My Late '08 MacBook Running Ghost Recon Breakpoint?

[amgff84]

Yes, thats right. My late 2008 MacBook runs the latest game from the Ghost Recon collection. With a pic to prove it! Can you guess how? Sorry for the crappy pic, I wanted to show that it's actually on there.

So to answer anyones question as to how or why, I am using shadow.tech cloud server on here. Shadow is a cloud gaming service that gives you access to another server in a virtual machine environment. With that, you get your own windows 10 partition and top of the line hardware to game on. Shadow has its limitations like storage and input lag, but the input lag has improved over the last 9 months that I have been using it to almost gone, it's practically not even noticeable. I have no affiliation with shadow apart for paying for their service, but this has changed how I use computers and really made an impact on my day to day. Before, I had gaming rigs that I sunk a ton of money into and had okay performance. Now I can max out setting and still game at a reasonable fps for far less.

Machine specs;
Late 2008 Macbook 5,1
2.4ghz Core2Duo CPU
Nvidia GeForce 9400m
6 GB RAM
240 GB SSD
MacOS High Sierra HFS+
TIM refresh with Thermal Grizzly

 

[Glockworkorange]

Yes, thats right. My late 2008 MacBook runs the latest game from the Ghost Recon collection. With a pic to prove it! Can you guess how? Sorry for the crappy pic, I wanted to show that it's actually on there.

View attachment 884725

So to answer anyones question as to how or why, I am using shadow.tech cloud server on here. Shadow is a cloud gaming service that gives you access to another server in a virtual machine environment. With that, you get your own windows 10 partition and top of the line hardware to game on. Shadow has its limitations like storage and input lag, but the input lag has improved over the last 9 months that I have been using it to almost gone, it's practically not even noticeable. I have no affiliation with shadow apart for paying for their service, but this has changed how I use computers and really made an impact on my day to day. Before, I had gaming rigs that I sunk a ton of money into and had okay performance. Now I can max out setting and still game at a reasonable fps for far less.

Machine specs;
Late 2008 Macbook 5,1
2.4ghz Core2Duo CPU
Nvidia GeForce 9400m
6 GB RAM
240 GB SSD
MacOS High Sierra HFS+
TIM refresh with Thermal Grizzly

My first Mac ever. I LOVED that machine. What is the latest OS it will run?

 

[amgff84]

My first Mac ever. I LOVED that machine. What is the latest OS it will run?

Hey, So the latest OS is El Capitan. I am running High Sierra thanks to Colins patcher. I had Catalina on here too which seemed to work without issues via the patcher, however, I prefer High Sierra because I feel that HFS is faster than APFS on older hardware. There are some videos out there on youtube to back my opinion. The funny thing is, granted it's an old machine, the keyboard it flawless and feels great, its backlit, the display is LED backlit, and even though its low res, maybe 720? I don't think its 1080, but everything just works well. My mother works at goodwill and found a 19" monitor that happens to be Macs 1440x900 which works great with this laptop. My other ultra wide would freeze this MacBook. Too much screen lol!

I gotta be honest, Apple is screwing us. Like I said, El Capitan works and is supported, it works awesome too. Where it doesn't work and is a deal breaker is in the photos app. Something I use often, and it will show a thumbnail of a pic but won't open it, just shows a " ! " instead. Yosemite really is the same as El Cap, but has different security features that I find Frustrating.

Given the build quality of these machine, it would be neat if Apple would support these older machine, even if they used a slimmed down version of the OS with missing features. But they hate their customers and love the money some are willing to spend on a computer.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Hey, So the latest OS is El Capitan. I am running High Sierra thanks to Colins patcher. I had Catalina on here too which seemed to work without issues via the patcher, however, I prefer High Sierra because I feel that HFS is faster than APFS on older hardware. There are some videos out there on youtube to back my opinion. The funny thing is, granted it's an old machine, the keyboard it flawless and feels great, its backlit, the display is LED backlit, and even though its low res, maybe 720? I don't think its 1080, but everything just works well. My mother works at goodwill and found a 19" monitor that happens to be Macs 1440x900 which works great with this laptop. My other ultra wide would freeze this MacBook. Too much screen lol!

I gotta be honest, Apple is screwing us. Like I said, El Capitan works and is supported, it works awesome too. Where it doesn't work and is a deal breaker is in the photos app. Something I use often, and it will show a thumbnail of a pic but won't open it, just shows a " ! " instead. Yosemite really is the same as El Cap, but has different security features that I find Frustrating.

Given the build quality of these machine, it would be neat if Apple would support these older machine, even if they used a slimmed down version of the OS with missing features. But they hate their customers and love the money some are willing to spend on a computer.

Thank you. Really fond memories of that machine. It's one of the strangest and the same time most influential Apple laptops...ever.

Firstly, Apple only released one version of the aluminum MacBook--the 2008 model. That's why it's strange.

Second, it's significant because that machine formed the basis of the 13 inch MBP.

People forget before the 13 inch MacBook, you could only get MacBook Pro's in 15 and 17 inches.

What Apple did was turn that 13 inch unibody into the 13 inch MacBook Pro in 2009, the year following its release.

 

[amgff84]

Thank you. Really fond memories of that machine. It's one of the strangest and the same time most influential Apple laptops...ever.

Firstly, Apple only released one version of the aluminum MacBook--the 2008 model. That's why it's strange.

Second, it's significant because that machine formed the basis of the 13 inch MBP.

People forget before the 13 inch MacBook, you could only get MacBook Pro's in 15 and 17 inches.

What Apple did was turn that 13 inch unibody into the 13 inch MacBook Pro in 2009, the year following its release.

That is true! and the specs were pretty much the same with the exception of faster RAM. And maybe the SD card reader?

Its really a neat machine, slow to todays standards, but if you're not using it for work or video production, what's the point of owning something fast. I would like a newer i5 MacBook Pro, but this just works.

Plus, I think there is a nostalgia value here that's just great when people see it. It's in like new condition, so when I tell its age, it becomes a conversation starter.

 

[Glockworkorange]

That is true! and the specs were pretty much the same with the exception of faster RAM. And maybe the SD card reader?

Its really a neat machine, slow to todays standards, but if you're not using it for work or video production, what's the point of owning something fast. I would like a newer i5 MacBook Pro, but this just works.

Plus, I think there is a nostalgia value here that's just great when people see it. It's in like new condition, so when I tell its age, it becomes a conversation starter.

No firewire, but it’s a port I never would have used.
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That is true! and the specs were pretty much the same with the exception of faster RAM. And maybe the SD card reader?

Its really a neat machine, slow to todays standards, but if you're not using it for work or video production, what's the point of owning something fast. I would like a newer i5 MacBook Pro, but this just works.

Plus, I think there is a nostalgia value here that's just great when people see it. It's in like new condition, so when I tell its age, it becomes a conversation starter.

If I can find one in good condition, I will snatch it up.

 

[amgff84]

To find one in like new condition may be hard, especially at the price point I paid; $50 USD. However, they are out there. I found this one for 60 including shipping from Canada. I think around there anyways. Then I replaced the darn logic board with a cheap $40 thinking it was the reason it would randomly freeze. Turns out it was the SATA cable for the hard drive. Found this out by some freak thing when I learned about some later Macs suffering from bad cables. Then someone else on here also mentioned it. So total cost for this entire set up;

$60 for macbook
$40 for logicboard
$6 Dell Monitor (A Goodwill find, thanks Mom.)
$14 for bluetooth speaker
$30 for used Henge dock
$30 for mini display to dvi cable
Mouse and keyboard I already had but...
$80 Keychron K1
$50 RAT M mouse

$310 I think... If I did the math right... lol

Side notes, the keyboard looks awesome, but isn't that great. Tolerable though, but my issue is that there is input from the finger before the mechanical click of the key. This is a known issue, apparently.

The mouse is bluetooth, just only compatible to the latest bluetooth so it will not work with this antique Mac. New cheap one on order that should work.

The Dell monitor is 1440x900, so I don't think it's 1080. However, it appears to be equal to the display of the Mac in terms of picture quality, so this is a non issue.

Also, the Henge dock is a pain in the butt to set up, and it doesn't attach like a typical dock. It works well though and looks cool.

Forgot to mention I have an external SSD for backup and storage attached via USB along with a USB extender, or whatever they are called.

I think this concludes this project. I will probably keep this set up for a while, the old lady is getting annoyed with my hobby spending.