenty of protection. Some of those bags have a small section where there is no padding, just big enough that a slim MBP will be left unprotected (thats how mine got dented).

But hey, you may find yourself using XP less and less once you get used to OS X. I only use it for gaming now and I have XP loaded in parallels for other things I need that aren't graphic intensive.

 

Thanks, I plan to get something to carry it around in, mabye the Swiss Maxxum 15" backpack.

 

running stalker and medieval II total war fine on the crippled core duo version!

 

How do games work on the Mac Book (13-inch)? Do they run, or no?
I'm thinking about getting one, but would like to play just a few games, not very graphic intensive games, but games like Age of Empires, Battlefield 1942, MVP Baseball, and the like. Will it work? Thanks!

 

Those kinds of games will probably be ok (and games like Age of Empires and BF1942 actually have Mac ports, although you'd probably want to just run them in Boot camp anyway).

In terms of what will run, you can look at the various guides here about what the Intel GMA950 graphics can handle. It will apply to the MacBook as well.

 

They will not work well. The Macbook has a GMA950, which is terrible for gaming. You would be good with older games (like 3+ years old) and games like WoW, but that's about it. On top of that, you would likely have to buy and install Windows on it to play many games. Gaming should not be a priority if you are looking to buy the Macbook.

 

He said he's planning on playing not very graphically intensive games though, which the GMA950 is more than capable of handling. He wasn't asking if he'd be playing Oblivion on it or something.

For someone whose priority is just older less graphically intensive games, I don't see a problem with the GMA950.

 

Well I don't know much about Macs.
But assuming those games are supported by OSX (or that you play them using Windows under Boot Camp) then it would depend on the video card, RAM and CPU of your Mac.
Since I could play BF1942 with my old desktop (512MB of RAM and a GeFroce 4 64MB GPU) I'd imagine a MacBook could play those games.

(Wow quick replies).

The MacBook has a GMA950? It should still play those games but like notebook_ftw said, don't expect to play the newer games with an integrated card.

 

Yeah, games are not a big priority with me, and I would be running them with Bootcamp, I just wanted to be able to use a few games.

 

i had a macbook with a GMA graphics card and it didnt run well with most up to date games (NFS, CallOfDuty) and that was just last summer.

 

If you wait another month or so, they'll be upgraded to the GMA X3000, which should be a significant boost in graphics power.

 

yup
i would wait for santa rosa and the better integrated card if i were u

 

Well, I probably won't buy for a few more months, so that would do.

 

The GMA x3000 has been rumored in the past to have performance comparable to an x1300 or x1400, which is not stellar, but much better than the GMA950. However, the last I saw, it was going to be limited to 64MB of memory to use, which is quite low. I expect this to change to at least 128 though.

 

I would think you could squeeze by, especially with an x3000. My macbook (obviously) has only a gma950, and I've played some FFXI on it before. The performance is nothing to be proud of, but it does run. (It's an older game, usually cpu-bound anyways, but is three-dimesional )

 

Unreal Tournament 2004 runs beautifully on my MacBook. I'd say it runs better than it did on my dv5030us with an Xpress 200m

 

hey all im considering a macbook (black) for my next lappy purchase, and i was wondering what the vid card specs were on the regular macbook, not the pro.. i want to use some parallels software to run xp for some gaming (oblivion) and im curious about the specs. Everything else is up to snuff for sure to play, jw about the vid card

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

The graphics card of the MacBook is the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950...in other words incapable of running today's games. Oblivion, I'd say no way you can play it comfortably, and possibly you can't even run it.

As for older games, like two year-old games, you can run them on the MacBook, maybe not at top performance or high quality, but it can run. But Oblivion, I'd say no. I'm not 100% sure though, but I don't think it will handle it.

 

In addition to what Sam said, Parallels does not support 3d acceleration yet, so you would need Boot Camp, not Parallels. And the GMA 950 is not suitable for gaming.

 

ouch well thats a bummer, and theres no option to upgrade the vid card either....bummer. oh well, maybe for my next next laptop, or ill just save a ton of money and go pro.. thanks for your help though guys!