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WoW and other games on new 9400M Macbook

when it doesn't crash

sure. when it doesn't crash the game runs completely fine with a mix of settings on high, low and medium. graphics look overall pretty good to me. I'm also not a 'huge' gamer. i like WoW and Spore for my laptop. thats about it.

Was just gonna sign into get some FPS but the queues are ridiculous so I'll try and get a more accurate description later. however, i find no over all problems with running WoW on the AluMacBook besides the random freezes.
 
yeah i watched that video already, but thats only original and tbc content, i'd really like to see some wotlk content performance on the new aluminium macbooks.
 
Also I would add the game plays great even hooked into a big external LCD playing WoW.

On my original air, I would notice a definite (further) performance downgrade once I plugged it into an external display (even for Youtube etc) compared to just the built in computer's display. But I can verify there is no performance decrease on the new MacBook. :) Running great in all modes-- maximized, partial screen, full screen, external LCD etc. Sometimes but not often the fans will turn on a bit, and sometimes the Macbook gets a bit hot, but generally speaking it runs much cooler and quieter (and of course 5x faster fps or so) :) than my Macbook Air rev A.

This is for the 2.0Ghz Macbook. I'd imagine if anything the faster one is even slightly better but probably not much since 3d games typically are GPU constrained, not CPU.

One other thing, I added 2GB memory a few days ago too, however it didn't seem to make any difference in WoW-- it plays fine with just the default 2GB and I didn't see any speed increase. However, the 4GB makes a huge difference for Parallels/Vista, it's almost unusable without it.
 
Has anyone actually succeeded installing nvidia drivers (with modded inf) to windows?

I'm trying to do small performance compare with few games OS X versus Windows but problem is that bootcamp drivers what come with macbook are nvidia drivers from year 2007 so you can't really trust performance what you get from windows, especially with new games like Spore and so on..
 
Hey guys,

Been lurking for a while but finally decided to register when I saw this post. I currently own a black MacBook. I believe it's one of the first models. It has 2Ghz C2D, 2GB memory, 160gb (upgraded those).

Anyway, WoW is currently not playable to my standards on this laptop. I own a gaming PC that I use for WoW, but I'd like to play when I'm not home sometimes.

From what I'm reading, WoW runs well for the most part, but I'm wondering if you guys are REALLY using the highest possible settings. One of my favorite recent improvements to WoW's engine is the shadow detail. I noticed that the guy who posted that video on YouTube had shadows ALL the way down. Is this necessary to for WoW to run smoothly on the new aluminum MacBook? I can deal with it not being all the way up, but I want to have it at least one tick away from max, this way there are still realtime shadows for everything, and not just dots for characters and bladn environments.

Also, I realize that when running the game at native resolution anti-aliasing isn't much of an issue, but is anybody using it?

The reason I ask these questions is because on my PC I currently run the game at 1920x1200 with everything completely maxxed out, including 24-bit color, 24-bit depth and 8x AA.

I don't expect the new aluminum MB to be able to max it all out completely, but I would definitely be satisfied if it could handle the realtime shadows and everything else on max. I could deal with no AA on the laptop.

Sorry for the long post, I'm just trying to figure out if I can get away with the regular MB instead of the MBP. Any and all help would be much appreciated!
 
Unfortunately the new shadows have a greater impact on the performance of WoW under OS X than it has under windows. All of my mac-owning friends have the shadows turned all the way down, because by turning them up it sometimes nearly halves the fps.
 
Currently the Mac version of WoW only has two settings for dynamic shadows: low and high. Blizz is waiting for Apple to implement some extra OpenGL extensions so they can support a finer gradient on the shadow slider.

I am seeing an average of 35-40FPS with all settings maxed except Shadows and AA, even in the newer zones such as The Ghostlands. I have yet to upgrade to WotLK so I can't help you there.

With Shadows on, that FPS drops to 20-25. While in theory dynamic shadows are nice I find Blizz's implementation lacking in that they are too bright and hardly visible, so I see no reason to lose 15FPS over something I need to squint to see.

As for AA - it drops framerates and at native res I can't make out any visual difference, so I have it off.

I can say this MB (2.4GHz) runs WoW a little better than my iMac with a Radeon X1600 + 128MB VRAM. Which is plenty good enough for me.
 
Thanks guys! I guess I could deal with shadows on low when I play on the laptop.

I have to disagree about them not making a difference though. When they're all the way up, it really does change the experience IMO, especially with some of the WotLK content. For example, I'd be walking and see a huge shadow of a dragon flying over me, or suddenly the ground would become dark and I'd realize a huge giant right behind me. Little things like that make for great moments IMO. Also, everything casts a shadow so the environments look a lot more detailed.

In any case, I'm really glad to hear that it can handle max settings otherwise. That's a huge step over the blackbook. :)
 
Well this is good news for everyone who plays at windows!

180.70 came out about two hours ago, and it works with MB 9400M! And during my test, Fallout3 fps almost doubled in some situations. Red Alert 3 is better also. Next coming up, Unreal Tournament 3.

PhysX is now working btw.

ps. You can notice bit too well that BootCamp drivers are over year old..
 
Hyuga said:
Well this is good news for everyone who plays at windows!

180.70 came out about two hours ago, and it works with MB 9400M! And during my test, Fallout3 fps almost doubled in some situations. Red Alert 3 is better also. Next coming up, Unreal Tournament 3.

PhysX is now working btw.

ps. You can notice bit too well that BootCamp drivers are over year old..
Click to expand...

What is you fps with red alert 3, what graphic settings do you use?
 
ArtHistoryMajor said:
Yarr, I'm fighting the temptation to drive down to the closest Apple store and picking up one of the new Macbooks. First thing I'd throw on it would be WoW too so I'm very curious to see how it runs. 'til now I've been playing WoW on my Powerbook G4 12", so, well, any improvement for me is going to be a huge improvement. Still, it's gonna be fun to see how much much better the new Macbooks will run in things like AV and heavy PVE.

Also: Fairfax? Cool, go to Mason myself. ^_^
Click to expand...

Look at the benchmarks for WoW on the original Radeon X1600 MBPs... it is about the same, maybe a bit faster. I have one of the new MBPs (needed the FW port), and I actually beat my girlfriend's Rev A MBP on the standard settings using just the 9400M. With the 9600GT turned on, it is roughly double the speed.
 
I believe this is ithttp://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_180.48_whql.html


Boosts performance in numerous 3D applications. The following are some examples of improvements measured with Release 180 WHQL drivers vs. Release 178 WHQL drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
Up to 10% performance increase in 3DMark Vantage (performance preset)
Up to 13% performance increase in Assassin's Creed
Up to 13% performance increase in BioShock
Up to 15% performance increase in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Up to 10% performance increase in Crysis Warhead
Up to 25% performance increase in Devil May Cry 4
Up to 38% performance increase in Far Cry 2
Up to 18% performance increase in Race Driver: GRID
Up to 80% performance increase in Lost Planet: Colonies
Up to 18% performance increase in World of Conflict
And More:

ChrisN
 
Hi all, I can confirm that Fallout 3 works very well on my aluminium Macbook 2.0ghz with 2gb RAM via BootCamp (WinXP)

The settings are set to Medium and I upped the resolution to max (1280x900). I set it to Bloom rather than HDR- seemed to sort out the slight framerate issue i was having and still retains the loveliness of the game. Very playable with perfectly decent framerates now (even outdoors) and a very very pretty game all round on Medium.

Oh, and a superb game!
 
hey all

recently received my aluminium macbook 2.0GHz with 4Gb ram and im very happy with it.

one thing, has anyone played COD2 on these new macbooks? im playing it with the default settings - 1024x768 with settings set to automatic and its so jumpy! sometimes in gun fights fps falls to 15! this never happened on my old blackbook.

can anyone explain? reading all these comments i thought it would be super smooth, COD4 is on its way in the post and the doom demo ran really aweful!

cheers
 
Sounds good. Looks like that means that Guild Wars, in windows, will absolutely fly on a Macbook now. Considering, that Guild Wars performed beautifully on last gen's White Macbook with the X3100.

Still, it's understandable. The thing I love about Macbooks is their style and size. 13" Macbooks are the perfect size for travelers who often get small spaces with which to use a laptop. The 15" Pro is probably the best choice, but I've run into conditions where even that is a tad too big.

I love my Macbook, it has just the right features to become my primary workhorse, including battery life. Thing is, windows chews up the battery a good bit faster than OSX, so when I have dual-compatible games, I tend to run the mac version of it.

Still, I can't help but think that the choice of this 9400M for Macbooks is just so that they can get nearly every part of their mac line (sans Mac mini, at the moment) playing Spore at good frame rates.

Still, even with that said. I'll probably go to one of those 15" macbook pros next. I already have a Macbook and if I were to get another one, I'd have to sell this one first. I only need one of those at a time.
 
Well, I finally picked up an aluminum MacBook and WoW kind of sucks on it. Running around WotLK content, I'm mostly in the teens and 20s as far as FPS goes with everything maxxed out, 2x AA and no glow effect.

Bringing shadows down doesn't seem to help much. I wish we could update or drivers or something. Maybe I'd be better off running it in a Windows compatibility mode.
 
Nikos said:
Well, I finally picked up an aluminum MacBook and WoW kind of sucks on it. Running around WotLK content, I'm mostly in the teens and 20s as far as FPS goes with everything maxxed out, 2x AA and no glow effect.

Bringing shadows down doesn't seem to help much. I wish we could update or drivers or something. Maybe I'd be better off running it in a Windows compatibility mode.
Click to expand...

omg, turn off AA. Its the performance killer on any low end card.
 
Nikos said:
Well, I finally picked up an aluminum MacBook and WoW kind of sucks on it. Running around WotLK content, I'm mostly in the teens and 20s as far as FPS goes with everything maxxed out, 2x AA and no glow effect.

Bringing shadows down doesn't seem to help much. I wish we could update or drivers or something. Maybe I'd be better off running it in a Windows compatibility mode.
Click to expand...

Knock down the viewing range to about half (half in wotlk = max in tbc btw) and turn off AA and set shadows to low, then you'll have really good fps on the MacBook.
 
WotLK on my 2.0 AluMacBook was between 64-145fps in the Death Knight starter areas and still averaged in the 60fps after getting back to Outland. I am running at the recommended settings from the WoW Mac forums. I don't have the link off-hand but it is pretty much as the others have said: A deafult resolution of 1280x800 with a mix of Med to High settings on pretty much everything with the following exceptions...

VSync off
Shadows on low (this is a bug that affects the Mac's dramatically from reading the forums)
View distance set to about half
AA off

With these settings I have had no framerate issues with WotLK on the AluMacBook and the game genuinely still looks great IMO.

Hope that helps.
 
hello i am new here and i have a question

do you guys know how to get Mass effect to run better on the aluminum macbook through bootcamp? i can run all source games on high (tf2, l4d, garry's mod, etc.) but i can barely run Mass effect well.
 
ironman1478 said:
hello i am new here and i have a question

do you guys know how to get Mass effect to run better on the aluminum macbook through bootcamp? i can run all source games on high (tf2, l4d, garry's mod, etc.) but i can barely run Mass effect well.
Click to expand...

Lower the graphics settings.
 
And turn off AA and HDR if you can. Leave them for the desktop cards, except early Source engine games. Throw at them whatever you want.

So I got a Macbook and I'm really impressed by the graphics performance given its 1)Apple and 2)fairly cheap. I can throw TF2 at full settings and native res and not a drop of slowdown. Motion Blur and VSync slow it down but I don't bother with them (Motion blur makes me kinda sick anyways).

But we all know this by now :D
Runs Tormishire quite well too ;)
 
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