I'm a die-hard PC user looking at notebooks. Convert me.

Looking to spend $2500-$3000 on a 15.4". Looked at the MBP and love the LED screen, large touch pad, weight, and size. However, I do alot with Windows and own alot of Windows games like Bioshock, Half Life 2, etc. I'm looking at the MBP because of the bright screen and Leopard. Question: with a 64bit OS like Leopard, I can take advantage of more memory than a 32bit OS, correct? When I'm running a program like Parallels or VMF, and I'm playing a Windows game, will I be able to take advantage of, say, a full 4 gb of RAM in addition to all 256mb of the 8600m's memory?

Another question: when is Apple going to go LED with the 17" screens?

 

A) you won't be playing games in a VM. You'll be using bootcamp for that.
B) yeah, 64bit can address more memory than 32bit.

If you plan on using Vista in bootcmap, I say 4 gb. But at least get 2Gb. Upgrading from the included 2 to 4 through say, newegg.com, will cost you around $100.

Hrm... no idea on the LED in the 17".

 

The MBP is a great machine for what you want to do however in terms of gaming you should install Windows via Bootcamp and not Parallels or VMware.

Bootcamp will allow for access to your memory and will have no issues with handling graphics. VM and Parallels are virtualization solutions and not really meant for serious gaming such as Bioshock.

 

Supposedly leaked transcript from Macworld 08 says LED in the 17"..

We'll just have to wait and see.

About the games, HL2 you'll be able to play it fully maxxed out on native (1440x900) with great FPS. Bioshock however, you'll have to turn it down to 1280x800 and some details to medium..

 

Wait, with Bootcamp, I'll still be able to use all the memory that I could use in a 64 bit OS, even with Vista 32?

Can I run Bootcamp and Parallels/VMF? (I love the combined evironments but wanna game too if I can).

 

MBp is a great machine just make sure you get a big hard drive because if you have 2 OS on it they will take up alot of space.

 

if you run windows, you are running an operating system. you don't get the advantages of a 64 bit operating system with 32 bit windows. Thats true for every laptop. If you buy a core 2 duo machine and install 32 bit windows, you max out at 3.x gigs of ram. Not a big deal, really.

you will need to use 64 bit vista to recognize 4 GB of ram, but apple hasn't released 64 bit drivers yet.

you can use bootcamp to install windows on a separate partition from your osx installation, then you can use vmware (or parallels) to run the bootcamp'd windows installation from within osx.

to run windows applications (they can be processor intensive, but very limited graphics support only) you can use a virtual machine. to run games, you will need to boot into windows. You can use one windows installation for both of those tasks, though.

 

No vista 32 will only support 3.58GB of RAM

 

If you run Vista 32-bit using Boot Camp and have 4 GB memory installed, only 3 GB will be available as 32-bit operating systems can only address up to 3 GB. If you load a 64-bit operating system, then all 4 GB will be available to the operating system.

Edit: Sorry masterchef341 and M1530, you beat me to the answer.

 

^^ what he said.

Boot Camp just seperates your hard drive into 2 sections, allowing you to format and install Windows on 1 section. You will want to actually boot into windows on start-up to game, because game's are unplayable through VMWare or parallels for the most part. If you install a 32-bit windows then you will have a 32-bit windows, so you won't take full advantage of 4GB of RAM while booted in Windows. This is how Boot Camp works:

1)Run it in OS X to divide your Hard Drive into 2 sizes that you want.
2)Pop in the windows install DVD and it will run it.
3)Use the Windows installation to format and install it on your new partition.
4)When you want to boot into your windows partition (directly, and not using a virtual PC program like VMWare of Parallels) just hold ALT when you start up your MBP, and you get 2 pictures of 2 Hard Drives. Just Click the one labelled Windows. When booted in Windows the performance will be exactly the same as any other normal PC with the same specs.

It's just as easy as installing and using Windows on a normal PC, except that you need to partition first, which honestly take about 3 clicks to do, and is very straight-forward.

VMWare is good for other windows apps, but for gaming you will definatley want to just boot into windows for good performance.