Call of Duty 4 Sweet Spot 1st Gen MBP

[aced411]

I've seen very few threads for those of us trying to run COD4 on a 1st gen macbook pro with the ATI 128MB X1600. After trial and error I found a nice strong sweet spot to play COD4 on this type of setup. 1st let me explain the specs:

Macbook Pro 2.16 Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
ATI X1600 128MB
7200rpm 200GB HD
Leopard 10.5.4

Here we go:

• Setup a bootcamp partition (I chose 32GB)
• Install Windows XP SP2
• Load the Leopard boot camp drivers
• Update the boot camp drivers using apple update
• Right click on "My Computer", go to "advanced" and choose "Best Performance"
• Set the background to display no wallpaper
• Choose all power settings to always on (I have issues coming back from sleep mode)
• Right click on "My Computer" and go to "System Restore". Turn off "System Restore" (to save disk speed)
• Install COD4, then the 1.6 patch, then 1.7 patch

Now go into settings and choose the following settings:

• Resolution: 1152x864
• AA: Off
• No Shadows
• No Dynamic Lights
• No Soften Smoke Edges
• Ragdoll Yes
• Bullet Impacts Yes
• Mode Detail Low
• Water Detail Low
• # Corpses Medium
• Texture Auto
• Change the sound quality to medium (You'd be suprised how much cpu sound uses)

BAM you should have a fairly smooth running experience with respectable visuals. One thing you might want to keep in mind is I have a 7200rpm hard drive. If you don't have one, I'd highly suggest getting one. Your disk speed will go up, which will definitely help your gaming performance. I didn't notice a heat increase and the noise is barely higher. Personally I went with the Hitachi Travelstar from Best Buy and used Time Machine to backup everything....but anywho that would be a whole other forum getting into that so let me know if you have any questions...

 

[Consultant]

Cool. Congrats for getting that to work.

I run Diskeeer that defrags windows in the background with minimal CPU usage.

 

[Standard]

Hmm..I run COD4 full resolution and high settings on my first gen mbp and I have less ram than you..

 

[aced411]

what?

You must have 256MB video ram. Otherwise your frames per second would probably be in the teens.

 

[Standard]

You must have 256MB video ram. Otherwise your frames per second would probably be in the teens.

No, I have the 128mb ATi Mobility Radeon 1600XT.

 

[ColinEC]

Thanks for the configuration, I'll give this a go tomorrow.

Here's my configuration:

iMac Core Duo 2GHz
2GB of RAM
Radeon x1600 256MB
72GB Partition for Windows XP SP3

 

[shalafarky]

ActiveX error with CoD4?

any ideas why i'd be getting an ActiveX error?

my 24" iMac has NVIDEA GeForce 7300 GT for video card. seems to be known issue, not specifically w/macs, but i've tried everything in read-me file to no avail.

 

[t19880821]

how about online?

COD4 online requires at least 30fps.. dropping below that would put you at a huge disadvantage since most of the players online run it at least 40+ fps

 

[Matek]

Hmm..I run COD4 full resolution and high settings on my first gen mbp and I have less ram than you..

This depends largely on your subjective feeling. I used to game competitively in the past and am quite touchy about framerates, so i understand the author of the toppic. You seem to be different. What seems acceptable for you may be terrible for someone else.

Kinda like 128 kbps mp3 files. Some people claim they're more than enough, others are disgusted and only enjoy cd-quality FLAC files. It's hard to say who is right.

 

[Mr. Bubbles]

Does anyone know how much less fps I'd get playing on those settings on a 1.83ghz 5400rpm model?

How bout the mac version coming out this week? Does anyone know if it'll have better or worse performance than boot camp?

 

[thepitcanary]

Fabulously succinct answer

Thanks for this - Macrumors rocks again.

I was worrying about buying COD4 in the sales. I've got a 2.16GHz MBP with a 128MB X1600 (wish I'd spent the extra money back then, now!) and was worried it wouldn't fly. I do only have OS X 10.4.9 and Bootcamp Beta (no Leopard yet), and I reckon only a 5400 HD, but as I've got 3GB of RAM I'm going to give it a go.

If it's not worth it, please tell me!