It's not available yet and is likely to cost quite a bit. I would guess you won't see it for under $500.
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Best macbook pro 13" for gaming?
- Thread starter iHazbadmac
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It's not available yet and is likely to cost quite a bit. I would guess you won't see it for under $500.
I think 500 for the ViDock alone would be a bit much but I would bet at some $200 (lower is possible too but unlikely). Depends though if they sell it bare or bundled with a GPU already. In the latter case it will probably be more expensive. $500 sounds possible.
There are so many great external HDD cases but because they come always bundled the big ones are insanely expensive compared to a bare case + HDD retail prices.
There are so many great external HDD cases but because they come always bundled the big ones are insanely expensive compared to a bare case + HDD retail prices.
Canned responses are fine, as long as they are correct. It is pretty clear that the truth of the matter is that you can play some decent games on it, as long as you are happy to stick to older games and/or casual offerings from the App Store and elsewhere (I also found Trine and Deathspank work well enough).
I know it might be better if all of these threads asking about this were merged into one (hell, I started one myself but I can see how tedious it must be after seeing a few more since) but there still seems to be some scope for talking about the limits of these low end models. The 15"+ models are not an option for everyone and the only other alternative would seem to be to forego Apple portables completely (which might not be a bad idea for some but I have my reasons for wanting one).
Fair enough. I concede I do not have much experience with gaming on laptops and was a little surprised at just how much they pick up under load.
Bestbuy now has a 14 day return policy with zero restocking fees on any computer. Buy one and try it out. Other peoples opinions don't matter dude. It's what you like that counts.
A 13 inch screen seems a bit small for that though.
He is asking for other people's opinions. That is kind of the general idea of a forum.
Those pesky opinions are hard to resist, eh?
Well you have to remember that you also need to include the price of the graphics card you intend to use.
Also remember toa dd a required external monitor to that price. The OP doesn't say if he/she was already planning on an external monitor.
That's a good point.
While it's just an opinion, I think most will agree that 13" is a rather small screen to really enjoy video games on.
Personally I do all my computer gaming on my consoles or my desktop PC. I tried playing Civ V on my Macbook Pro once and lord have mercy, the fans were the loudest I had heard them since I owned the laptop.
I changed to using a console for any kind of serious gaming years ago. I was using PCs at the time and got tired of constantly shelling out money and taking time to upgrade every 6 months or so. Consoles are much cheaper and less frustrating in this regard, and I can spend my time and money on other things.get a ps3 or xbox 360 for gaming (or a wii
There is a total of _two_ models. One has a faster CPU than the other. Obviously this is the one that is the best MBP for gaming.
I also recommend a SSD. Loading times in games are just so much faster with SSDs.
ViDock GPU
I am really just waiting on the ViDock external TBolt GPU expansion that VillageInstruments is working on. I really want them to give an ETA or some more details, like...will it accelerate the power while using the built in display? That question was asked on Facebook, they said it IS doable.
I'm going to so get the Vidock expansion if it will do that, then get a powerful GPU
I am really just waiting on the ViDock external TBolt GPU expansion that VillageInstruments is working on. I really want them to give an ETA or some more details, like...will it accelerate the power while using the built in display? That question was asked on Facebook, they said it IS doable.
I'm going to so get the Vidock expansion if it will do that, then get a powerful GPU
I would absolutely agree that console gaming is mostly frustration free. The only problem is quite a few games are superior on the PC experience, assuming you *can* make the time to upgrade your hardware and drivers. BF3, SkyRim etc. all look ridiculously better on the PC, without question. The consoles are 5-6 years old now. Myself, Starcraft2 is the addiction. And that isn't even offered on consoles.
I can't picture how an external thunderbolt port would speed up the internal display. A gpu on an external thunderbolt port would simply drive an external display.
Sure. I ignored that since the price of a GPU is known. Everybody can look up some retail GPUs. It is the ViDock that might actually cost more than the reatil GPU you want to put in. I also don't see any point in putting some HD 6970 into that box but I would go for anything faster than a 560 Ti or something similar as the limited PCIe lanes will start to be a factor the faster you go.
If that is really necessary depends on the drivers. At least in Theory Optimus should work with some slightly tweaked optimus drivers. Also the AMD equivalent. The writeback of the framebuffer takes again a bit of bandwidth from thunderbolt but I doubt it to be significant with the 1280x800 resolution.
Naturally it depends on Nvidia/AMD to supply us with such a driver but that would be in there interest (more retail sales) and shouldn't be too difficult. And maybe ViDock to push those companies to provide solutions and test them before it is released.
The techonolgy is there if the current drivers would already work in such a solution I don't know (maybe they do with some bugs maybe just fine as they are) but there should be only little modifcation necessary to deal with bugs.
http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt.asp
It's the only one that isn't vaporware. You can pre-order it now for December delivery; $979.00
You do the math...
It's the only one that isn't vaporware. You can pre-order it now for December delivery; $979.00
You do the math...
To try to help actually answer your question, if you want to play games on higher than the lowest settings or run the risk of games 1-2 years from now being impossible to run, you should probably just wait and get the Ivy Bridge MBP. The integrated graphics is *supposed to be* better and there MIGHT be some chance the optical bay gets dumped for a GPU in the 13".
So, if gaming is at all important, it just sounds like the current MBP 13" is not the right choice.
What is limiting you anyway? If its money, you could pick up an early 2011 15" 2.0 for pretty close to the current top of the line 13".