I'm going to college and I want to get a mac. I don't have too much money for a laptop so I was going to get a macbook but I also like to play some PC games. I know the macbook pro has 2 video chips, one dedicated to games and such. I play mostly old games like Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Battlefield 1942 but i also am an avid Half Life 2 player and I would really enjoy the new Diablo game. Would a regular Macbook be able to play the the Half Life games and newer games like Diablo?
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Gaming and the Macbook
- Thread starter judelawandme
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NewMacbookPlz
macrumors 68040
Just looking at the system req's for HL2/Wolfenstein Enemy Territory/BF1942, the MB will run them no issue.
Those are all pretty old games, the most demanding wanting like 800mhz Pentium3 as the minimum with a DirectX 8.1 gfx card, lol
I ran all of them on medium/high with my old P4 2.4ghz rev.B with a GeForce4200Ti 32MB back in the day 😉
Those are all pretty old games, the most demanding wanting like 800mhz Pentium3 as the minimum with a DirectX 8.1 gfx card, lol
I ran all of them on medium/high with my old P4 2.4ghz rev.B with a GeForce4200Ti 32MB back in the day 😉
Thanks for the info. I figured the older stuff would be fine. It was half life and Diablo 3 i was worried about. Do you guys think Diablo 3 will run alright?
even the base model aluminium macbook
can play crysis comfortably, smooth framerate on low settings and just under native resolution.
dont underestimate it! its not a hardcore gaming machine but is currently quite good for the casual gamer. mine can max out half life 2 smoothly.
can play crysis comfortably, smooth framerate on low settings and just under native resolution.
dont underestimate it! its not a hardcore gaming machine but is currently quite good for the casual gamer. mine can max out half life 2 smoothly.
NewMacbookPlz
macrumors 68040
Seeing how Blizzard hasn't even released Diablo3 req's yet, who knows...
http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/faq/#2_2
MistaBungle
macrumors 6502a
Blizzard has always been good about keeping requirements reasonable. They target current hardware, not future equipment so I would be willing to bet that SC2 and Diablo 3 will run just fine.
Ol3s
macrumors regular
I typically don't bother unless it's OS X native, but if I ever get the urge to play a Steam game, I boot into windows
aznguyen316
macrumors 68010
What he said. But to answer more in-depth, framerates for the orange box are fine w/ the new MB's, but you can't run on all highs. The game runs much better on Bootcamp, as I can run all highs and it will look beautiful. native resolution. I played HL2 and Ep1 via crossover and then decided to install and play ep2 in Bootcamp and even though that game is a bit more performance intensive, it runs on highs on my MB and looks ooh so good. Worth booting into windows for the better graphics/settings.
I also have Crysis Warhead and that runs at 30FPS min settings w/ overclocked GPU/CPU. normally about 25FPS at normal clock. Crysis though runs pretty bad. Warhead is a better optimized game. Either way, you're good w/ the MB for now and Diablo III should be okay. But w/ the MBP you're DEF fine. From my research, the MB is one of the better "gaming" notebooks that is also light weight and small footprint. Not 7.5 lbs lol like the ASUS although those are pretty kickass gaming notebooks.
aznguyen316
macrumors 68010
to tell you the truth, you dont buy a mac for gaming
if you want to play games are a RESPECTABLE resolution/framerate get this cheaper laptop (doesnt make much sense does it, but buying a mac for games doesnt either)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220490
the Asus G series is MADE for gaming
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4G
15.6" WXGA+ (1366 x 768)
4GB Ram
320GB HDD 7200RPM
GeForce 9700GT 512MB (this video card will slaughter the non deticated chip in the macbook)
N + Bluetooth
4USB (vs the 2 in the macbook)
1x Firewire (no FW in macbook)
1x VGA
1x HDMI (no HDMI in macbook w sound)
1x eSATA (no esata op on macbook)
card reader (no reader op on macbook)
1yr accidental warranty (no accidental warranty on macbook)
2 years parts and labor (apple only has 1)
$1099 from NEWEGG
are you going to say thats not a better value? the asus has better build quality than the macbook (asus used to make macbooks but asus always keeps the higher quality designs for themselves)
yes you have to use vista, but vista is FAST and stable when it comes to gaming, almost all new games are design for vista anyways. you wont have to purchase a copy of vista so you can bootcamp it on your mac, the macbook will do nothing this Asus cant, if you want you can even run OSX on this machine faster than the mac could.
if you want to play games are a RESPECTABLE resolution/framerate get this cheaper laptop (doesnt make much sense does it, but buying a mac for games doesnt either)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220490
the Asus G series is MADE for gaming
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4G
15.6" WXGA+ (1366 x 768)
4GB Ram
320GB HDD 7200RPM
GeForce 9700GT 512MB (this video card will slaughter the non deticated chip in the macbook)
N + Bluetooth
4USB (vs the 2 in the macbook)
1x Firewire (no FW in macbook)
1x VGA
1x HDMI (no HDMI in macbook w sound)
1x eSATA (no esata op on macbook)
card reader (no reader op on macbook)
1yr accidental warranty (no accidental warranty on macbook)
2 years parts and labor (apple only has 1)
$1099 from NEWEGG
are you going to say thats not a better value? the asus has better build quality than the macbook (asus used to make macbooks but asus always keeps the higher quality designs for themselves)
yes you have to use vista, but vista is FAST and stable when it comes to gaming, almost all new games are design for vista anyways. you wont have to purchase a copy of vista so you can bootcamp it on your mac, the macbook will do nothing this Asus cant, if you want you can even run OSX on this machine faster than the mac could.
I have little doubt the MacBook would have any issues with either Diablo 3 or Half Life 2.
However, the 13' screen might be a pain. External monitor would be great.
However, the 13' screen might be a pain. External monitor would be great.
aznguyen316
macrumors 68010
The thing is, if he wanted to buy a pure gaming laptop, I think he would know better than to get a MB. OP states 1) he wants a mac 2) he would like to do a little gaming, as on the side. If it's on the side, the MB is very capable for older games he listed and possible some lower demanding games that have recently released. I believe SC2 and DIII will be fine also.
Those asus are great gaming laptops no doubt, BB has a good one for $899 w/ the 9800m GS card which looks amazing, but it's 7.5lbs! I mean this is for school the OP states, you don't want to be carrying that around now do you? Just for HL2 (which my MB can run on highs)... I cannot comment on Diablo III, but I can run Dawn of War II respectably on my MB as well, so I'm going to guess w/ Blizzard's track record Diablo III should not require any higher requirements..
HL2 (and all games based on the source engine, IE Left 4 Dead) is from Q3 2004, i sure hope to God that it wouldnt have a problem with a 5 year old game.
when buying a macbook you have to remember
the Graphics is almost no better than an intel 4500 integrated solution, it has NO DETICATED RAM, its Built into your north bridge and not a seperate video processor. on a Mac you have no option to overclock either, you can safely overclock your video card 50-150MHz permanently and gain at least 6-7FPS (this is the difference between able to play a game and NOT able to play)
aznguyen316
macrumors 68010
Yup, but you gotta get Crossover games. Email them asking for a special deal, I got a license for $12 as opposed to the retail $40, see if you can get something worked out. You won't be able to play games at better settings in OS X though but it's great to just boot up and play for a bit w/o restarting the whole MB.
its just a thought to save alot of frustration to have a game lag and be near unplayable. or to have a game look horrible since the graphics all have to be turned to its bare minimum while the person next to you has everything maxed out on a laptop thats cheaper.
as i said, the Asus is not gaming only, its MORE productive than an equiv macbook since the components are faster inside, open office is free, most software for windows is free. you dont even have to use windows, you can dual boot just like a Macbook, or even run ubuntu. (ubuntu it easier to use than OSX now)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220512
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220488
Both would be solid choices for the OP.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220488
Both would be solid choices for the OP.
what you COULD do is......
get a gaming laptop for $799 and get a Dell mini 9 for OSX for about $300