The Dead Gaming on MacBook Thread.

[MRU]

I tried to install BF2 on my 2.0 MB and it wouldn't even launch. I got HL2 working and will download CS:S ina bit. I'd love to have BF2 working even a crippled watered down version of it. Oh well I always have my desktop.

I used the single player and multiplayer demo version which came on a pc demo disk. Didnt have any trouble with it? Why would the full version be different

Have to wait to get Doom 3 & Oblivion from my nextdoor neighbour, he's not back from uni till later in the afternoon.

I'm gonna finish instaling HL2 now.


When we post it runs 'great' I think what we mean to say is it runs at a consistently playable rate with enough of the graphical features so we dont feel its being ' totally crippled'.

Obviously a stand alone GPU is going to be better, no ones arguing otherwise. I just wanted to post that the machine is capable of playing games, and playing some of the latest titles very well. Obviously it will depend on your game and of course the amount of ram in your macbook, and whether your running in windows or osX. My point remains valid that the macbook isnt the 'wash out' that people were saying.

 

[jdiddy]

I used the Demo version which came on a pc demo disk.

Have to wait to get Doom 3 & Oblivion from my nextdoor neighbour, he's not back from uni till later in the afternoon.

I'm gonna finish instaling HL2 now.

HL2 works on the lowest settings fine. I still couldn't get the full version of BF2 installed on here. I'm downloading the demo now just to see how BF2 looks on this MB. Doom 3 should run on lowest settings but good luck on Oblivion I run that on my PC and I have a 6800gt and 1 gig of ram and it still chokes my system.

 

[MRU]

HL2 works on the lowest settings fine. I still couldn't get the full version of BF2 installed on here. I'm downloading the demo now just to see how BF2 looks on this MB. Doom 3 should run on lowest settings but good luck on Oblivion I run that on my PC and I have a 6800gt and 1 gig of ram and it still chokes my system.

Yeah i'm not expecting huge things from oblivion, but i'll give it a go. I was very surprised with the perfomance of it on my imac with a X1600.

So far RTS & Sims type seem to run better than FPS.

Dissapointed you were only able to run HL2 on low? I'm at 99% still updating. To go through hassles of steam for low is a bit But how does it look on low?

How much memory is in your macbook by the way? I think if your still on stock 512 thats gonna make a big difference.

 

[jdiddy]

How much memory is in your macbook by the way? I think if your still on stock 512 thats gonna make a big difference.[/QUOTE]


I have 1 gig in a single stick. I didn't try HL2 on any other setting but low. I aimed low. Installed the bf2 demo but still can't get it to launch. Any tips??

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

HL2 works on the lowest settings fine. I still couldn't get the full version of BF2 installed on here. I'm downloading the demo now just to see how BF2 looks on this MB. Doom 3 should run on lowest settings but good luck on Oblivion I run that on my PC and I have a 6800gt and 1 gig of ram and it still chokes my system.

running is one thing playing is another, 9 frames at a low resolution isnt playable in respect to Doom3

 

[MRU]

I have 1 gig in a single stick. I didn't try HL2 on any other setting but low. I aimed low. Installed the bf2 demo but still can't get it to launch. Any tips??

I'm running 512x2 = 1gb I believe the dual channel pairing works better with the onboard gpu.

No tips for BF2 - the demo disk (PC Zone) worked without any hitch so I'm not sure why it wouldnt work on yours. I'm running XP Pro SP2 - would that make any difference (i.e if your running home), after all it is windows and we know how tempremental it can be.

9 frames on doom 3 i'm skeptical of as well, as soon as I get my hands on a copy I'll give it a go for myself.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

We have way to many people pushing integrated graphics here, i wouldnt want anybody making a Big Mistake. Thinking what a great machine it is and then popping in say a 2 yr old Doom game or FarCry for example.

 

[Legacy]

running in dual channel mode makes a huge difference in games, and i think i remember reading that you need it running dual channel to work with vista effects ect that may be effecting your ability to play HL2

oh and dont hurt me have you ever made an original post? you say the same thing again and again and again and again and again and guess what, it does not help, it's perfectly possible to play most games at 25-30fps at low settings on the macbook if your running dual channel, i'd rather apple used proper graphics but deal with it and stop shouting at people for wanting to do some light gameing on the macbook.

You dont need any specific RAM configuration for Vista at all, it only improves it. Why do people try and make Vista sound like such a heavy peace of software. Have you ever thought to yourself how many machines there are out there that have Dual Channel config RAM? As long as you have 512RAM and a Direct X GPU, integrated or not, you will run ALL the Vista effects quite well.

As for Dual Channel on the GMA950 yep it effects games but if you have a crap GPU to start with, the fps increase will only be marginal - max 3-5fps if you get 30fps anyway. So youll get around a 10% FPS increase.

 

[MRU]

As for Dual Channel on the GMA950 yep it effects games but if you have a crap GPU to start with, the fps increase will only be marginal - max 3-5fps if you get 30fps anyway. So youll get around a 10% FPS increase.

But those 3-5 when your at 20-21 fps - adding those extra 3-5 will make a playable difference, much more so than when your at the top end of gaming.

We have way to many people pushing integrated graphics here, i wouldnt want anybody making a Big Mistake. Thinking what a great machine it is and then popping in say a 2 yr old Doom game or FarCry for example.

look what I said is not pushing integrated graphics, what i'm saying is from the few games i've played and yes my experience may not be indicative of the community as a whole, those games I've played have all been running well. Now I'll admit i would have loved a seperate GPU in the macbook, but realistcally it wasnt going to happen, you only have to look at apple in the past to see how they target and cripple consumer to pro models.

That being said there is more people on the forum saying that gaming is a complete no-no which isnt the truth, yes its not ideal, but you can play the odd game.

Yes at reduced settings for heavy laden FPS shooters, or like I say stratergy games seem to run fine with settings up. Some people like myself are happy with performance of RCT3 or Sims 2.

BUT I'd like to reiterate, gaming isn't that much of an issue for me with the macbook as I have all the consoles, a dual powermac with a X800Xt and a 20"imac duo, so once I've finished testing I will be deleteing windows as I dont need it on my macbook.

 

[MRU]

the difference when running dual channel is between 15-50% which is pretty huge.

Wow. That really would make a difference to framerates. Just popped next door, not returning from Cork uni this weekend i'll have to download the Doom 3 demo, can you do the timedemo run on the demo? Not going to waste downloading 600-700mb or watever it is to find out you cant....

 

[drdimmer]

CS:S and HL2

Thank-you for testing this for members of the forum, but please do let us know as to how well CS:S and HL2 runs .

 

[MRU]

Thank-you for testing this for members of the forum, but please do let us know as to how well CS:S and HL2 runs .

Will do, just charging my battery for calibration. I did the drain battery rountine, god it took ages. Got about 5 hours with brightness halfway and bluetooth off, but wireless on - just surfing the net etc....

 

[QCassidy352]

your disclaimer really confused me - you have a macbook, but your only opinion of whether he's right or wrong is based on 3 reviews from other people? why can't you just try the games out on your own? especially since 'good' in a game is very subjective...

because I got it 2 days ago and don't own any of the games in question...

 

[MRU]

BSOD on my macbook

OK wierd thing just happened. Battery fully charged, boot up windows and the windows auto updater starts.

After its updated it asks to reboot. It reboots and I get a blue screen message?

So i hold down power button and then I reboot again and it starts.

Everything seemed fine except now eject key doesnt work anymore, so I unistall the apple drivers and reboot. Re-install the apple drivers and then reboot again.

God I hope they can stop all the rebooting with Vista.

So i'm back up and running. I click on the shortcut for Sim2 it starts. I go to menu quit and then run RCT3 and it's fine, quit and go back to desktop. Click on BF2 shortcut and it looks like it's launching but nothing happens?

So i uninstall BF2 demo and re-install the demo, leaving out gamespy arcade and when it's finsihed I reboot again...

After seemingly the millionth restart, I launch BF2 icon and blue screen error? Arghhhhh Bloody windows.

Why is it just playing up. So I unistall BF2 again and check The Movies. That boots up without a hitch?

I cant be bothered to re-install windows but as soon as I've finished testing HL2 i'm getting rid of the bloody thing. (windows not my macbook)

What's causing the blue screen problems i'm not sure. A corrupt driver, a fecked up system file? Crappyness of windows XP?

I'll post one more update when HL2 is up and running adn then I'm getting rid of windows.

 

[iHeartTheApple]

OK wierd thing just happened. Battery fully charged, boot up windows and the windows auto updater starts.

After its updated it asks to reboot. It reboots and I get a blue screen message?

So i hold down power button and then I reboot again and it starts.

Everything seemed fine except now eject key doesnt work anymore, so I unistall the apple drivers and reboot. Re-install the apple drivers and then reboot again.

God I hope they can stop all the rebooting with Vista.

So i'm back up and running. I click on the shortcut for Sim2 it starts. I go to menu quit and then run RCT3 and it's fine, quit and go back to desktop. Click on BF2 shortcut and it looks like it's launching but nothing happens?

So i uninstall BF2 demo and re-install the demo, leaving out gamespy arcade and when it's finsihed I reboot again...

After seemingly the millionth restart, I launch BF2 icon and blue screen error? Arghhhhh Bloody windows.

Why is it just playing up. So I unistall BF2 again and check The Movies. That boots up without a hitch?

I cant be bothered to re-install windows but as soon as I've finished testing HL2 i'm getting rid of the bloody thing. (windows not my macbook)

What's causing the blue screen problems i'm not sure. A corrupt driver, a fecked up system file? Crappyness of windows XP?

I'll post one more update when HL2 is up and running adn then I'm getting rid of windows.

Ouch! What a pain. I do want to thank you though for all the hard work you're doing to produce some *realworld* data that the MB can, in fact, play games. I'm sure it won't go unnoticed. As I said before, I will be trying to do similar tests on my MB once I get all the games installed.

I'm in the same situation as you. I don't *need* to play games on the MB...I just got it and wanted to try it out. I've got a 20" iMac Duo w/256MB vRAM coming in the mail and that will be my gaming workhorse. I just think it's necessary to help out some of the people who are curious about gaming on this beautiful little computer.

Will it be ideal? No. Will you be able to play all games at high settings? No. Will there be games it won't play at all? Yes. But the bottom line is that it has been shown quite conclusively that the MB has the ability to play games.

Dont_Hurt_Me:
If you don't have an MB and you don't have any experience playing games on your MB, then please for the sake of people actually interested, do not come and toss out claims regarding the performance of this machine based on benchmarks that you read about while surfing the web. Everyone knows that integrated graphics is a far cry from dedicated graphics in terms of performance and ability. The point is that a lot of people can't afford to buy an MBP, iMac, or PowerMac, and as such, need to make due with what they have.

Most of those people are also probably not worried about being able to play the latest/greatest game on high settings. They use their computers for work, play, and ever so often, they might have the urge to do a little "shoot 'em up" or role playing. We are just trying to give the facts to those people who are in the market for a MB and have the desire to play the odd game every once in while. As I said in previous posts, Wyrmintheapple's gaming review is what pushed me over the edge to go out and finally buy my MB. I saw, with my own eyes, games that I am interested in playing (and most others too, for example WoW) running on his MB at very reasonable frame rates with very reasonable settings.

Anyway, no need for all this bickering, etc. If you're interested in the MB gaming abilities, then this seems to be the place to learn more. Thanks again to MacRumorUser and the others for all your hard work in testing.

 

[MRU]

After a lot of hassles getting my macbook in shape and finally finished installing HL2 here is my experience and settings of what I can play at


1 - resolution 1024x768
2 - Specific settings which were recommended for my system

Model Detail : High
Texture Detail : High
Shader Detail : High
Water detail : Simple Reflection
Shadow Detail ; High

Antialiasing : None
Filtering Mode : trilinear
Waiting for vertical sync : disabled

hardware directx level : v.8.1
software directx level : v.9

Whilst there's a little stutter as you move into new areas and the game loads into memory, the game seems to hover just over 20 fps with dips and stutters here and there.

I tried to get the proper console by pressing tild but nothing came up. Anyone give me a header as to how to load console so I can get proper benchmark.

By dropping all those settings to medium and low with shader and shadow the game was much smoother, definetly over 30 with less hidcups.

It looks very impressive generally and yes more importantly it's playable.

However I have found a problem, while playing the game and getting to new sections as it loads it sometimes quits on me? Not sure why.

 

[x86]

To enable the console goto:
Options->Keyboard->Advanced->Enable Console.

To display frames per second type cl_showfps 1 in the console. cl_showfps 0 shuts the counter off.

 

[MRU]

To enable the console goto:
Options->Keyboard->Advanced->Enable Console.

To display frames per second type cl_showfps 1 in the console.

thanks I've just done that.

On menu - 27-29fps (not much use but there you go)

So new game : point insertion
gordon freemans face intro - highest = 43 - lowest = 10

train and intro train station
lowest = 9fps (on the train at the start)
highest (walk close to walls) = 55fps
average walking around - 20-26 fps
average while interacting with npc's = 30fps

It's lowest on the train, when you get off frame rate increases to the average
Thats with those settings on high and at 1024 x 768


HOWEVER It still crashes on me when it loads new sections though.

----------


Same test with settings on medium and low where medium isnt an option
trilinear filtering and 1024x768

Start the game again.

Gordons intro :- highest = 43 lowest = 10 ????

On train station section

lowest = 13fps
highest = 105 near a wall? in the section when you stack up crates to jump out window
average walking = 25-30
average talking to npc = 36-42 in green


Weird - results nearly the same. It actually looked very good on medium too, but less defined.


It still crashed when reaching new checkpoints?
So apart from the crashing, which is a pain - it runs well on the macbook.


The crashing I think could be residual feck up of the drivers or system problems as mentioned earlier...

 

[MRU]

Just playing through second section - leave train station and walk to building stairs and it averages 32 begging of stage, drops to 24 as you first go outside and then section jumps up to 60 (always in green) on those medium settings.

Still crashed though when getting to checkpoint???

Well that's my testing done and dusted. If you dont like the results test it yourselves. Those are my results and as I originally posted - playing games on the macbook is perfectly possible, and it's not the end of the world or a complete no-no because it has a gma950

Yes you get better results on a dedicated GPU, but hell those are alot better results than people have been throwing around and claiming.

My halflife 2 bench results are there if you like them or not, or choose to deny them and carry on saying the macbook cant play games. I know it can because I've just done it, dont like it that's fine i cant be bothered anymore after the crap of downloading steam, trouble with drivers and blue screen errors i've had today, i'm gonna say goodbye windows partition - i'm thoroughly sick of you XP, and i'm not going to miss you....

 

[x86]

Wow, the results are very similar to what I get on my PC with a GeForce 4 Ti4200. It isn't horrible, but then again it's nearly five years old...

 

[MRU]

Wow, the results are very similar to what I get on my PC with a GeForce 4 Ti4200. It isn't horrible, but then again it's nearly five years old...

The point being - it's playable and looks good and not the end of the world.

The GMA950 supports things like Shader model 2 which the card Ti4200 in your pc doesnt. It plays the games i've tested, to the point that none of the games tested suffered such bad perfomance I couldnt play.

The macbook isn't the greatest games laptop available and yes the integrated isnt the first choice, but it works, it doesnt automatically rule out gaming as some of the posters on this forum seem to think.

Yes serious gamers looking for every little frame per second and highest settings always - look elsewhere, but for casual users who may want the occasional game it seems grand.

 

[Capt Underpants]

Well I give you mad props for playing half-life 2 at 20-25 FPS...

In CS:S, I need 35 when I'm sniping, and 30 for other guns for it to be playable.

 

[MRU]

Well I give you mad props for playing half-life 2 at 20-25 FPS...

In CS:S, I need 35 when I'm sniping, and 30 for other guns for it to be playable.

That's fair enough, but

That was on high settings.

Could have been avereage of 30 on medium.

Maintaining over 20 felt surprisingly smooth though, it was more playable than the xbox version.

But no matter what the results were, you cant please everybody.

However last word..

My tests prove that the macbook can play games, where some folk were ruling it out entirely, but I was never going to silence those because that chip on their shoulder

 

[iHeartTheApple]

I just thought of this question. I agree that it's a bit random, but...

If you were to attach the MB to a 20" or 23" ACD (or a similar Dell version) to play games and you ran at, for example, 1280x800, would you find the *same* frame rates that we've been seeing on the MB screen at that resolution? Or does simply being connected to an external monitor slow frame rates? I would imagine that playing at 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 would make it near on unbearable, but I'm not sure. Any input?

I apologize if I'm terribly off-topic or guilty of thread-jacking...

 

[skipsandwichdx]

Yeah, rendering the extra pixels would drop the frame rate.