Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New Macbooks : Intel GMA X3100 Problems?

Jolly Jimmy

Jolly Jimmy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
1,357
3
Hi,

I'm considering purchasing a Macbook, so I've been checking up on reviews and specs and stuff. I've seen talk of graphic and display problems that were not encountered on previous macbooks, and everyone is pointing at the new X3100, some saying that its worse than old 950. No one seems to have any decent answers about the problems (if there are any), and it usually ends with people ranting on about how integrated graphic cards are crappy blah blah get a MBP blah. The only convicing explanation I've seen is that the drivers are not quite up to scratch, and fixes will come with futher updates. I am kind of hoping this is the case.

Can anyone enlighten me please?

PS I am fully aware of the limits of integrated graphic cards.
 
I haven't seen any graphical problems with my Macbook.

IIRC 10.5.1 contained updated x3100 drivers and chances are they will be refined over time and will make it into further updates.
 
Mine's been fine, no glitches.

As for games - I've managed to play Age of Empires 2 (bootcamp) but not Age of Empires 3. I'd say any games pre 2005 will be fine.
 
Just needs new drivers... even the new ATI dedicated cards needed a few months of driver updates to get things working up to snuff... the troubles of the newest tech... I'm sure by the end of it's life the GMA X3100 will be MUCH more efficient than the GMA 950.
 
The X3100 is fine.

But I hate the keyboard of new SR macbook. I replace 2 macbook for keyboard issue in 1 month. It seems every keyboard have some problems.
 
feyn-man said:
The X3100 is fine.

But I hate the keyboard of new SR macbook. I replace 2 macbook for keyboard issue in 1 month. It seems every keyboard have some problems.
Click to expand...

Really? Mine works great... BUT my "A" key seems a bit crooked. Otherwise the keyboard is great for me.
 
Mine's been fine. Every once in a while the spaces transitions stutter a bit, but no biggie. I was pleasantly surprised with how it plays Half Life 2 and Portal in Boot Camp.
 
OK, Thanks everyone.

Probably just people whining because they're disapointed that the X3100 can't cope with 3D games and such despite the fact that it's not designed for that.
 
Yes, there are certain problems with the X3100, it cannot run 16-bit color with Mac OS X, making it impossible to play AOE:2 mac edition and other 16-bit games, and several games that could run on the GMA 950 cannot run on the X3100 (Wolfenstein ET for example)
 
TSE said:
Yes, there are certain problems with the X3100, it cannot run 16-bit color with Mac OS X, making it impossible to play AOE:2 mac edition and other 16-bit games, and several games that could run on the GMA 950 cannot run on the X3100 (Wolfenstein ET for example)
Click to expand...

New drivers should fix all that though... am I right?
 
There's a lot of talk about about display problems with the new SR Macbooks on other threads, mainly pointing at the screen. But aren't they the same as on older macbooks? The only thing thats changed display wise is the integrated GPU. Shouldn't people be looking at that rather than the screens?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back