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Gaming MacBook Pro

Intelligent

Intelligent

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 7, 2013
922
2
My Computer Macbook Pro 13 inch (Early 2011)


2,3 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

Is very slow, ive tried everything but doesnt get any better :confused:

Anyways im thinking of buying a new laptop (Macbook pro preferably)

Im more into gaming now, but any reccomendations on a good Gaming mac that doesnt cost too much, And don't tell i should buy a PC. Ive been using mac all my life and im not switching to Windows. So yeah.:D
 
Intelligent said:
My Computer Macbook Pro 13 inch (Early 2011)


2,3 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

Is very slow, ive tried everything but doesnt get any better :confused:

Anyways im thinking of buying a new laptop (Macbook pro preferably)

Im more into gaming now, but any reccomendations on a good Gaming mac that doesnt cost too much, And don't tell i should buy a PC. Ive been using mac all my life and im not switching to Windows. So yeah.:D
Click to expand...

Like mentaluproar said, you're gonna need a dedicated card. So that will set you back at least like 2000$. You could also try building a Hackingtosh out of a Windows laptop, so you'll still have OSX but maybe some better hardware for probably less cash, but that's up to you.
 
fenjen said:
Like mentaluproar said, you're gonna need a dedicated card. So that will set you back at least like 2000$. You could also try building a Hackingtosh out of a Windows laptop, so you'll still have OSX but maybe some better hardware for probably less cash, but that's up to you.
Click to expand...

What, whats Hackingtosh?
 
Look at a refurbished non-retina. The framerate should be higher because that same GPU is pushing fewer pixels. The costs savings is killer too. :)
 
Last edited:
mentaluproar said:
Look at a refurbished non-retina. The framerate should be higher because that same GPU is pushing managing pixels. The costs savings is killer too. :)
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Like this?

15-inch: 2.3GHz

2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
4GB 1600MHz memory
500GB 5400-rpm hard drive1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB of GDDR5 memory

:)
 
Yes. I'm looking at that model myself, so I may be a bit biased. As much as I like retina, I'd rather have the lower price and more storage options.
 
mentaluproar said:
Yes. I'm looking at that model myself, so I may be a bit biased. As much as I like retina, I'd rather have the lower price and more storage options.
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Look at the 15" rMBP base for $1,599. You cannot beat that deal. Also people will tell you "Macs aren't for gaming" "Get a PC" etc.

Get whatever you want. Keep in mind you'll want to look into installing Windows via Bootcamp if you want the best performance.
 
There is no gaming macbook pro.


The only Mac that is available with a decent GPU is the 27'' iMac. The 15'' MBP is also capable of running games, but given the price the gaming performance is lacking.
 
thundersteele said:
There is no gaming macbook pro.


The only Mac that is available with a decent GPU is the 27'' iMac. The 15'' MBP is also capable of running games, but given the price the gaming performance is lacking.
Click to expand...

This.

If you're a casual gamer though MBP should be fine. On high requirement games (BF3, Skyrim) you'll be getting relatively crappy frames, like 30-45 (not really playable in my opinion). But on all other games you'll probably get 50+ . It would be nice to have better, but it's forgivable. If you're an avid gamer, you obviously wouldn't even consider a mac. Or you made a desktop gpu able to run through thunderbolt, via 4-5 different connection points - of course. I'm still hoping the Retina gets faster discrete graphics this refresh. If not, I plan to buy it anyway, but will try to calmly accept the fact that I won't be happy about the graphics, lol.
 
mentaluproar said:
Look at a refurbished non-retina. The framerate should be higher because that same GPU is pushing managing pixels. The costs savings is killer too. :)
Click to expand...

Unless you are gaming in 2880x1800 you have nothing to worry about in terms of FPS loss. As long as you're playing on a lower resolution like 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1920x1200 etc, you will not lose any more frames than you would on the 15" cMBP. As TGI said the $1599 rMBP is a steal, $600 off is a damn good deal. When you are playing a game, the games aren't modified like OSX is to take advantage of the retina display, therefore no extra FPS loss unless as I said before you are playing at native res. Just check online man, the retina 15" handles games like nobody's business its a powerhouse.

Also keep in mind too, if you want to sell your MBP in the future you will get more for the rMBP than the cMBP especially if the new 15" Haswell retina's only have the integrated GPU's.
 
If gaming is your main priority then you should really look into getting a PC :) Other then that, the retina MBP offers similar levels of performance as a mid-tier gaming laptop because of its factory over clocked card, which is basically a GTX 660M if you go by its configuration.
 
leman said:
If gaming is your main priority then you should really look into getting a PC :) Other then that, the retina MBP offers similar levels of performance as a mid-tier gaming laptop because of its factory over clocked card, which is basically a GTX 660M if you go by its configuration.
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My main priority is not gaming but i do game pretty much, i often edit videos, pictures and browse the internet.
 
I've gamed on my Retina 15" but it's not really good. The GPU may be a discrete one, but it still is a mobile GPU. I also bootcamped to windows because most games I play are not available for OSX.

I know this is not something you want to do, but in the end I've built a cheap gaming PC with the biggest GPU my budget could afford. The system runs windows, I really hate it, but to minimise the windows feeling I automatically start steam in full screen ;) For gaming this thing screams.

Several friends of mine built a hackintosh, but that's not something I wanted. I just wanted a console-like PC. :)
 
I have been playing Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 (Mac versions, not windows) on my base model 15" rMBP and they run very well. I have no complaints at all about gaming performance on this machine. Sure, a purpose-built PC would be better, but I'm happy with the framerates I'm getting and I still get to enjoy the retina display for everything else I do with it.
 
the only mac for "all in one games" is the imac with 680mx, now in the present
if you don't want one now, maybe the list will provide 1 or 2 more macs for gaming included and i refer to the haswell macbook pro 15" if it will have the 760M dGPU, and the second will be the iMac has well 21.5" and the 27" with the 780M, which is the fastest mobile gpu for now, and if they collaborate with nvidia again for a 780MX i sure will buy one piece of iMac.

so wait until the mac refresh because i guess a macbook pro 15" with 760M will be over 20% better than the current model, and for the iMac. (i dont know about the mac pro but doesnt worth the money for gaming when you have the iMac)
 
Serban said:
the only mac for "all in one games" is the imac with 680mx, now in the present
if you don't want one now, maybe the list will provide 1 or 2 more macs for gaming included and i refer to the haswell macbook pro 15" if it will have the 760M dGPU, and the second will be the iMac has well 21.5" and the 27" with the 780M, which is the fastest mobile gpu for now, and if they collaborate with nvidia again for a 780MX i sure will buy one piece of iMac.

so wait until the mac refresh because i guess a macbook pro 15" with 760M will be over 20% better than the current model, and for the iMac. (i dont know about the mac pro but doesnt worth the money for gaming when you have the iMac)
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Do you think i should get a retina instead of the normal one, because i have the money i WANT to spend them on a MacBook Pro, so is it worth getting retina if im gaming or does that make it slower in some way
 
Intelligent said:
Do you think i should get a retina instead of the normal one, because i have the money i WANT to spend them on a MacBook Pro, so is it worth getting retina if im gaming or does that make it slower in some way
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It will actually be faster at similar resolutions (like 1440x900) because the retina's GPU is factory overclocked whereas the regular is not.
 
B... said:
It will actually be faster at similar resolutions (like 1440x900) because the retina's GPU is factory overclocked whereas the regular is not.
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I know but its a extremly high resolution, will that make it slower?, but if i put down the setting to like 1440 x 920 or something the games won't look ****ed up right?:eek:
 
Intelligent said:
I know but its a extremly high resolution, will that make it slower?, but if i put down the setting to like 1440 x 920 or something the games won't look ****ed up right?:eek:
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The overclocking more than makes up for it. At 1440x900, the game looks good and the retina will perform a little better than the classic. 1920x1200 is great too.
 
B... said:
The overclocking more than makes up for it. At 1440x900, the game looks good and the retina will perform a little better than the classic. 1920x1200 is great too.
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Wow thanks but maybe could you try to explain why the graphics doesnt get blurry :)?
 
Intelligent said:
Wow thanks but maybe could you try to explain why the graphics doesnt get blurry :)?
Click to expand...

Because it has a physical resolution of 2880x1800. So 1440x900 has perfect 2:1 scaling (every 4 physical pixels will act like 1 and display the same color). At 1920x1200, the scaling is uneven which causes some bluriness, but the physical panel has so many pixels that you can't see the bluriness and it looks like regular full HD.
 
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