Gaming better on ibook G4 12 or powerbook 12in

[whw5]

I am going to be getting a new computer soon and I am going to be playing system demanding games such as Halo. The price diference on the powerbook and ibook is not a problem so I would like to know which of the two is better at gaming.

[Megaquad]

Halo would be sloooow on any of those macs, PB is somewhat better for gaming but you wont be able to play any of demanding games nicely.

[lasuther]

I don't think there is to much of a difference between the 12" iBook and 12" PowerBook. The PowerBook does have a higher RAM potential, but I'm at 640MB on the iBook and it handles War Craft 3 just fine.

If you are playing games you should get the 15" PowerBook. The larger widescreen, graphics card, and RAM potential make it a much better gaming machine than the 12" options. Actually, if money doesn't matter get the 17" PowerBook.

lasuther

[Doraemon]

I can't say anything about the 12" PB, but as for the iBook G4 forget state-of-the-art 3D-Shooters. No chance. UT 2k4 wouldn't run smoothly even with lowest details (so that it actually looked pretty much like the original UT ;)).

Games I tested, which run fine are:
Ghost Recon
UT (original) & TacOps
Quake 3 Arena
Age of Mythology
Age of Empires II
Starcraft
DooMLegacy :D

So, if you want to play games, get a desktop Mac, or even better, a PC.

[telecomm]

I'd also suggest you go for the 15 or 17 inch PB for gaming.

But, I have played both Halo and the UT2004 demo on my 12 inch PB (768 MB RAM), and they both run OK (well, I'll qualify this below). I haven't played any multiplayer Halo, but I've played the entire single player game through a couple of times, and it was playable at 800 by 600.

UT 2004 can be run in deathmatch and capture the flag games reasonably well, even at the screen's native resolution. Other game types are sadly unplayable.

Both games are much choppier on the 12 inch iBook, although my girlfriend does manages to play UT 2004 with me. 200 Mhz, a higher RAM capacity, and a larger cache do make a difference, but truth be told, neither are gaming machines.

[paulie]

My 12" PB 867 with 640MB is okay at daily chores (writing books, updating website, playing EV Nova), but it completely chokes attempting games like Halo, and was chugging along even on Age of Mythology.

Solution, spend $300 on a Windows box for games, or a PS2 or an Xbox, and use the Mac for everything else.

[belf8st]

This might help you decide.

http://macspeedzone.com/html/hardware/machine/comparison/portable/powerbook/index.shtml#Game