MacBook Pro Gaming - Please Read

I'm thinking of getting a 17" MBP, but I want to know how it performs in games.
Mine will be equipped with:

2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7800
nVidia 256mb 8600M-GT GDDR3
4GB 667 DDR2 RAM- 2x2GB SO-DIMMs
200GB SATA (150 or 300?) 7,200rpm

I understand that it wont be tearing through Fear at 45fps, but if I overclock the grfx card and prcessor will the MBP be able to play new MMO's like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online with good settings and handle Crysis, COD4, etc with Ok-better settings? Secondly, I was wondering which screen to get on the MBP, 1650x1080 or 1920x1200. I've heard that it is better to play games at the native resolution of the screen, is this true.If so will the MBP be able to play games at 1920x1200, meaning I should go for the higher res screen. Or will it only be able to get good frame rates at 1650x1080, meaning I should go for the screen of the same res?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

It should be a good laptop. If you are going to be playing with Windows then you might want to see about an Asus or Sager, but if you need a native MAC, then it should be fine. The card is overkill for most games, but will be underpowered at the higher games such as Crysis. The games do look better at native resolutions, but for some games you will have to bump it down to get an acceptable fps through gameplay. With Windows, you will only be able to utilize 3gb of the ram as you will have to use a 32bit Windows os to play most games. The hard drive is comparable to many gaming rigs so that shouldn't be an issues.

In a nutshell, it will be a good laptop for some gaming, just with a couple tweaks to get the best gameplay.

 

I'll be using 64bit Windows to game, XP or Vista (when drivers come out)

 

Boot Camp doesn't officially support any version of 64bit Windows. There are workarounds, but they're not really worth the trouble.

Just go with a Sager or a Dell or an Alienware or something.

 

Gaming with a mac was popularized during the debut of Bootcamp and other Dual boot softwares but problems occurred like not powerful enough graphics. Yes alot of notebooks have the 8600GT but people usually play games on higher end graphics like the 8800GTX and this Apple does not offer in fact they do not offer the 8700GT which should be standard at a laptop that costs $3000 but eh apple does not care apparently.

 

Isn't the 8600M-GT a pretty capable card, especially if it's overclocked

 

Yeah, seriously, go for a Sager or Dell. Both make 17" gaming machines that are far more powerful than the 17" MBP will ever hope to be, for around the same price. Should you decide to stick with the Apple route for whatever reason, some advice:

-Don't shell out for the 2.6GHz processor. It's not worth $250 no matter how you slice it; the GPU is your bottleneck in gaming on that system, and the difference between a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo and a 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo that are otherwise identical will be negligible at best.
-Don't buy the RAM from Apple. They want $700 for 4GB, undoubtedly of crappy RAM. You can get 4GB of OCZ or Transcend for $150 on Newegg. Instructions for installing it are readily available online.
-The 1920x1200 screen will be wasted if gaming is your main concern. The GeForce 8600M GT won't be able to power any newer games to 1680x1050 at reasonable details, much less 1920x1200. It is nice for the fact that it supports full 1080p, though, as well as ample space for working.

Edit: To answer your question, yes it is a fairly capable card, but it has a pretty low memory bandwidth (128-bit bus) that limits its performance at high resolutions severely. And good luck overclocking the MBP significantly - they are notorious for overheating as it is.

 

Hrm, everyone keeps suggesting that processor speed is unimportant, but it also depends heavily on what you're planning on doing besides those games you mentioned.

If you encode or decode video frequently, processor speed will make your projects complete faster (although I don't know of anyone who actually sits there and waits for it to finish, so the time saved probably is moot).

But beyond that, many games do require significant processor power. A very good chess engine for example, will take a lot of processor power. Even Civ4 on huge maps can be a drain. Also, if you ever plan on using any sort of emulation (PS2, etc.), you'll max out your processor.

 

Those are good points, but is it really worth $1.25/MHz for that slight performance bump? Probably not, unless you really have money to burn.

 

Emulation isn't normal gaming, and if a game is held back by a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, it's going to have a very, very exclusive audience. *cough*Crysis*cough*.

 

The guy probably wants a Macbook Pro for video/photo editing and or recording along with gaming.... Macbook Pros are way thinner than other laptops too. Don't get me wrong, I'm a PC loyalist.

 

The 8600M-GT in the 17" has a 256mb bus

 

No it doesn't. It's the exact same card that's in the 15-inch version.

 

Yes and no. It has 256MB of GDDR3 VRAM, yes, but it's over a 128-bit bus. There's a difference. With the smaller bus, it can't address all of the video memory effectively and it constricts performance at higher resolutions and with larger texture sizes, regardless of how much video memory you have.

 

The 8600M GT in the 17" MBP is probably the fastest clocked one at stock and warrantied. It's clocked higher than in the 15" MBP and uses GDDR3 instead of the common DDR2, and if I'm not mistaken, the core is actually clocked higher than nVidia official specs although the memory is clocked a bit lower.

 

To play at 1920x1200 I'd suggest waiting for the 8800M. Or if you just can't wait and don't care for DX10 then get something with 7950GTX which would most likely rule out the MBP.

 

You will not be able to play brand new games or even recent games in 1920x1200.

The 8600m gt plays brand new games *cough* crysis in medium - medium high settings at 1280x800 pretty well, and UT3 games very well, also at 1280x800.

Games based on the UT2 / Doom 3 engines can run 1440x900 and maybe 1680x1050.

Source games run really well. I wouldn't be surprised if you could pull off 1920x1200 for those. Every source game I have played runs really well at 1440x900.

Still- if you know most of your gaming is going to be 1280x800 in advance, and you are choosing either a 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 17" screen, I would primarily consider the other functions. If you are doing photo / video editing, just get the 1920x1200 screen because you will want it for that.

Also, a 1920x1200 screen will interpolate lower resolution images better than a 1680x1050 screen. It might even do it very well.

Do not waste money on a 2.6 ghz proc. Not needed.


As a final note- the 8600m gt is not designed to perform at 17" resolutions (1680x1050 and above). It can be really powerful even with intensive graphics at lower resolutions (1440x900 and below), but that power doesn't scale well to higher resolutions. Its a memory bandwidth thing. To get solid performance in high resolutions, you will want a brand new 8800m series gpu.

 

I have the same MBP as MasterChef and I can say that this laptop can play most games very reliably. Crysis plays well at Medium and 1200x800 (like he said) at least in the demo version. I've played everything from the Orange Box (this one plays on max settings very nicely) to Bioshock to Supreme Commander. It all runs very well.

I use Vista 32-bit through BootCamp.

If you are a heavy gamer, I'd suggest at least a 70GB partition for Windows.

The 8600m GT in the MBP is a very nice card considering the laptop size (although you pay $$$ for the vanity).

I wouldn't mind an 8800m GTX though.

 

Slightly off-topic but what settings do you get with Supreme Commander? Posted a few days ago but no one bothered giving me an answer for recommended settings.

 

If your main purpose is gaming, I would recommend against the MBP. For the money there are alternatives with better gfx cards, because the 8600 GT, even with GDRR3 memory, is just not very powerfull when it comes to playing at 17" resolutions. If gaming is not the main purpose, then by all means get the MBP. It's a beautiful, compact machine with a great operating system.