MacBook + Gaming

[Paragon]

I'm looking to arrange a MacBook purchase for my partner come her birthday (in December), and it will be primarily for word processing, spreadsheets, etc.

However. We are both partial to a bit of gaming The game that we play mainly is a 3D online RPG (WinXP) which would be nice to have the MacBook support.

It's not out yet, and upon release I'll dive deeper into the scenario, but I'm expecting the MacBooks to float around 1.8Ghz, 1-2GB RAM.

How well would this game fair on this machine? Purely speculative at this point, I know, but a question that we're curious about nontheless

 

[FF_productions]

The MacBook is going to be around 1.5/1.6 ghz, it's the lower-end portable machine. Mac's really aren't meant for video games...We don't know what graphics card Apple plans on putting in the MacBook so noone can really say how gaming will be on it.

 

[BWhaler]

Probably pretty well.

And now that Boot Camp is out, you can run Windows games natively too as long as you have a copy of Windows lying around or have access to it.

It's the best of both worlds...

 

[Phat_Pat]

it'll be judged on the required specs


although from what i've heard Half life 2 works like butter with everything on on the MBP

get the MB... install boot camp

enjoy windows and mac os


its truly the best deal you can get.

 

[Paragon]

The idea of playing this game on our Macs only came to rise when Boot Camp came about (we used Winboxes for it in the past, as all of our parents/family etc use PCs )

I never really wanted to put games on my Mac, as I wanted to keep work/play files seperate. Bootcamp appears to solve this.

The 'Macs arent for games' think, I figure, will be numbing down a bit due to boot camp.

Hearing that HL2 can be played well on a MBP is good to hear. Boot Camp is certainly making me wonder whether to lose the PC and use my Mac for everything now

 

[DisFrikkenWill]

im probly not gonna use it for gaming but ill probly try it out when im bored. lol

 

[Mord]

what is this game exactly?

it depends if apple uses gma 950 in the macbook, which they probably will.

 

[Paragon]

The game? http://www.psobb.com (and upcoming sequal)

The fact that a MacBook with 1.5/6Ghz can run a game smoothly when my 2.8Ghz Vaio (the machine for gaming on) with 2.8Ghz struggles even on lowest settings makes me wonder what sort of magic Apple are casting over their hardware

 

[Mord]

that vaio probably has a terrible graphics card, just buy WoW, it's infinitely better than pso an you can run it in os x.

right click on your desktop click proprties and tell me what card is in your vaio, GHz means nothing.

 

[Paragon]

Hahah, I've seen that argument over which 'is better' all over the web

The Vaio (which wasn't bought for graphics, it was originally my Dads, however playing this game was required) has a 2.8Ghz Intel Celeron R and a Radeon IGP 345M. Should have been more specific in the previous post

 

[Mord]

theirs your problem, even ati shared graphics blow and a 1.6 core will blow any crummy celeron away.

 

[Paragon]

Told you it wasn't built for games

 

[dylans]

WoW

I've been playing World of Warcraft on my MacBook 2.16 w/ 2 gigs of RAM, all settings on the game all the way up, and it is NICE. Beautiful game play... I love it !

 

[hob]

In 1999 I was a huge PC gamer - I loved Half-Life (TFC, and CS too), Black & White, Wing Commander... the list goes on.

When I switched to the mac, the only downside was that I couldn't play the games. But of course I was so much happier to be on Mac OS X that I just went ahead and bought an xbox!

But now with boot camp I am very tempted to get a MacBook just so I can catch up what I've missed - namely, HL2!

I've just gotten home for the easter holidays, and my Mum really wants a mac. When I said I really want an intel mac, she suggested I "sell" her my 12" PowerBook G4 and she'd get me a MacBook for my birthday in May!!

I just don't know whether to jump on the Rev. A bandwagon or not. It's a horrible decision to make!

Any thoughts?

 

[Paragon]

I've tried a rev A/B MBP and there was no problems that I saw, really.. It was hot, yea, but that isn't much of a problem (especially when its snowing outside ) And a CD got stuck in it once (turned it off and on a few times and it came out)

When's your birthday? You could always wait until August and have a 'late birthday present'

My partner also hopes to run http://phantasystaruniverse.com when it comes out, too, but if HL2 is running fine then I'm sure this will

 

[animefx]

Phantasy Star Universe looks pretty cool. I love sci-fi and Role Playing mixed together. Are you sure it will be released in the US though?

I've tried a rev A/B MBP and there was no problems that I saw, really.. It was hot, yea, but that isn't much of a problem (especially when its snowing outside ) And a CD got stuck in it once (turned it off and on a few times and it came out)

When's your birthday? You could always wait until August and have a 'late birthday present'

My partner also hopes to run http://phantasystaruniverse.com when it comes out, too, but if HL2 is running fine then I'm sure this will

 

[hob]

I've tried a rev A/B MBP and there was no problems that I saw, really.. It was hot, yea, but that isn't much of a problem (especially when its snowing outside ) And a CD got stuck in it once (turned it off and on a few times and it came out)

When's your birthday? You could always wait until August and have a 'late birthday present'

My partner also hopes to run http://phantasystaruniverse.com when it comes out, too, but if HL2 is running fine then I'm sure this will

Why? What's happening in August? My birthday is May 10th - I expect presents from you all =)

 

[Paragon]

PSU will definately have a UK/US release

August = hopefully some new releases/upgrades? I personally am expecting Mac Pros and a few revisions of current models

 

[The Senator]

macbook pros are the best computers ever, they do everything from playing games to frying your eggs for ya

 

[skubish]

If the macbook is released with an integrated graphics chip, it will not
be good for games.

 

[Paragon]

The speculation of 'integrated graphics being rubbish' is a bit farfetched in my persoal opinion. Obviously not as fast as dedicated graphics, but they arent that bad

 

[hob]

I will be a bit wary of buying a computer with integrated anything, after my experiences with integrated sound cards. Although, intel themselves to make the best ones - I helped a friend build a pc about 18 months ago with an intel mobo, and the integrated sound card supported 5.1!!

guess I'll wait to see some benchmarks... One would think if the "better" MacBook is going to replace the 12" PowerBook, that it would have dedicated graphics support... but maybe not!!

 

[Paragon]

I guess time will tell eh I'll be eagerly awaiting the release of this machine

 

[hob]

I guess that's all you can say!!

But I love speculation