How well does Tomb Raider Underworld run on your system?

[altuixde]

The purpose of this thread is to help prospective buyers of Tomb Raider Underworld get an idea of what kind of performance to expect on their system.

Personally, I would like to know how well it will work on the 2008 aluminum MacBook with 4GB of RAM and the 2.4 GHz CPU on a 1680x1050 external display. There's one reviewer who said that it runs fine on his 2009 MacBook Pro, which is only slightly more powerful than my computer, but he didn't say what resolution he's running it at.

[laetusviator]

Do you plan on running the Mac version, or Windows version in bootcamp?

Unfortunately, for anything particularly graphics intensive, I usually end up in bootcamp. Still, I've been really surprised at how well my late 2008 macbook performs in win7, even with some recent games (Skyrim for example), though I've not played that Tomb Raider game.

[velocityg4]

Different people have different definitions of fine. To me fine is 60 fps at 1920x1200; shadows, lighting and details at highest (some insignificant ones at medium or off like grass shadows); and anti-aliasing at 2x or greater.

With that being said my Core 2 Quad and Radeon 4850 1GB did the trick up to 8x AA.

Anyways the Intel x3100 is about as bad as you can get graphics wise. The GeForce 9400m though still very paltry is far more powerful than the old Intel integrated graphics. Macworld shows the 9400m as about 6x faster than the x3100

I remember trying to play games on an GMA 950 (Age of Empires III, Rome: Total War) while waiting on a replacement for a dead video card. These games had to be played at lowest resolution, details, shadows, &c. Even then there were times these games stuttered severely. It would suffer pauses, play at 1 frame per second or less. The graphics detail in these games do not come close to TR: Underworld.

[altuixde]

Originally Posted by laetusviator

Do you plan on running the Mac version, or Windows version in bootcamp?

I plan on running the Mac version, because I don't have a copy of Windows. If I ran Windows in bootcamp, would that allow me to allocate more RAM to the graphics card? However, rather than buying a copy of Windows, I think I'd rather save up for a new Mac.

velocityg4 - On the MacBook I mentioned, Tomb Raider Anniversary runs at a decent frame rate (I don't know how to measure it exactly) at 1680x1050 with 4x anti-aliasing and all the display options on (except Fullscreen effects). Do you think TR: Underworld is so much more intensive that it won't run at a decent frame rate at 1680x1050? I don't mind turning some of the display options off.

[velocityg4]

Underworld requires a vastly more powerful computer than Anniversary.

Tomb Raider Anniversary (Minimum Requirements)
Pentium III 1.4Ghz
GeForce 3 or Radeon 9000 series 64MB
256MB RAM

Tomb Raider Underworld (Minimum Requirements)
Pentium IV 3Ghz
1GB RAM XP/ 2GB Vista
GeForce 6800GT or ATI X1800XT

The Mac Version even states Intel GMA series not supported. So the only Intel supported are the ones in the Core i series not Core 2.

As laetusviator use Windows. The video card manufacturers, MS and game makers all take gaming on Windows much more seriously. So all the major factors of drivers, OS and efficient game coding get much more attention in Windows.

[altuixde]

Okay, thanks. I'll look into bootcamp and Windows.

[Tissue Paper]

Hi. Sorry can you please tell me how can I play this game in a windowed screen in opposed to full screen? I usually use my browser when I'm playing games so it's convenient for me to have it windowed. Any one knows? I tried playing with the display settings but there were so many options I didn't know how

[antonis]

Haven't got the game but I'm sure at display/graphics options where you can select the game resolution, you should be able to choose a windowed mode (as a checkbox or among the available resolutions).

[Tissue Paper]

There are several options under resolution, like 11200, 800, 700. I chose 800 but it's still full screen

[velocityg4]

Originally Posted by altuixde

Okay, thanks. I'll look into bootcamp and Windows.

That won't be much help since the Intel graphics in that MacBook are way below the minimum requirements.

[altuixde]

My MacBook has an Nvidia 9400M. The minimum PC system requirements call for a 6800GT or better. I'm not sure whether the 9400M is more powerful than the 6800GT or not.

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by altuixde

My MacBook has an Nvidia 9400M. The minimum PC system requirements call for a 6800GT or better. I'm not sure whether the 9400M is more powerful than the 6800GT or not.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
OSMac OS X 10.6.8
Processor1.8GHz Intel
RAM3GB
Hard Disk8GB
Graphics128MB

RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS
OSMac OS X 10.7.3
Processor2.4GHz Intel
RAM4GB
Hard Disk8GB
Graphics512MB
InputGame Pad

The following cards are NOT supported: ATI X1xxx series, NVIDIA 7xxx series and Intel GMA series.

[altuixde]

edddeduck - My MacBook meets the minimum Mac requirements but others in this thread suggested that I run the Windows version of the game using bootcamp on my Mac because it could perform better that way. You work at Feral Interactive, right? Do you know how well the Mac version of Tomb Raider Underworld will work with my modest system at 1680x1050 resolution? Will the frame rate be high enough not to give me motion sickness?

[edddeduck]

Originally Posted by altuixde

edddeduck - My MacBook meets the minimum Mac requirements but others in this thread suggested that I run the Windows version of the game using bootcamp on my Mac because it could perform better that way. You work at Feral Interactive, right? Do you know how well the Mac version of Tomb Raider Underworld will work with my modest system at 1680x1050 resolution? Will the frame rate be high enough not to give me motion sickness?

That is a pretty high resolution for the card you have, but at that resolution you might be able to play most levels but you will definitely have the eye candy disabled. If you drop the resolution to 720p I suspect you will be fine. You might be able to turn some (if not all) of the eye candy back on.

In terms of Mac v.s. PC performance in most cases we are within 10% of the PC, we have in rare cases been faster on the Mac than the PC.

I have not re-checked on the 9400M to be sure of the facts above, but I am sure it will perform well on your MacBook but perhaps not at the extremely high resolution you quoted.

If you need more details feel free to PM me.

Edwin

[altuixde]

Thanks for the reply, edddeduck.

[nicolas.mt]

Hi,

I bought a Macbook Pro in may 2012. I played Tomb raider underworld without any problems until mac updated the OS and then it wasn't playable anymore. I wrote to Feral and they told me it was a problem with the graphic card. So I installed bootcamp with windows 7 ultimate but when I try playing with all the configurations the game lag.

Are my configurations ok to play the game?

What are the configurations I should turn off first in order to run correctly the game and still a good image quality?

Should I try installing an older version of windows in order for the game to work better or am I better to install the new OS (Mountain Lion)?

What can I do to play it without problems?

Macbook Pro configurations:
Intel Core I5 CPU 2.4 Ghz, 4G de ram, Intel 3000HD
Bootcamp installed with windows 7 ultimate

----------

Originally Posted by edddeduck

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
OSMac OS X 10.6.8
Processor1.8GHz Intel
RAM3GB
Hard Disk8GB
Graphics128MB

RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS
OSMac OS X 10.7.3
Processor2.4GHz Intel
RAM4GB
Hard Disk8GB
Graphics512MB
InputGame Pad

The following cards are NOT supported: ATI X1xxx series, NVIDIA 7xxx series and Intel GMA series.

Hi,

I bought a Macbook Pro in may 2012. I played Tomb raider underworld without any problems until mac updated the OS and then it wasn't playable anymore. I wrote to Feral and they told me it was a problem with the graphic card. So I installed bootcamp with windows 7 ultimate but when I try playing with all the configurations the game lag.

Are my configurations ok to play the game?

What are the configurations I should turn off first in order to run correctly the game and still a good image quality?

Should I try installing an older version of windows in order for the game to work better or am I better to install the new OS (Mountain Lion)?

What can I do to play it without problems?

Macbook Pro configurations:
Intel Core I5 CPU 2.4 Ghz, 4G de ram, Intel 3000HD
Bootcamp installed with windows 7 ultimate

[ScholarsInk]

Ah, I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac port in practice required Sandy Bridge and discrete graphics!

I played it very smoothly and with decent settings on a 2009 13" MBP with base spec, so you should be fine if you go the Windows route.

[edddeduck]

The HD3000 runs the Tomb Raider game fine, however Apple introduced a bug in the HD 3000 drivers in 10.7.5 that can cause random crashes, Apple updated the HD3000 drivers to fix the issue in Mountain Lion and players using 10.8.2 should be fine.

[Bantz]

Great on my machine, sli 680