List of games working great on a Macbook pro 13 inch 2.26Ghz, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

[Wizardtwist]

Hi everyone!

I have had a macbook pro 13 (base model) for a month now and i have to admit the pc days are officially over for me!lol

However having stated this, I have juz ordered windows xp sp2 so that i can play PC games via boot camp. This way i can have best of both worlds.

My question is: Which games work SMOOTHLY (and on high graphic settings) on a macbook pro 13 inch and 2.26 Ghz Processor??

I am not a hardcore gamer and didnt buy the mac strictly for games as such but once in a while i do like to chill out and play high def games as opposed to playing the crappy 2D puzzle games!!

I have read several posts and haven't found anyone outlining which games work smoothly without any pop locking breaks and freezes during gameplay (if you get what i mean;)) on a macbook pro 13 inch on 2.26ghz setting..

Has anyone tried quality games on this model?? and if yes would it be possible to list those games and maybe elaborate a lil?

Hope to hear from you guys soon!!

[BradenG]

I've only tried two games, both using Windows XP SP3 on a Bootcamp partition. Half Life 2 - works perfectly...and Team Fortress 2 - works perfectly. :)

Specs below..base default specs except the ram, I bumped it up to 4gb.

[Wizardtwist]

Thanks dude! yeh may consider increasing my ram in the near future aswell!

Alright i'll take your word and get half life 2.

Have u tried GTA 4 or any other games (Cod 4, fallout 3, etc)? Because i actually wouldnt mind tweeking the graphic settings even slightly as long as the performance and graphic levels are decent?

[tymy19]

Hey dude, i'm french sorry for my bad english: i have a mbp 13" 2,26ghz with 9400M and 2GO of RAM. I have windows seven on bootcamp and many games:

- GTA 4 : works in 800x600 very well but with a higher resolution :mad:

- Unreal Tournament III : works perfectly in 1280x800, it's beautiful

-Mirror edge: like UT III in 1280x800 very well for a 13" laptop

-CS source: verry well on high

-garry's mod: like cs source

-left 4 dead: works perfectly in 1280x800 with high/medium

- trackmania nation: works very good in 1280x800


To conclude i'm verry happy about my mbp 13", it's very powerfull for this size.

If you have any question ask me ;)

[BlizzardBomb]

I am not a hardcore gamer and didnt buy the mac strictly for games as such but once in a while i do like to chill out and play high def games as opposed to playing the crappy 2D puzzle games!!

Sorry but modern games will only play nicely at resolutions close to or around 800x500 so no high-def unless it's a light or old game.

[Wizardtwist]

Sorry but modern games will only play nicely at resolutions close to or around 800x500 so no high-def unless it's a light or old game.

Yeh i know what u mean..actually let me rephrase "high def" to "decent looking graphics". Like i said in my previous post i wouldn't mind tweaking graphic settings as long the game doesn't fully lose its graphic quality as such.

Some modern games such as Batman arkham asylum apparently require a minimum of 3ghz or sth, which i personally wouldn't bother playing even with lower graphic settings on my macbook pro.

[Wizardtwist]

Hey dude, i'm french sorry for my bad english: i have a mbp 13" 2,26ghz with 9400M and 2GO of RAM. I have windows seven on bootcamp and many games:

- GTA 4 : works in 800x600 very well but with a higher resolution :mad:

- Unreal Tournament III : works perfectly in 1280x800, it's beautiful

-Mirror edge: like UT III in 1280x800 very well for a 13" laptop

-CS source: verry well on high

-garry's mod: like cs source

-left 4 dead: works perfectly in 1280x800 with high/medium

- trackmania nation: works very good in 1280x800


To conclude i'm verry happy about my mbp 13", it's very powerfull for this size.

If you have any question ask me ;)


Cheers mate! much appreciated! and i agree, you do have to give credit to the macbook pro 13. It really and truly isn't bad for its size!

Just had a look at dude playing GTA4 on exactly the same specs as my macbook pro on youtube and was quite impressed! He played it via bootcamp (obviously!) and gave a full description on how to tweak the graphic settings.

Thats the kind of thing i'm looking for, just with different games which are worth playing on the mbp 13"...

[tymy19]

I have test tweak for GTA 4 but they don't work,no difference with or without tweak.

Can you post the link please?

[Wizardtwist]

I have test tweak for GTA 4 but they don't work,no difference with or without tweak.

Can you post the link please?

I'm not sure whether it would make a difference as i haven't got the game yet, but i've juz ordered it online. Sure the link is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHsjzn4jp_4&feature=PlayList&p=BBCB9A41FF97008B&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=51

[tymy19]

Yes i know this video, but in reality we can see a lot of pixel with 800x600 and it's :( ! In this video he doesn't use cars and the lagging when you drive ( in 1280x800)


edit: when i played in 800x600 it's not in full screen, i can't select 16:10 ratio :s

[EnigMoiD]

On the 2.53 with 4gig of ram, I can say that:

COD4 Mac: Great at medium resolution and medium-high settings

Spore Mac: Great at high resolution and medium settings

Mirror's Edge plays great as tymy has said

Devil May Cry 4: Great at low resolution and medium-high settings

UT3, as tymy has said, plays great

All Source games play great. (HL2, ep2, Portal, etc.)

GRID: Good at low resolution and medium settings

The specs are a little higher but the GPU's the same, so you should expect comparable performance.

[iPorFerLuis]

Hi everyone

I have the MBP 13" base model too, 2 Gb ram for now, and will instal Windows 7 via boot camp within a week..

Has anyone tried "FIFA 2010" or "PES 2010" or "NFS: Shift" in this machine?? I won´t invest on the games until I know for sure if it will work fine or not..

I did not install any game so far, just Football Manager 2010, but that is not a windows exclusive game XD loool..

Until the next time to everybody..

[bsamcash]

I'm able to play Oblivion on XP through Parallels on high and at native resolution full screen pretty smoothly. It only hick ups when there's more than like 20 characters on the screen at once. The 9400m is a damn decent card.

[Fuchal]

I've been playing the new Telltale Monkey Island games and they've been working perfectly.

[Wizardtwist]

On the 2.53 with 4gig of ram, I can say that:

COD4 Mac: Great at medium resolution and medium-high settings

Spore Mac: Great at high resolution and medium settings

Mirror's Edge plays great as tymy has said

Devil May Cry 4: Great at low resolution and medium-high settings

UT3, as tymy has said, plays great

All Source games play great. (HL2, ep2, Portal, etc.)

GRID: Good at low resolution and medium settings

The specs are a little higher but the GPU's the same, so you should expect comparable performance.

Cheers mate! Great fan of Devil may cry but i'll have to dump the idea coz don't really see the point in playin such an awesome game in lower graphics especially with the processor i've got that's literally soldered in my mac. Every person to their own i guess. However, i'm thinking of raising ram to 4gb, see how that works out.

[Wizardtwist]

Hi everyone

I have the MBP 13" base model too, 2 Gb ram for now, and will instal Windows 7 via boot camp within a week..

Has anyone tried "FIFA 2010" or "PES 2010" or "NFS: Shift" in this machine?? I won´t invest on the games until I know for sure if it will work fine or not..

I did not install any game so far, just Football Manager 2010, but that is not a windows exclusive game XD loool..

Until the next time to everybody..

With regards to FIFA 2010, it will run BUT it's not recommended with the stats we've got. Go on this website and put in the details of our system. I got a red cross saying dump the idea really!
http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=582&game=FIFA%202010

click on check specs and find out for urself..

[zw-gator]

I just bought Age of Empires III and unless I cranked up my fan on my 13"MBP, my CPU hits 90* after one 1min

IMO, that's unplayable. I'd hate to see what temps I hit during a battle.

[namoeg]

I just bought Age of Empires III and unless I cranked up my fan on my 13"MBP, my CPU hits 90* after one 1min

IMO, that's unplayable. I'd hate to see what temps I hit during a battle.

I've personally never had AoE III run that hot, even when it running dual screens, w/AoE on the external monitor.

I have had other games run 90+C, though. Eve Online is pretty bad for this, especially in full-screen mode, unless I switch to Boot Camp, and run under Win 7. The fan sounds like a jet engine after a while.

[bsamcash]

I just bought Age of Empires III and unless I cranked up my fan on my 13"MBP, my CPU hits 90* after one 1min

IMO, that's unplayable. I'd hate to see what temps I hit during a battle.

Really? I used to play it on my old BlackBook, and while it ran hot, it was playable. That was the X3100 generation.

[tjcampbell]

Tetris (black and white only)

[EnigMoiD]

Cheers mate! Great fan of Devil may cry but i'll have to dump the idea coz don't really see the point in playin such an awesome game in lower graphics especially with the processor i've got that's literally soldered in my mac. Every person to their own i guess. However, i'm thinking of raising ram to 4gb, see how that works out.

Devil May Cry actually plays pretty well -- maybe I'm understating. Here's an album with a couple of time-demo screenshots, complete with FPS: http://img42.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=63423378.png
That's 960x600 in a window with high detail, high shadows, and low textures.
(I usually turn off shadows in the forest area)

Gameplay is about the same as the tech demos, but I'm not sure how the bump down in clock speed will affect things.

And the real-time cutscenes will have shadows whether you turn them off or not; those look fantastic, and play just fine for a movie.

[Bevz]

Got the following working smoothly (ie high frame rate with no stalls - I'm a frame rate junky!) via boot camp (win XP SP3):

Colin mcrea rally 4: maxed out settings

COD4: medium settings with res reduced to 800x600.

Protoype; medium settings with low res. Fairly decent frame rate but gets choppy when a lot is going on... Yet to try on low settings.

:)

[MacrosTheBlack]

I've been playing Dragon Age Origins on my unibody white MacBook with 2GB of RAM. Most setting are on medium at 1280x800 resolution. So far it plays great!

[BradenG]

I've been playing Dragon Age Origins on my unibody white MacBook with 2GB of RAM. Most setting are on medium at 1280x800 resolution. So far it plays great!


Yea? That's good to know, I'm thinking about picking that up.

[macfanboy]

COD4 demo running on boot camp didn't work well for me (10-20 fps average)

but cod4 for mac runs better, strangely enough.

WC3 runs at 30 fps under boot camp; 120-130 on mac os x

IIRC, companies write games for DirectX (windows) and port them to Mac OS X. that sounds like the performance should be worse on Mac OS X (unless OpenGL is that good)

[cluthz]

World of warcraft runs pretty decent

[wywern209]

the reason why GTA4 runs so bad is because it is terribly optimized. CoD4 runs well if u bump the settings down a bit.

[Wizardtwist]

Devil May Cry actually plays pretty well -- maybe I'm understating. Here's an album with a couple of time-demo screenshots, complete with FPS: http://img42.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=63423378.png
That's 960x600 in a window with high detail, high shadows, and low textures.
(I usually turn off shadows in the forest area)

Gameplay is about the same as the tech demos, but I'm not sure how the bump down in clock speed will affect things.

And the real-time cutscenes will have shadows whether you turn them off or not; those look fantastic, and play just fine for a movie.

Good stuff! saw a youtube video of a dude playing it on a macbook pro 13" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F0FT95zOj0) so may pick up on that. HOWEVER i dont know whether he's playing it on the base macbook pro 13" model (same one ive got)..so rather be wise and avoid making hasty decisions. Do u know a good site where i could dwnload the demo by any chance?

[zw-gator]

Really? I used to play it on my old BlackBook, and while it ran hot, it was playable. That was the X3100 generation.

I wish I was lying.

If could have something to do with my fans though. They remained at 2k RPM.

[lucifiel]

I've been playing Dragon Age Origins on my unibody white MacBook with 2GB of RAM. Most setting are on medium at 1280x800 resolution. So far it plays great!

that's very very interesting indeed, if you could detail your set up, it'd be nice to know?

are you running it on bootcamp? (probably...) WinxP? Win 7?

Or are you doing it by cross-overs?

I've been delaying my purchase of DA:O because I don't want to fork out $90AUD and then have it go, "hah no game for you!"

But if the white macbook can run it...then I think the MBA shouldn't struggle too hard...

[adder7712]

I got low FPS in Mass Effect when running on max resolution (1280x800) but it increases a bit on 1024x768.

I'm running a Unibody Aluminium MacBook and below are the games that I think works fine on Boot Camp.

Call of Duty 4 - 1024x768 works fine, FPS drops when HDR kicks in.
Mass Effect - Play on 1024x768
Left 4 Dead 2 Demo - Works OK, if you can live with the stutters (game problem not computer)
Counter Strike: Source - Runs VERY well on max settings
Portal - Very good.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 - Best game running on my laptop.
Halo 1 PC - Runs it very very very good.
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X - Works good.

That's about all the games I have lmao.

Hey dude, i'm french sorry for my bad english: i have a mbp 13" 2,26ghz with 9400M and 2GO of RAM. I have windows seven on bootcamp and many games:

- Unreal Tournament III : works perfectly in 1280x800, it's beautiful

-Mirror edge: like UT III in 1280x800 very well for a 13" laptop


Thanks, mine has a slightly slower processor but others are the same. I'm getting Mirror's Edge. :)

[tymy19]

Hi ! I play Call of Duty Mordern Warfare 2 on my mbp 13" and it runs very well in 1280x800 , texture detail : high / and map detail : normal or high, with antialiasing x2 !! It runs very well like call of duty 4 !! Play it !!! It's awesome

[Ol3s]

PC:


S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chornobyl - plays fine on high res. (1024*768 or 1280*800, i dont remember) and med-high settings

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky - Pretty much the same as SoC

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat - Same settings, as SoC but a bit lower fps

Cossacks: European Wars - Would be surprised if the game didn't run on max

Cossacks II - High settings plays fine

Source games - All work great on max settings

GTA Vice City - Works well on max settings, no surprise there

GTA IV - Bad, maybe cos its installed on my external hd.

UT3 - As others have posted

Rome: Total War - Plays fine on high settings

Prototype - On low res. it works fine



Mac:


Call of Duty 4 - 1280*800 with textures on medium-high, and eyerythings
else low, gets me 20+ fps

CivIV + Warlords - Works fine, dont remember settings, but I dont think it matter in a game like that

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - Works fine on [blank] (unfortunately I dont remember settings)

Diablo II - Slowdowns happen for some reason, and mac heats up

Sims 3 - Fine

C&C: Red Alert 3 - Works fine on high res. adn low settings

Spore - works fine

Battlefield 2142 - Dont get this game, online it is **** due to ****** porting by EA

CoD 2 - based on the demo, just fine

[adder7712]

You have the exact same laptop as mine. ;)

I also want to add Bioshock for the Mac, runs very well with high settings and 1024x768 resolution, havent tried cranking it up to 1280x800.

[Nicoow]

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 runs great on bootcamp
I'm running it at 1280x720, everything set on high, but nu AA.

[mac2thefuture]

Is it easy to aquire Windows XP sp3? :confused:

[nick1516]

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 runs great on bootcamp
I'm running it at 1280x720, everything set on high, but nu AA.

Do you have the 9400m or one of the dedicated cards?

[EnigMoiD]

Do u know a good site where i could dwnload the demo by any chance?

I would recommend FileFront (http://www.filefront.com/10504274/Devil-May-Cry-4-Demo/), but I haven't actually tried it.

[Acorn]

Torchlight for pc runs great in bootcamp

[danmo82]

Have anybody tried Total War Empire on a macbook pro 13" 2.53 Ghz, 4GB 1067 Mhz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M ?? If it works im going smash my PC and buy mcb pro 13"...

[radionickhead]

Championship manager 10' is great :o

[foiden]

All tested in Native resolution, if possible for the game. 9400M on native Macbook pro 2GB memory. Note that some of the games not running at full settings can be bumped up more once 4GB is in the system, given you usually get a performance increase by doing so.

Mac Software:

World of Warcraft. (Compared to the X3100, this screams with relatively high settings all around, native resolution. Ok, it's no 60fps, but it'll run smoothly in even busy areas. A little bit of screen tearing when spinning the camera around, but nothing too much)

Sims 3 (Also an improvement over the X3100 because it runs just as well, but with high graphic options. Let these default and push to Native Resolution. Looks great with what they give you.)

Spore (I think it still needs to be tweaked to medium settings in order to perform well enough when dealing into and past the Creature stage).

On Bootcamp:

Guild Wars and expansions, native resolution, high details, runs pretty much perfectly for its game type. Good performance there.

All Telltale games. Runs great at native resolution. However, you want Wallace and Grommit to stay at the defaults they give you when you start the game. Pushing it up to high drops the frame rate lower than full speed and you don't want that for those games. This has an action part or two, and you don't want any slowdown there. Fortunately, pushing the graphics higher does very little to make it look better, and it's not worth the slowdown. It looks perfectly like a Wallace and Grommit episode at defaults.

Pretty much any of those free-to-play MMOs and Online RPGs you see out there. Whether it's an action-based one, or a more time-based one, they all play great. They usually don't have the hardware requirements like the ones done by the big companies.

Trine. Install it in your Bootcamp windows and let it go. Great graphics, quick gameplay, runs perfect. One exception, though. The way they programmed the Right mouse button, in that game, seems to ignore the bootcamp settings for the trackpad. Best to play the game with any connected or wireless mouse.

Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst over the well-supported Schtack private servers. (While the X3100 intel had some severe slowdown issues in parts of that game (mines, etc), the 9400M plays the game perfectly throughout the whole experience). Plays best with a USB game controller like the wired 360 pad.

Civilization 4. Install and have fun. Also runs pretty good without having to turn stuff down on the 9400M. Works where the X3100 struggles.

[foiden]

Here's another addition to the bootcamp games on a MBPro 13 inch 2.26ghz Ge Force 9400M and 2GB memory.

Dragon Age Origins:
Runs perfectly playable and plenty smooth with default settings. The defaults for Dragon Age will be:

800x600 resolution, No AA, Max High Texture Detail, and Low graphic detail settings. However, I would advise, for continual great performance to keep all the settings with the exception of the graphic detail. The default setting underestimates the 9400M a bit. Bump it up to Medium for hardly any difference to your speed, but with much of the graphical bells and whistles added back in. That is, on Medium, a lot of the special screen effects (character clothing/equipment details) and distortions come to life, which are turned off at Low. It's kind of the best of both worlds, if keeping the frame-rate up is your concern. That'll also keep the character animation, movement, and lip-sync right on time with the vocals during realtime cut-scenes (of which there are many) and behave rather smoothly. You'll be able to zoom in and out very well, and smoothly spin the camera and run, even in tactical view mode.

It's no 1280x800 that people try to push all games to use, but considering the kind of graphics they are using here, 800x600 looks almost like the game was still written for that resolution. Still, it's rather impressive to see a game released within this month run so well on the 9400M. Seems perfectly playable, with those settings.

[psychjoe]

Have anybody tried Total War Empire on a macbook pro 13" 2.53 Ghz, 4GB 1067 Mhz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M ?? If it works im going smash my PC and buy mcb pro 13"...


Play around with the settings, it works seamlessly. I have a first generation unibody macbook (2gigs ram), and I sometimes used to play Empire Total War hooked up to the 24" LED monitor at full resolution (with most of the settings on low, models on medium, grass & shadows off.) and it never slowed down either & looked good at such a high resoulution. CA made the game really scalable, so even old machines could play it.

So I would say go for it, it will run & look fine.

I was playing it on Windows XP, using Bootcamp by the way. I also downloaded some modified drivers for the unibody macbook. Can't remember where I got them from, because I took everything off when I bought a desktop PC for gaming a while ago.

[Venkman90]

Here's another addition to the bootcamp games on a MBPro 13 inch 2.26ghz Ge Force 9400M and 2GB memory.

Dragon Age Origins:
Runs perfectly playable and plenty smooth with default settings. The defaults for Dragon Age will be:

800x600 resolution, No AA, Max High Texture Detail, and Low graphic detail settings. However, I would advise, for continual great performance to keep all the settings with the exception of the graphic detail. The default setting underestimates the 9400M a bit. Bump it up to Medium for hardly any difference to your speed, but with much of the graphical bells and whistles added back in. That is, on Medium, a lot of the special screen effects (character clothing/equipment details) and distortions come to life, which are turned off at Low. It's kind of the best of both worlds, if keeping the frame-rate up is your concern. That'll also keep the character animation, movement, and lip-sync right on time with the vocals during realtime cut-scenes (of which there are many) and behave rather smoothly. You'll be able to zoom in and out very well, and smoothly spin the camera and run, even in tactical view mode.

It's no 1280x800 that people try to push all games to use, but considering the kind of graphics they are using here, 800x600 looks almost like the game was still written for that resolution. Still, it's rather impressive to see a game released within this month run so well on the 9400M. Seems perfectly playable, with those settings.

Interesting, thanks!

I was reading that it runs ok on native Res with all settings at medium, will try both when I grab it off Steam.

[LawrenZza]

hey ppl, i was wandering which gameplay would be better if u were to play some game ( for example, gta on mac os and gta on window xp ) which will give a better gameplay experience?

i'm currently a mac 13", 2.4 Ghz , 4GM ram with NVIDIA 9400M

running window xp on boot camp.

another thing will window 7 give a better performance compare to window xp on boot camp? am wandering can the spec meet the requirement.

[foiden]

The 4 gigs of ram should do very well to improve your performance further. Not that it'll be fully utilized in older Windows OS versions, but it helps in the idea of having more free ram for your graphic card access. Likely, one of the things that help out the 9400M performance is that the memory it has access to is also fast DDR3 ram, which used to be the big advantage of older dedicated video cards. You know. PCs using DDR2 ram, but the card itself had DDR3.

I can't speak much for Windows 7, but I've normally stuck with XP, since it's pretty low on resource use in comparison to Vista. I may go W7 in the future, though. Especially once I know drivers work well enough and whether I can take better advantage of 4GB or better ram, with it. Some games, in which I know had dedicated development for Mac, I'll just get the Mac version. Partly because the OS itself is much more resource-saving, and thus you can play the Mac software, under battery power, for much longer.

However, there is a number of games for which they seem to play better with the Direct X libraries than anything else. (Civilization IV, for one) I would suppose it is probably judged on a game-by-game basis. But I usually go with the rule of thumb. If the company itself makes a PC and Mac version together, I'd say the Mac version should perform quite well and on a more efficient system. If the company generally doesn't do Mac software, and some other company comes to port it, perhaps the coding would not be so well Mac OS optimized and run better with Direct X in Windows.

[tominated]

fallout 3, bastman: arkham asylum, bioshock and borderlands all work quite well on lower settings (at native resolution). Mass effect works reasonably well on medium settings and games like deus ex and half life obviously work really well on full settings.

[nick1516]

fallout 3, bastman: arkham asylum, bioshock and borderlands all work quite well on lower settings (at native resolution). Mass effect works reasonably well on medium settings and games like deus ex and half life obviously work really well on full settings.

Bioshock runs very well at max res. and settings on my 9400m.

[reardoma]

before you redirect me...... please read below...

I got the new unibody WHITE macbook for Christmas.... almost the same specs as this macbook pro...

has the 9400M graphis card....


I have one question....i ONLY PLAY left 4 dead (the original version)

can this new macbook handle this on MAX SPECS or close to it?:)





Thanks in advance for your help......

[TheSpaz]

I'd like to add something. I have a MacBook Pro 13" and COD4 and CODMW2 do not run well on this machine. I turn the settings down and I only get about 30fps most of the time.

Also, Left 4 Dead 2 runs the same way... 30fps with everything on low.

On my Mac Pro (ATI Radeon 4870), I get over 60fps constantly in all of these games on Max settings so I know how the game feels when it's running smoothly.

So therefore when someone says the game is running smoothly, they must mean "I have nothing to compare it to, so to me it runs smoothly".

30fps is crap. You need at least 60fps to call it smooth.

hey ppl, i was wandering which gameplay would be better if u were to play some game ( for example, gta on mac os and gta on window xp ) which will give a better gameplay experience?

i'm currently a mac 13", 2.4 Ghz , 4GM ram with NVIDIA 9400M

running window xp on boot camp.

another thing will window 7 give a better performance compare to window xp on boot camp? am wandering can the spec meet the requirement.

I have Windows XP and Windows 7. Windows 7 performs better than Windows XP and Vista. Hope that helps.

[Venkman90]

before you redirect me...... please read below...

I got the new unibody WHITE macbook for Christmas.... almost the same specs as this macbook pro...

has the 9400M graphis card....


I have one question....i ONLY PLAY left 4 dead (the original version)

can this new macbook handle this on MAX SPECS or close to it?:)





Thanks in advance for your help......

Short answer, yes

It runs (like any Source game) at medium and above on the macbook at a steady 30 fps+

[MyDesktopBroke]

Bioshock runs very well at max res. and settings on my 9400m.

How well is well? The only reason I ask is that I just got Bioshock on Steam in bootcamp, and I have everything set to high except resolution, which is set to 1280. The game experiences lag when I do things like shatter a frozen enemy.

I have dedicated graphics card (the 9600) which isn't great, but I think it should still perform better than the 9400, especially since I'm running it on Windows.

[archurban]

well, you try to play game with your macbook pro 13inch? good luck. it doesn't have dedicated graphic card (unfortunately NVIDIA Geforce 9400M is customized shared graphic just like intel intergated card). so if you think some seriuos games, forget about all that. it won't play well at all. as a matter a fact, even if you have macbook pro 15inch, it's still not solution at all. only you could be satisfied with performance of game, it will be new imac (and other desktop). not laptop. so mac is not still good for gaming no matter what. very expensive unlikely. you assume that machines with that price should be enough played any games, right. no. NOT Mac. if you want to 'enjoy' game, get PC. it's cheaper, got more high spec with low price. it's simple.

[archurban]

I'd like to add something. I have a MacBook Pro 13" and COD4 and CODMW2 do not run well on this machine. I turn the settings down and I only get about 30fps most of the time.

Also, Left 4 Dead 2 runs the same way... 30fps with everything on low.

On my Mac Pro (ATI Radeon 4870), I get over 60fps constantly in all of these games on Max settings so I know how the game feels when it's running smoothly.

So therefore when someone says the game is running smoothly, they must mean "I have nothing to compare it to, so to me it runs smoothly".

30fps is crap. You need at least 60fps to call it smooth.



I have Windows XP and Windows 7. Windows 7 performs better than Windows XP and Vista. Hope that helps.

if you need 60fps for gaming, forget about mac. mac is crap anyway. if you consider gaming, no matter what mac is, PC is way better. I never heard that mac is good for gaming. never. but if you still want mac, well, you have to give up fantastic performance of gaming. I don't play any game with my macbook pro 15-inch (NVIDIA geforce 9600GT in it) because I know it won't be beautiful. I juat use my PC laptops which are way greater than macs.

[TheSpaz]

well, you try to play game with your macbook pro 13inch? good luck. it doesn't have dedicated graphic card (unfortunately NVIDIA Geforce 9400M is customized shared graphic just like intel intergated card). so if you think some seriuos games, forget about all that. it won't play well at all. as a matter a fact, even if you have macbook pro 15inch, it's still not solution at all. only you could be satisfied with performance of game, it will be new imac (and other desktop). not laptop. so mac is not still good for gaming no matter what. very expensive unlikely. you assume that machines with that price should be enough played any games, right. no. NOT Mac. if you want to 'enjoy' game, get PC. it's cheaper, got more high spec with low price. it's simple.

if you need 60fps for gaming, forget about mac. mac is crap anyway. if you consider gaming, no matter what mac is, PC is way better. I never heard that mac is good for gaming. never. but if you still want mac, well, you have to give up fantastic performance of gaming. I don't play any game with my macbook pro 15-inch (NVIDIA geforce 9600GT in it) because I know it won't be beautiful. I juat use my PC laptops which are way greater than macs.

It's usually not the Mac's fault that games run bad. It's the poor porting job that the company does when they port the game over to OpenGL. Most PC games are designed with DirectX and that has to be all converted to OpenGL in order for them to run in Mac OS X and I don't see Microsoft licensing DirectX to Apple any time soon.

My Mac Pro is capable of playing high end games in Windows 7. Call of Duty 4 runs well most of the time in Mac OS X, but it never EVER stutters at all in Windows with all settings cranked to their highest. Like I said before... the games are first developed with Windows and DirectX and in order to get those titles over on the Mac OS X side, some companies port it over while taking their time (blizzard) and some companies just stuff it inside a Cider package and give it an icon. Cider is terrible for gaming. It decodes the Windows code on the fly... I suppose it's like emulation.

Macs are perfectly capable of playing hardcore games... you just have to use BootCamp. However, the integrated 9400M is not very good and even in Windows it sucks. I wouldn't buy a MacBook to play 3D games on. That's why I have to have a desktop Mac.

[sikkinixx]

30fps is crap. You need at least 60fps to call it smooth.


And you need to run it on a 240hz TV/monitor too? In 3D? Anything less is crap.

30fps feels perfectly smooth for many games, especially when you are talking about running them on a non-gaming laptop. Sure 60fps is nice, especially in shooters but really, do you need 60 frames in games like the Sims?

[archurban]

if you guys wonder how much NVIDIA Geforce 9400M perfroms good or bad, check this site.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9400M-G.11949.0.html

you can compare with other graphic chip. obviously it is customized chip for only macs. (it's not dedicated graphic card as well).

[archurban]

there is also very good reference to check out whether your macbook or mac could run games. go to here.

http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/

it's very useful site. you don't have to ask what you could run game or not. just go there. check yourself. but I am not sure that this site would work with any browser on mac os x or not.

[PiusPatronus]

A good game that I am playing at the moment on me uMBP is Heroes of Newerth. It works great on highest resolution with all effects turned off and shaders at Medium.
Only downside is you got to get a beta key to play it :(

[foiden]

Yep. Perspective of 30fps means a lot for the type of game you're playing. If you're playing an RPG, or a Strategy Game, or any kind of Empire-style game where you control forces, many ships in a galaxy, or an MMO, it's smooth and very playable. However, if it is a fast paced FPS game on the lines of Unreal/Quake and others, then yes that wouldn't be playable for a lot of folks. Note that some arcade racers get by on 30fps, of course, as many racers even through the past gen of 360/PS3 has been made to run at that speed.

Of course, some of the racers on those systems, and previous gen (depending on the graphics used and such) did run at 60fps, but those games are selective games, and not all of the popular racer games. There's always been a number of popular racers, on consoles, reserved for 30fps.

Of course, a good number of games compared here, are not of the lot of faced paced competitive FPS shooters. However, consoles are also even more lenient on those often running some pretty darn popular ones, at the lower frame rate. Of course, PCs have different standards. And those needing to keep up either turn various graphic options up, or are in the habit of constantly upgrading graphics hardware to meet those 60fps and up standards with higher graphics.

Then again, if you are doing that a lot, and you are even considering using a Laptop for them; then you're likely to consistently spend the money on gaming laptops anyway. I know, I bought a great Gateway gaming laptop, top of its class, but it certainly didn't take long before I'd have to buy something else to keep up with the framerates of the latest games.

So case in point, if you want a machine for high-end FPS gaming and such, laptops in general (not just Mac ones) aren't the way to go, unless you want something temporarily on top until the next season rolls around. That's when you go to desktops.

However, topics like this aren't made for the idea of saying, "This is a gaming laptop" But more like. "I bought this nice utilitarian Macbook Pro, and I was wondering if I were to play games on it, are they playable enough to enjoy them, and which ones?"

And to get back on topic. "Spore (Mac) gets a nice bit of a performance bump, for the same settings, when upgraded to 4GB as opposed to 2GB ram. It makes stuff like the tribal stage and up, much more playable."

At 4GB, I also tested WoW with most details set to high. It generally maintains a framerate over 30fps, with that setup.

[archurban]

there are some games optimizing for main stream PC or mac no matter how they equip spec. I don't know many. modern warfare 2, left 4 dead 2 (or 1), mass effect 1,2. these games are very smooth at least for your macbook with NVIDIA 9400. I don't use my macbook pro for gaming. to me, gaming is still for PC. so I use my sony vaio FW (intel core 2 duo 2.66Ghz) which is equipped with 1GB ATI radeon mobility 4670 graphic card. it's beast. my vaio plays all games in the market no matter what. windows index experience went up 6.2 after upgrading memory (8GB), hard drive (750GB).

[katangputz]

I’m a huge fan MacBook.
But i lost all my data in recently.I have been
told that it cost several thousand US dollars to recover the data.
The hard disk is not even recognized when connected. If I wanted
to recover the data, who is responsible?