Deciding between 13/15" MBP - wow related.

[Lambi]

Hey guys. I have been reading this forum for a while now but never posted until now because I need your help deciding if I should buy a 13" or a 15" MBP.

What will I be using it for:

School, watching videos, browsing and the basic stuff, and also playing wow.
I'm not sure how much time I will have for wow but I sure love playing haha.

So the question is really, how will the 320m do in wow?

I had a 13" macbook with the 9400 card that was almost enough for me, I really dont mind not having the graphics set to high, but I cant stand going lower than 30fps in 25 man raids and that used to happen quite a lot when I was playing on the 9400 Macbook.

If any of you have 13" mbp with the 320m card and play wow I would love your advice, benchmarks are little use to me I need information from you guys. Also please don't recommend a non-apple computer because I love this OS. Thanks in advance

Oh one more thing, lets say wow plays fine on the 13" (I read it does) and then cataclysm comes out and it will be more demanding, will increasing the RAM make any difference at all ? (and finally excuse me if there are some spelling errors, English is not my first language)

 

[AlphaDogg]

I do a decent bit of gaming, but I do not dare touch WoW... I do not want to get addicted to it... I constantly get amazing performance out of this hardy little 320M that I have come to love. If you can deal with the small screen size of the 13", I would recommend getting it. However, if you have the available funds to buy the 15", I would highly recommend it. The i5 coupled with the 330M will give you quite high framerates.

 

[Lambi]

thanks for the input. I love having a 13" laptop my 2 laptops so far have been 13" but the price of 15" is pretty massive. I live in Iceland and let me tell you mac prices here are not pleasant. Any wow players out there using the 13" Mbp ? (and yeah i have read the threads on this forum concerning this topic but I really just need a bit more information on this, im buying a new laptop in the next 2 days so im excited)

 

[Lambi]

Any other wow players using 320m ? Help greatly appreciated

 

[ddany]

Any other wow players using 320m ? Help greatly appreciated

Some videos :
13'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkDq8ffs6mU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arz8pzJZSxA

15'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKjH1v-F8KM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk94lTXq3NI&feature=related

I'll be honest. If I were you I would chose the MBP 15'. It has a better processor and a better video card, too.
It will not only be better for WoW, but it will also be a better machine for everything.

I know its 500$, but for me it is important to have a better computer,because I do not buy an MBP for a year,but for 3-4-5.

 

[style]

I've been playing wow using on my old 15" that has the 8600M GT in it.
From memory there were a post on macrumors discussing the performance between it and the 320M, and that it is about 85% of a 8600M GT

It was tbc when I first bought my mbp, performance took a big hit when it moved onto wotlk, and now 4.0.1 was released in prepare for the Catalysm expansion. Since I have updated my fps dropped dramatically to just 2-3fps in Dalaran, after disabling all the shadows and effects I could get it back to 20fps but thing is, it's only going to get worse overtime. Games become more and more detailed and your hardware stays the same. I would not recommend anyone who is a little hardcore to play on such a limiting graphic chip.

 

[ddany]

I've been playing wow using on my old 15" that has the 8600M GT in it.
From memory there were a post on macrumors discussing the performance between it and the 320M, and that it is about 85% of a 8600M GT

It was tbc when I first bought my mbp, performance took a big hit when it moved onto wotlk, and now 4.0.1 was released in prepare for the Catalysm expansion. Since I have updated my fps dropped dramatically to just 2-3fps in Dalaran, after disabling all the shadows and effects I could get it back to 20fps but thing is, it's only going to get worse overtime. Games become more and more detailed and your hardware stays the same. I would not recommend anyone who is a little hardcore to play on such a limiting graphic chip.

Dude, no offence,but we should not blame the MBP because of the lack of FPS in Dalaran...
On my current PC, I am glad if I can get 25fps at medium settings.(geforce 9600gt 512mb)
Result: DO not go to Dalaran

As I saw the test videos of the 2010 mbp 15, WoW will run in an excellent way

Here is a guy on youtube ( http://www.youtube.com/user/DWizard07#p/u/8/uqxKO_Fw8kI ) he has overclocked the GPU, and get +15-20fps

 

[style]

Dude, no offence,but we should not blame the MBP because of the lack of FPS in Dalaran...
On my current PC, I am glad if I can get 25fps at medium settings.(geforce 9600gt 512mb)
Result: DO not go to Dalaran

As I saw the test videos of the 2010 mbp 15, WoW will run in an excellent way

Here is a guy on youtube ( http://www.youtube.com/user/DWizard07#p/u/8/uqxKO_Fw8kI ) he has overclocked the GPU, and get +15-20fps

yes I know 330M can handle it no problem, I was only on about the 320M. And the link is StarCraft II on a 330M, not WoW on a 320M. Therefore 13" isn't recommended but 15"

 

[ddany]

yes I know 330M can handle it no problem, I was only on about the 320M. And the link is StarCraft II on a 330M, not WoW on a 320M. Therefore 13" isn't recommended but 15"

I dont know... I think if SC2 runs well,then WoW will run as well, you may only have to lower the graphical settings.

 

[assassinm4]

I used to be WOW addicted last year. ICC 12/12 for 5 nights a week.
Used to get 15-25 fps in ICC25 and 10-15 in Dalaran during rush hour with medium graphics settings on a Early 08 Macbook Pro with 2.5ghz C2D and 8600GT/512mb ram.

Now i've got a i5 MBP with 330m but i've quit so..
one thing i can tell you is that 320m wont be a problem, but you will have to tune it down.

 

[onlnagent]

Wanting to the best videocard possible in the smallest macbook possible? The answer is the 15 inch MBP.

 

[ddany]

Wanting to the best videocard possible in the smallest macbook possible? The answer is the 15 inch MBP.

yeah... go for the i7 2.8ghz DDD

 

[Muscle]

I would opt for the 15" as well...

Been an avid wow'er for 3 years, quit 2 years ago (was not easy)...played on my previous ASUS 13" laptop for a year and the small screen just got unbearable...