MacbookPro + Gaming

Hey guys,

I'm looking @ getting a new 15" Macbook Pro /w 3.06 Core 2 Duo processor, 4 GB RAM, and 320 GB @ 7200 RPM. I am planning on getting it as a desktop replacement and will use it for gaming and office work. I know it's going to be perfect for the latter, but am curious as to how it will hold up for the former. The Mac gaming videos I've seen online are very promising and they are the older model. How realistic would it be for me to play games using a windows OS? Also, I am better off getting XP, Vista, or Windows 7?

Thank you for your help!

 

It has a 9400m intergrate GPU so not too realistic you'll be playing games on the lower settings...

I reccomend you fill out this FAQ, and we'll find you a better laptop for your needs

 

If you get the version with the 9600gt, you'll be able to play some games at some fairly decent settings.

The 9400m isn't anything spectacular. It'll run games 10x better than any Intel integrated graphics, but that's not saying much.

 

The 3GHz MBP comes with a 9600m, not just 9400m.

It is a decent gaming chip, but don't expect to play demanding games at high resolutions (WXGA+) unless you don't mind frame rates dropping to the low teens or even single digits for titles like Crysis.

The 9600m will do a competent job with games like Valve's Source based titles, COD 4, etc.

For playing games, use XP.

Personally, if I were you, I'd get a base 13" MBP or 15" model and spend the rest on a dedicated gaming tower PC, which will be good for 3+ years (although you'd likely need to upgrade the GPU once every 12-18 months unless you go SLI right away or a GTX 280).

 

The 9600 on the macbook is very cheap and outdated, it won't play games much at all. And don't get the 3.06Ghz that's a waste of money. Performance wise the .26Ghz gain is nominal, however the 3.06 has 35w TDP, the 2.8 is 25w, so the 3.06 will drain your battery faster and heat up more. And in games and office work the 2.8 is more than enough, as the 9600 will bottleneck even a 2.0 core 2 in some games.

If you want to game applebook is right. I'd go with the low end 13inch macbook for portability, that leaves you with about $1000+ for a gaming desktop that will be tons faster than the macbook pro. For $1000 you could get duel 4870s, Phenom II X4, which would be 10x faster in gaming.

 

Look at Xhibit signature. He had a good gaming laptop/desktop replacement for sale.

 

I have both a base model 13" uMacbook (before they made the last revisions) and it plays WoW pretty decent in high settings. However, FPS drops around ~10-20 when in popular zones. I gave the 13" uMB to my mom for college and purchased a maxed out 15" uMBP and since I only needed it for playing WoW when I'm away from my desktop (20-30 hours a week) it's not like that's all I'll be playing WoW on. I hear it runs WoW perfectly but don't expect to run other games greatly. Then again, when I find an MMO (like WoW) that really is addicting I tend to play for years.

If your stuck on getting a new unibody Macbook Pro (13", 15" or 17") I recommend if your going to be playing less demanding games to at least get 4GB ram, 7200RPM HD, and a dedicated graphics card (the two higher end 15" or the 17"). Good luck! And please keep us informed with your decision.

 

What games are you planning on playing BTW? That might help us give a more 'Yes' or 'No' answer.

 

Thank you very much for the responces! Let me try to clarify a little. For the most part I use my 360 for the serious gaming, because I got tired of worrying about system requirements and hardware. I use my comp for mmorpgs, and right now I'm playing guild wars. I plan on s/w to gw2 when it comes out and also the upcoming kotor mmo. Otherwise I'll use it for older games like nwn2 or something.

@Xhibit
thanks for the tip on CPU speed. I figured it would be worth it to upgrade, but if it's not a noticeable difference I'll save my money.

I'm pretty set on a mac for the reliability and ease of use, so I guess I just want to know what I'm getting into as a casual gamer. Unfortunately the working world has a way of interfering with the virtual one.

 

Do u think the macbook pro can handle SC2 high graphics in the future? That game will probably be the only game I want to play when it comes out for Mac.

 

Huge exaggeration.

Cyber, a 9600GT is plenty for casual gaming. If you plan on playing games a lot you should build a desktop as others have suggested, but the 15 inch MBP serves as a very good (although ridiculously expensive) portable gaming machine. Get the 2.8 GHz version as it gives you better battery life and saves you a few hundred bucks.

 

For WoW the 9600 will play pre-WotLK on highest, but you'll probably have to set shadows down in WotLK and you will get low fps in high populated areas. For SC2 the min requirements seem to be radeon 2000/geforce 8000 with 512mb so you should be able to run it pretty well, maybe not maxed out settings at high res tho. In your case the 9600 might be good enough, but don't expect to be able to play any high end games at decent frame rate.

 

I am dying to get a macbook pro, but there`s not many games, I want to be able to play battlefield 2 at least.

 

Thats also the problem with gaming with the macbook pro, you have to buy windows for +$100. For optimal gaming build yourself a gaming rig for $1000 + 13inch macbookp, if you don't care about detail and fps get the 15/17macbook pro, just make sure it has the 9600mgt with 512mb. 13 is not ideal for your only computer, the screen res is so low, however I'm used to 1920x1200, when I use my old hp desktop with a 1680x1050 monitor it looks blurry.

 

Get a used copy of XP SP2 for your MBP, and you'll game.

 

You be able to game on medium settings for most things, but keep in mind the Macbook Pro is not designed to be a gaming machine.

It's an excellent work/productivity machine, but there's not many games on Mac so you'll be booting into XP probably (or vista if you are loopy). So really you paid for some expensive hardware when you could have bought a souped up Dell for the same price. If gaming is a main consideration, stick with PCs, if work/productivity/ease of use/maintainability is, go mac.

 

@Keita: It's a little early to call the shots on that game because it's still in development. According to http://www.starcraft2.com/faq.xml#technical, if you scroll down to 'Technical Aspects' they state they will release this information closer to release. I'm crossing my fingers for 'Yes'!

 

Yea, i really hope to run that game with high settings on the macbook pro. =/

 

After searching it seems the minimum req to run SCII are going to be GeForce 7/8 or Radeon 1000/2000 with 256 MB, and whats recommended is GeForce 8000 or Radeon series 2000 with 512 MB. These requirements are in desktop terms, and the 9600m gt is somewhere between a desktop 7600GT and a 8600GT. You have to get the 512mb version($2300 model), then you could probably play it well on medium detail at native res(1440x900). High setting might be pushing it but it hasn't come out yet so it's really hard to tell.

 

my mac has eaten everything i have thrown at it till date. this is the best laptop i have ever owned.

 

LOL, I guess you spent 2.5k on your current laptop and 1k on all your previous ones.

 

i guess so.

 

A $1k desktop would be better for games than a MBP. If you play a lot of shooter games, the desktop would be better. But if you play games like WoW, the mobility factor might be useful if you play with your friends together somewhere.

 

As long as you have a 9600 youll be fine to game.

My 8600 is still chugging along, and playing everything that I try. Latest game I played on it was Prototype, I put it down to 1280x720 and it runs perfectly fine, and it pretty smooth. Probably coulda gone up in resolution, but didn't bother.

So will you be able to play games? Yes.

 

yes..these cards play everything, though some games may require to decrease details level but i don't mind.

 

I just bought Fallout 3, and while it is certainly dated by a year at this point, I am able to play on Ultra High settings. The only setting I had to lower was 8x AA, and 4x looks decent anyway. So I was pleasantly surprised by my MBP. I have also played Bioshock, Company of Heroes, and World in Conflict with most settings maxed at native res (1440x900).

 

My new 15" Macbook Pro plays WoW at ~35-95 FPS on max settings (shadowing reduced of course). I LOVE it! !

 

honestly the 9600 gt is a joke for serious pc gamers.

 

I don't necessarily think it's fare to say that just because the 9600 GT performs well with WoW that those who use the card or find it suitable for their gaming needs are not serious gamers. Now although I find myself only playing fantasy MMO's I have years of experience gaming on a PC (at least 10 years). I mean we've already concluded in this post that the card is not up to par with other laptops out there for the price, but the good news is that for my needs it works quite well. /shrug

 

This is my Macbook Pro, 2.66Ghz 17" model, compared to my year+ old Sager 5793. Say what you want about the validity of benchmarks, Windows on a Mac, drivers, Windows 7, whatever. You do not explain away almost 4000 points. You also don't talk about price, as the Sager over a year ago cost me less than this Macbook Pro cost me under a month ago.

One of these is a "gaming" laptop in the purest sense. One isn't. A MBP can "game" in a quasi-acceptable way to people who aren't fussy about graphics quality and do not set their expectations particularly high. The 9600M GT, as lauded as it is, is strictly a mid-range chipset, and there are significantly better choices available on the PC side. As a point here, the 8800M GTX in my Sager, the one helping generate that 9243 score, that was two chipsets ago. The current stuff destroys even that.

Of course the Sager is big, heavy, and loud, and has awful battery life. It ain't something you bring to the library. So that's something to factor as well.

 

9600 GT is perfectly acceptable for even a serious gamer.

It may not be acceptable for a gamer-phile or techno-phile.

as far as the macbook pro, there is no justifying its cost with relationship to the parts inside of it. if you want the most computer component for your dollar, you should *already* know to look elsewhere. if you don't, this is your warning.

 

Most "serious gamers" want a better card. Its not because they'll get more out of it, but most "serious gamers" love to compete... and love to brag and show off and get what is better than the next guy. If you have an older card that is like 15% slower than someone else's 1.5X the price card, they'll laugh at you and tell you how much you and your card are complete trash.

Don't worry about what the hardcore gamers tell you is good or not... I have no issues playing anything with the 9600 or 9400 in my MBP.

for more on gaming on Macs though I suggest you check out a different forum... dedicated to making unofficial ports of games to OSX. Even done some myself Wrappers are made using stuff like Wine and Cider, and made to work right with certain games... then the games are stripped out, the wrapper is made available for download... you can download it, and copy your game inside of it, then run the game like a normal mac .app, no Windows needed.
Check out "The Porting Team" forum here http://portingteam.com/

 

Sweet I'll check that out!

 

The 9600m is good enough for most games. I'll be using the 9600 as a secondary card since I have a 8800gts 640mb in my desktop rig.

 

PPFFFFTTT...our crappy 8800GT/s cards need to be replaced because they can't max out Crysis at 1080p.

Too bad I play only a few games that don't even tax my ancient 8800GT.

 

I have the MBP 15 2.8 with the 9600m..it runs WOW pretty well. MMO is all about RAM imo. Turn the shadows down and you get 30-60 fps. In popular areas the fps drops at points. It's a nice alternative. I love my MBP..even gave up my maxed out Alienware M15-x for it (which is ridiculously over price for a cheap piece of plastic that feels like it wants to fall apart when opened up...)

 

the 9600 will run all things today

crysis at medium

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmoZEHq58v0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXlejyKD1_Y&feature=related

 

I am sure many of us would want your AlienWare if you don't want it...

 

That's not the 9600 in the videos. Good thing he had the resolution so low, because it didn't even look like medium settings to me. Can't say it runs newer game *well*. Passable is a better word.

 

to be fair, he said that it could run all things today, 6 MONTHS AGO...

and my 9600m gt (it's the gddr3 version, granted) plays modern warfare great at 720p (1280x720).

It can still run pretty much anything just fine, just put resolution to something reasonable, about 1280x720 usually, settings to medium-high.

 

O, didn't notice it was a necro thread. Meh, I'm still right, it's mostly passable. Turning down resolution always sucks.

 

ok, sure.

10char.

 

You guys aren't listening to what the OP is saying. Sure you could buy a cheaper MacBook and a gaming desktop, but he specifically stated that he uses his 360 for most gaming, and just wants to play some MMOs and WoW on his MacBook Pro, in which case the 9600m GT would be fine for that. Just because you can get a cheaper PC for gaming doesn't necessarily mean you need to. It's much more convenient to have just one computer that can handle all of your work and any on-the-go/PC-specific gaming you do, especially when you already have a console for more serious gaming.

I'm actually in the exact same position as the OP, as I use my MacBook Pro for MW2, L4D2, etc. while on the go/on trips, but otherwise game on my 360. So if the MBP works for you for all other tasks, and you like it, I'd say go for it.

 

I have the exact same specs as the OP was asking about and I am able to play Crysis on high settings and GTA4 on medium, both at resolution. I'm pretty sure that most of the laptops that I've seen aren't able to run the opening sequence of GTA4 so the 9600m GT with 512mb is a decent chip IMO, whether it's a "gaming" card or not.