Gaming MacBook Rumored coming 2016

[Jackcooper]

It's no denying Macbooks and Macbook pros don't compare to their windows laptop counterparts in terms of pure performance when it comes to pc gaming. I have recently read an online article about a possible reboot of the Macbook lineup next year stating it may come with updated Nvidia graphics performance and other great specs likewise to make it more gaming focused or to have a gaming version of the macbook.
This could be a good opportunity for Apple to showcase what it can do when coming up against some tough competition. There is also question to weather there is much of a market for this kind of thing. I know I would be myself if they do it right because at the moment my macbook really struggles to play anything at a decent frame rate except for maybe....Chess? So if they kept that signature beautiful apple design with a 1080p screen, decent performance to make sure it will be able to run games okay in 3-5 years and that the price isn't crazy high they could be onto something in my opinion.
I was wondering what anyone else thinks?
would you buy a Gaming Macbook?
How much would you spend on one?
do you think apple can crack PC gaming?

I think if they can pull off all that in an affordable package I would definitely be interested in upgrading.

Thanks for reading,

Jack,

 

[keysofanxiety]

I think if they can pull off all that in an affordable package I would definitely be interested in upgrading.

They could - they have the ability. They have the money. They have the technology. But they won't.

1) You can't even get a dGPU in any of their computers costing over ~£2000. You're lucky if their graphics are even powerful enough to push the pixels on the screen smoothly.

2) Their OpenGL support and drivers on OS X is abysmal, to put it lightly.

3) Even their dual-GPU Mac Pro doesn't support Crossfire in OS X. That's what you get for £8000. A solid 30% of hardware performance down the drain compared to Windows, even before considering drivers.

4) One less GPU means less manufacturing cost, and less chance of something else to fail. Also, better battery life. And less manufacturing cost.

5) Apple have never had an interest in gaming. Gaming on iOS was pretty much a fluke, that they've now completely killed by encouraging revenue from iAds to get in developers - which any schmuck can tell you, will quite obviously encourage the wrong type of developers. In 2009 we had interesting, innovative, and fun gaming apps. Developers making the most of the hardware and really having fun with the new interface. Now you'll be lucky to find anything that isn't shovelware pay-to-play freemium addictive rubbish. And these are on phones with console-level graphics and desktop-class CPUs. What a waste.

6) Although gaming on OS X began to have a surge around 2013 when the Mac's marketshare really began to grow, and people realised that more people wanted to game on their Mac, that's now doing the opposite due to Apple not putting in decent graphics hardware which is reflective of the time (see point 1). That's one of the reasons why Blizzard, an Apple faithful developer, has thrown in the towel.

 

[Jackcooper]

They could - they have the ability. They have the money. They have the technology. But they won't.

1) You can't even get a dGPU in any of their computers costing over ~£2000. You're lucky if their graphics are even powerful enough to push the pixels on the screen smoothly.

2) Their OpenGL support and drivers on OS X is abysmal, to put it lightly.

3) Even their dual-GPU Mac Pro doesn't support Crossfire in OS X. That's what you get for £8000. A solid 30% of hardware performance down the drain compared to Windows, even before considering drivers.

4) One less GPU means less manufacturing cost, and less chance of something else to fail. Also, better battery life. And less manufacturing cost.

5) Apple have never had an interest in gaming. Gaming on iOS was pretty much a fluke, that they've now completely killed by encouraging revenue from iAds to get in developers - which any schmuck can tell you, will quite obviously encourage the wrong type of developers. In 2009 we had interesting, innovative, and fun gaming apps. Developers making the most of the hardware and really having fun with the new interface. Now you'll be lucky to find anything that isn't shovelware pay-to-play freemium addictive rubbish. And these are on phones with console-level graphics and desktop-class CPUs. What a waste.

6) Although gaming on OS X began to have a surge around 2013 when the Mac's marketshare really began to grow, and people realised that more people wanted to game on their Mac, that's now doing the opposite due to Apple not putting in decent graphics hardware which is reflective of the time (see point 1). That's one of the reasons why Blizzard, an Apple faithful developer, has thrown in the towel.

Wow thanks for the quick response, I think If they wanted to do it then they would completely have to redesign the macbook from scratch and take what companies like razer have been doing with the razer blade's nice design and take a page out of their book but like you said they wont....it's unfortunate because I would have liked to see apple put out something that blows away the rest. they would have to build it from the ground up which I guess would mean redesigning everything and spending alot of money doing so.......

 

[Huntn]

It depends somewhat on what it costs. My impression is that you can buy a decent PC gaming laptop for about $1200. Right now you have to spend $2500 to get a MBP with a dedicated graphic card. I've purchased the top MBP when I was traveling a lot because that one computer offered the best 2 in 1 value gaming laptop with MacOS. Now as I've retired and don't travel so much, it's harder for me to justify that kind of cost just to occasionally play a game while traveling.

 

[saturnotaku]

it's unfortunate because I would have liked to see apple put out something that blows away the rest.

Gamers care about performance. For Apple to create hardware that would appeal to the hardcore crowd, it would need to produce something that goes completely against its design ethos.

Now a Thunderbolt eGPU solution to complement a standard mid-range built-in GPU would make a bit more sense, although that won't ever happen either.

 

[strukt]

Gamers care about performance. For Apple to create hardware that would appeal to the hardcore crowd, it would need to produce something that goes completely against its design ethos.

Now a Thunderbolt eGPU solution to complement a standard mid-range built-in GPU would make a bit more sense, although that won't ever happen either.

Thunderbolt eGPU solutions exist today and they also work with Macs. But its not plug and play. (yet)

 

[Cougarcat]

I wouldn't say rumored, more like "wish and hope for in vain despite all indications to the contrary."

Thunderbolt eGPU solutions exist today and they also work with Macs. But its not plug and play. (yet)

And they are also so expensive that they pretty much defeat the point.

 

[MacAlien]

"Gaming" MacBook as in games played on smart phones is about the only thing to come to mind. Apple would need to do some serious overhauling both with their OS, drivers, etc... Or they could simply sell MBs with Windows on them...lol oh that just made me giggle nonstop.

 

[zgwortz]

It's far past time that Apple realized that people *want* to do gaming on their laptops. AFAIK, it's the *main* reason anyone still uses Boot Camp -- and that, IMHO, is the main reason we haven't gotten any real gaming support. Game developers look at Macs and say "Oh, they'll just use Boot Camp". Apple looks at Game Developers and say, "They aren't making games for Mac, so we shouldn't spend time supporting them."

Both are wrong to do so, but Apple is the main one which has to make the change. It's not difficult - they have everything they need to make the Mac a better gaming platform, but they have to commit to bringing OpenGL up to date and developing high performance drivers. If they only did that one thing, game developers would be much more inclined to do cross platform development.

The other thing which we can do to change this is Just Say No to Boot Camp. Settling for Boot Camp and buying Windows versions of any game is effectively voting for less Mac game support with your wallet. Don't do it.

 

[Cougarcat]

It's far past time that Apple realized that people *want* to do gaming on their laptops. AFAIK, it's the *main* reason anyone still uses Boot Camp -- and that, IMHO, is the main reason we haven't gotten any real gaming support. Game developers look at Macs and say "Oh, they'll just use Boot Camp". Apple looks at Game Developers and say, "They aren't making games for Mac, so we shouldn't spend time supporting them."

Don't think Bootcamp plays much, if any, role. Ports didn't decline when Apple switched to intel; they dramatically increased (because it was easier to port, and the platform became healthier.) The reasons remain the same: Apple's lack of interest, and the size of the userbase.

 

[saturnotaku]

If they only did that one thing, game developers would be much more inclined to do cross platform development.

Only if a business case to the bean counters can be made. It doesn't matter how many tools Apple might make available. Gamers are a subset of a subset of Apple's market.

It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy, really.

 

[iPadCary]

In 2009 we had interesting, innovative, and fun gaming apps.
Developers making the most of the hardware and really having fun with the new interface.
Now you'll be lucky to find anything that isn't shovelware pay-to-play freemium addictive rubbish.
And these are on phones with console-level graphics and desktop-class CPUs.
What a waste.

+10000000000000

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

decent performance to make sure it will be able to run games okay in 3-5 years and that the price isn't crazy high they could be onto something in my opinion.

These two statements alone are in contrast of each other, and ensures it will never happen. A gaming laptop that is still doing fine for modern games 5 years after release will never happen.

eGPU's are a MUCH better thing in this case, but no way Apple will 1. build an item for such a small crowd, and 2. actually do something for Mac gamers.

 

[MichalM.Mac]

Ports didn't decline when Apple switched to intel;

Not initially. 2006-2008 were very bad years for Mac games. I can back this up with data I put together.

 

[jeanlain]

Why would Apple waste resources in actively supporting OS X gaming? It's not as if they were going to convince major developers like EA to port all their games for 5% of the user base, even if all Macs were equipped with descent GPUs and if OS X divers were supper optimized. So Apple doesn't bother, and this is a wise decision.
Apple is a single vendor, OS X won't get anywhere near 20% market share, and that explains all. Gaming is very expensive to support (needs GPUs, needs drivers, needs APIs) for very little in return coming from the AAA game developers, who only look at the user base.

 

[Yaboze]

I would buy a 15" MBP Skylake with a nVidia 965M in a hearbeat.

 

[Fancuku]

AFAIK, it's the *main* reason anyone still uses Boot Camp -- and that, IMHO, is the main reason we haven't gotten any real gaming support.

While there are some people that use Bootcamp for gaming, it is far from being the main reason. The dGPUs in the MBPs are pretty pathetic for gaming.

 

[Nunyabinez]

First of all the "gaming" market is highly fragmented. My wife is a gamer (words with friends, clumsy ninja), while I am also a gamer and a member of the PC Master Race. For her needs, iPhones, iPads and MBAs work just fine as is. For me, even a "gaming" laptop would not work because I want to upgrade video cards every handful of months.

I used boot camp on my RiMac for a while, and found it was OK, but I knew that it wouldn't be long before games would come out that would crush my video card, and to be honest, I didn't want a $3000 machine to fail because I burned out the mobile video card.

So, the solution for me was to build a windows machine with a nice video card that I could swap out and dedicate it to gaming.

I don't think Apple has shown any inclination of wanting to be in the gaming computer market. If you look at what percentage Macs are of Apple's overall revenue, it's more likely that they will phase out Macs than it is that they would try to make powerhouse gaming laptops.

Tim Cook uses an iPad to run Apple. I think, he thinks that is where we are all heading. I sure hope that he's wrong.

 

[Ipadilac]

Gaming on a Mac is a joke. I have 2014 Retina with R9 M295X and I play WoW. It's playable but for the most part it is maxing out the GPU's ability and the fan is something you will hear non-stop. I tried running boot camped Windows 7 on it and found that the FPS is actually better.. but for whatever reason the game randomly freezes up for 15-20 seconds. So, for gaming I use my Windows Gaming PC.

 

[hiddenmarkov]

Markets not there for apple to do this hardcore I think.

Cost as mentioned. Gaming laptops or gaming PC's much cheaper. And we still have to see how the steam machine or variants take off. the what I will call the shoebox computers...as there are many out there beyond steam box fitting in basically that space now. Plus ye olde console.

I used to be a console hater. Then I stopped pixel peeping (yes pc can be better, will give them that), and with limited time I can't play games with fun mods anymore (replay an 80 hour game with mods since different, or kill limited play time researching/working out the stacking of mods that doesn't crash the game or bog).

Basically of late, many games I'd in the past would have said "PC" or nothing....have been xbox one live buys. My anti console stance erodes away slowly. As even bootcamp can be limiting and don't want a PC tower again at this time. Of late my mac os games have been the more indy games out there that also run on Linux (very small subset of devs do this). Also not fps monsters to start with these vendors. TBH my only planned game for mac os near future will be the new xcom as a more major release. Last port was good, hoping the magic happens again. besides that...I predict if steam sales good this holiday season more of the retro "8-16 bit" games or Unity engine based stuff (unity common in the indy game market of late).

Support as well just not there. Except for some developers mac is the other port that just gets taken off the list. PC, Sony PS, Xbox (variants for the consoles) are 3 projects that eat up dev time and costs. Mac OS becomes the 4th one probably hard to sell. so is Linux as a 5th. Not a good sign as it can be quite common for Linux users to have the same rigs as a window user, they just run Linux on the box. they can do the whole NVidia 970 is old 2 years from now and swap just like that to new card. they get no AAA gaming love really all the same though.

Well that and apple can be pita. Its frequent release cycle is a dual edged sword. I love the fact that we get new releases so often. But....as I have seen with some games it can be a pain. My lucky streak with say Eve online broke with Yosemite. Many OS upgrades done and eve worked right after not skipping a beat. Yosemite upgrade was my reality check. Eve was basically unplayable for me for about a month due to random hard crashes. Crashes I would have loved to send the log dumps to help fix but....whatever was happening was not creating them even. CCP fixed this in time...still lost some play time though.

more recently...apple introduced some new security features in EC. Features I learned of because it caused a new game game I got to not start up. Googled, stumbled upon a security feature new to EC that has to be disabled in recovery mode. Not even running state from command line changes. Straight up reboot, recovery mode and command line in from there to kill the new feature. In short....apple is not putting out the welcome mat doing this. Every year a new release and new round of roll them dice and see it if works.

 

[oxfordguy]

It's a shame, as it's perfectly possible to put even an Nvidia 970M into something the form factor of a 15" MBP, just checkout the Razer Blade 2015 model, which has one of these in it: http://www.engadget.com/products/razer/blade/2015/

My most recent laptop purchase was not a Mac, for the first time (wasn't the Razer either, as they don't sell this in Europe, sadly), as I just got fed up with the poor graphics performance, despite being otherwise enamored of Macbook design and Mac OS X

 

[e93to]

Gaming MBP will cost a lot, which will be purchased by not many. If Apple wanted up beef up their computers with better graphics cards, it will be for creative professions like video editing. For $2000 (cost of today's 15" MBP and 21" riMac), if I wanted a gaming computer, I would rather buy a gaming PC.

And let's not forget PC gaming is taking a backseat due to console.... The game developers are busy optimizing games for consoles, and then porting them to PC. How many new big release games are offered on OSX straight away along with consoles and PC?

I love gaming on computers, but there seems to be more future in gaming with Apple TV than Macs.

 

[Areos]

First of all the "gaming" market is highly fragmented. My wife is a gamer (words with friends, clumsy ninja), while I am also a gamer and a member of the PC Master Race. For her needs, iPhones, iPads and MBAs work just fine as is. For me, even a "gaming" laptop would not work because I want to upgrade video cards every handful of months.

I used boot camp on my RiMac for a while, and found it was OK, but I knew that it wouldn't be long before games would come out that would crush my video card, and to be honest, I didn't want a $3000 machine to fail because I burned out the mobile video card.

So, the solution for me was to build a windows machine with a nice video card that I could swap out and dedicate it to gaming.

I don't think Apple has shown any inclination of wanting to be in the gaming computer market. If you look at what percentage Macs are of Apple's overall revenue, it's more likely that they will phase out Macs than it is that they would try to make powerhouse gaming laptops.

Tim Cook uses an iPad to run Apple. I think, he thinks that is where we are all heading. I sure hope that he's wrong.

This is the path I take some years ago after my last Macbook PRO 17", it was an excellent machine but with a low end GPU, so I bough selected gaming laptops machines and run OS X on it, I know I lost some macbook functions, but I gain a real gaming machine. My las HackBook Pro is an ASUS G750JH machine with i7 4700HQ and 780M 4GB GPU, it runs every game on windows and OS X and after almost two years with it and a lot of work I made all the functions work, including the smart trackpad, bluetooth, brightness, back light keyboard, sound with subwoofer, Wi-Fi, etc.

So what I mean is if you need a gaming laptop you can wait to Apple to build one, or go the other way and choose a good Gaming laptop and use OS X on it, this way require a lot of work but in my opinion its worth it.

Choose wisely if you are going to buy a gaming laptop because a lot of machine use Nvidia Optimus, and with it you won´t be able to use the dGPU.

Good Luck

 

[Dirtyharry50]

There is no rumor of a Mac gaming notebook computer coming in 2016 or at any other time. There is not going to be one either. Apple is all about iOS gaming across the ecosystem over time, not core AAA gaming. I don't see that changing any time soon.

 

[DesertSurfer]

Apple could pretty easily have a gaming-oriented Mac Mini and/or Mac Pro. The mini doesn't have the thin/battery life problems of the laptops, the pro only needs to accommodate more gaming-oriented cards. But, those things won't happen either. I went the only way feasible for games, a gaming PC (consoles are not a bad option either). There is a large gaming market and Apple is helping everyone else by not competing in it.