whats a better gaming machine? sony z or MBP?

if the sony Z590 was:
P8600 intel (2.4 ghz)
4gb ram ddr3
250gb hdd 5400rpm
geforce 9300gs 256mb no shared
1600x900 screen

and the macbook pro was:
P8600
4gb ddr3
250gb
geforce 9400 shared ram
1280x800

 

I would say they are pretty much similar in performance. 9300 outperforms in "latency sensitive" graphics computations, while 9400 outperforms in "bandwidth sensitive" graphics computations. If you compare their performance on notebookcheck.net, you could see they are about the same.

If you like the light-weight then choose Z; If you like the sanity of OS then choose MBP.

 

Really? I would think the Z with its own dedicated GPU and ram be a better performer. But I don't game much on either machine.

 

I would say Z cause there are games available from other publishers besides Blizzard.

 

Overall, I would say the Z.

Especially since most games are available for windows and if you buy a mbp, your most likely going to be running windows through bootcamp or a virtual machine, which both have some drawbacks compared to windows on a PC.

A pro for the Z would be the resolution and the screen, looks awesome in person. But I felt the Z wasn't as solid as say a mbp in build quality.

If your going to be mostly gaming, I wouldn't get the apple.

 

Forgive me for saying this, but neither I would say...

If you have to decide between the two, I would say the Z, just because of the limitations of OS X.

 

I would agree and disagree with you. I would never declare a Z as a gaming machine, but it does play games, and to some extend quite decently considering its size and weight.

If I can launch games like ANNO 1404 and play without issue its good enough for me on the road.

 

Definitely the Sony.

 

Definitely the sony... SR =D

 

The sony is better for gaming, with the Mac you would have to either be restricted to Mac platform games or use bootcamp. The Z is better but if your not set on Sony or Mac you may find better 13" notebooks out there for you

 

This is list of games i play with Z:
1. Left 4 Dead at Native Resolution, Medium setting.
2. Dead Space 800x600 , Low
3. The Last Remnant , 800x600 aspect at 16:9, Low settings.
4. Street Fighter 4 on Intel HD4500 , 800x600 High Bg and Charac, Low other setting. *can actually set to better setting if running on NVIDIA*
5. Race Driver GRID, 800x600 aspect at 16:9, Ultra Low with Custom setting.
6. Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 800x600 aspect at 16:9, Low settings.
7. Call of Duty 5 : World at War 800x600, Low settings.
8. Burnout Paradise, 800x600 aspect at 16:9, Low to Standard settings.
9. Pro Evo Soccer (Winning Eleven) 2009 on Intel HD4500, 1024x760 aspect at 16:9, Medium settings
10 HAWX on Intel HD4500, Native Resolution, Low setting.

Temperature Operating:
CPU: avg 70 ~ 75
GPU: avg 80, max 82 ~ 85

just sharing what ive played so far on Z. the switchable really helpful while on the go.

kinda off topic, but if you do play games alot, certainly go with Windows OS machine.

 

It has been discussed that the Z with the 1366x768 was actually generally better at gaming than the model with the higher res.

You need to look at the temps and heat of the 9400M in Bootcamp whilst gaming. I've read that the 9300GS in the Z runs a bit higher than some people would like when they're gaming. The 9400M is an integrated card but Bootcamp is not a native environment and Apple lack when it comes to power management for Windows. I have read that W7 is a bit better in regards to power management but it is still not ideal. If you don't mind booting into Bootcamp regularly it could be an option.
In course in terms of heat in Windows the advantage will go to the Z in stamina mode but you don't use that for gaming.

The 9300GS GDRR3 version benchmarks at about over 2000 in 3DMark 06. Take a look at this post. In some games the 9400M will benefit from these strengths. However, though in terms of advantages the 9300GS does have some advantages as well. They are both fairly low end cards.

This thread looks at gaming in MacOSX/Bootcamp.

The SR is really the one to go for if you want to do a bit of gaming. However, depending on what you intend to play the 9300GS could meet your needs.

 

A lot of people has also reported a huge gain in performance when switching to modified video drivers on the Z, I would recommend doing the same if you plan on playing some games. If you do, 1366x768 will be available for 1600x900 users as well as some other low res 16:9 resolutions.

I recommend Nautis drivers if you havnt seen them yet:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5093917&postcount=460

 

Both perform about the same with games.

You'd be better of with Sony SR4 or Toshibe U500. They come with ATI 4570 which is roughly twice as powerful as Nvidia 9300/9400.

 

Thanks for the laptop suggestions, but all i want to compare is the Z vs the MBP 13".

Boot camp is no issue for me, I don't mind booting to windows to play games, actually id prefer it because that way i can keep that partition lean, and use OSX for surfing and photo editing.

One thing ive been tangling with is the fact that the 9300gs struggles to play most games at the native 1600x900 res. This is using the nautis drivers, which did help a lot I might add. playing at a lower res on games doesnt look too good though. Whereas the MBP is 1280x800, looks a tad better since its native res, and wouldn't struggle as much at the lower res.

Main reasons im look at the MBP is because im getting mighty sick with reloading windows once a year (yeah i know you can prevent that, but its still a pain), and i have a lot of photos i go through, and iphoto and imovie are awesome (so yes, software reasons).

But I also go to lan parties semi often, the most intense game we play is Left 4 Dead, but from the Z ive gotten used to the lowest settings and I dont mind it that much. It averages at 30fps. I also play war 3 (pathetically small requirements by today's hardware) and UT 2k4 (almost same performance as left 4 dead).

I just want to know whether the performance will be the same, or far worse. Also are there any modded drivers for the 9400m?