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WoW and other games on new 9400M Macbook

I'm planning to get a MB soon, possibly a 2.4 with 4GB ram. Games are not what I'd get it for, and I realise they can't handle much. Having said that, could anyone clarify whether the following could possibly run well enough framerate-wise to be worth trying?:

1) CSS/L4D/TF2
2) Company of Heroes + Opposing Fronts
3) Fallout 3
4) Oblivion

That would be on Vista64 via Bootcamp by the way. If I could get 30+ FPS I would be fine putting settings on low, as that's basically what I'm used to on my current old PC. If not I'll stick to Peggle until I get a new desktop, but it would be nice to take a gaming break every so often :)

Thanks!
 
sutom said:
I'm planning to get a MB soon, possibly a 2.4 with 4GB ram. Games are not what I'd get it for, and I realise they can't handle much. Having said that, could anyone clarify whether the following could possibly run well enough framerate-wise to be worth trying?:

1) CSS/L4D/TF2
2) Company of Heroes + Opposing Fronts
3) Fallout 3
4) Oblivion

That would be on Vista64 via Bootcamp by the way. If I could get 30+ FPS I would be fine putting settings on low, as that's basically what I'm used to on my current old PC. If not I'll stick to Peggle until I get a new desktop, but it would be nice to take a gaming break every so often :)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't know anything about Company of Heroes, but all the other games you mentioned will run fine (30+ fps) on the MacBook. The 9400M is pretty good.
 
sutom said:
I'm planning to get a MB soon, possibly a 2.4 with 4GB ram. Games are not what I'd get it for, and I realise they can't handle much. Having said that, could anyone clarify whether the following could possibly run well enough framerate-wise to be worth trying?:

1) CSS/L4D/TF2
2) Company of Heroes + Opposing Fronts
3) Fallout 3
4) Oblivion
Click to expand...

CS:S will run stupidly fast. TF2 will run at native res with everything set to full (no AA or Vsync though) at 30fps+. L4D will run very good too but maybe not with everything set to high.
 
As long as you don't mind lowering some of the settings and/or the resolution yes, all of those will run at 30+ fps on the 9400M. Fallout 3 and L4D I can specifically confirm from playing them on my 2.0 AlumBook (with default 2GB RAM) at native res and, in L4D's case thats with almost all options on Med-High. :) F3 is a little more demanding I guess, although the gameplay style - especially with VATS - can still be played comfortably with a lower framerate IMO.
 
Ah thanks for the replies guys, that's great news! :D
I expected Fallout 3 to be too demanding, and for the others all low settings or nothing, so even some medium would be fantastic.

Cheers
 
Anyone know if it can run Test Drive Unlimited well and some of the older GTA's (as in SA and VC)? All the other games I'm interested have been answered or can run on my current Mac on low so I'm not worried about them :D
 
Patriks7 said:
Anyone know if it can run Test Drive Unlimited well and some of the older GTA's (as in SA and VC)? All the other games I'm interested have been answered or can run on my current Mac on low so I'm not worried about them :D
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GTA VC runs on max 1280x800 smoothly on my MacBook with Intel GMA 950

SA is at low-med 1024x768 and is smooth. I'm sure new MBs will have absolutely no problems with these old games.
 
eXan said:
GTA VC runs on max 1280x800 smoothly on my MacBook with Intel GMA 950

SA is at low-med 1024x768 and is smooth. I'm sure new MBs will have absolutely no problems with these old games.
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Wow, I thought they were a bit more demanding! Now if TDU can run on even low and some other racing games (NFS) then MacBook it is for me then :D I got PS3 for all the other games :p
 
Dude you are my hero. This was exactly what i've been looking for! I'm buying a Mac, and was wondering if i should bother dual booting in XP to play WoW. sounds like it's pretty un-necessary =)
 
bluelf88 said:
Dude you are my hero. This was exactly what i've been looking for! I'm buying a Mac, and was wondering if i should bother dual booting in XP to play WoW. sounds like it's pretty un-necessary =)
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Actually I'd recommend you don't dual boot to play WoW ,

While I have a Vista gaming rig , when it comes to WoW my Mac Pro and Macbook Pro and Imac all run it just as well if not more smooth in some cases ,

The best being the network stack - ping times on OS X are across the board lower than Vista's and also the window mode is MUCH smoother on the OS X for WoW , as in you can have it running with multiple other apps , resize the window , switch back and forth much more responsively in OS X in this case

Most other games I play on the Vista 64 rig but WoW there's no reason not to just play it in OS X
 
I'm sure someone has already tested it but..

Crysis Warhead runs well on my 2.0 Alu MB.. specs in sig

using FRAPS average ~20FPS, but doesn't really feel slow/sluggish, so I'm very happy with performance

settings: 900?x600 full screen
all mainstream except shadows/shaders at minimum

Now I wonder how well Crysis original will run since it's not optimized
 
aznguyen316 said:
I'm sure someone has already tested it but..

Crysis Warhead runs well on my 2.0 Alu MB.. specs in sig

using FRAPS average ~20FPS, but doesn't really feel slow/sluggish, so I'm very happy with performance

settings: 900?x600 full screen
all mainstream except shadows/shaders at minimum

Now I wonder how well Crysis original will run since it's not optimized
Click to expand...

did you run into any object pop in like rocks or trees popping into view? I watched a video of crysis warhead on the entry aluminum macbook and there was some amount of pop in, which imo would be annoying. but good to know it runs well :)
 
0makol16 said:
did you run into any object pop in like rocks or trees popping into view? I watched a video of crysis warhead on the entry aluminum macbook and there was some amount of pop in, which imo would be annoying. but good to know it runs well :)
Click to expand...

Yeah a lot of object pop in. It's annoying yeah. But for an update, I overclocked my CPU/GPU and boosted Warhead to ~30fps on all mins. rock on! haha

Dawn of War II: using Dox 185.20 drivers boosted my framerate up about 10FPS to average 30-35 on min setting and mid resolution. I was surprised the game did not run as well as I thought, but glad the new driver helped.
 
aznguyen316 said:
Yeah a lot of object pop in. It's annoying yeah. But for an update, I overclocked my CPU/GPU and boosted Warhead to ~30fps on all mins. rock on! haha

Dawn of War II: using Dox 185.20 drivers boosted my framerate up about 10FPS to average 30-35 on min setting and mid resolution. I was surprised the game did not run as well as I thought, but glad the new driver helped.
Click to expand...

glad to know DoWII works well, but i did some digging in google and found that if you play crysis warhead on 800x600 with med/low the pop in should be minimal and run around 25fps dipping to 15fps which isn't that bad, but to some people thats un playable
 
0makol16 said:
glad to know DoWII works well, but i did some digging in google and found that if you play crysis warhead on 800x600 with med/low the pop in should be minimal and run around 25fps dipping to 15fps which isn't that bad, but to some people thats un playable
Click to expand...

I'm playing warhead at 960*600 (widescreen) and that's what's getting me the 32FPS, but I'm OC'ed. Very playable now.

DoWII works well after driver update, before it was a little choppy. Running it at the medium resolution is fine, I forget like 1xxx*768

Another to add: Empire: Total War - I'm very surprised this ran and ran well! Avg 33FPS, dipping to 25 up to 40+. This was at native resolution 1280*800 and min settings. This was also only the tutorial, my guess it'll be a bit slower in water and w/ more units. But still, runs better than DoWII at higher res.
 
Anyone have issues with DoD crashing right after the map loads when connecting to a server. I have Unibody macbook with the 9400M and it seems to crash every time.

Scott

PS I am running Windows 7 but I had similar problems with XP
 
scottder said:
Anyone have issues with DoD crashing right after the map loads when connecting to a server. I have Unibody macbook with the 9400M and it seems to crash every time.

Scott

PS I am running Windows 7 but I had similar problems with XP
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Well if DoD means Day of Defeat I have no idea what is wrong, but this exact bug is happening to me when I try to play Battlefield 2. Has anyone else experienced this when playing Battlefield 2? I'm running XP btw.
 
0makol16 said:
Well if DoD means Day of Defeat I have no idea what is wrong, but this exact bug is happening to me when I try to play Battlefield 2. Has anyone else experienced this when playing Battlefield 2? I'm running XP btw.
Click to expand...

Indeed, I should say "Day of Defeat: Source" actually.

Scott
 
raggedjimmi said:
CS:S will run stupidly fast. TF2 will run at native res with everything set to full (no AA or Vsync though) at 30fps+. L4D will run very good too but maybe not with everything set to high.
Click to expand...

I'd love to know which version of windows and what drivers you are running to get this. I have tried it every which way I can think of and still these games won't work :(
 
scottder said:
I'd love to know which version of windows and what drivers you are running to get this. I have tried it every which way I can think of and still these games won't work :(
Click to expand...

Windows XP SP3 (best performance for games) and whatever the newest hacked drivers there are.
 
You guys talk about the 9400M integrated graphics card... Thats for every day use, but when you use the dedicated 9600 GT 256mb/512mb, you can get over 100fps in most Steam games....
 
BSchorr said:
You guys talk about the 9400M integrated graphics card... Thats for every day use, but when you use the dedicated 9600 GT 256mb/512mb, you can get over 100fps in most Steam games....
Click to expand...

well the 9400m is all the Macbooks have.. we're talking mostly non Pro users here. Of course if we had 9600 then this wouldn't be too much of a concern for many, except newer games.
 
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