Is good gaming possible on a TiBook?

[kons0uL]

So I was an avid PC gamer for a long time but I gave up all the problems of the Windows world when I bought my Titanium Powerbook a year and a half ago. I have been more than pleased with making a switch with all but one area, gaming.

At first I didn't think it was that bad, I bought Quake III and it ran really well. When I heard that my favorite game title of all time, HALO, was coming to the Mac I was very excited; even more so when I saw that my TiBook had well over the recommended requirements (1Ghz G4, 1 Gig of RAM, Mobility Radeon 9000 w/ 64MB of video RAM; HALO for Mac only requires 256 MB of RAM and a ATI Card w/ at least 32MB of video RAM) When I finally got my hands on a copy however it ran like absolute CRAP. I had it running at 640x480 with all the eye candy turned off and was still only getting 12fps on average play. I recently tried installing a friends copy of Call of Duty on my TiBook to try it out before buying it and it ran like crap too and it's requirements are even less than HALOs.

Is there something wrong with my TiBook, does anyone else have one that they can actually game on? My buddy recently bought a 12in" powerbook with comparable specs (512 of RAM, but he's got an NVIDIA GeForce FX
Go5200 64MB DDR) and he runs both HALO and COD great. He gets awesome frame rates and killer texturing. So before I ramble too much, are any of you Powerbook owners out there able to get good gaming performance? Do you think the Mobility Radeon 9000 is just a sucky graphics card? Any help or tweaking tips would be much appreciated.

P.S. - I'm running OS X 10.3.5

[seamuskrat]

I had a TiBook 400 with 8 meg video ram and now I have a AlBook 1.25.
In my experience, all FPS games run like molasses on a laptop when compared to a similar desktop. That said, was it playable on the AlBook? sure. Did I have decent settings. Yes. Did it have tough moments? Yes.
What I am saying is that for general fooling around, some tough moments of choppy video or bad cut scenes like in WC3 are acceptable. Of course, I am NOT a hard core gamer, and I know in an online FPS frag fest, speed wins and lag kills, so in that case, Powerbook gamers are at a disadvantage.
But what of all the other non FPS games? AOE2, Age of Mythology, NWN, C&C:G,WC3, Diablo II etc. run pretty darn well.
Much of the reports you will hear are subjective. I know with my AlBook I get pretty snappy Frames Per Second most of the time. But when its slow, its PAINFULLY slow. When its fast, its slick and fast. But you really need better hardware than Powerbooks and iBooks can offer to have CONTINUAL top rate FPS in intense games.
Again, all my opinion, based on how I perceive my games and the way in which I play and choose to be entertained by them.

[vraxtus]

In one word:

NO.


Even on my G5 it isn't even all that great at max settings

It's a pipe dream.

If you want PROOF of performance lagginess, PM me, I'll send you benches.

[pgc6000]

All this Halo complaining is funny. I have mine on 1024 X 748 resoulstion with all the Eye Candy on it's highest, and it runs pretty well. Now how is it that a 933 MHz ibook could run a game better then a 1 GHz PowerBook? I also raised the resoulstion on CoD to 1024 X 748 for some nice graphics and it runs great. But then again CoD is one of the most hassle free games ever. Also listen to seamuskrat, AOE 2 can run fine on about anything, its an old games but very fun, AOM as far as I know runs fine on a 800 MHz iBook G3 and I am running it on a 933 MHz ibook and a 800 MHz iMac G4.

[vraxtus]

Originally Posted by pgc6000

All this Halo complaining is funny. I have mine on 1024 X 748 resoulstion with all the Eye Candy on it's highest, and it runs pretty well. Now how is it that a 933 MHz ibook could run a game better then a 1 GHz PowerBook? I also raised the resoulstion on CoD to 1024 X 748 for some nice graphics and it runs great. But then again CoD is one of the most hassle free games ever.

What is "pretty well"? I have a friend that tried to run Doom3 on his PC at ultra quality, and he got 10FPS and thought that was "pretty" well.

I run Halo on my G5 at 1280x1024 with highest details, no specular, and I get a 22 FPS avg... that to me is pretty damn bad, but its the best I can get at my native res.

[pgc6000]

Pretty well as in a enjoyable game experiance. Though it defiently runs better at 800 X 640.

[applekid]

Halo isn't computer friendly at all. I think current PCs are finally just barely getting 30 FPS with things turned up all the way (unless you have a 6800, which I hear can get 60 FPS!).

Anyways, I'd suspect Call of Duty to be more playable than that. I have a 800 MHz G4 iMac and a GeForce4MX in it, but I can stay above 12 FPS with fire fights and reach close to or on 30 FPS at times. My settings are either medium or low and 1024 x 768. I turned on decals and brass. I probably could turn down more settings and get a much better frame rate.

[Converted2Truth]

I think you need to just tweek with your energy settings or something... because i had a Ti PowerBook 800mhz/1GBram/60GB 5200rpm laptop for two years, and i installed halo on it. My TiBook had a ATI 7500m w/32mb vram. I had to turn most everything off, but it still ran fine (until AI entered the scene) On average, i'd say i got around 8-15fps with my laptop. I never used it for playing halo seriously... just because i was bored and it COULD. Halo sucks even on PC. That game was a sad port. Your performance is

[vraxtus]

Originally Posted by Converted2Truth

On average, i'd say i got around 8-15fps with my laptop. I never used it for playing halo seriously... just because i was bored and it COULD.

Wow... and that's *GOOD* gaming?

[Converted2Truth]

Originally Posted by vraxtus

Wow... and that's *GOOD* gaming?

Hell no, like i said, i just did it for kicks... never for serious. I did it because i was bored and because i could...

I cannot play halo seriously on any of my computers, except my pc.. and even then it get's choppy in places.

[pgc6000]

Halo is best on the Xbox. It's not choppy and multiplayer doesn't lag. The thing is you can get Banshees and Flamthrowers and Rocket Warthogs with multiplayer on the computer though. If only the game wern't so choppy. But luckily, most likely, Halo 2 will have all that in it's lag free multiplayer.

On the topic of CoD-I haven't really touched the details, only its resoultion. But it's a great port. Aspyr does an awsome job with their games. MacSoft did great with AOE II and AOM, so what went wrong with Halo?