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gaming on a mac

O

ostrich160

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 18, 2011
13
0
Hi guys, last year I brought a MBP (13inch i5, 4gb ram) and until now its been fine. However, I am now much more into gaming, and although I have a desktop pc, im often on the go and want to play games. My friend suggested selling my mac, but id rather not because I can only get £500 for a machine I payed £1000 for (I think, correct me if Im wrong) and all my stuff is on here. Ive also found OSX better than windows. Is there any solution to my need for gaming, but on a mac? could I upgrade its RAM and graphics card. I already know I can dual boot with windows and OSX so if I find a solution I'll do that as well, but I havent found a solution yet. Any ideas?

(p.s. My mac is the 2011 basic MacBook pro 13inch, and the kind of games I like to play are minecraft, which id like to run a server for, Mass effect 3 and TF2, so ill need ram and graphics upgrade if possible)

(p.p.s I know I can already play alot of these games on my mac, but it simply isnt powerful enough for me)

Thanks
 
ostrich160 said:
Hi guys, last year I brought a MBP (13inch i5, 4gb ram) and until now its been fine. However, I am now much more into gaming, and although I have a desktop pc, im often on the go and want to play games. My friend suggested selling my mac, but id rather not because I can only get £500 for a machine I payed £1000 for (I think, correct me if Im wrong) and all my stuff is on here. Ive also found OSX better than windows. Is there any solution to my need for gaming, but on a mac? could I upgrade its RAM and graphics card. I already know I can dual boot with windows and OSX so if I find a solution I'll do that as well, but I havent found a solution yet. Any ideas?

(p.s. My mac is the 2011 basic MacBook pro 13inch, and the kind of games I like to play are minecraft, which id like to run a server for, Mass effect 3 and TF2, so ill need ram and graphics upgrade if possible)

(p.p.s I know I can already play alot of these games on my mac, but it simply isnt powerful enough for me)

Thanks
Click to expand...


You can not upgrade the graphics card because it is part of the logic board.
You can upgrade the RAM which would make a very small positive difference.

So, there is nothing you can do that will make any real difference to your gaming experience if you want to keep your current Macbook. Sorry.
 
ostrich160 said:
Hi guys, last year I brought a MBP (13inch i5, 4gb ram) and until now its been fine. However, I am now much more into gaming, and although I have a desktop pc, im often on the go and want to play games. My friend suggested selling my mac, but id rather not because I can only get £500 for a machine I payed £1000 for (I think, correct me if Im wrong) and all my stuff is on here. Ive also found OSX better than windows. Is there any solution to my need for gaming, but on a mac? could I upgrade its RAM and graphics card. I already know I can dual boot with windows and OSX so if I find a solution I'll do that as well, but I havent found a solution yet. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

First rule known by all, never buy a Mac for gaming, they are crappy and/or uncompatible
 
Macs aren't that bad for gaming, but far from ideal, source engine games do pretty well, but the 13" i5 is probably the problem, as (i think) the 13" only has integrated gfx, I went with the top (early 2011) 15" with the 6750m and on low-medium settings it's great, I even manage some games on high(ish) settings

at this point if you REALLY want to game on the go (with a mac) wait for ivy bridge and get a 15" with dedicated gfx

I get where your coming from though, I love my mac, but I have a more beastly PC for my more serious gaming, but I love having my games on my mac on the go, and I much prefer my mac for everyday use

also unless you know what your doing I wouldn't bother running a minecraft server on a mac, from what I've read it's a giant pain, my PC server is tricky enough, and that's meant to be simpler (with the .exe file)

mass effect could still be a bit of a problem though anyway you might get away with the lowest settings but I know my mac runs TF2 really well
 
PAPO said:
Macs aren't that bad for gaming, but far from ideal, source engine games do pretty well, but the 13" i5 is probably the problem, as (i think) the 13" only has integrated gfx, I went with the top (early 2011) 15" with the 6750m and on low-medium settings it's great, I even manage some games on high(ish) settings

mass effect could still be a bit of a problem though anyway you might get away with the lowest settings but I know my mac runs TF2 really well
Click to expand...

That is correct, there is no dedicated option on 13" MB's or MBP's. I can attest that TF2 runs really well on my early 2011 2.2 i7, 17" MBP with the 6750m and that older games (COD4) can run on almost maxed out settings no problem. Although obviously if you want to hear the game you'll need headphones because the fans get very loud at 90% their max speed.

Also, the RAM is user serviceable, but there is no way to upgrade the graphics. The ram has slots on the motherboard, but the graphics card is soldered on, and there is really no room inside of one of these for extra parts, let alone dealing with making a different card/chip work with OSX
 
PAPO said:
Macs aren't that bad for gaming, but far from ideal, source engine games do pretty well, but the 13" i5 is probably the problem, as (i think) the 13" only has integrated gfx, I went with the top (early 2011) 15" with the 6750m and on low-medium settings it's great, I even manage some games on high(ish) settings

at this point if you REALLY want to game on the go (with a mac) wait for ivy bridge and get a 15" with dedicated gfx

I get where your coming from though, I love my mac, but I have a more beastly PC for my more serious gaming, but I love having my games on my mac on the go, and I much prefer my mac for everyday use

also unless you know what your doing I wouldn't bother running a minecraft server on a mac, from what I've read it's a giant pain, my PC server is tricky enough, and that's meant to be simpler (with the .exe file)

mass effect could still be a bit of a problem though anyway you might get away with the lowest settings but I know my mac runs TF2 really well
Click to expand...

whats Ivy bridge? Can I upgrade my mac with it?

I suspose atm im just gonna have to make do, besides, its not like I game 24/7, I use my mac over my pc anyday for doing everyday things
 
I'm sorry to say but I think the main problem is that you got last years 13" Pro as that had the CPU's with poor integrated Intel GPU's if I'm correct?

I think YOUR best solution, is to save money and wait for this years refresh, then buy the 13" model if that's the size you want, with the best graphics it can have as I can only see them being far better. You can also get a fair bit for your Mac if it's in good condition. Macs hold their value very well, in fact anything Apple does :)
Or the other option is the buy the new refresh 15" model, and then choose which dedicated GPU option you want.
The latest 15" Macs can game fine, when in Windows I've seen so many You Tube videos of machines playing games fine, sure you may need to lower the res, but it's a Mac still playing games :)

TF2 will work fine as it's a Valve game, Mine Craft isn't too graphically intensive so should be fine, but Mass Effect 3 is a new game so uses the latest graphics tricks I guess? That should be your benchmark game.

Ah, a quick search and here you go, baseline 13" MB Pro playing Mass Effect 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHcGDzbxd9o
 
I play WoW on my home lab box, as well as on my MBP while traveling. The MBP isn't as good a gaming experience as the windows box, but something like a Mac pro would kick butt...
 
how much could I get for my mac? I have everything that comes with it and it just needs a clean, the only thing thats wrong with it is the hinges are a bit worn, but that happens to every mac. I suspose the big problem would be transferring all my files though
 
ostrich160 said:
whats Ivy bridge? Can I upgrade my mac with it?

I suspose atm im just gonna have to make do, besides, its not like I game 24/7, I use my mac over my pc anyday for doing everyday things
Click to expand...

no I ment get a new one with Ivy Bridge, and make it a 15" so it has dedicated gfx, the 15" MBP's are still really portable, I carted one all over the US with me
 
I use my MBP 15" for light gaming.

it will run everything I throw at it, sometimes need to turn the detail down a little bit (from max), but it handles it.

However, whilst running games, it gets hot, and the fans make a lot of noise.

If you can deal with that, fine. It pisses me off a bit, but I deal with it. For longer gaming sessions I use my desktop PC, but that's currently in storage as i just moved house and have nowhere to unpack it yet.

IMHO, if you want to keep a mac, and need a portable, but still want to game, i'd sell your 13", buy a refurb 15 (with a 6750 or 6770 GPU!!) and just live with the fan noise.
 
how much could I get for my mac? I have everything that comes with it and it just needs a clean, the only thing thats wrong with it is the hinges are a bit worn, but that happens to every mac. I suspose the big problem would be transferring all my files though
 
ostrich160 said:
how much could I get for my mac? I have everything that comes with it and it just needs a clean, the only thing thats wrong with it is the hinges are a bit worn, but that happens to every mac. I suspose the big problem would be transferring all my files though
Click to expand...

Use this guide to tell you, fill in the details:

http://www.mac2sell.net/

Also Apple's own website will give you a guide as they will trade in your old Mac themselves:

http://www.apple.com/recycling/gift-card/

THey will give you the value of your computer on a gift card that you can then use on the online Apple store or in a bricks and mortar store.
But whilst you can get a value now, it will only be worth checking just before or when the new Macs have been launched.
 
yeh I suspose I could try paralels with windows before I think about switching machines
 
ostrich160 said:
no, I would need to have OSX and windows if i was to keep my mac, I dont want to lose OSX
Click to expand...

No offense intended, but after reading your responses in this thread, it would seem that your knowledge of computers is basic at best. You seem to know the terms, but not what they actually mean. I suggest you do some research on basic computers and you may be able to answer all of your own questions.

Here's a tip to start: read up on what bootcamp is and what it does, then you'll see why your above post made no sense.
 
ostrich160 said:
no, I would need to have OSX and windows if i was to keep my mac, I dont want to lose OSX
Click to expand...

Bootcamp is having OSX and Windows. You just partition your hard drive so a certain amount of the storage is allocated to Windows and the rest to OSX. You just restart into Windows and it's just like having a windows machine. I did this with my iMac and played BF3 and Skyrim all the time. It ran just fine.
 
BOOTCAMP!! Seriously, the ONLY machine I have seen manage to game at all well using Parallels or VMware is a top end Mac Pro.
I have tried it on my Mac and it just does not work. Sure you can play the games, but in a tiny window with an FPS of something like 8.

In Bootcamp you can install proper drivers or modified drivers, over clock if you want. It is THE best way to get good games performance with ease of use from a Mac.
 
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