Gaming on a 2.4GHz Macbook Pro 13"

[Ash9414]

Just want to see if any of you own the 2010 Macbook Pro 13" with the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB RAM and the 320M GPU, and can play any of the following games and at what type of settings:

• The Sims 3
• RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
• Spore

Also, do any of you play these games on an external monitor (20"-24") and if so do you have to lower the settings to maintain the FPS?

 

[T3hTruthe]

I game on a 13" MacBook playing World of Warcraft at the moment and its honestly worth it played Sims 3 also and its enjoyable

 

[doh123]

it should be playable...

the 320m is very fast, and gets a 3Dmark06 benchmark closing in on the 9600GTs of the last models of 15 and 17 MBPs. Its at least twice as fast as the 9400Ms... and currently the fastest chipset integrated GPU in existence by a very wide margin.

 

[Ash9414]

I game on a 13" MacBook playing World of Warcraft at the moment and its honestly worth it played Sims 3 also and its enjoyable

Does your MBP get hot when playing these games, and what sort of settings do you play Sims 3 on?

 

[CaptainChunk]

Does your MBP get hot when playing these games, and what sort of settings do you play Sims 3 on?

All MBPs can get pretty hot under heavy CPU/GPU load - and modern games are pretty good at pushing your hardware to its limits.

 

[Ash9414]

All MBPs can get pretty hot under heavy CPU/GPU load - and modern games are pretty good at pushing your hardware to its limits.

Ok, well I don't believe the games above are that graphic intensive, apart from Sims 2 which was released last year. So I shouldn't have that much problem, anyway I'm likely to put the MBP in a stand for cooling and use a 22" external display. Does anyone here do that? I would like to know if the 320M is capable of playing games at around medium settings on an external display?

 

[Hellhammer]

Ok, well I don't believe the games above are that graphic intensive, apart from Sims 2 which was released last year. So I shouldn't have that much problem, anyway I'm likely to put the MBP in a stand for cooling and use a 22" external display. Does anyone here do that? I would like to know if the 320M is capable of playing games at around medium settings on an external display?

My sister's MacBook with 9400M can play Sims 3 @1280x800 with medium settings so 320M should be able to run it fine @1920x1080, maybe not all at medium but low-medium

 

[Ash9414]

My sister's MacBook with 9400M can play Sims 3 @1280x800 with medium settings so 320M should be able to run it fine @1920x1080, maybe not all at medium but low-medium

I'm guessing Sims 3 is the most graphically intensive out of those 3 that I originally posted? I probably won't see much difference anyway between low and medium will I, as I'm not used to playing games in HD.

 

[Ash9414]

Was just researching this and this is what I came up with:

System Requirements for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

* Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
* PowerPC G4/G5 or later
* 1GHz or faster (1.2GHz recommended)
* 256 MB or higher (512 MB recommended)
* 2.0 GB free disk space
* 32 MB VRAM or higher
* Radeon 9000 or better or GeForce FX5200 or better
* DVD Drive

Result: Should run at least medium with most high settings.


System requirements for Sims 3

* Mac OS X v10.5.7 or later
* Intel Core Duo processor
* 2GB of RAM
* 6.1GB of free hard-disk space minimum (with at least 1GB of additional space for custom content and saved games)
* 128MB of VRAM
* ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
* DVD drive

Result: Medium settings would be my best bet, this guy says he can play med-high settings on the old 2.26Ghz w/ 2GB RAM and 9400M.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6XbjBMVRr0

 

[Huntn]

*Spore

My wife plays Spore on her 2 year old MacBook so you'll have no problems with it.

 

[Liam8]

Sims works great and so does Spore until recently it keeps randomly shutting down

 

[Ash9414]

Sims works great and so does Spore until recently it keeps randomly shutting down

Do you have a 2010 13" MBP, and what processor is yours? Just checking to see if the 2.66GHz is any better at playing games. Haven't come across anyone with the 2.66 yet though.

 

[ApexLee]

Do you have a 2010 13" MBP, and what processor is yours? Just checking to see if the 2.66GHz is any better at playing games. Haven't come across anyone with the 2.66 yet though.

I have the 2.66GHZ version with a 128GB SSD. Once I've installed some games on this I'll let you know how it gets on.

I'm currently waiting for Age of Empires III, pretty sure that will run on High.

 

[Ash9414]

I have the 2.66GHZ version with a 128GB SSD. Once I've installed some games on this I'll let you know how it gets on.

I'm currently waiting for Age of Empires III, pretty sure that will run on High.

Would you say that Age of Empires is a higher spec game than the ones I mentioned in the first post. I'm only getting the 2.4GHz MBP because I can't justify the £250 price difference, when only processor speed is increase and 70GB of extra storage which I won't need (and could upgrade later anyway).

 

[ApexLee]

Would you say that Age of Empires is a higher spec game than the ones I mentioned in the first post. I'm only getting the 2.4GHz MBP because I can't justify the £250 price difference, when only processor speed is increase and 70GB of extra storage which I won't need (and could upgrade later anyway).

I would have said The Sims 3 is more graphical intense than Age of Empires III, but I'll give it a go sometime and let you know.