how well do games run on the MBP?

[btownguy]

For the first time in my life I'm considering buying a Mac. If not soon, it will be as soon as my current PC tower gets a little too long in the tooth. I will migrate to a MBP and leave the desktop life forever.

But I like to play the occasional game (FPS, maybe a MMORPG), so I will be doing the Bootcamp thing. My question is, how well do Intel Macs (the MBP in particular) run games? If I buy one now, I will likely go with the 15" MBP, 4.0 Gb RAM, 500 Gb traditional HD, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB.

My tower system at home is an Intel Quad Core 2.something, 4 Gb RAM, NVIDIA 8800 GTX with 768MB.

How would the MBP compare to my current system when running games such as CoD4, WoW, Bioshock, etc under Windows 7 (or XP SP3) Bootcamp?

 

[Tarek]

They run fine. I played a lot of hardcore games on my MacBook Pro (of course on Windows - which I installed through Boot camp) and it never failed me. I tried Diablo, WoW, CrossFire, Soldier Front, Counter Strike: Source, Need For Speed (all versions), GTA San Andreas, and such; they all ran pretty good and fast, just make sure you get the 4GB of RAM MacBook Pro - the standard is 2GB of RAM so just upgrade.

 

[eXan]

For the first time in my life I'm considering buying a Mac. If not soon, it will be as soon as my current PC tower gets a little too long in the tooth. I will migrate to a MBP and leave the desktop life forever.

But I like to play the occasional game (FPS, maybe a MMORPG), so I will be doing the Bootcamp thing. My question is, how well do Intel Macs (the MBP in particular) run games? If I buy one now, I will likely go with the 15" MBP, 4.0 Gb RAM, 500 Gb traditional HD, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB.

My tower system at home is an Intel Quad Core 2.something, 4 Gb RAM, NVIDIA 8800 GTX with 768MB.

How would the MBP compare to my current system when running games such as CoD4, WoW, Bioshock, etc under Windows 7 (or XP SP3) Bootcamp?

They will run slower than on your PC thats for sure, but not bad. UT3 at max settings is possible I think. Crysis - not so much.

They run fine. I played a lot of hardcore games on my MacBook Pro (of course on Windows - which I installed through Boot camp) and it never failed me. I tried Diablo, WoW, CrossFire, Soldier Front, Counter Strike: Source, Need For Speed (all versions), GTA San Andreas, and such; they all ran pretty good and fast, just make sure you get the 4GB of RAM MacBook Pro - the standard is 2GB of RAM so just upgrade.

Each MBP except 2.26 13" has 4 GB standard.

 

[oregon2]

All the games you mentioned should be very playable. Probably equal to your current computer. However, get into more intensive games, or turn on the AA and there will be a drastic difference. The 8800GTX is about 2.5x as fast as the 9600m GT, so games like Crysis that rely on GPU will fail in comparison.

 

[aiterum]

you will be able to run games fine. Just don't expect to be pushing maximum settings. If you expect to be pushing maximum settings on a new game, then you shouldn't be in the laptop market, or if you are in the laptop market, you should be looking at something like alienware. If you want something that can run games smoothly at a decent resolution, albeit not as good as you might see in the screenshots on the terrible youtube videos that people seem to think are interesting of their graphics on their computer of some random game, then you should be fine with the purchase of a mbp


p.s. I was able to run prototype, a game recently released in june, at maximum settings (1440 x 900 with high textures and 4x AA) while still getting a very smooth FPS, and my specifications are a year old. the point that is being made here is that you will be able to run some of the less intensive graphic games at max settings, just not the top-tier ones such as crysis

 

[beasse]

Games run fine on MBP although i wish it was possible to run the 9400M through bootcamp.

I have a Macbook Pro 15" 2.8GHz GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB and it gets very hot while gaming. If i use WASD there are occasions i might feel a little uncomfortable with the heat which is of course not positive. Then again aluminium is a light material and it leads heat well but in bootcamp the battery is drained very quickly when using battery.

 

[Xavier]

My older 2007 MBP has run every game that I have thrown at it. I am not a super hardcore gamer, but I have played almost all of the major Mac titles and some cidered games.

 

[Huntn]

My MBP runs games well, mostly PC games via Vista/Bootcamp. See my sig...

 

[stoutdog101]

Games run fine, but upgrade your RAM after you buy the Mac. Don't waste your money during purchase, as Apple charges WAY too much.