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Being tempted. Stay with MacBook Pro?

K

kjvmartin

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 11, 2016
372
667
Detroit
First time poster looking for some advice. I'm 32 and bought my first iMac when I was 22. I always played WoW on my iMac and more recently on MacBook Pros. I have a late 2013 rMBP running well still on AppleCare. It ran WoW and some older titles good enough. Now, my WoW account is retired so I can focus on other games. I've liked Civ 5 and have been looking forward to Civ 6 (though the Mac port hasn't been announced). I also like first person shooters, but I'm a bit out of practice with these. I have an Xbox One on order and thought myself content with this until....

I caught a slick deal ($1399) on a 15.4" laptop ASUS ROG i7, SSD, 16gb ram, and Nvidia GTX 1070 8gb. I had no experience with Windows in the past 10 years. I bought it, and have two weeks to think about it with no restocking fee. It's astonishingly fast and the graphics are amazing. I have a handful of Steam titles like Civ 5, Truck Simulator, Cities Skylines, etc. All but one of the newer games I'm interested in are available on Xbox One, so I could probably be just as happy with that. I'm looking forward to Skyrim remastered, Battlefield 1, StarWars Battlefront, Forza, CoD, and others. Truth is, I really like almost everything about the new laptop. It's comfortable to use and the performance is very nice. Windows 10 reminds me a lot of MacOS. Though - The FHD screen is not as nice and the trackpad is a poor attempt at that technology compared to Apple's offering. Otherwise, it blows me away. But....

My family is heavy into the Apple ecosystem. We have a 64gb photos library on MBD SSD, time capsule backup, 66 iTunes movies, Apple TV, 2 iPhone 7s, and my wife uses an iPad mini 2 on the road.

Could I stay in the ecosystem very well if I switched to a Windows 10 laptop? Of the utmost importance to me is the ability to migrate my photos library and then continually import our iPhone photos in an organized manner. I know I would lose Time Machine backup and Airplay. I can Airplay from any of our other devices and I'm assuming Windows has some sort of backup functionality I could use? What other things do I need to consider in making the switch from a MacBook to a gaming laptop in these circumstances? If the migration would be too troublesome, I may just stick with the Xbox One. Thanks

kjv
 
The problem is, if you switch to the MacBook Pro, the best GPU you can get (R9 M370X) is far weaker than GTX 1070, it's even weaker than the GT 945M released years ago. The rumored Polaris GPUs that are coming will be stronger - but they are still weaker than the card you're having.

And to get that MBP model, you'll need to spend 2500, which is twice the price you spend on the ROG. MacBook is never meant to be for gaming. You spend lots of cash, then you also have to spend $100 for a copy of Windows.

If you really want to keep OSX, I suggest buying an MBA/MBP 13"/MB 12" which you can use on the road. Keep the ROG for gaming purposes.

The ideal setup for me is a Windows desktop where I can do heavy tasks + gaming; a light Mac for traveling; an iPad for reading/entertainment and an iPhone.
 
If all you use your laptop for is playing games, then a WinDoze laptop might be better. That said, be prepared for culture shock. Windows 10 can be a pain.

Also, there are strong indications of a major update the Mac hardware line soon
 
Wait and see what Apple release this month then decide. Games will run better on windows though and migrating photos should be a doddle. You can download iTunes and use it as normal with iOS devices for syncing etc.
 
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