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It's all about gaming.
- Thread starter Slayergramp
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The rMBP is a far better machine for gaming purely because of the faster GPU.
Also, you wont be playing any games at ridiculous resolutions simply because none of them are optimised for such a small screen size. You can quite easily play games at 1280x800 on this thing with a little AA cranked up without jaggies or fuzzy text, due to it being that small.
People fail to realise that the default res of the cMBP applied natively looks exactly the same when applied to the rMBP.
Oh and you don't need much Bootcamp space. I made my partition 15GB, and I still have 6GB of free space. My games? They're on a USB3 HDD. 90MB/s Read speeds are fine for gaming. No stuttering or lengthy load times, no crappy pop ins when playing WoW etc. If you have a little extra to spare you could always get a cheap 256GB SSD and a Thunderbolt enclosure, although I suspect by this time next year the 512GB SSDs will be dirt cheap.
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Oh and yeah, the screen is awful on the cMBP, purely because its not IPS. I couldnt give a crap about the ridiculous resolution, its all about the epic viewing angles and hugely improved colour reproduction.
And the glare is non-existant unless you enjoy using your computer with the sun beaming directly onto it.
Also, you wont be playing any games at ridiculous resolutions simply because none of them are optimised for such a small screen size. You can quite easily play games at 1280x800 on this thing with a little AA cranked up without jaggies or fuzzy text, due to it being that small.
People fail to realise that the default res of the cMBP applied natively looks exactly the same when applied to the rMBP.
Oh and you don't need much Bootcamp space. I made my partition 15GB, and I still have 6GB of free space. My games? They're on a USB3 HDD. 90MB/s Read speeds are fine for gaming. No stuttering or lengthy load times, no crappy pop ins when playing WoW etc. If you have a little extra to spare you could always get a cheap 256GB SSD and a Thunderbolt enclosure, although I suspect by this time next year the 512GB SSDs will be dirt cheap.
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Oh and yeah, the screen is awful on the cMBP, purely because its not IPS. I couldnt give a crap about the ridiculous resolution, its all about the epic viewing angles and hugely improved colour reproduction.
And the glare is non-existant unless you enjoy using your computer with the sun beaming directly onto it.
If I may recommend, for gaming:
- Windows 7 Boot Camp, minimal install
- Microsoft Wireless XBOX Controller receiver ($20 on amazon)
- HDMI cable --> your big screen TV
- Steam
This setup is working for me very nicely. All the convenience of console gaming with higher detail settings and mods.
- Windows 7 Boot Camp, minimal install
- Microsoft Wireless XBOX Controller receiver ($20 on amazon)
- HDMI cable --> your big screen TV
- Steam
This setup is working for me very nicely. All the convenience of console gaming with higher detail settings and mods.
thats cool if you always play at your desk or table, what if you want to play sitting on the sofa or than decide "hey im going to the patio" a notebook/laptop is suppose to be mobile not have a bunch of devices dangling off the side of it
luckily its very quick to move games back and forth from internal ssd to external storage.
In that case you need to get the 700GB SSD upgrade. I can't honestly imagine anyone doing any real gaming on the couch with a laptop, its just so impractical.
But really the only other solution would be to install only a couple of games directly to the SSD, such as an MMO or whatever gets frequently played.
Bear in mind that the 15" MBP, retina or otherwise, is essentially a desktop replacement as well, no matter how slim or light they are.
You could always tape the HDD to the bottom of it as well
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I just bought a controller for Steam Big Picture or whatever its called.
RIP consoles.
I just wanted to point something out here.
Saying that "PCs are better for gaming" doesn't make an awful amount of sense. I mean, if the system requirements of a game that you are trying to run are met by both PC X and Mac Y then it's the same adequacy. A Windows PC with the same hardware as a Mac is not "better" at running games - the results will be the same. The only point that can be made is that if you want to purchase a computer solely for gaming, you will typically spend less money on the Windows PC that has the same hardware specifications as the Mac. The price, of course, does not take other factors into consideration such as build quality and software, and is not based simply on the hardware.
Yep, I can't wait to try that. Steam made an excellent move here.
At a time when current consoles are ancient,
Even cheap PCs can run games better than consoles,
Even for PCs that don't have HDMI ports, tons of TVs have VGA or DVI ports,
New consoles are over a year away,
Games won't be really optimized for new consoles at least 2 years,
the PC-TV connection allows users to sidestep user agent restrictions for streaming content (Hulu.com),
With a software update, they easily become a real option in the Console market and they have an AppleTV-type competitor.
Perfect timing.
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The results can only be the same if the hardware is the same. It's a shame, but Apple doesn't offer anything that's competitive in the gaming computer space. Even if the software was the same on both platforms...
People who build Gaming PCs need hardware options, upgradability, and the ability to add cooling and overclock.
Apple is going in the other direction. They're becoming a laptop company, and they are trending towards computers that are 100% not user serviceable.
If they offered the Mac Pro with components that would be a decent gaming PC, they'd have a foothold. There would be a market. Developers might make more OSX versions.
It's a shame, but for now the rMBP with Boot Camp is the best option.
Completely agree. It also means I can dust off my old media centre PC in the living room.
The beauty of having an entire steam library on an external HDD is that I can take my desktop downstairs to the couch whenever I want
actually no. The rMBP has an overclocked GPU so it handles graphics better. The games that run at 2880x1800 look glorious, all the rest run amazingly at 1920x1200 which looks a million times better than 1440x900. I use mine for gaming and it is a beast!
While I don't have both machines for comparison, I'd suggest that the MacBook Pro with Retina display is better for gaming than the 'normal' MacBook Pro equivalent for the following reasons:
Note that I'm mainly comparing my experience with my old MacBook Pro (high-end early-2011 15.4" with the 1680 x 1050 display). I realise that the new unibody models may be better in terms of cooling, since the Ivy Bridge and Kepler architectures produce less heat. The Retina's cooling system, however, is still superior with its new intake vents and sculpted airflow channels inside.
- Much better cooling system - one of my favourite features of the Retina model; far, far less clock speed throttling, meaning consistently great performance.
- Super-high resolution looks stunning for games that can handle it. Skyrim (under Boot Camp), for example, looks gorgeous at the native resolution and runs really well at High/Ultra settings.
- Not only is the resolution better, the quality of the panel is far better. Deeper blacks, better viewing angles and less glare make the overall viewing experience lovely at any resolution.
Note that I'm mainly comparing my experience with my old MacBook Pro (high-end early-2011 15.4" with the 1680 x 1050 display). I realise that the new unibody models may be better in terms of cooling, since the Ivy Bridge and Kepler architectures produce less heat. The Retina's cooling system, however, is still superior with its new intake vents and sculpted airflow channels inside.
I have a higher-end 2011 MBP, and adding an SSD made a huge difference in WoW performance. Adding an SSD is pretty much the easiest and best upgrade you can get.
If you want the space for downloads, an external drive would work - or get an Optibay and put the HD you get from Apple in the CD drive area, and get an SSD for your OS/games.
All that said, I'd be all over a rMBP if I could afford one, for one big reason - the noise. Ye gods, the noise. The 2011, at least, sounds like a vacuum cleaner (exaggeration, yeah, but it still sucks). I play in a room with a Windows desktop, and the MBP regularly drowns it out.
The rMBP sounds a lot more like my MBA at full power, which is a noise that is noticeable but livable. Make sure you test the cMBP at the store before you buy it.
If you want the space for downloads, an external drive would work - or get an Optibay and put the HD you get from Apple in the CD drive area, and get an SSD for your OS/games.
All that said, I'd be all over a rMBP if I could afford one, for one big reason - the noise. Ye gods, the noise. The 2011, at least, sounds like a vacuum cleaner (exaggeration, yeah, but it still sucks). I play in a room with a Windows desktop, and the MBP regularly drowns it out.
The rMBP sounds a lot more like my MBA at full power, which is a noise that is noticeable but livable. Make sure you test the cMBP at the store before you buy it.
such BS. the only thing SSD speeds up for WoW is loading times. anyone who actually pays attention to benchmarks and testing knows this.
Pretty sure that was my exact point. A Windows PC with the same hardware as a Mac is not "better" for gaming. The two machines both have the same adequacy.
+ the benefit of having such resolution is that you can turn Anti-Aliasing off. Even scaling down to a lower-than-native resolution, it looks amazing.
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right. my point is that it's a bigger issue than just "mac vs. pc."
the fact is that Apple is actively choosing to make their computers incompatible with the way gaming PCs are built.
I suspect that there would be a market for an Apple Gaming Desktop version, even if it were at a price that would make PC owners laugh. Just use the Mac Pro's case, Intel i7 Processor, a few options on Nvidia graphics cards, and someone will buy.
I mean, how many of us gamers have gone to the Customize page of the Mac Pro just to see what it would be like?
WoW, like other open world games, loads data from the drive continuously. SSDs DO improve these type of games and it can be substantial in WoW for crowded areas.
You're quite right for FPS type of games though.
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Actually, it can be. Drivers and optimizations made by gaming companies make a huge difference. A game written for OS X may not run identical to the same game written for Windows. And if you're speaking about using bootcamp on Mac hardware, the drivers are the big differentiator.
I think my point is being taken a bit too seriously here.
Sure, drivers and optimization and OS X and Windows platform, I understand that - give or take a few frames if you want to get that literal with it. I am saying that it's going to be about the same performance.
Put it this way - if you are trying to run a game where your Mac meets the system requirements of that game, are you going to dual-boot if you need to run on Windows, or are you going to go out and buy another $700 budget laptop with the same or similar hardware to run the game?
I'm not saying that Macs are developed for gaming or that OS X or a bootcamp partition is more optimized for it - just that they can run games - and a Windows PC is not really "better" given the same or similar specifications.
Sure, drivers and optimization and OS X and Windows platform, I understand that - give or take a few frames if you want to get that literal with it. I am saying that it's going to be about the same performance.
Put it this way - if you are trying to run a game where your Mac meets the system requirements of that game, are you going to dual-boot if you need to run on Windows, or are you going to go out and buy another $700 budget laptop with the same or similar hardware to run the game?
I'm not saying that Macs are developed for gaming or that OS X or a bootcamp partition is more optimized for it - just that they can run games - and a Windows PC is not really "better" given the same or similar specifications.
I'm sorry... What?!
Haven't had a single issue with mine? I'm assuming you're a non owner who is condemning it because you can't have one...
I'm on my phone now but if you search for "minimal windows install" you'll see you can get it down with some tricks like disabling hibernation and restore points.
You know what I'd do? Skip the rMBP and try to get hold of a refurb 17" MBP classic. Mine eats games, has a better real-estate ratio, and you should save yourself quite a few $$ too.
Take the RAM up to 8GB, Bootcamp if you want, and away you go. It's also a great work tool too. If you want to you can replace the HDD with an SSD or use the optical bay for that purpose.
Tip: The last ones made are going to be sought after one day so look after it.
screw it get 16 gigs and let it fly