I play Wow w/ BC expansion on the new macbook 2.0GHZ and it runs AMAZING! I ask people on WoW if anyone uses Mac's and people make fun of me and say Macs cant handle gaming. Why do people say this? If anything Mac's are better to game then on PC's! 
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Macbook Gaming Myth!
- Thread starter ConnorScott
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The argument against that is for the same price, you could get an extremely good PC gaming laptop.
However, the 9400M is a good chip. When I got my new MacBook Pro, I forgot to switch the graphics card and was gaming in Tiger Woods 08 on the 9400M and didn't notice any performance decrease over the 8600GT! Although Tiger Woods 08 isn't exactly a benchmark game for the Mac, being a cider port and all, but never the less, the performance was great and I'd be happy with a MacBook for gaming.
But don't forget the previous MacBook's couldn't really handle games well at all (never mind any new games EA released, since they are cider ports).
Most of the "PC arguments" is that most games are only available on Windows. Well, now with Boot Camp, you get the best of both worlds. Work away on OS X and be productive, then relax and boot up in Windows and play a game or two.
Best of both worlds.
However, the 9400M is a good chip. When I got my new MacBook Pro, I forgot to switch the graphics card and was gaming in Tiger Woods 08 on the 9400M and didn't notice any performance decrease over the 8600GT! Although Tiger Woods 08 isn't exactly a benchmark game for the Mac, being a cider port and all, but never the less, the performance was great and I'd be happy with a MacBook for gaming.
But don't forget the previous MacBook's couldn't really handle games well at all (never mind any new games EA released, since they are cider ports).
Most of the "PC arguments" is that most games are only available on Windows. Well, now with Boot Camp, you get the best of both worlds. Work away on OS X and be productive, then relax and boot up in Windows and play a game or two.
Best of both worlds.
WoW is hardly a gaming benchmark. In fact, Blizzard's MMO business model is to make games that even the most mediocre computers can run, because they make their money by having as many subscribers as possible. Now, Crysis or some derivative thereof that attempts to max out every video card and cpu on the market (hell, even be somewhat futureproof) isn't going to run on a Macbook, or even a Macbook Pro for that matter. But light gaming will be fine, I guess.
I dunno, PC gaming is silly to me to begin with. I like the idea of a console where I can just put in a game and go. But I also don't play games where a keyboard/mouse is a preferable input mechanism, which is really the major benefit of PC gaming.
I dunno, PC gaming is silly to me to begin with. I like the idea of a console where I can just put in a game and go. But I also don't play games where a keyboard/mouse is a preferable input mechanism, which is really the major benefit of PC gaming.
for the record, i could easily play crysis on low settings (1280x800), it floated around 20fps which is fine for me and for the computer its pretty damn good as teh 9400m isnt even meant to work woith crysis
ive put far cry 2 on it and its comfortable running on medium settings all around (1280x800) i get about 30 fps. ill boot up windows and put fraps on to get some hard numbers for both games.
i can max out far cry 1 and half life 2 with frame rates around 30 for far cry 1 and more than that for half life 2 (its silky smooth). this is all on native resolution
this is on a 2.0 ghz macbook aluminium, no extra ram but a larger harddrive.
EDIT: far cry gets about 20fps on max settings. far cry 2 gets about 15-18fps on medium settings. crysis i think gets about 20fps on minimum, but i didnt do a fraps on that. i felt it ran a little nicer than far cry 2 but remember the settings are lower but i reckon its a little more complex in the environments. seems as though im not very good at estimating frame rates!
ive put far cry 2 on it and its comfortable running on medium settings all around (1280x800) i get about 30 fps. ill boot up windows and put fraps on to get some hard numbers for both games.
i can max out far cry 1 and half life 2 with frame rates around 30 for far cry 1 and more than that for half life 2 (its silky smooth). this is all on native resolution
this is on a 2.0 ghz macbook aluminium, no extra ram but a larger harddrive.
EDIT: far cry gets about 20fps on max settings. far cry 2 gets about 15-18fps on medium settings. crysis i think gets about 20fps on minimum, but i didnt do a fraps on that. i felt it ran a little nicer than far cry 2 but remember the settings are lower but i reckon its a little more complex in the environments. seems as though im not very good at estimating frame rates!
WoW isnt really a good benchmark for a game for its coming to its 5 years (as others have said) But for gaming i really would go with a PC just due to games always becoming stronger and PCs have so many parts out for them so the customization they have is endless. Dont get me wrong you can play games on a mac but not compared to a PC both power wise and $ wise. I am a mac person but i do understand that games in my opinion are more for PCs. Thats why i have a separate PC for games. But hey thats me.
Lord, if you think that WoW is a great way of benchmarking gaming potential, I'd love to show you what my gaming PC can do with a 5 year old game.
All the arguments FOR gaming here are in error, these notebooks can't hold a candle to gaming on machine that's built for it, such as a gaming rig desktop or a big beefy Asus laptop(Asus has some really good gaming laptops). Either way, buying a laptop for gaming is like buying a tricycle for serious biking.
All the arguments FOR gaming here are in error, these notebooks can't hold a candle to gaming on machine that's built for it, such as a gaming rig desktop or a big beefy Asus laptop(Asus has some really good gaming laptops). Either way, buying a laptop for gaming is like buying a tricycle for serious biking.
While the MacBook obviously isn't a match to a completely dedicated gaming rig (such as the Toshiba Qosmio range) it isn't as bad as you are making it out to be.
Really, you should try a relatively new game (yearish old) like Unreal Tournament 3, and it really does go well on the MacBook.
Remember, the size of the MacBook (less than an inch thick) versus performance makes it a clear winner for the gamer who isn't bothered about running everything on max but wants a portable and lightweight laptop.
You can't assess hardware with a game that doesn't eat much power though. While the size of the laptop is impressive(hence why I was willing to drop $1500 on this sweet piece of hardware) that doesn't make it an amazing gaming machine. While its adequate, I don't see it ever going beyond the range of "Well I have some time to kill and don't have access to a desktop, lets play Bioshock".
Not likely to be a huge issue, some newer titles are taking a break from attempting photo-realism and are aiming for a more stylized look(yay). Some games though will not function well on the laptop, no matter what. I tried Fallout 3, at the lowest settings possible I was still hitting down into the mid twenties while just walking around the world, combat dropped me down even further.
Not likely to be a huge issue, some newer titles are taking a break from attempting photo-realism and are aiming for a more stylized look(yay). Some games though will not function well on the laptop, no matter what. I tried Fallout 3, at the lowest settings possible I was still hitting down into the mid twenties while just walking around the world, combat dropped me down even further.
Even before I was a Mac guy, I never really gamed on computers. I played on consoles and handhelds. In my mind, I've always been more comfortable with the d-pad/analog stick and buttons than I have with keyboard and mouse gaming. I can do it, mind you, but I'm not too big a fan.
All that said, I'm really looking forward to the launch of City of Heroes for Mac. It and WoW are the only two games I've every really had an investment in as far as computer gaming goes.
Anyway... um... I guess that had very little to do with the MacBook as a gaming platform.
If you're a casual gamer, the MB is a great little machine.
All that said, I'm really looking forward to the launch of City of Heroes for Mac. It and WoW are the only two games I've every really had an investment in as far as computer gaming goes.
Anyway... um... I guess that had very little to do with the MacBook as a gaming platform.
If you're a casual gamer, the MB is a great little machine.
i didnt buy my macbook to game, but since the only game i actually do play is WOW, this notebook works all around for me.
Am also plannin to run GTA4 in my macbook, under xp (thro bootcamp).
What is the FPS u get while playin it?? n if possible can u please post (or PM) a screen???
Macs can handle some games OK but c'mon, you need a decent desktop PC to get the most out gaming.
I'm getting sick of sycophantic mac owners that think their mid-specced machines can perform miracles. Macs aren't great for gaming, fact. Do you really think that your machine can play the latest games at the highest level? Get real.
A gaming PC would have upwards of 4Gb of ram, two of the latest graphics cards running at over a gig each, core i7 extreme processor etc etc. I'm sure you know all this as you are studying computing, surely you know the forefront of gaming lies with PCs?
I'm far from ignorant, I've been using PCs for gaming for the last 13 years.
I run RA3 pretty well, I don't run it on high settings because I don't like the GPU getting hot, however, I've tested it and know I can actually get higher settings to work smoothly...
Where do I fit in Big Mafoota, or do I not exist as I can play games...
Where do I fit in Big Mafoota, or do I not exist as I can play games...
You can play games, I never said you couldn't, you just can't get the most from them.
Yep. I've seen a MacBook Pro running Crysis at 1920x1200 on High at about 30FPS.
Also, no one owns your self-proclaimed gaming rig, and what's stopping Mac Pro owners from doing that configuration, anyway?
What, no one owns that rig? Of course they do! I suggest you look on the overclockers forum.
30fps isn't that great. I also said latest games, not 18 month old games.
What's stopping mac pro owners from running that config? Erm, a few thousand quid.
For the price of a macbook pro (let's not talk about the price of a mac pro) I could build an awesome gaming setup that would trounce an apple system hands down. I know it wouldn't be portable blah blah.
