Grand Theft Auto IV - performance on a MacBook Pro?

[HoT dEv1L 666]

Hello,

I'm a frequenter on the unofficial "I'm Waiting for Arrandale" threads - mostly a lurker - I have been a Mac user for almost three years now, and I'm getting a MBP soon for college.

Since I am a Grand Theft Auto fan, my biggest question to all of you gamers who game on MBPs via Boot Camp is - does GTA IV run well on the 15" MBP with the 9600M GT, 512 MB on its native 1440x900 resolution? Or should continue waiting for the new Arrandale ones? This is important as my PC just crapped out on me, but I don't think I will be getting a new PC. I love Macs more than any other computer but I also love the GTA series!

Also, I know GTA IV is pretty dependent on the processor - would the Core 2 Duo, being a dual-core processor without hyper-threading, struggle? Also, would turbo-mode or hyper-threading found in the new Arrandale processors help, if a new MBP gets released?

 

[ryannazaretian]

Hello,

I'm a frequenter on the unofficial "I'm Waiting for Arrandale" threads - mostly a lurker - I have been a Mac user for almost three years now, and I'm getting a MBP soon for college.

Since I am a Grand Theft Auto fan, my biggest question to all of you gamers who game on MBPs via Boot Camp is - does GTA IV run well on the 15" MBP with the 9600M GT, 512 MB on its native 1440x900 resolution? Or should continue waiting for the new Arrandale ones? This is important as my PC just crapped out on me, but I don't think I will be getting a new PC. I love Macs more than any other computer but I also love the GTA series!

Also, I know GTA IV is pretty dependent on the processor - would the Core 2 Duo, being a dual-core processor without hyper-threading, struggle? Also, would turbo-mode or hyper-threading found in the new Arrandale processors help, if a new MBP gets released?

I would wait. I tried running it on Windows 7 x64 on the laptop in the signature. It runs... but not well enough to really enjoy the game. There is a significant delay from commanding the guy to move, and him actually doing it. Driving is really slow.

You can set the settings down low enough for it to run well, but by then, you're at 800x600 with everything turned down just to get about 30FPS.

I would definitely wait until they release the new ones, then I would base my decision by how well they look performance wise.

 

[Rodus]

It doesn't run great on dual core machines as the port was pretty poor and the console version was optimised for tri-core cpu's. It'll run but not well.

 

[ryannazaretian]

It doesn't run great on dual core machines as the port was pretty poor and the console version was optimised for tri-core cpu's. It'll run but not well.

Yea, the port is terrible. I can run L4D2 and a bunch of other games... but not GTA4.

 

[SolRayz]

I have to disagree with the previous posters because the game runs fairly well on my 2.8 MBP. Could it be better? Sure, but its certainly playable and enjoyable on the current MBP's with the 9600M.

First off, I'm running GTAIV in Win7 x64.
My settings are as follows:

Resolution: 1440x900
Tex Quality:Med
Refl Res: High
Water: High
Shadow:High
Texture Filter: High
View Dist: 10
Detail Dist: 20
Vehicle: 32
Shadow:0

Runs between 20-30 fps

Some slowdowns when raining, but added rain mod to reduce fps drop.

I say the game runs fairly well on my mbp but will obvously run better on the upcoming Arrandales, all dependent upon the GPU and video memory they will have of course.

 

[ryannazaretian]

I have to disagree with the previous posters because the game runs fairly well on my 2.8 MBP. Could it be better? Sure, but its certainly playable and enjoyable on the current MBP's with the 9600M.

First off, I'm running GTAIV in Win7 x64.
My settings are as follows:

Resolution: 1440x900
Tex Quality:Med
Refl Res: High
Water: High
Shadow:High
Texture Filter: High
View Dist: 10
Detail Dist: 20
Vehicle: 32
Shadow:0

Runs between 20-30 fps

Some slowdowns when raining, but added rain mod to reduce fps drop.

I say the game runs fairly well on my mbp but will obvously run better on the upcoming Arrandales, all dependent upon the GPU and video memory they will have of course.

Do you have any other mods because I would love to play it, but I couldn't handle the poor framerate I was getting. Maybe it's due to the fact I have the 2.53Ghz machine. I'll certainly give it another try.

 

[SolRayz]

Ultimate Graphics tweak and the Environmental mod are two other mods I am currently running. I doubt cpu has much to do about it...only thing is I have 6mb L2 cache versus 3mb in yours, iirc.

I actually bumped up my detail distance to a whopping 100, and benchmarked at 22fps.

I am real meticulous about keeping my drive defragged, so that seems to help a bit.

edit: just realized, you have a late 2008 mbp with 6mb l2 cache. You should be able to run GTA just the same really...