Battlefield 3, and BFBC2 on MBP 6,1 (nVidia 330m)

[Piplodocus]

Hello!

Currently I don't game much on my mac, but ocassionally play BF2, and thinking of getting Battlefield Bad Company 2 immiently as some of my mates play it regularly. I assume the i7 with 8GB RAM will be fine but what about the graphics (nVidia 330M).

How well do you guys reckon BF:3 will run when it comes out in the autumn? It's the 17" so would be 1600x1200 native. What kinda settings would I be likely to run? Low, Medium? High-ish?

When I used to game more often I had an XP desktop so am used to being able to buy a better card to pop in the old system!

 

[deadwulfe]

You'll want to play BFBC2 on low settings just to get 25-40 fps. Quality-wise, you wont lose much from the medium settings, which is what I use on the ATI 6750m.

I have no clue what BF3 is going to be like. I'd be happy if I could run it on medium, also, but I wont hold my breath for it.

 

[mac2x]

Battlefield 3 should be better optimized for PC, because PC is the lead dev platform. BC2 is a console port, and it does take a fairly muscular system to run it well. I average 80-90 fps depending on the map with the PC rig down in my signature. All settings high, DX11 enabled, with 4x AA, 1920x1200.

 

[Piplodocus]

Battlefield 3 should be better optimized for PC, because PC is the lead dev platform. BC2 is a console port, and it does take a fairly muscular system to run it well. I average 80-90 fps depending on the map with the PC rig down in my signature. All settings high, DX11 enabled, with 4x AA, 1920x1200.

I was gonna be running it on the MBP with bootcamp (Win7 64), so I'd get it's PC optimisations, just considering what performance I can or can't expect out of the nVidia 330M since it's a single mobile processor. I'm not gonna get a gaming PC, just the MBP with my old Zboard gaming keyboard and possibly a new mouse. Since it's the 17" I don't know whether it's generally considered best running native res with lower settings, or reduced res with higher settings.

Does the 330M support DX11, or is it DX10 only? I know BF3 will support both AFAIK, but would probably run better with DX11...

Are there any graphics improvements (overlocking?) that can be done in Bootcamp? Are they safe? Links/info/pages?

Also are there any suggested websites for comparing the 330M benchmarks to other video cards? Google didn't seem much help.

Thanks!

 

[mac2x]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html


330m is a DX10 card. You'll probably want to run BC2 at low settings to get acceptable framerates, especially if you want to play at higher resolutions. As I said above, BF3 is a PC game to the core unlike BC2 and it's system requirements to play fluently may well be somewhat less than BC2.

I don't know much about OCing in bootcamp, so I'll defer to others on that one. What I do know is that ANY overclocking has potential risk to fry something.

 

[Bacong]

the system in my sig gets 60 FPS with everything maxed. Your video card isn't great; as most have said, low will be your best bet.

 

[HandySam]

I play BFBC2 occasionally on my MBP 17" with i5 and GT 330M. Playing on low is perfect. Most of the time you will get 50-60fps only when there is a lot of smoke on the screen you will see a fps drop. I recommend playing on 1680x1050 reso. (1920x1200 was a bit to hard to get acceptable framerates)

I think BF3 will be hard to play on a GT 330M. The game will be better optimized, yes but still I think it will be heavier than current BF games even in low settings.

 

[The-Pro]

Does the 330M support DX11, or is it DX10 only? I know BF3 will support both AFAIK, but would probably run better with DX11...

GT 330M is a DX 10.1 card. Cant get 10.1 on my bootcamp though (vista) i only have 10.0

Are there any graphics improvements (overlocking?) that can be done in Bootcamp? Are they safe? Links/info/pages?

Nvidia system tools!! you can overclock your card with that. I've been doing now and then. Usually from 500Mhz to about 600-750. Massive performance boost should be quite safe, I never do long gaming sessions so dunno how it is over hours. max time ive played with it overclocked at like 700mhz was 1.5 hours. Cooling should be good enough to handle the heat. I not taking blame if you get problems though

Also are there any suggested websites for comparing the 330M benchmarks to other video cards? Google didn't seem much help.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html

thats pretty much the best website IMO.

 

[Daytona 360]

Are there any graphics improvements (overlocking?) that can be done in Bootcamp? Are they safe? Links/info/pages?

Between these 2 threads you should have all the information you will need.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/924758/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/903097/

And I use nVidia Inspector for OC, I found it easier to setup/use than nVidia System Tools.

 

[Crypanda]

Check this video on youtube, I think if you play on 1280 x 800 res you could get steady 30 fps on medium

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L1mMsBOTAg

Keep in mind that the video card is overcloked

 

[Crypanda]

And another one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Gqh2uu9ik

 

[The-Pro]

@ Crypanda

The OP's GT 330M has 512mb VRAM, the macbook pros in the videos you posted have 256mb VRAM. Should make up for some performance if he doesn't overclock.