Getting the most gaming performance out of my macbook pro.

I am pretty much deciding between keeping my macbook pro (in sig) and upgrading to an imac 24" with the ati 4850. With student discount it would cost me 1879 + tax. I just dont know if its worth it for me. Most all the pc games i own can be maxed on the pro,Save for world in conflict, crysis, and some others (about 5). My 360 gets most of my gaming time anyway. I just am thinking that it would be great to have the extra power in the 4850 for some of my current titles and having power for future titles would be nice. Also who couldnt use more speed for final cut express and such.

One game that annoys me on my macbook pro is Unreal 3. It is an amazingly graphical game. The new patch enables comprehesive settings adjustment. The thing that bothers me is that I can max it but fps drops by 65% on the water level. I want a card that wont have problems like this. Im not expecting wonders with the 4850, i would still use the modpacks for crysis, and run WiC in DX9.

However am i just missusing the macbook pro? What windows operating system runs smoothest on it? I have tried xp 32 bit and noticed some glitches with the led keyboard and such. Would 64 bit be the better option? Would upgrading the ram help at all? Im pretty convinced it wouldnt because as for vram i got double the ram compared to most people with the macbook pro, and still notice about the exact same performace. Also drivers? I never even touched or looked at the drivers? How do install drivers on a mac? Do i just go to nvidia's site on windows? If i erase the bootcamp partiiton will it delete the drivers? Will it conflict with leopard?

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text.

 

Updated drivers can literally triple performance in some games, according to NVIDIA. Updating your drivers from the old drivers that come default with Boot Camp will at least give you a 25% better framerate. Just go to www.nvidia.com and install the drivers in Windows, it won't effect OS X at all.

 

Ha, interesting. Thanks very much. It's crazy how I overlooked this on the macbook pro, where as with all my other windows machines I was driver obsessed. Will post my expiarnace gains , when I get back from vacation. The apple stores here in NYC (where I am on vacation) are AMAZING, by the way I hear the one up near central park is open 24/7. How cool is that if you need a mac pro at 4:30 in the morning

 

It seems that you are really into gaming. I would strongly suggest you either just buy a gaming PC, or build a custom one for MUCH less than $1879.

You could probably build a desktop PC that could easily max those games for ~$1200.

Your MBP is plenty fast for other Mac applications.

 

Yes, do as recommended above. However remember DON'T overclock your graphics card as the 9600m gt is known for running notoriously hot under graphically intensive situations. Overclocking it might result in overheating and eventually your gpu may die.

 

What about his ram guys? He only has 2, what if he maxes that out?

Edit: or maybe that is the max on that model?

 

I will take the old MBP

 

His laptop will take up to 6gb of RAM. Increasing the ram to 4gb will make his laptop less prone to stuttering during his gameplay. However, increasing the laptop RAM, has no effect on speed. In fact i saw my boot up time rise by a few seconds when i upgraded from 2gb to 4gb.

 

Nice so ill focus on updating my drivers before bothering with the ram. However if it fails my needs i think i have a idea. Im considering buying a macbook air. (I would still use this as my main computer). I tested it out today. I started up mail, safari, photoshop elements, imovie, and itunes. And performance was pretty much flawless like my MBP. I am suprised people insult the macbook air because of the cpu. I found that imovie ran fine. I heard on the net that it does indeed work fine for final cut express. I am an amauter video editor, so the fact that it has small storage and no firewire does not annoy me.

The fact that is so lightweight and slick, would make it awesome to take around campus. (The macbook pro was getting a little annoying when added to a bag full of textbooks.) Then i could get a desktop gaming rig for my gaming needs. Finally I could stop using precious mac hardware for heavy, stressing games. (macbook pro was a loud hotplate when loading anything game related).

I should also note i was testing the latest model of the air. The one with the 9400. It was nice but pricey. Mac mall has the old model for 1100. Will the intergrated graphics totally change the expirance?

 

For those saying "don't overclock your 9600, it'll run super hot" they are right. However if you really are inclined to overclock anyways and gain 3 fps max, just make sure your fans are at 5k rpm at least when you game, and you'll be fine. At stock settings with fans at 5k rpm, my temps don't exceed 65ish. Then again I live in the San Francisco area so it's pretty cool usually.

 

if you like air,get it from ebay-you ll save a lot with cashback=you ll have money to built a pc for you!

 

just surfing on the net with the 9600m GT on windows 7, my temps vary between 52-58degrees celcius. Mind you, my fans are running both at 6.2k during this. While gaming, i reache the 80's. So don't overclock unless you are pretty rich and can afford a new mac after yours has died.


Xirurg is right. There are many ebay sellers which are affiliated to the live cash back program. Plus some even offer applecare free of charge or for only a little amount of money.