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2016 MacBookPros for Gaming

Huntn

Huntn

macrumors Penryn
Original poster
May 5, 2008
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The Misty Mountains
What do you guys think? After reading an article speaking about how $1500 PC notebooks can be found that run circles around the $2400-2800 MBPs in the gaming dept, I'm seriously thinking about changing direction and going with a MacBookAir or lessor MBR and just stick to casual gaming when traveling. Ironically in the lesser MBP dept, I could still end up in the $2000 range with the larger SSD hard drive.
 
From what I've read, they aren't even close to gaming grade GPUs. They are designed to be efficient, not overall powerful, roughly equivalent to a GeForce 965M. Mind you, Nvidia has released extremely efficient GeForce 10 series cards that run at full desktop level performance. Point is, if you bought it to play games, you are going to be disappointed.

If I were doing it all over again, I'd get a high spec 13" and an eGPU. Thunderbolt 3 will really make those perform.

http://bgr.com/2016/10/28/macbook-pro-2016-specs-touch-bar/
 
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After reading on the Civ 6 thread that Aspyr is keen on supporting the touchbar macbook pros for common items such as build a city, auto-explore and so on...
I'm going to go for the custom top end 15" MBP with the kitchen sink upgrades for the lot.
I know my MBA 13 i7 2013 will run civ 6 in strategic mode, but I'm keen on finally getting retina and touchbar, especially now that the 1password app will support touchbar and touchID soon.
 
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venom600 said:
From what I've read, they aren't even close to gaming grade GPUs. They are designed to be efficient, not overall powerful, roughly equivalent to a GeForce 965M. Mind you, Nvidia has released extremely efficient GeForce 10 series cards that run at full desktop level performance. Point is, if you bought it to play games, you are going to be disappointed.

If I were doing it all over again, I'd get a high spec 13" and an eGPU. Thunderbolt 3 will really make those perform.

http://bgr.com/2016/10/28/macbook-pro-2016-specs-touch-bar/
Click to expand...

High spec 13" MBP?
[doublepost=1477964210][/doublepost]AMD reveals Radeon Pro 400 series GPU specs, as used in new MacBook Pro

Spoiler: Don't expect to do much gaming on your shiny new MacBook Pro.
------------

If you really want to do some gaming on your new MacBook Pro, there is one option available to you. The high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro (starting at £2,350) can be configured to use the Radeon Pro 460 for an additional £180. The Pro 460 will get you up to 1080p @ 60FPS in some games, with higher quality settings.

...$2900
 
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Huntn said:
High spec 13" MBP?
[doublepost=1477964210][/doublepost]AMD reveals Radeon Pro 400 series GPU specs, as used in new MacBook Pro

Spoiler: Don't expect to do much gaming on your shiny new MacBook Pro.
------------

If you really want to do some gaming on your new MacBook Pro, there is one option available to you. The high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro (starting at £2,350) can be configured to use the Radeon Pro 460 for an additional £180. The Pro 460 will get you up to 1080p @ 60FPS in some games, with higher quality settings.

...$2900
Click to expand...

Meaning I'd buy the touchbar 13" with the fastest processor and maxed out RAM and use an external GPU.
 
venom600 said:
Meaning I'd buy the touchbar 13" with the fastest processor and maxed out RAM and use an external GPU.
Click to expand...

Which external GPU? I'm about to order one, so I'm seriously considering options. I suppose any such GPU will connect through the USBC ports, thanks! :)
 
What games do you want to play? If your looking to play AAA games maxed out at 60+fps I wouldn't get a mac. Then I again I wouldn't get a laptop for gaming unless it was like an ASUS ROG, which is more of a desktop replacement.
 
How to build an external GPU for 4K video editing, VR, and gaming

fatalogic said:
What games do you want to play? If your looking to play AAA games maxed out at 60+fps I wouldn't get a mac. Then I again I wouldn't get a laptop for gaming unless it was like an ASUS ROG, which is more of a desktop replacement.
Click to expand...

ARK, Fallout4, Civ VI. I have a Gaming PC, I'm looking at options for good game performance in a Mac laptop or I'll just give up and go with casual gaming (on my Mac) while traveling.
 
Huntn said:
...$2900
Click to expand...
You don't need to buy the high end 15" to upgrade to the Radeon 460. If you go 15", I highly recommend getting the low end version, upgrade the SSD to 500 GB, and the video card to the Radeon 460. It'll cost the same as the high end 15". You lose about 100 MHz and some cache in the processor (minor loss) but will have a video card capable of 1.8 TFLOPS with the Radeon 460. The Radeon 450 in comparison can only do 1 TFLOPS, and the high end 15" default Radeon 455 does 1.2 TFLOPS.

For another comparison, the PlayStation 4's GPU is capable of about 1.8 TFLOPS. The Xbox One's GPU does about 1.3 TFLOPS. You're essentially getting the PS4's GPU in your Macbook with a Radeon 460.
 
Meicyn said:
You don't need to buy the high end 15" to upgrade to the Radeon 460. If you go 15", I highly recommend getting the low end version, upgrade the SSD to 500 GB, and the video card to the Radeon 460. It'll cost the same as the high end 15". You lose about 100 MHz and some cache in the processor (minor loss) but will have a video card capable of 1.8 TFLOPS with the Radeon 460. The Radeon 450 in comparison can only do 1 TFLOPS, and the high end 15" default Radeon 455 does 1.2 TFLOPS.

For another comparison, the PlayStation 4's GPU is capable of about 1.8 TFLOPS. The Xbox One's GPU does about 1.3 TFLOPS. You're essentially getting the PS4's GPU in your Macbook with a Radeon 460.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll consider this. Please clarify. There are 3 13" MBPs, I believe the low end is 2.0 Ghz. The other two are 2.9 Ghz with different size SSDs. If it costs the same as the high end, why not just get the high end? Or are you saying to save a $100 upgrade in the high end?

Edit: it's the low end 15" that you can upgrade the SSD and video card and you end up at $2800. With the egpu, and a lesser 13" MBP, you are still going to end up at that same price range if not higher but now you have a respectable gaming video card although it's something extra to tote with you.

I'm going to get a Mac laptop, but since I don't travel as much, I might just bail to a 13" MBP or even a MB Air. I can afford the high end but having difficulty justifying it. :eek:
 
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If you want a machine that happens to be okay at games, sure, you could probably get away with something. If you want a machine for gaming, hell no, not for that price.
 
Pakaku said:
If you want a machine that happens to be okay at games, sure, you could probably get away with something. If you want a machine for gaming, hell no, not for that price.
Click to expand...

When I was working and traveling I justified $2400 for my 2011 MBP, two computers in one- Mac/PC gaming. Now the price is basically $3k (including transistioning costs to updated hardware), I'm not traveling like I was, so I'm balking at the premium price for mediocre gaming. I need the MacOS so I'm looking for the least expensive hardware with a 512 SSD in it, or it might just have to be the smaller SSD.
 
venom600 said:
From what I've read, they aren't even close to gaming grade GPUs. They are designed to be efficient, not overall powerful, roughly equivalent to a GeForce 965M. Mind you, Nvidia has released extremely efficient GeForce 10 series cards that run at full desktop level performance. Point is, if you bought it to play games, you are going to be disappointed.

If I were doing it all over again, I'd get a high spec 13" and an eGPU. Thunderbolt 3 will really make those perform.

http://bgr.com/2016/10/28/macbook-pro-2016-specs-touch-bar/
Click to expand...
Want to see what happens with performance of desktop Nvidia GPUs in thermally constrained environment?
https://www.computerbase.de/2016-10...1060-test/3/#abschnitt_battlefield1benchmarks

Compare how much of performance you loose between GTX 1060 in desktop and GTX 1060 in "laptop" environment.
 
After checking notebookcheck.com, the 460 pro with 4GB is on the "high-end" scale but at around rank 75. It's not exactly a gaming GPU, but more focused as a "pro" card for video professionals. It probably can play a decent amount of games from the last few years on medium settings with a decent fps but not to many newer ones (assuming your running Windows). However, the biggest problem with gaming on laptops is heat. With the MBP size, quick heat exchange may be an issue when gaming. Yes I know they claim to have a "revolutionary" heat system packed into it, but heat kills laptops. That's why most gaming laptops are very large, to allow larger cooling systems. Most gaming laptops are not aiming towards a super light-weight portable machine but rather a game-power station with efficient airflow. size doesnt matter. The new Nvidia GTX 1000 series GPUs are very power and heat efficient chips to the point where laptops can be made quite a bit thinner without performance hits on new gaming laptops (last gen the GTX 900 series mobile chips have about 25% performance loss over their desktop counterparts but that's another story). So yes, for the price of the new MBP, you can get a gaming laptop that will run circles around it. But you have to remember, the MBP is not a gaming machine, but more focused on a portable work station for photography and video edits.

BTW, I have a gaming laptop (ASUS G751JY) it can play all games at great fps counts with it's GTX980M. However with my job, I do not have internet almost all of the time and just about all games today, even through steam, required internet connection to verify that the game is real. It's called DRM or something (Digital rights management.) I didn't know this when I bought it and I cant play any games when I have no internet connection. Big bummer. I assumed that you bought the game and that was it. So I will be getting the new MBP and shift gaming to my PS4.

In addition, SSD's don't make gaming performance any better, they will load the game faster yes, but will not give you a jump in fps.
 
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Steveo13 said:
After checking notebookcheck.com, the 460 pro with 4GB is on the "high-end" scale but at around rank 75. It's not exactly a gaming GPU, but more focused as a "pro" card for video professionals. It probably can play a decent amount of games from the last few years on medium settings with a decent fps but not to many newer ones (assuming your running Windows). However, the biggest problem with gaming on laptops is heat. With the MBP size, quick heat exchange may be an issue when gaming. Yes I know they claim to have a "revolutionary" heat system packed into it, but heat kills laptops. That's why most gaming laptops are very large, to allow larger cooling systems. Most gaming laptops are not aiming towards a super light-weight portable machine but rather a game-power station with efficient airflow. size doesnt matter. The new Nvidia GTX 1000 series GPUs are very power and heat efficient chips to the point where laptops can be made quite a bit thinner without performance hits on new gaming laptops (last gen the GTX 900 series mobile chips have about 25% performance loss over their desktop counterparts but that's another story). So yes, for the price of the new MBP, you can get a gaming laptop that will run circles around it. But you have to remember, the MBP is not a gaming machine, but more focused on a portable work station for photography and video edits.

BTW, I have a gaming laptop (ASUS G751JY) it can play all games at great fps counts with it's GTX980M. However with my job, I do not have internet almost all of the time and just about all games today, even through steam, required internet connection to verify that the game is real. It's called DRM or something (Digital rights management.) I didn't know this when I bought it and I cant play any games when I have no internet connection. Big bummer. I assumed that you bought the game and that was it. So I will be getting the new MBP and shift gaming to my PS4.

In addition, SSD's don't make gaming performance any better, they will load the game faster yes, but will not give you a jump in fps.
Click to expand...

I can't justify the price of the top of the line MBP, just ordered the top end 13" and that's still $2000, but I save a $1000 and will stick to light gaming while traveling on my integrated graphics or ipad. Now I need to start a "what games run on MBP integrated graphics" thread lol. :D
 
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Huntn said:
What do you guys think? After reading an article speaking about how $1500 PC notebooks can be found that run circles around the $2400-2800 MBPs in the gaming dept, I'm seriously thinking about changing direction and going with a MacBookAir or lessor MBR and just stick to casual gaming when traveling. Ironically in the lesser MBP dept, I could still end up in the $2000 range with the larger SSD hard drive.
Click to expand...

Given what a failure the whole line of MBPs are I would either go with last year's model and save some money or wait to see what next year brings or maybe check out a razer. http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-pro
 
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Does anyone have a good idea of how the 2016 rMBPs would handle IL-2? I want to game, but IL-2 is the only game I am interested in that seems to demand a good frame rate. I could replace my ailing 2010 MBP with a modest, affordable, more recent version for use with my iPhone and iPod, and get a Lenovo Yoga 710 for gaming. I can actually afford the best 15" 2016 without skipping lunch, but hate to feel exploited, and I have no interest in impressing strangers at the coffee shop.
 
Not sure if anyone cares about 2016 13" gaming, but I'll post what I've done. I'm a very light gamer and only have a few games, most of which are older. I have no need for a gaming rig but like to casually play a couple games once in a while.

System: 13" MBP w/TB 2.9GHz/16GB RAM
macOS (I'm sure Windows would get better FPS, but haven't installed bootcamp yet)
If you go beyond 1440x900 res things get pretty awful.

Tomb Raider (2013) benchmark (Ultra settings, native 1440x900)
min: 20.9 FPS
max: 40 FPS
avg: 33.5 FPS
The game is perfectly playable, I just bought it this weekend and have played 90 minutes.

Portal 2 (All settings on high, native 1440x900)
60 FPS

Firewatch (Native 1440x900)
Around 30 FPS on Low settings
Around 20 on High settings
Around 15 on Ultra
 
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This is what I settled on: 13" MBP 2.9 GHZ, should arrive early Dec. I'll acknowledge I voluntarily pay a premium for the MacOS. :) I've got an external drive with a boat load of Steam games on it and will report as I test them.

Maybe eventually I'll pay for the eGpu if the price ever falls. (Not holding my breath, lol: Bizon: $918) Not only that, the external box is frick'n big which is a hinderance to packing it, at least for me.

I've got to figure out how best to install Windows. I've got Windows 7 which I used to do the fee upgrade to Windows 10 on my PC. I think the problem will be that the Bootcamp on this new MBP won't support Windows 7, so I'd either have to buy Windows 10, or Windows 8 and hope I can still find the free upgrade to 10. Thoughts? Thanks!
 
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antonis said:
Who needs bootcamp ? Just install windows on an external disk.
Click to expand...

If you are using a Mac, without going through the steps of using Bootcamp, will the MacOS see the Windows install on an external drive and offer it as choice to boot from. If that works (which I am questioning) you'd still have to install the apple drivers.
 
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