Best MacBook Pro for gaming?

[nicho]

Haha ok so I guess when you suggested : " get the latest and most expensive." You meant two different laptops...

no.

to explain: latest would be the difference between, for example, a 2011 macbook pro and a 2015 macbook pro. OMG ITS OBVIOUS THE NEWER ONE IS BETTER RIGHT? no, it's not always. take a look at the mac mini, the sought after model is actually a quad core previous generation one which many think to perform better than the latest models where such a processor isn't an option.

most expensive shouldn't need explanation.

the Retina Macbook Pro with 2.5 GHz i7 CPU and AMD Radeon R9 M370X you selected is both the latest and the most expensive. in the case of the rMBPs, that would be the best suited. but again not necessarily well suited.

 

[snaky69]

Is there a specific Macbook model in particular that you think would be best suited for gaming? I know a dedicated gpu is important but I think there's a few of them out there... any ones in particular that you think stand out? I'm not tech savvy but I'm guessing it's not as simple as just just getting the latest model?

A current gen console or cheap gaming desktop will run circles backwards, on one foot and piss drunk around a Macbook pro of any vintage when it comes to gaming.

Once you know that and are willing to accept you're getting nowhere near your money's worth gaming-wise with a Macbook Pro, the latest gen 15" with a discrete GPU is about as close as you're going to get.

Don't get too caught up with CPU speeds, there hasn't been much advances in that department for the last 3-4 years and honestly, most games won't tax a CPU all that much.

Since you never mentioned what games you actually intend to run in any of your posts though, any recommendation made by anyone here, myself included, is worthless.

 

[Channan]

Is there any way to hook up a GPU with the Thunderbolt port?

 

[nicho]

A current gen console or cheap gaming desktop will run circles backwards, on one foot and piss drunk around a Macbook pro of any vintage when it comes to gaming.

Once you know that and are willing to accept you're getting nowhere near your money's worth gaming-wise with a Macbook Pro, the latest gen 15" with a discrete GPU is about as close as you're going to get.

Don't get too caught up with CPU speeds, there hasn't been much advances in that department for the last 3-4 years and honestly, most games won't tax a CPU all that much.

Since you never mentioned what games you actually intend to run in any of your posts though, any recommendation made by anyone here, myself included, is worthless.

Probably hearts and freecell.

 

[Acronyc]

Is there any way to hook up a GPU with the Thunderbolt port?

Yeah there is. I'm running an external GPU over thunderbolt on my 2014 mini. If you get a MBP with a dedicated GPU it'll be harder to get an eGPU working and it won't work as the main GPU on the internal screen. If you want to go the eGPU route, you might be better off spending less on an integrated only GPU MacBook Pro or Air.

 

[Channan]

Yeah there is. I'm running an external GPU over thunderbolt on my 2014 mini. If you get a MBP with a dedicated GPU it'll be harder to get an eGPU working and it won't work as the main GPU on the internal screen. If you want to go the eGPU route, you might be better off spending less on an integrated only GPU MacBook Pro or Air.

Then that sounds like a good solution for those that want to game at home but still want a MacBook Pro.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Is there any way to hook up a GPU with the Thunderbolt port?

There are a few solutions but they are more expensive than just buying a second hand gaming PC for use at home.

 

[Freyqq]

Only the top end 15" dGPU model even comes close really to a 'proper' gaming machine, but it has well known and bad thermal throttling issues that hamper it.

I'd honestly wait till the next gen updates in hopefully June unless have to have now.

750M version does not have thermal throttling. I'd try to find one of those.