WoW on a MacBook - Honest Opinions Sought

[digitaldave]

I've been playing WoW on my 12" G4 PowerBook for ages now, and although I have to have all settings at the lowest, it's still ok for what I want to do, which is mainly solo and some 5 man instances with some friends. I also have a PC that I can use where I can have all the settings maxed out for all the visual goodies. Anyway, my PowerBook died yesterday, so I need to replace it, and my first thought was a MBP, but then I got thinking about the MacBook, as it's so much cheaper than the MBP. As for other tasks, the MacBook should be fine as it'll mainly be used for the usual web/email/iPhoto (or maybe Aperture ). duties.

What I'd like to know is, how does WoW run on a current MacBook? Bear in mind that I'm used to running with all settings at the lowest, will it be about the same as my PB, better or worse? Or should I just stump up the cash for the MacBook Pro?

Thanks,

Dave.

 

[Illicit]

I've been playing WoW on my 12" G4 PowerBook for ages now, and although I have to have all settings at the lowest, it's still ok for what I want to do, which is mainly solo and some 5 man instances with some friends. I also have a PC that I can use where I can have all the settings maxed out for all the visual goodies. Anyway, my PowerBook died yesterday, so I need to replace it, and my first thought was a MBP, but then I got thinking about the MacBook, as it's so much cheaper than the MBP. As for other tasks, the MacBook should be fine as it'll mainly be used for the usual web/email/iPhoto (or maybe Aperture ). duties.

What I'd like to know is, how does WoW run on a current MacBook? Bear in mind that I'm used to running with all settings at the lowest, will it be about the same as my PB, better or worse? Or should I just stump up the cash for the MacBook Pro?

Thanks,

Dave.

gonna need more specs on your current system before we can do a comparison.

 

[digitaldave]

Oops, sorry! My PowerBook is a 12" 1.5GHz with GeForce5200 Go graphics, 1024x768, 80GB HD. From memory, RAM is either 1.25GB or 1.5GB - I can't check at the moment, as it's dead . Hope that helps .

 

[killerrobot]

If you were happy running it all on low res before, the macbook should be fine -- (it should even run better of course than before).
If you do want to go max res like on your pc, here are the latest bench marks for the pro line.

 

[Mackilroy]

I got frame rates of about 20-30 with my MB (the original Core Duo) with most of the settings on medium.

 

[anthony113]

my brother has it running on his macbook and its pretty decent. definitely playable but not super smooth either.

 

[theman5725]

I run on my 2GHz MacBook (CD not C2D) on minimal settings and it runs great. Only problem is that I don't have a lot of RAM (512), but I'm upgrading soon anyway.

 

[senc01a]

You can do solo questing and 5 man dungeon. If you want to go on 25 raid man, you better either install windows XP or buy a MBP (nvidia)

 

[vicont]

Works fine on lowest settings, with average 20 FPS outside, and about 50-60 FPS inside any building .

 

[booksacool1]

Well your moving from a dedicated 5200 to intel GMA 950. In time terms its a leap of about three-four years. But in performance terms its not so great. Basically because the GMA 950 does a ton of rendering in software (i.e. cpu and ram) whereas the 5200 does it all in hardware. This makes the performance of the 950 dependant on your other computer specs (especially your ram).

Overall the 950 is substantially faster but don't expect to be impressed. Your going to be moving from low settings to low-med. I wouldn't really call that a technological upgrade. In addition to that, the GMA 950 doesn't always process the shaders, lighting etc correctly and will probably result in a lower quality picture than the 5200. Your going to be struggling in crowded area's which will make the game less enjoyable.

If you get the macbook your going to have a similar gaming experience to your PB even though the macbook is a lot newer. So really if your planning on doing a decent amount of gaming, I'd recommend something with a dedicated graphics card (MBP). Even a refurbished or 2nd hand MBP with an x1600 would much more than just suffice. It could probably max WoW out (in windows).