Help deciding on a Macbook (including games)

[imamjac]

Hey all. First time posting

I am currently looking at Apple laptops to purchase, and am having trouble deciding which one to get. I was hoping some people here could help me out.

I would be using the computer for mainly surfing the web, iChat, music, music downloading (i.e. SXS) and the like. It seems like, from what I can tell, the cheapest Macbook would do all of this better than fine.

But where I run into trouble is games. I am a gamer, but I am primarily (to the extreme) a console gamer. I generaly do not play games on my computer. But there are a few exceptions. On my family's iMac 4,1 I enjoy playing World of Warcraft and used to play Baldurs Gate 2 all the time. I am going to play Spore when it comes out for mac, which I'm personally sure it will. It's a Will Write game!

I'm wondering if anyone has played WoW on any of the Macbooks, and how it ran. Also, does anybody have any thoughts on what it would take to run Spore smoothly on an apple?

I basically need help deciding what i want to get based on my gaming needs stated above. Help!

 

[lordjonny]

I have run WoW for a good few months on a macbook until buying a new imac recently. As far as i could ever tell it ran extremely reasonably and although pro/extreme gamers will tell you it is rubbish i found it to be fine. the fps ranged from 45 in less crowded zones to (the only point i found disgraceful) a measly 10 fps when playing in AV ( a battle ground with around 20-30 people fighting in the same area) so to answer your question concisely, a macbook is perfectly ok the graphics are not noticed to be poor in any way but if you need gd graphics the intergrated card is gd for what it is but i can tell you safely no way compares to the awesome power of the new imac which has 100 fps minimum most of the time

lordjonny

 

[PCMacUser]

I basically need help deciding what i want to get based on my gaming needs stated above. Help!

Hi, welcome to the forums.

Frankly, the Macbook is not really suitable for running newish games. That's pretty much it.

If you want an Apple laptop which can, then look at a Macbook Pro. If that's out of your budget, an iMac would be your next reasonable choice - although the iMac's 3D performance is awful (but better than the Macbook).

 

[JimmyDThing]

I, too, am in the market for a MacBook... I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. I recommend waiting until Leopard comes out... they'll probably update the video card on the MacBooks at the very least.

Clever marketing isn't it? You go in looking for a lower end notebook and end up thinking seriously about the highest end ones.

 

[PCMacUser]

I, too, am in the market for a MacBook... I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. I recommend waiting until Leopard comes out... they'll probably update the video card on the MacBooks at the very least.

Clever marketing isn't it? You go in looking for a lower end notebook and end up thinking seriously about the highest end ones.

To be fair, the Macbook's price reflects its capabilities. It fits very well into the same price bracket as equivalent PC laptops - but the main thing that has upset a lot of people is that they don't offer a better graphics card as a build-to-order (BTO) option.

 

[Chone]

WoW should be fine on the MacBook, about Spore... I'm not so sure, I'm not even sure its even going to be supported at all...

A MacBook is a great purchase but its not for games, we don't know the requirements for Spore but I doubt it will run well (if it evens runs) on that GMA 950 judging from screenshots...

Is a refurb or clearance MBP out of your price range?

 

[imamjac]

But guys, i'm not a serious gamer at all. i just like it for purly casual gaming, not for serious raiding or anything of the sort. just as long as it looks decent and runs decent, its ok for me. i'd like to know HOW good it runs. more like the first post would be appreciated. sry if i'm asking alot...

 

[Chone]

But guys, i'm not a serious gamer at all. i just like it for purly casual gaming, not for serious raiding or anything of the sort. just as long as it looks decent and runs decent, its ok for me. i'd like to know HOW good it runs. more like the first post would be appreciated. sry if i'm asking alot...

That is what I'm telling you, you'll be able to play WoW just fine but forget about Spore, if you want to play games like Spore look into a MBP and I'm not talking play at highest res and highest framerates... I really mean just play... Spore is likely not going to be playable on a GMA 950 GPU if its even supported.