Gaming performance

[atlaz]

Hi, I'm looking at buying a Macbook to replace my ageing Windows laptop and desktops and as part of my use of the older ones is gaming, wondered how the performance is. I'm comfortable with dual booting if needs be so it's less about whether I CAN get games, more about whether they play okay or whether or not I'm better off either spending more or sticking with Windows.

Thanks

 

[Hellhammer]

Gaming on 320M

320M Benchmarks

If your desktop PC is decent and you are looking at intensive games at good settings, it might be better to keep that desktop for gaming purposes

 

[atlaz]

Desktop PC is starting to age as well hence the upgrade. Did consider dumping both for a mac-mini and using my work laptop when I travel as an alternative to the macbook.

 

[Xenophon]

OK, I've got a 9400M, Unibody alu macbook with 4Gb. As far as gaming on a Mac is concerned I think that if you're a serious gamer, better to stick to a pc or even better, get a console.

On my machine, CoD 4 is playable at intermediate resolution on my LED cinema display. Forget about high-res games. Macs and gaming are still not a good combo.

For me that's not an issue b/c I don't game a lot and despite all the gripes I have with Apple and their price/quality ratio the machine is perfect for my needs and I love the OS.

 

[lubricious]

If you don't mind playing new games on low settings, the MacBook does have enough power to play those games.

I have an 13" Aluminum MacBook and was playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 (albeit on low settings @ 1024x768 via BootCamp) but it was more than playable. There was no choppiness and it looked fine (for me) on my 24" monitor.

Two things to note: first this will be fairly resource-intensive and your macbook will get hot (the fan spins at its highest setting), second if you want to use a headset for voice comm, you'll have to look into a 3rd party sound card. I bought a USB sound card that I can plug both the mic and line out into, as the line in jack on a mac is not amplified (so when you plug your analog mic into the jack no one will hear you).

If your a serious gamer/want the best looking graphics, you might want to consider something with a beefier GPU.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

If you have an older desktop or laptop, even if it had a good video card when you first purchased it, the mac will appear to be leaps and bounds better. However, the video card that's in there now is a mid-range card, at best, and it will show its age a lot faster than if you got a PC with a dedicated graphics card.