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I want to play WoW on max settings

D

dipm06

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 28, 2009
88
0
I'm going to be purchasing a Laptop for university and was just wondering what the cheapest one in the Mac lineup was to be able to play wow on all max settings with a decent frame rate. I'm also going to be playing modern warfare 2.

Will the 13 inch MacBook pro be good enough for that or should I go for the 15 inch?

Thanks!

I will be leaving my MacBook air with my mom and the new laptop will be my only computer.
 
The 13" MBP will not do it. You'll want the 15" to play on max settings.

btw.....Wow and University are never a good mix.
 
skunnykart said:
Maybe not 24/7 but even 1-2/7 can be pretty damaging to your social/work/study/family life.
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Not Even Once JPEG.jpg

Anyway, you're going to need a dedicated GPU for MW2, but it's a console port so it's not too demanding. If you're serious about gaming at all I'd recommend getting a 13" MacBook Pro and building a ~$600-700 PC to game on. For $600-700 you'll be getting quite a bit more performance than you'd get with a MacBook Pro.
 
WoW is going to increase some graphics with the new expansion.

If you want to be really safe, get an Alienware, but that might be expensive.

There are other WinBooks with GPU's but it can't run a Mac, while the Mac can run Win. Not sure if WoW will be DX10 / 11, so its up to you whether you want to bootcamp.

But no Macbook will be better than a high end WinBook for that purpose. And no MacTop will be better than a built PC as mentioned.
 
Tired of people telling others on here to get a PC if they are serious about gaming. Half of the people don't even state that they are "serious" gamers, just that they want to play a few certain games.

A lot of the people that switch to mac and still want to play games do so because they want a quality built machine that runs OSX and will run some games at at least medium settings. Almost nobdoy is coming to mac looking strictly for a gaming laptop.

WoW was built on 9 year old technology and it shows. A new 13" would run it ok on high settings but it still wouldn't look as good as a more powerful laptop on high settings. Definitely get the 15" for the dedicated graphics card (bigger screen dosen't hurt for games either). You'll quickly notice that even a 15" macbook pro is way more portable than most 15" PC's.
 
dipm06 said:
I'm going to be purchasing a Laptop for university and was just wondering what the cheapest one in the Mac lineup was to be able to play wow on all max settings with a decent frame rate. I'm also going to be playing modern warfare 2.

Will the 13 inch MacBook pro be good enough for that or should I go for the 15 inch?

Thanks!

I will be leaving my MacBook air with my mom and the new laptop will be my only computer.
Click to expand...

Wow won't run fluid at max settings on a i5/i7 MBP, but almost, you'll have to sacrifice full screen glow and multisampling.

In ICC25, i turn down a bit more, just because if my FPS falls behind 30 FPS I'm really not feeling gameplay is fluid enough. I'm maybe a bit picky tho, a lot of people seems happy with 15-20 FPS, but that is unacceptable for me, 30 FPS is the bare minimum :D
 
skunnykart said:
Maybe not 24/7 but even 1-2/7 can be pretty damaging to your social/work/study/family life.
Click to expand...

I play 2-3 hours every other day :D
But, then again I have gotten rid of my TV three years ago :D
Best decision of my life! I must warn you, the first month was a bit hard.
 
ozreth said:
Tired of people telling others on here to get a PC if they are serious about gaming. Half of the people don't even state that they are "serious" gamers, just that they want to play a few certain games.

A lot of the people that switch to mac and still want to play games do so because they want a quality built machine that runs OSX and will run some games at at least medium settings. Almost nobdoy is coming to mac looking strictly for a gaming laptop.

WoW was built on 9 year old technology and it shows. A new 13" would run it ok on high settings but it still wouldn't look as good as a more powerful laptop on high settings. Definitely get the 15" for the dedicated graphics card (bigger screen dosen't hurt for games either). You'll quickly notice that even a 15" macbook pro is way more portable than most 15" PC's.
Click to expand...

That's where you're missing the point. Many ppl nowadays don't "switch to" a platform. They just use it as "one of" their computers. The days are almost over where someone generally uses one computer (perhaps the family one) and 2-3 years later "upgrades" that loney computer. I was playing games when it would cost arround $5,000 inflation adjusted for a "gaming computer". It's no longer like that. It's actually been a long time since a computer purchase decision was equivalent to an automobile purchase decision. Ahh....the good ol days. :)

Computers are general purpose electronics, and epecially ppl in college, have access to several which run diferent platforms. Unless you're like a IT pro doing IT Pro stuff, much of the OS is pretty transparent compared to before. And esp. the younger people find it a no-brainer to pick up basic operational knowledge of either OSX or the various versions of Windows floating arround (which also spans 9 years).

You can add iPad's into the "small computers platforms", and soon Win7 pad edition too!
 
dipm06 said:
I'm going to be purchasing a Laptop for university and was just wondering what the cheapest one in the Mac lineup was to be able to play wow on all max settings with a decent frame rate. I'm also going to be playing modern warfare 2.

Will the 13 inch MacBook pro be good enough for that or should I go for the 15 inch?

Thanks!

I will be leaving my MacBook air with my mom and the new laptop will be my only computer.
Click to expand...

I played MW:2 and WoW on my June 2009 13" MBP (2.53 GHz, 4 GB RAM). I put everything on max in WoW, and I keep above 30 FPS in Dalaran.

Turn shadows off in MW:2, and you can have full settings with a ≈30 framerate.
 
cluthz said:
I play 2-3 hours every other day :D
But, then again I have gotten rid of my TV three years ago :D
Best decision of my life! I must warn you, the first month was a bit hard.
Click to expand...

This man speaks the truth.

I gave up TV the summer I graduated high school (@17yo). I'm 24 now, and I don't miss it one bit...but as pointed out, you somehow find hours of your time you didn't even know you had!
 
Baycon said:
This man speaks the truth.

I gave up TV the summer I graduated high school (@17yo). I'm 24 now, and I don't miss it one bit...but as pointed out, you somehow find hours of your time you didn't even know you had!
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure there's a correlation between playing video games and reducing television. It's a substitute. And in a way, video games being "interactive" kind of makes many TV shows pretty boring "single tracked video".

Yet, ppl still associate a stigma with video games while wasting your life in front of the TV goes unnoticed.
 
I get constant, fluid framerates on my 17" MBP at 1920x1200 resolution and "High" settings with a bit of customization (everything all the way up except shadows, texture filtering and spell effects dialed down a little bit). I can even have vsync enabled and still have no stuttering, standing in Dalaran at 7:30pm.

The only time I ever encountered stuttering in WoW on this machine was when the hard-disk couldn't keep up for a few seconds (e.g. after logging in in Dalaran). Haven't tried any 25-person instances yet, though.

I would definitely recommend getting the 15" over the 13" model. If you use the machine primarily for work/university, you might also consider the hi-res (or Antiglare) screen. In any case, your framerates will be even better than the ones I get.

WoW is also heavily CPU-bound. In places like Dalaran I get better framerates on my MBP than on my desktop machine (which has a GTX260 but is limited by it's Athlon64 4800+ CPU).
 
I have a current gen Mac Mini hooked up to my HD TV (1080p, or 1920x1080 if you prefer) that I occasionally play WoW on, and it manages between 20 and 30 fps in Dalaran with graphics settings maxed. The hardware in this mini is basically the same as that in the mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro, though the screen on the MBP is only 1440x900, so should be less demanding. The new 13" just announced has better specs, so should do even better. Of course when Cataclysm comes out, things may change.

I can definitely echo the comments that WoW + University is a very bad combination.
 
rcp27 said:
I have a current gen Mac Mini hooked up to my HD TV (1080p, or 1920x1080 if you prefer) that I occasionally play WoW on, and it manages between 20 and 30 fps in Dalaran with graphics settings maxed. The hardware in this mini is basically the same as that in the mid 2009 13" MacBook Pro,
Click to expand...

MacBook Pro has a discrete graphics card...
 
The 13" will run WoW, but the 15" will run it better. If you have the money, go with the base 15" and upgrade the screen to the high rez option. If you want mat finish, get that too. Make sure to use your student discount and buy Applecare. If you can't afford all of that, buy the 13" and get Applecare.
 
rasmasyean said:
I'm pretty sure there's a correlation between playing video games and reducing television. It's a substitute. And in a way, video games being "interactive" kind of makes many TV shows pretty boring "single tracked video".

Yet, ppl still associate a stigma with video games while wasting your life in front of the TV goes unnoticed.
Click to expand...

and now for some actual data on the matter...

rcp27 said:
I can definitely echo the comments that WoW + University is a very bad combination.
Click to expand...


So... I played a few years of WoW while an early undergrad (~100 on the /played >.> ). It wasn't too bad for my GPA... maybe dropped me a few points (0.05?)/quarter. However, in my later years in college, classes were more demanding, I started doing extra projects/research, and WoW time was dramatically curtailed (farewell serious raiding). Alas. On the upside, I still made it to Berkeley as a grad student.

Anyhow, if you have self control, and know why you're going to college, then WoW won't be an issue. Not everyone fits these criteria.
 
bluskale said:
and now for some actual data on the matter...




So... I played a few years of WoW while an early undergrad (~100 on the /played >.> ). It wasn't too bad for my GPA... maybe dropped me a few points (0.05?)/quarter. However, in my later years in college, classes were more demanding, I started doing extra projects/research, and WoW time was dramatically curtailed (farewell serious raiding). Alas. On the upside, I still made it to Berkeley as a grad student.

Anyhow, if you have self control, and know why you're going to college, then WoW won't be an issue. Not everyone fits these criteria.
Click to expand...

In other words, ppl have to stop blaming other sheet for themselves being a lazy arse!

It's always so stupid when ppl blame all these "new technology" for kids failing school and crap. Like hellooo! kids failed school before any of this stuff was ever imagined by the greatest of visionaries! Your kid turned out to be a total loser because you are a bad parent! Swallow it and maybe you can finally fix the situation! lol
 
cluthz said:
Wow won't run fluid at max settings on a i5/i7 MBP, but almost, you'll have to sacrifice full screen glow and multisampling.

In ICC25, i turn down a bit more, just because if my FPS falls behind 30 FPS I'm really not feeling gameplay is fluid enough. I'm maybe a bit picky tho, a lot of people seems happy with 15-20 FPS, but that is unacceptable for me, 30 FPS is the bare minimum :D
Click to expand...

i dont know what your talking about man, i have the i5 MBP and i'm running like 90-130 fps throughout the game at x1050 resolution.
 
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