Unfortunately, WoW does play better in Windows than in OS X on my MBP. Apparently the Nvidia drivers in OS X are not that great.
-mx
-mx
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WoW and other games on new 9400M Macbook
- Thread starter bluemouse
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No, it just that it is very easy to start recording a movie you didn't mean to. Worse if you use Timemachine and find out your "movie" directory is 100gb
Still at work! I should be getting out of here in a few hours, and then it will take a little more time to do some testing. I wouldn't expect anything before around 10:00 PM Eastern.
Could you also give us some info about how hot the machine gets and/or how noisy the fans are? This is really crucial for me
Just for the reference, I play on a MacBook Pro 17" Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.33 MHz, with Radeon X1600, conected to a 20" Apple Display (1680x1050). Although the machine is surely able to put +40 fps if I would bother, the noise of the fans blowing at full speed really annoys me, so I need to limit the framerate in WoW
/console maxfps 18
makes the trick for me and the computer stays calm and collected. Could you please investigate this a bit and tell us which is the magic fps number that makes the new Macbook quite while playing wow? (of course, I would be different if you run on a 1280x800 resolution, but still is a valid information).
Thanks in advance!
Just for the reference, I play on a MacBook Pro 17" Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.33 MHz, with Radeon X1600, conected to a 20" Apple Display (1680x1050). Although the machine is surely able to put +40 fps if I would bother, the noise of the fans blowing at full speed really annoys me, so I need to limit the framerate in WoW
/console maxfps 18
makes the trick for me and the computer stays calm and collected. Could you please investigate this a bit and tell us which is the magic fps number that makes the new Macbook quite while playing wow? (of course, I would be different if you run on a 1280x800 resolution, but still is a valid information).
Thanks in advance!
Could you also give us some info about how hot the machine gets and/or how noisy the fans are? This is really crucial for me
I would be happy to do that. I might be able to get an actual fanspeed from iStat for you; that might be more helpful than my subjective opinion about loud versus quiet.
How is it possible to skip the patches? Even if you don't plan on running BC and you just want standard, no-expansion WoW, they should still require you to download all the content patches before connecting to a server, correct?
WoW tests
Okay, I've gotten the chance to test WoW!
First, the methodology: I logged in my character on the new Macbook 2.4 with 2 gigs of RAM and the 9400M. I then logged in my wife's character on a white Macbook 2.2 with 2 gigs of RAM and the X3100. The only practical difference between the two is the graphics chip. I confirmed that the graphics settings were identical on both computers (set completely to low). I then took both characters to the exact center of the middle bridge in Ironforge and faced the bank. This is a high-population area and tends to make my framerates dip. With the characters standing literally on top of each other, I checked their respective framerates.
Honestly, I'm utterly amazed by the difference. The white Macbook is hovering between 10-15 FPS: not great, but playable. The new Macbook is between 45-50 FPS. A huge difference. I also decided to see what I could do to make the new Macbook equal the framerate of the old by turning everything on and up to max. With everything, and I mean everything, on and cranked as far as graphic options go, the new Macbook never dipped below 30 FPS. Fantastic performance from this laptop, as far as I'm concerned. I also took myself to Shattrath and flew around a bit, at a framerate of mid-20s at worst, again with every graphics option on. So far, I'm very pleased with this performance.
EDIT: As for the fan, I've been running WoW for some time now, and the noise is not noticeable. If I turn off the game sounds, it's a lower-pitched whooshing as compared to the high drone of the other Macbook. According to iStat Nano, I'm running at 38 degrees and 5415 RPM on the fan.
Okay, I've gotten the chance to test WoW!
First, the methodology: I logged in my character on the new Macbook 2.4 with 2 gigs of RAM and the 9400M. I then logged in my wife's character on a white Macbook 2.2 with 2 gigs of RAM and the X3100. The only practical difference between the two is the graphics chip. I confirmed that the graphics settings were identical on both computers (set completely to low). I then took both characters to the exact center of the middle bridge in Ironforge and faced the bank. This is a high-population area and tends to make my framerates dip. With the characters standing literally on top of each other, I checked their respective framerates.
Honestly, I'm utterly amazed by the difference. The white Macbook is hovering between 10-15 FPS: not great, but playable. The new Macbook is between 45-50 FPS. A huge difference. I also decided to see what I could do to make the new Macbook equal the framerate of the old by turning everything on and up to max. With everything, and I mean everything, on and cranked as far as graphic options go, the new Macbook never dipped below 30 FPS. Fantastic performance from this laptop, as far as I'm concerned. I also took myself to Shattrath and flew around a bit, at a framerate of mid-20s at worst, again with every graphics option on. So far, I'm very pleased with this performance.
EDIT: As for the fan, I've been running WoW for some time now, and the noise is not noticeable. If I turn off the game sounds, it's a lower-pitched whooshing as compared to the high drone of the other Macbook. According to iStat Nano, I'm running at 38 degrees and 5415 RPM on the fan.
That is great news for gaming on the new macbooks. Also I'm wondering if anyone has tried playing WAR, CnC3, or battlefield 2 using bootcamp because from the results of the WoW fps has me thinking that it can run these games pretty well. btw I'm new to macrumors.
If this is true (both about FPS and fan/temp), then this is just A M A Z I N G! O_O
Okay, the Halo 1 demo ran just fine. No noticeable frame drops, but there was some screen tearing. I don't know how normal that is or how much of an issue that would be in actual use, but it was there. I'm downloading Portal right now through CrossOver; I'll let everyone know how that turns out.
Very interesting indeed. Even with my MBP I get slow performance in Shatt. so this is encouraging. Really want to know what it would do with the source games.
-mx
-mx
Portal in CrossOver works great. I was able to use upper-medium graphics settings with no noticeable negative effects. There again was some screen tearing, more than in Halo actually, but I'm sure there is an option somewhere in there that would fix it. Judging from that, I would say that Source engine games should do fine.
Can you give some frame rates please I need some raw numbers. Also, do you have tf2 or can you try any shooter games?
Thanks BlueMouse your results have been very important and I am considering getting a MB instead of a MBP.
ChrisN
. Also, do you have tf2 or can you try any shooter games? Thanks BlueMouse your results have been very important and I am considering getting a MB instead of a MBP.
ChrisN
Thanks a tonne for the information! Great to see that the MB is finally cut out for some mild gaming. Anyone with a MBP try WoW?
Thats a bad test tho, because the demo is using rosetta and isnt universal. A better test would be using the full universal version.
Oh yeah, that's a good point. The universal version gave very big speed improvements.
Can you give some frame rates please I need some raw numbers
Thanks BlueMouse your results have been very important and I am considering getting a MB instead of a MBP.
ChrisN
I have no idea how to display frame rates in anything other than WoW. A casual Google did not turn up any immediate suggestions for Halo. If anyone can provide more information, I'd be happy to try. Unfortunately, I play almost nothing other than WoW on my laptop. The only reason I had Portal was because I downloaded it to play through on a different computer, and Steam is awesome and let me download it again.
If you can suggest anything free that I might run, like a demo or something, I'll definitely try it.I am aware of that limitation, but the demo is all I have access to. Any better suggestions are of course welcome.
If it will run in CrossOver, I'll try it. I don't have a Windows disc, so if it isn't Mac native or emulatable, I can't do anything with it.
Im pretty sure crossover supports the battlefield 2 demo, but Im not sure about the command and conquer demo
Crossover is not really a good test for windows games. Compatibility issues galore and it's not DX10 compatible either.
I would just take the information given from the WoW test and be encouraged that it most likely will run a lot of these games well at medium settings.
-mx
I would just take the information given from the WoW test and be encouraged that it most likely will run a lot of these games well at medium settings.
-mx