should I buy a 15 inch mac book pro for gaming

[fullfloridiancj]

I am a casual PS3 gamer who is interesting in loading boot camp and playing Star Wars the Old republic when it comes out.I'm looking to but the high end 15 inch mac book pro that has

2.2GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
750GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5

Unfortionatley I dont know much about graphic cards and have no idea if this is a good one or if the game will play on it. I know alienware uses Nvidia graphics and i assume thats much better but does this work for my purposes ?

 

[Sambo110]

That is a good graphics card and it will run that game, I'm not entirely sure how well but it should run quite well. And Nvidia isn't better than ATI, only in certain games, but it's all personal preference.

 

[Coolsbreeze]

I'm in the same boat I'm considering in getting this system for gaming with certain games in Mac OS and other games in bootcamp. How is the heat temperatures after a few hours of gaming?

 

[SlickShoes]

I'm in the same boat I'm considering in getting this system for gaming with certain games in Mac OS and other games in bootcamp. How is the heat temperatures after a few hours of gaming?

i have the very laptop you guys are talking about.

I have a Speck Seethru Satin case which reduces the amount of heat on my legs massively. Because it is aluminium it does get hot on your legs, you could not sit with it on bare skin and game, if you are wearing jeans it is fine. Although having the protective cover is fine for me and the laptop still gets plenty of ventilation.

If you are using it on a desk then heat will not be an issue. It does get pretty loud fan wise when you are playing a demanding game but I don't find this off putting at all.

Recently on mine I have played Starcraft 2 with everything on High in both OSX and Windows7, I have also spent a lot of time on Team Fortress 2 which runs flawlessly at highest res.

I got another BioWare game the other day Mass Effect 2, everything runs on high settings at 1440x900 res perfectly. I would imagine if a AAA single player game runs well on this then SW:TOR will have no problems.

You will get people telling you its not a gaming machine, but if you want a mac and you want to game this is it, either this or an iMac.

Any game released this year or next will run medium or above easily and I dont see any real performance hit coming to gaming on this until around 2013 at the earliest. Ofcourse if you are a gamer that demands 60+fps constantly from every game you may find this lacking but personally for me any game playable on good settings with no noticeable slowdown or lag is good.

I am glad I bought the machine as I had never been a PC gamer before other than MMO's so its opened up a whole new world of games to me, I will also be buying SW:TOR so hope to see you in the game!

 

[DrNeroCF]

No, you should by a Macbook Pro because it's an incredible computer. But, if you happen to load up Bootcamp, OC the GPU a tad, and play some games, you shouldn't be too disappointed in the performance.

The only problem is with mobile GPUs in general, they'll be outperformed by far by any desktop GPU within the past few generations, but if all you have is a laptop, you should be able to get some good gaming done.

Don't get a Macbook Pro for gaming though, or else you'll start looking at much thicker, cheaper laptops with far better graphics performance and you might start feeling a bit funny...

 

[mfr1340]

mbp15 for gameing

I just traded up to the 15"mbp just so I could do some gaming. It is great, I bought cod4 and started playing. No changing settings to play. this is the best.
I started with a new 11" air, sold it and bought a 13" air loaded, 4/256. But I wanted more so I returned it and bought the 15" mbp. maxed out. Still waiting for the other 4gigs of ram to arrive at BB. Due in today. They will call me and install it for me, (no charge). I like having the most powerful macbook pro there is, for under $2,400.00 including tax.

Now I am very Happy,

 

[SlickShoes]

No, you should by a Macbook Pro because it's an incredible computer. But, if you happen to load up Bootcamp, OC the GPU a tad, and play some games, you shouldn't be too disappointed in the performance.

The only problem is with mobile GPUs in general, they'll be outperformed by far by any desktop GPU within the past few generations, but if all you have is a laptop, you should be able to get some good gaming done.

Don't get a Macbook Pro for gaming though, or else you'll start looking at much thicker, cheaper laptops with far better graphics performance and you might start feeling a bit funny...

I looked at PC laptops but they don't have OSX. They have next to 0 battery life and they are thick which makes carrying them arounds very annoying.

I can play games on my MBP for about 2 hours whilst not plugged into a power source, most PC gaming laptops will net you about 2 hours unplugged for normal browsing.

So I agree with you, don't just buy it for gaming, get it for the battery life, the build quality, the portability, the screen, the OS and the trackpad.

 

[johnadams2007]

a buddy of mine just dropped around 3 grand on his 15" macbook pro with the 6750m. he uses it as his primary machine and he is going to use it to carry around to starcraft tournaments etc. he plays sc2 on high at great frame rates, so im sure it can handle almost anything. i'm sure you wont be disappointed.

not to mention the fact that if you want to upgrade in a couple of years, you will get at least 60% of what you paid for your mac. trying doing that with a windows based laptop

 

[fullfloridiancj]

Thanks

thanks guys I appreciate the info. Question,

I was in the mac store yesterday and realized that i had a hard time adjusting to the 15 inch mac pro keyboard. Im used to typing on my 13 inch. It seems like the keyboard should have been moved down on the case to make it more comfortiable.

am I the only person that feels like this is a design flaw lol.

I would actually rather get a 13 inch mac book air with all the fixings but no graphics card

 

[SlickShoes]

thanks guys I appreciate the info. Question,

I was in the mac store yesterday and realized that i had a hard time adjusting to the 15 inch mac pro keyboard. Im used to typing on my 13 inch. It seems like the keyboard should have been moved down on the case to make it more comfortiable.

am I the only person that feels like this is a design flaw lol.

I would actually rather get a 13 inch mac book air with all the fixings but no graphics card

I used the 13 for about 2 years and it was strange going to the 15, it was heavier and bulkier. Now though having had it since release I doubt i would go back to the 13 unless it came with everything the 15 has but in a smaller case. I love gaming so the dedicated GPU is a must and until the 13 has that ill be staying with the 15.

Anyway i gave my 13 to my wife and when i use that now it feels light and tiny and i dont really like the small keyboard anymore. Another large + is that the sound quality on the 15 is light years ahead of the 13 too.

Bottom line is you will get used to it and with the extra power you get with the 15 over 13 in a couple of months you will look back and wonder why you ever thought the 13 was an option. When carrying it around in a backpack it isnt a noticeable amount heavier either.

 

[Austin907]

I'm using the same MacBook Pro and getting great performance on everything I've thrown at it. I would definitely recommend it for ANYTHING. It's the best computer I could've hoped for to start college and I have pretty high standards when it comes to components and performance.

Now if I could just find a use for this thunderbolt port…

 

[Killery96]

thanks guys I appreciate the info. Question,

I was in the mac store yesterday and realized that i had a hard time adjusting to the 15 inch mac pro keyboard. Im used to typing on my 13 inch. It seems like the keyboard should have been moved down on the case to make it more comfortiable.

am I the only person that feels like this is a design flaw lol.

I would actually rather get a 13 inch mac book air with all the fixings but no graphics card

I made the switch from a 13" to a 15" after 2 years and I'm fine. I'm running CoD4, Dragon Age: Origins, Borderlands, as well as Starcraft 2 on maximum settings and I get very playable framerate. SC2 I keep at a mix of high/ultra with medium shadows and high textures at 1680x1050 and I get anywhere from 20's to 80's in the framerate... Most other games I play at 1280x800 for framerate and so i can see stuff on the screen (native res makes it SO tiny!!!), but CoD4 hangs at around 80+fps, and DA:O, even though it's still a ****** mac port, runs maxed out WITH AA and Frame Buffer effects. It's very amazing machine, in addition to having everything else you love about a mac. I would not get the MBA for gaming, as the HD3000 has a poorer reception and opinion for gaming, and that is backed by its numbers and benchmark performances.

E.

 

[Huntn]

I am a casual PS3 gamer who is interesting in loading boot camp and playing Star Wars the Old republic when it comes out.I'm looking to but the high end 15 inch mac book pro that has

2.2GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
750GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5

Unfortionatley I dont know much about graphic cards and have no idea if this is a good one or if the game will play on it. I know alienware uses Nvidia graphics and i assume thats much better but does this work for my purposes ?

The MBP plays SWTOR perfectly. The game runs smooth as glass. See my signature.

I'm in the same boat I'm considering in getting this system for gaming with certain games in Mac OS and other games in bootcamp. How is the heat temperatures after a few hours of gaming?

Well, the fan runs... For SWTOR, I'd have to find a PC program to measure this. This MBP runs cooler than my 2007 MBP.

 

[Oxonian3]

I'm in the same boat I'm considering in getting this system for gaming with certain games in Mac OS and other games in bootcamp. How is the heat temperatures after a few hours of gaming?

I'm not sure if it matters but my 17" 2.3ghz just goes to about 65-70C with gaming.But i do have a program called fan control

 

[finchna]

Yes, this will work well, and you might order with or upgrade to 8G ram and a faster HD or SSD.

I am a casual PS3 gamer who is interesting in loading boot camp and playing Star Wars the Old republic when it comes out.I'm looking to but the high end 15 inch mac book pro that has

2.2GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
750GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5

Unfortionatley I dont know much about graphic cards and have no idea if this is a good one or if the game will play on it. I know alienware uses Nvidia graphics and i assume thats much better but does this work for my purposes ?

 

[archurban]

well, NO. look at the design. it's unibody that heat can't be easily cool out. it's very bad construction for gaming. ventilation is not efficient such a isolated form. it's very rigid, and strong. but it gets easily hot. I guess that it could damage your motherboard someday. it's not an accident why so many macbook (including macbook pro) have logic board issue.

 

[Huntn]

well, NO. look at the design. it's unibody that heat can't be easily cool out. it's very bad construction for gaming. ventilation is not efficient such a isolated form. it's very rigid, and strong. but it gets easily hot. I guess that it could damage your motherboard someday. it's not an accident why so many macbook (including macbook pro) have logic board issue.

And you basing this on ownership? I've had a string of MBPs. My wife has had a string of MBs. We both game and have never had any problems.

 

[SlickShoes]

And you basing this on ownership? I've had a string of MBPs. My wife has had a string of MBs. We both game and have never had any problems.

I will concur with you, I played WoW for 2 full years on my unibody macbook from early 2009. Averaging 3 hours a day of gaming with 6 or more on weekends or days off. Never had a problem with the computer melting itself and now that I have a MBP my wife uses the unibody macbook and it is still running everything great.

 

[lewdvig]

I did.

In all honesty a 15" Sager with the same CPU, better screen, twice the ram and a GeForce GTX 560m would have been a better choice and I would have saved $1200.

I just like the Mac OS that much.

 

[SavMBP15]

Get a Dell Alienware M14X Gamer laptop

For about $1400 you can get a great system that will do a better job at running windows games that a MBP15.

I only offer this recommendation since it appeared from your first post that you want to buy a laptop for gaming and everything else is secondary. IMO, a MBP would be used for everything else first and then for gaming. Just my opinion that you would get more gaming bang for your buck this way.