Future proofness of GeForce 8600M GT?

[Macnoviz]

Hi, my brother is considering a new MBP (after being fed up with windows), but he is worried about the performance of the GeForce 8600M GT (265 MB SDRAM)
I heard it is quite capable of handling the current games out there (Oblivion, Crysis,...) but how well would it be able to handle games in the next few years? Are we talking playable at lower settings or utterly incapable of running the latest games? (eg the Elder Scrolls 5)

If this is too hard to predict, then please tell me how the 8600 GT stacks up against the Geforce 7950 GTX (512 MB DDR3), from the similary priced Dell XPS M1710 (this is the other laptop being considered by my brother).

 

[Stella]

Hi, my brother is considering a new MBP (after being fed up with windows), but he is worried about the performance of the GeForce 8600M GT (265 MB SDRAM)
I heard it is quite capable of handling the current games out there (Oblivion, Crysis,...) but how well would it be able to handle games in the next few years? Are we talking playable at lower settings or utterly incapable of running the latest games? (eg the Elder Scrolls 5)

If this is too hard to predict, then please tell me how the 8600 GT stacks up against the Geforce 7950 GTX (512 MB DDR3), from the similary priced Dell XPS M1710 (this is the other laptop being considered by my brother).

Don't buy a MBP for games. In fact, I'd say don't buy any Mac for games, period. Keep his PC and buy a Mac for non gaming activities.

 

[uniquedesign]

new games run well under bootcamp on a MBP, look it up on Youtube alot of usefull vids can be found.

I only have bootcamp too play games and it works well for anything else I use Leopard.

it's not a PRO-gaming machine but you can enjoy gaming on it and thta's what's important...

 

[blurb23]

The 7950GTX will destroy the MBP's 8600GT. The only advantage that the 8600 has is that it supports DX10. Now since your brother is wondering about how future proof the card is, DX10 support might be a deal breaker since the 7950 can only do DX9.

The 7950GTX was the high-end of mobile graphics cards for a while (even after most of the 8xxx series came out), and is only now bested by the 8800M.

 

[ChrisN]

If you go to youtube just search MacBook pro running crysis( or any other game) and there is one guy who has a video of him playing a lot of new games on his MBP.

ChrisN

 

[wrightc23]

Actually the MBP is pretty good for games. I've got Vista x64 installed via Boot Camp (use the x64 Boot Camp Mac Pro drivers) and it runs all the games I play pretty well including Crysis, World in Conflict and Call of Duty 4.

Let's face it short of a beheamoth desktop replacement e.g. Dell XPS1730 notebooks are never going to be as good as a decent desktop. However the current spec is comparable with most high end notebooks. Only a couple of gaming laptops are now introducing the 8800M or have a dual 8700 SLI option. Most high spec notebooks current have an 8600GT e.g. XPS1530 so the MBP is certainly competitive and can be used to play any of the current games.

In reality it will be quick enough to play any modern game for several years to come. Just don't expect 1920x1200, 8xAA etc. I play most games at 1280x800 with 2/4xAA and the MBP runs them all quite happily.