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If I get a MBP.... XP and games.. Best of both?

Mr.Gadget

Mr.Gadget

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 19, 2006
314
0
Post Falls, ID
I really want to "switch" (hate that term, but it fits) from my Acer notebook(s) to a 17" MBP. I would like to be able to run all my Windows apps without issues (for work) and I would like to be able to play Battlefield 2 and 2142 (home!) AND I would like the smooth A/V operations of the MBP. If I ditch my Wintels can I really have the best of both worlds with the MBP? The $2700 price tag is way more than a Windows laptop, but they don't have the luxury of OS/X - so I can stomach the price difference; but only if I can operate in both realms.

PS - I know this horse has been beat beyond death, but any fresh advice especially with the new Core 2 Duos maybe coming later this month and updates to Bootcamp... Also, is CompUSA not carrying these anymore? I can't find them online...
 
The MacBook Pro might seem very expensive as an outright purchase but it's quite competitive with machines of similar specifications. The deal's even sweeter when you consider that you get OSX and iLife thrown in. :cool:
 
You are paying a lot to get MacOSX as you can get better screen/gfx card/merom for less with Dell. But most people are willing to pay that extra for MacOS.
 
MartinJ said:
You are paying a lot to get MacOSX as you can get better screen/gfx card/merom for less with Dell. But most people are willing to pay that extra for MacOS.
Click to expand...

MJ is right. A competitive WinPC laptop will cost you the same as (or slightly less than) a MBP. Just look around and you'll see that. The only difference right now is that the MBP hasn't been fitted with Merom yet, but it will definitely be coming soon. That's just an inevitability. Dells have only been shipping their laptops with Merom for the past 1 week or 10 days, so it's not like Apple is seriously lagging behind.

On that note, get the MBP and run Windows whenever you need it. I think the stuff you plan on doing is definitely possible with a MBP. :)
 
yellow said:
With all the settings on medium my MBP plays BF2 just great.. amongst many other games.
Click to expand...

And what about the settings set to 'High'? And do you have any experience with HL2, UT, CoD etc?

Also, has anybody got a clue if UT2007 would run properly on a MBP? :)
 
It's a bit choppy and slow. But the X1600 128MB video card (that I have) isn't the strongest.. and there's plenty of HD seeking, and it's a slow HD.
CoD2 plays great maxed out, never played UT on anytthing other than Mac OS X (which it plays fine maxed out), and I've never played HL2 because I thought HL1 was stupid.. and I don't have broadband available.
 
Thanks for the responses. I was at CompUSA looking, and drooling today.
I may opt for the glossy screen through Apple directly.
Any feelings on the glossy vs regular?

I also saw the 24" iMac and couldn't believe how gorgeous it looks!!!
 
Mr.Gadget said:
Any feelings on the glossy vs regular?
Click to expand...

There's been a lot of talk over this. In the end, probably the best thing to do is to go see for yourself, under several different lighting conditions. A couple of my friends have MBs and love the glossy screen. I on the other hand can't stand it, and I would pay money to go from glossy to matte.
 
ZoomZoomZoom said:
There's been a lot of talk over this. In the end, probably the best thing to do is to go see for yourself, under several different lighting conditions. A couple of my friends have MBs and love the glossy screen. I on the other hand can't stand it, and I would pay money to go from glossy to matte.
Click to expand...

search for "glossy vs matte" and you'll probably bring up many, many topics on this. I have a glossy screen and I like it.
 
The only b1tch about having to switch over to XP is rebooting. It's annoying and a hassle, but not nearly enough to stop me from using XP specific apps and games.

Being that the x1600 is well underclocked, the 3D performance imo is above avg, but definitely not nearly as good to comparable laptops w/ the same GPU since they are clocked to standard speeds.

My experience w/ the GPU is this; I play CSS (Counter-Strike Source) on max res, but medium settings and i get 30 fps MORE than I would otherwise if I didn't clock my GPU to near the standard speed. That should give u an idea of how improved it is when oc'ed. 30 fps is HUGE! If I were to find its max stable speed, I can probably get 40 fps more, but I don't want to push it.

People claim the machine will blow up, overheat, this, and that. But I've had my mbp for 6 months now and the GPU runs flawlessly. With the oc'ed performance, I can play the newest games (Company of Heroes, Joint Task Force, etc) in very good speed and style ;)

I obviously take no responsibility if yours catch fire or blow up, but we haven't gotten any reports of GPU overheating yet have we? ;) Do this at your own risk. Use AtiTool 0.25 Beta14 (as Beta15 crashes as of now) and the AC plugged in, otherwise your machine will crash perhaps due to power consumption of the OC.
 
Rebooting isn't such a pain with rEFIt, as it doesn't need you to watch and hit the Option key at the right point (and you get to pick your own icons for the boot screen), and the Macbook Pro is a darn sight quicker to boot than any other PC I've used (maybe the 2GB of ram helps).

I've had BSODs and other crashes through overheating playing BF2 (and one game where all the buildings turned bright pink). Now I boot into OXS, use smcFanControl to set the fans to 6000rpm, then reboot into Windows XP to play games. The fan speed persists through the reboot.

I don't trust the firmware to set the fans to a suitable speed, after doing a test with four terminal windows, each running the "yes > /dev/null" command (to put the CPU at maximum load), and seeing my CPU core temperatures hit 85C, while the fans only sped up to 1350rpm. As far as I'm concerned the fans should be running flat out over 60C, but that's seems to be the normal running temp on one of these.
 
The MBP's X1600 is clocked at 300/300, however whenever I play a game I clock it at 440/440, never had an issue and I can play just about anything out there at the MBP's native res or at least 1280x800 and with some pretty decent graphical settings (medium or high and mostly no AA/AF).
 
I would wait a little while for the new macbook pro.

it will have a better graphics chip. Wait shouldnt be too long, probably a 2-3 weeks for announcement and shipping.

it is rumored to already be in production... and to have Core 2 Duo upgrade, with a better GPU. prob with more as well, ie better wifi chip and more.
 
No one exactly knows what video card the new MBPs will have, but it's definite that it is slightly faster than the current ones, though not enough for current MBP users to upgrade.
 
ZoomZoomZoom said:
There's been a lot of talk over this. In the end, probably the best thing to do is to go see for yourself, under several different lighting conditions. A couple of my friends have MBs and love the glossy screen. I on the other hand can't stand it, and I would pay money to go from glossy to matte.
Click to expand...

I was at the Apple Store in my area twice in the last few weeks and both times I was comparing glossy/matte MBPs. The first time, I definitely preferred the glossy, and that's after A/B-ing them over and over again.

But I made a mistake that time! If any of you have the opportunity to compare, make sure you do a color calibration on both matte and glossy machines!! Color profiles may or may not be the same on different MBPs in a store, so it's important to either put them on the same color profile or just configure them the same (preferably with the expert options turned on). After I calibrated the two MBPs I definitely prefer the matte. And I'm happy it doesn't cost a penny more than the glossy...
 
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