Hey everyone,
Concerning Guild Wars 2 in Bootcamp:
1) Does anyone know if the Retina Macbook Pro (whichever i7 CPU you choose) will be able to play Guild Wars 2 with settings fully maxed/enabled at 30+fps in even the most hectic scenarios (i.e., World PvP with 50+ people on screen), at any of it's available resolutions?
This (Guild Wars 2 on Macbook Pro Retina - YouTube) is the only video I've seen showing Guild Wars 2 on the rMBP. However, FRAPS isn't on (though the poster says it runs 40-60fps at 1920x1200, with only some settings on high, some medium, one ultra), and most importantly, none of the footage is in big scale combat.
2) In the absence of definitive videos or forum posts (here and elsewhere) on this matter, I've also just looked at the performance of the GT 650m card in other games, with settings maxed. I found this site's data possibly quite helpful/predictive: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
I don't follow gaming much anymore, but from the list of games on that site's list, I'm guessing Skyrim and Battlefield 3 would be the most, or amongst the most, demanding. It shows that with the 650m--with settings maxed and resolution unspecified--that Skyrim and Battlefield are not very playable and not at all playable, respectively. If Guild Wars is close to Skyrim/Battlefield, then perhaps the Retina MBP won't fare so well with settings maxed. But if it's graphical demand and consequent performance is closer to other 2012 games on that list, like Diablo 3, Starcraft 2 and Mass Effect 3, then perhaps all will be well.
So where does Guild Wars 2 stand graphically compared to the games on that list?
3) I presume the difference between the i7 2.3GHz, 2.6GHz and 2.7GHz isn't anything meaningful to game performance? At most a few frames per second difference?
EDIT:
4) Can Guild Wars 2 be played at an effective 1400x900 resolution (like the 1400x900 on every other non-HDPI screen, not the quadrupled pixel version of 1400x900 on the Retina) even though it's not one of the available scaled resolutions in OSX?
Welcome your thoughts, predictions on this.
I don't know about Guild Wars 2 or Battlefield 3, but Skyrim is playable on ultra. And by playable I mean it averages beyond 30fps. 45fps on average @1920x1200. Even more frames @1440x900. It runs in the teens to 20s at native 2880x1900 and looks beautiful. Almost worth playing just because it looks so great at that res. I can mess with the shadow settings in the ini and leave everything else maxed and get 60fps @1440x900.
I'm coming from a gaming laptop only a generation and a half behind and it kills it. Yes desktop GPUs are a lot better, but this is a laptop. The gpu is comparable to single gpu gaming laptops even in 17" ones by Asus in the same or nearly the same price bracket. Those who say otherwise are probably thinking of desktops.