Gaming on late 08 MBP, tips please?

[PintoZ]

Hi Guys,

I recently bought my first mac, a late 08 MBP 2.53ghz with 9600m gt 512 mb, I love this machine and I love mac, I would like to use it for everything... but with some games it's sadly not possible :S

So, I want to make a boot camp partition just for gaming, so I don't give a damn about anything else, I will use that partition ONLY for gaming.

I've already made my boot camp partition with vista 32bit, but I think I could get better performance, so I have some questions and I'd like some help from people that is experienced with boot camp or gaming.

Well, first thing: for gaming I will use Vista anyway, not XP, Vista. This choice because I want to be able to use DX10.

Here are my questions:
32 or 64bit?
I have 4gb ram, so to use them all I'd need a 64 bit SO, but:
Are the games (new ones) good with 64 bit?
What happens if a game is 32 bit?
What about 64bit drivers? are they inside mac installation disc?

Which drivers?
Which drivers should I use to get the best performance? boot camp standard drivers or should I get some others?

Hybrid SLI on windows?
Any way to make it work? any way to get a boost using both graphic cards?

What do you use for gaming? Why?
Which SO/Drivers?

Thank for the help guys =)

 

[Fiveos22]

I have never thought of laptops for gaming...they're just not designed for that kind of "heavy-use" computing.

Wait until that oh-so-silent fan kicks in and you'll see what I mean.

 

[PintoZ]

I have never thought of laptops for gaming...they're just not designed for that kind of "heavy-use" computing.

Wait until that oh-so-silent fan kicks in and you'll see what I mean.

I've completed half life 2 lost coast at 1440*900 with max settings, it was completely fluid.
I've also tried far cry 2 at 1280*800 with med-high settings, it was a little bit laggy, but I am sure I can make it fluid with some software update.

I used to think like you, until when I bought my first notebook 1 year ago, and then I just forgot my workstation, since I could just do everything with the notebook and carry it with me.

The new MBP can run a lot of games with great quality, so... why not? The only issue is the noise, but while playing I use headphones, so I have no problems at all

So, back to topic:
Any tips for making gaming on mac better?

 

[ninjapenguinart]

Hi Guys,

Here are my questions:
32 or 64bit?
I have 4gb ram, so to use them all I'd need a 64 bit SO, but:
Are the games (new ones) good with 64 bit?
What happens if a game is 32 bit?
What about 64bit drivers? are they inside mac installation disc?

Which drivers?
Which drivers should I use to get the best performance? boot camp standard drivers or should I get some others?

Hybrid SLI on windows?
Any way to make it work? any way to get a boost using both graphic cards?

Thank for the help guys =)

Go 64 bit, because it will run exactly the same, but you'll enjoy having that extra gig.

Use the drivers on the cd that it came with initially, do not download bootcamp 2.1, because my usability went down actually with the MBP (late 2008), and then download the updated nvidia drivers from laptopvideo2go.com.

Hybrid SLI has the potential to work on Windows, and right now I am trying to find out if there is any way I can find the drivers for the 9400 mGPU, but you will not be able to use boost, because boost is a feature for dGPU's that are slower than your mGPU, but since our dGPU is faster than our mGPU we do not get this luxury. If you do not believe me go here http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/hybridsli_notebook.html.

 

[PintoZ]

Thanks!
For now I'm going to install SP1 on my vista 32 bit and install the drivers update you mentioned, waiting to get a 64bit version of vista.