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Gaming on a Retina Macbook Pro

C

Cypther

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 15, 2012
61
0
For all you guys that have a Retina Macbook Pro, how's the gaming experience in boot camp. I know you guys are not going to be playing the games at 2800 x 1800(native resolution). Does the game look blurry/fuzzy at 1440x900, 1650x1050 or 1920x1200 when it's not the native resolution? For most monitors it looks like crap when it's not on the native resolution. Please enlighten me about the experience.
 
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I just installed the Mac version of StarCraft II - Obviously, not on BootCamp, but I wanted to share that the 12GB game install took about ~100 seconds to install! Absolutely insane.

The game also ran at 2880X1800 flawlessly! I could portably reheat food or something on the aluminum casing, but the fans were able to keep temperatures stable and comfortable.

Awesome.
 
Great three replies and no one have answered my question

"Does the game look blurry/fuzzy at 1440x900, 1650x1050 or 1920x1200 when playing games on Retina Macbook pro? For most monitors it looks like crap when it's not on the native resolution. "
 
Auzburner said:
I just installed the Mac version of StarCraft II - Obviously, not on BootCamp, but I wanted to share that the 12GB game install took about ~100 seconds to install! Absolutely insane.

The game also ran at 2880X1800 flawlessly! I could portably reheat food or something on the aluminum casing, but the fans were able to keep temperatures stable and comfortable.

Awesome.
Click to expand...

Hey Auzburner, I am waiting for new Imac to be released but I am also considering the MBPR if the Imac is not released by September. Please report any other positives or negatives that you find using the MBPR. Thanks.
 
Cypther said:
Great three replies and no one have answered my question

"Does the game look blurry/fuzzy at 1440x900, 1650x1050 or 1920x1200 when playing games on Retina Macbook pro? For most monitors it looks like crap when it's not on the native resolution. "
Click to expand...

Obviously it doesn’t look perfectly sharp to run games at lower than native resolution, but because the display has so many pixels to scale to, I find that running games at lower res is far less unpleasant than doing so on a normal ~110ppi display. Perfectly tolerable. YMMV, of course.
 
I'm not exactly a pro player (low Diamond) and I feel the game is absolutely unplayable at native resolution in anything above low-mid.

It sort of works out for me since I set everything to low except models but yeah... if you're expecting smooth gameplay at higher settings.... hmmm.... maybe in bootcamp? In OSX it's not smooth at all.

I've tried running the game at 1440x900 and it looks awful. Very blurry and pixelated.

I haven't tried any of the other resolution however.
 
I installed Skyrim and Lord of the Rings Online. Both look FABULOUS at 1650 x 1050 and play smooth. I'm so impressed! The fans do amp up though.
 
I tried Diablo 3 at 2880x1800. Certainly playable, but not smooth at all.
Other resolutions look a little "fuzzy" like you said, but not too bad. I settled with 1680x1050 and it played smoothly with all high and AA on.
 
Cypther said:
Great three replies and no one have answered my question

"Does the game look blurry/fuzzy at 1440x900, 1650x1050 or 1920x1200 when playing games on Retina Macbook pro? For most monitors it looks like crap when it's not on the native resolution. "
Click to expand...

lol relax.
It depends on the game/program from what I can tell.
Portal 2 and StarCraft look great at 1440x900, I can't tell that they're not in native resolution.
Windows 7 and Diablo 3 look blurry on 1440x900 but look good on 1650x1050 and 1920x1200, and great in 2880x1800.
 
satchow said:
lol relax.
It depends on the game/program from what I can tell.
Portal 2 and StarCraft look great at 1440x900, I can't tell that they're not in native resolution.
Windows 7 and Diablo 3 look blurry on 1440x900 but look good on 1650x1050 and 1920x1200, and great in 2880x1800.
Click to expand...

how does starcraft 2 run at 1440x900 ? or 1680x1050?
 
Is it possible to make screenshots of SC 2 in 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 and describe it like more in detail?

Since SC 2 is the only game I play, I d love to see how it looks in those resolutions, when Meever said, that it isnt playable in 2880x1800.

There is just one video on youtube, but it is with 2880x1800 resolution.

Thank you, it will help me a lot :)
 
I've been running several different games in BootCamp, with the GPU overclocked and ThrottleStop running on the CPU and everything runs great! I run games at either 1440x900 or 1920x1200, and both look very good - at least as good as on the non-retina MBPs. Obviously they don't look as nice as native res, but I'm still very happy. I'm playing through Arkham City right now, and it runs amazingly well.
 
I don't bootcamp, but i've been running may games in OSX either native, Wineskin, or Cider, and they all run fantastic on this thing. Skyrim runs amazingly well. Everything maxed out at 1080p with no issues. For fun I ran it like that at 2880x1800 and its cool, but gets laggy sometimes.
 
My experience with D3 is odd. 1440x900 it looks noticeably blurry, but at 1680x1050 it's incredibly sharp. You wouldn't think...
 
Fynd said:
My experience with D3 is odd. 1440x900 it looks noticeably blurry, but at 1680x1050 it's incredibly sharp. You wouldn't think...
Click to expand...

How sharp does it look at 1680x1050? Does it look as good as the 15" Macbook HR-AG native resolution? Or how bad does it look? I've been thinking about selling my late 2011 MBP for a retina but I'm not complete sold on one yet.
 
Fynd said:
My experience with D3 is odd. 1440x900 it looks noticeably blurry, but at 1680x1050 it's incredibly sharp. You wouldn't think...
Click to expand...

I play D3 at 2880x1800. It's very playable.

-I have everything on high, except shadows are off. For some reason Blizzard sucks at implementing shadows, across all games, brings any gpu to its knees. --Vsync on.


Love it.
 
nlkccom said:
Anyone tried Dragon Age on the new rMBP?
Click to expand...

I'm curious about that too. I was playing it on my 2009 MBP but it was running about 11-14 fps at 1280x800 so I fell away from playing it. I'm strongly angling to get the rMBP (pending wife approval) and its one of those games where I would be aiming to finish. That and Fallout 3 :)
 
Is everyone running games with AA and AF on or off?

At this resolution, anti aliasing is completely unnecessary, and AF doesn't help much.
 
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