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duderodamus

macrumors newbie
Oct 27, 2006
7
0
Multimedia said:
135º has already been reported by a new owner.

Unless I am way off. Mine only opens 120º. Thought it was stuck but going further feels like it's gonna crack.
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
Rocketman said:
Are you implying (stating) this is a PC gamers machine now?

That would be revolutionary.

Rocketman

I know some people will say "no", but I really think this depends on what games you are playing and what your expectations and needs are out of a laptop to play games with.

I really disagree with NewSc2 in particular, saying that the answer is no because the X1600 is not "cream of the crop".

No, the X1600 isn't the absolute end-all/be-all of mobile CPU's. If you spend a lot of money, you can get a 10 pound 2" thick gaming behomoth with a GeForce 7950gtx Go in it, that will be incredibly powerful.

But a lot of people don't need that.

Even the boutique gaming PC companies like VoodooPC and Alienware sell 15" gaming laptops, and those machines typicall feature either a GeForce 7600 or an X1600. For the 15" form factor especially, these are basically close to the cream of the crop right now.

The previous MBP's really stretched it in terms of gaming, as they were dramatically underclocked. But even those machines could still handle games like Battlefield 2, Oblivion, etc.

Frankly, some people even consider machines like the Sony SZ series or the Dell XPS M1210 to be "gaming" laptops, with their GeForce 7400, which usually rates around 1800-2000 in 3DMark05.

But it all comes down to what you do with it. The nice thing now is that it looks like these new C2D MBP's are much more on par with the performance of other 15" "gaming" notebooks...... most of those machines will generally get in the 4000-4200 range.

It all comes down to what games you play and what your needs are. If you do need the power of a 7950GTX Go, then no, none of these machines that are below that would do the job. But for many people, who do just want to be able to play games like BF2, Oblivion, WoW, etc....... the new MBP's look like they offer some really excellent performance, and are more on par with the competition than the previous models were.

So yes, I think this is something that could be called a gamer's machine. It would of course be silly for someone whose primary purpose was gaming to buy a MBP, as there are other options out there. But for someone who wants an MBP for other reasons, but also does like to have some gaming capabilities, it looks like it is now a much more reasonable machine to do so with.

-Zadillo
 

raxrat

macrumors newbie
Oct 17, 2006
13
0
Got my 2.33GHz C2D MBP

Got mine today at Apple Store Fashion Valley in San Diego. They had both 2.16 and 2.33, but only had 2.33 in matte. CPU is there like last logic board revision for CD MBP (think they are the same). I think the C2D MBP does not heat up as much. Overall build quality much better than my old MBP. The screen actually closes flush, can you believe that!!! I got mine despite the fact that they still only offer ATI X1600 (now less underclocked than before) and no magnetic latch. Come on Apple, these latches suck! Overall happy and glad the misery of living w/o a Mac is over.
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
bcavanau said:
Yes, the free version does not allow you to change any of the settings.

Indeed. Usually most 3DMark05 scores you see reported are at 1024x768. This is also what does give you the ability to use it for comparison's purposes (it wouldn't mean as much if one person ran 3DMark05 but at 1920x1200 and tried to compare that to someone else's 3DMark05 score while running at 1024x768.)
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
raxrat said:
Got mine today at Apple Store Fashion Valley in San Diego. They had both 2.16 and 2.33, but only had 2.33 in matte. CPU is there like last logic board revision for CD MBP (think they are the same). I think the C2D MBP does not heat up as much. Overall build quality much better than my old MBP. The screen actually closes flush, can you believe that!!! I got mine despite the fact that they still only offer ATI X1600 (now less underclocked than before) and no magnetic latch. Come on Apple, these latches suck! Overall happy and glad the misery of living w/o a Mac is over.

Really, it's not like there's another GPU on the market right now they could put in a 1" thick 15" MBP that would offer much better performance.
 

raxrat

macrumors newbie
Oct 17, 2006
13
0
Gpu

Zadillo said:
Really, it's not like there's another GPU on the market right now they could put in a 1" thick 15" MBP that would offer much better performance.

Fair enough. I had hoped the merger of ATI and AMD would have produced a counter move already. I still think the next MBP revision will have an NVIDIA. Will eat my hat if not.
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
bcavanau said:
Started my updating again :)

Just posted:

- 3DMark06
- Super PI (OSX)
- Super PI (XP)
- XBench

As always, available at http://lartren.com/mac

Awesome, the 3DMark06 is excellent.

By comparison, the CD MBP 2.0 GHz got 1528 in 3Mark06.

An HP nc8430 with a 2.16GHz C2D and 256MB X1600 scored a 1745.

A Compal HEL80 with a 2.0GHz CD and GeForce Go 7600 with 256MB scored a 1634.

So a 2126 in 3DMark06 is really very good indeed.

-Zadillo
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
raxrat said:
Fair enough. I had hoped the merger of ATI and AMD would have produced a counter move already. I still think the next MBP revision will have an NVIDIA. Will eat my hat if not.

I think you're right, it is very likely that they could put something like a GeForce 7700 in the next revision. The main thing to note though is that performance of that GPU is pretty much on par with the X1600 (and the previous GeForce 7600 for that matter).

-Zadillo
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
bcavanau said:
Started my updating again :)

Just posted:

- 3DMark06
- Super PI (OSX)
- Super PI (XP)
- XBench

As always, available at http://lartren.com/mac

Just as a note, it looks like that superpi on OS X is off (it should take twice as long to calculate Pi to 2 million digits).

The Windows version still seems like it should be faster to me too though (just since a 2.16GHz C2D calculates it in about 58 seconds), but it's close enough that there's probably other variables at play.
 

NewSc2

macrumors 65816
Jun 4, 2005
1,044
2
New York, NY
Zadillo said:
I know some people will say "no", but I really think this depends on what games you are playing and what your expectations and needs are out of a laptop to play games with.

I really disagree with NewSc2 in particular, saying that the answer is no because the X1600 is not "cream of the crop".

No, the X1600 isn't the absolute end-all/be-all of mobile CPU's. If you spend a lot of money, you can get a 10 pound 2" thick gaming behomoth with a GeForce 7950gtx Go in it, that will be incredibly powerful.

But a lot of people don't need that.

Even the boutique gaming PC companies like VoodooPC and Alienware sell 15" gaming laptops, and those machines typicall feature either a GeForce 7600 or an X1600. For the 15" form factor especially, these are basically close to the cream of the crop right now.

...

So yes, I think this is something that could be called a gamer's machine. It would of course be silly for someone whose primary purpose was gaming to buy a MBP, as there are other options out there. But for someone who wants an MBP for other reasons, but also does like to have some gaming capabilities, it looks like it is now a much more reasonable machine to do so with.

-Zadillo

By your logic, you could even game with a Macbook. It runs WoW admirably. Right now I don't really consider myself a "gamer" but I'm running my PC rig for gaming, and I get decent FPS.

I would by NO means call it a gamer's machine. In fact, I'm embarrassed when I take it to LAN parties -- everybody's loading BF2 twice as fast as I am.

Alienware? Their current "gamer" notebook can be specced to Dual 512MB GeForce Go 7900 GS video cards. 3DMark benchies for 1 of these cards is in the 7700~ range, almost twice that of MBP's.

When I think "a gamer's computer" I don't think "most people don't need that" -- I think "top of the line, 1600x1200 8xAA, full settings." In fact, I would never think laptop, except for 10-lb. behemoths. "A gamer's machine" is a Windows desktop.
 

Zadillo

macrumors 68000
Jan 29, 2005
1,546
49
Baltimore, MD
NewSc2 said:
By your logic, you could even game with a Macbook. It runs WoW admirably. Right now I don't really consider myself a "gamer" but I'm running my PC rig for gaming, and I get decent FPS.

I would by NO means call it a gamer's machine. In fact, I'm embarrassed when I take it to LAN parties -- everybody's loading BF2 twice as fast as I am.

Alienware? Their current "gamer" notebook can be specced to Dual 512MB GeForce Go 7900 GS video cards. 3DMark benchies for 1 of these cards is in the 7700~ range, almost twice that of MBP's.

When I think "a gamer's computer" I don't think "most people don't need that" -- I think "top of the line, 1600x1200 8xAA, full settings." In fact, I would never think laptop, except for 10-lb. behemoths. "A gamer's machine" is a Windows desktop.

Well, again, it depends on what your needs are. I think a regular MacBook with its GMA950 graphics would be stretching it, but as you pointed out, if all someone does is play WoW, and they can put up with lower framerates, sure, why not.

But yes, you actually CAN game with a MacBook. And you can game with an older laptop with a Mobility Radeon 9700. And if that met someone's needs, and they're able to play the games they want on it, why ISN'T it a gaming laptop?

But this is silly.

I think it is ridiculous to say that the only thing that can be called a "gaming machine" is whatever the absolute top of the line is.

A gaming machine is a machine that is capable of playing your games at an acceptable performance level to you. Just because it isn't the absolute top of the line doesn't mean anything.

By that definition, any machine that was a gaming machine somehow stops being one once it is supplanted. And that's ridiculous too.

My desktop PC is a socket 754 Athlon 64 3400+ system with 1.5 gigs of RAM and a GeForce 6800GT. I can play games like BF2 and Oblivion usually at medium to high quality settings, and I score around 5000 in 3DMark05.

My desktop is a "gaming machine" in the sense that I can play pretty much any game I want on it. Can I get 12,000 in 3DMark05, or run FEAR at maximum quality settings at 1920x1200 resolution? No.

Alienware sells plenty of gaming laptops, including the Alienware Area-51 m5550, a 15" laptop. The most it can be configured with is a GeForce Go 7600, and it's 3D gaming performance would be similar to the new MBP's.

Honestly, I can't get over how crazy this is. According to you that machine isn't a gaming laptop either because it isn't their highest-end most powerful model.

But it can play plenty of modern games just fine.

Really, this mentality is just nuts...... that anything beyond the top-end can't be called a "gaming machine".
 

countach

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2006
146
0
bob_hearn said:
Hmm, I think I regret going with the 160 now.

If it's any consolation, I expect the 160 is still quite a bit faster than the 200, even using this trick. But the gap would be narrowed. I got the 200.
 

UmaThurman

macrumors regular
Aug 1, 2006
124
0
Georgia
im typing on my new c2d mbp! very excited and having tons of fun using a mac for the first time! macs are alot of fun! yay!
 

bcavanau

macrumors member
Oct 25, 2006
99
0
Troy, MI
Zadillo said:
Just as a note, it looks like that superpi on OS X is off (it should take twice as long to calculate Pi to 2 million digits).

The Windows version still seems like it should be faster to me too though (just since a 2.16GHz C2D calculates it in about 58 seconds), but it's close enough that there's probably other variables at play.

Yes, you were right, I only ran the OS X version for 19 iterations, should have been 20...I re-ran it, and updated...68.727 seconds on OS X.
 

bob_hearn

macrumors regular
Jan 15, 2004
115
3
Vancouver, BC
Oops my bad. I though for sure someone reported 135º. So sorry.

Well, page 69 of the manual says

"Built-in Display
Adjust the angle of the display to minimize glare and reflections from overhead lights
and windows. Do not force the display if you meet resistance. The display is not meant
to open past 135 degrees. "

From here:

I found this on apple's website doing a search:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacBookPro_15and17-inch_Core2Duo_UserGuide.pdf

is this the guide you are refering to?
 

bob_hearn

macrumors regular
Jan 15, 2004
115
3
Vancouver, BC
has anyone seen mbp's with 160gb hard drives in the apple stores? or is this option only available through order? thanks

The two stores that I called said they would only be carrying the "stock configurations - no hard drive upgrades". :mad: I got the impression, but didn't ask, that it was an Apple Store policy.
 

andylane

macrumors newbie
Jul 28, 2004
27
0
Well, page 69 of the manual says

"Built-in Display
Adjust the angle of the display to minimize glare and reflections from overhead lights
and windows. Do not force the display if you meet resistance. The display is not meant
to open past 135 degrees. "

From here:

...and for comparison, the old MBP manual said 120 degrees in the same place. Here's the link to the original Core Duo manual for reference:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacBook_Pro_Users_Guide.pdf

It looks like the C2Ds open further than the CDs.
 

bob_hearn

macrumors regular
Jan 15, 2004
115
3
Vancouver, BC
The 160 is part of the 17" stock. I think the 17" stock is a perfect mobile Mac. :)

Oh -- good point; I'd forgotten that. Hmm, if my 15 doesn't ship before leave the country on the 2nd, maybe there's an outside chance a nearby store will get a 17 in...

Still, when the 15 is available in 120, 160, or 200, only stocking the 120 seems a bit ridiculous.
 
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