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Just HOW GOOD is the MacBook Pro at running Windows 7?
- Thread starter nihao1234
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Lol the iMacs at school run Windowz XP much better than any Windows computer I've seen. EVEN when the Windows computer has DOUBLE the RAM
My virtual machine size is now 11.1 GB, clean. So no programs installed in Windows. Don't know if Win7 installs unnecessary crap which could be uninstalled though.. Haven't looked at the 'dark side' since WinXP
VMware Fusion takes around 200 MB if I recall correctly
I run W7 via bootcamp. It works perfectly fine. I usually use it for gaming. I also have Microsoft Office and other things. I use OSX most of the time for everything else.
So yah!!! Go ahead and put Win7 on your macbook pro.
So yah!!! Go ahead and put Win7 on your macbook pro.
It'll probably run better on your MacBook Pro than any PC
Yeah I have heard that Windows runs better on Apple hardware. Why is this when the computer is not designed for Windows? So basically the new i5/i7 MBP's will run W7 better than the new hP envy 17 lol? If that's the case I can't wait to get my copy of W7 for my pro.
Its because Apple's computers are usually built better, plus all the components are built to work together. And theres less Windowz crapware
Typical....
Wow, so clueless, how's the koolaid?
Hellhammer's on the right track. Some older MBPs had very good windows drivers. There was one point in time where the then-current macbook (2 or 3 years ago) ran windows vista better than any pc laptop on the market. This was due to the fact that the MBP had equal specs to the best PC laptop at the time, and above average drivers thanks to Apple. That's not the case anymore though. Assuming Apple's Windows drivers for their current hardware are up to stuff, the new MBPs will run windows 'as well' as an equivalent Windows laptop.
Win.
It'll probably run better on your MacBook Pro than any PC
Terrible Fanboy!!! Somebody could believe in what you say!
Simply PC designed for Windows are designed to run Windows (very well). The MacBook Pro with BootCamp becomes a very good Windows PC (Apple doesn't make out elaboration hardware) but, as said, with awful driver support!
That's it!
I had multiple random freezes on my i7 running Windows 7 in Boot Camp (no BSODs, just lock ups). After installing a new video card driver it has run perfectly, so I am leaning toward agreeing with those who say Apple drivers suck.
No problems in Parallels either, but I started using that after I changed video card drivers, so I don't know if the freezes would have continued to hit if I wouldn't have installed the new driver.
lopoz -- I am running Windows 7 Ultimate in Fusion 3.1 RC on the standard 160Gb hard drive than came installed on my 17 inch MBP. I have 6Gb of RAM, the max that my Santa Rosa machine can reliably deal with. My virtual machine contains 14.28Gb. As noted in an earlier post I run fusion in Unity mode almost exclusively and customarily keep open on the OS X desktop several Windows apps and several more OS S apps. I have 2Gb of RAM and 1 processor core dedicated to the Windows virtual machine.My virtual machine size is now 11.1 GB, clean. So no programs installed in Windows. Don't know if Win7 installs unnecessary crap which could be uninstalled though.. Haven't looked at the 'dark side' since WinXP
VMware Fusion takes around 200 MB if I recall correctly
Your posts give rise to several additional questions:
1. How much RAM do you have in your MBP?
2. How much RAM and how many cores of your processor do you have dedicated to your Windows virtual machine?
3. Do you run Fusion in Unity mode and if so, how many Windows apps and how many OS X apps do you customarily keep open on your desktop?
I have been running Windows 7 Ultimate in bootcamp on my polycarbonate macbook (2.26 Ghz, nVidia 9400M 256MB, 2GB ram) for PS2 emulation (which btw runs full speed) and windows 7 runs as fast as it possibly could on this computer! I can play games, websurf and have iTunes running all at the same time with no slow downs on the OS. Just think what you could do with a Macbook Pro!
AKA: It will run great.
AKA: It will run great.
Ahh. I was worried updating the video card driver would somehow "break" Boot Camp haha
im going to say what ive heard from reviews on the difference between parallels and bootcamp (someone back me up if i got my facts right). if you want to type up documents and simple non intensive things, go parallels. if you plan on strictly gaming with windows, go bootcamp.
Well, I've been running Win7 in BootCamp on my i7 MBP for some weeks now, and I guess I use Win7 about 60-70% of the time (due to various reasons). Besides the missing DEL key (for the CTRL-ALT-DEL combination) I would say it works very well.
I had two freezes i Win7, both while doing network operations. The first was while transfering some large video files from my Win7 workstation through WiFi, and the second one happened while importing some 300.000 images (Nikon NEF raw-files) to the Adobe Lightroom database from my NAS through ethernet.
This may (or may not) be related to what some here suggest being bad drivers. But then again my top-notch Win7 workstation also have "crashed" quite a few times when doing heavy tasks in Lightroom. I would probably lend towards blaming Adobe, a common thing to do these days ;-)
For the record; I have not experienced any of those "freezes" in OS X that's been heavily discussed recently.
I mainly do photo and video work. I haven't tried any games besides some emulators (MAME and MESS).
Through my experience with Windows I would say the new MPB runs Win7 very well, indeed.
Tom
I had two freezes i Win7, both while doing network operations. The first was while transfering some large video files from my Win7 workstation through WiFi, and the second one happened while importing some 300.000 images (Nikon NEF raw-files) to the Adobe Lightroom database from my NAS through ethernet.
This may (or may not) be related to what some here suggest being bad drivers. But then again my top-notch Win7 workstation also have "crashed" quite a few times when doing heavy tasks in Lightroom. I would probably lend towards blaming Adobe, a common thing to do these days ;-)
For the record; I have not experienced any of those "freezes" in OS X that's been heavily discussed recently.
I mainly do photo and video work. I haven't tried any games besides some emulators (MAME and MESS).
Through my experience with Windows I would say the new MPB runs Win7 very well, indeed.
Tom
Yeah I have heard that Windows runs better on Apple hardware. Why is this when the computer is not designed for Windows? So basically the new i5/i7 MBP's will run W7 better than the new hP envy 17 lol? If that's the case I can't wait to get my copy of W7 for my pro.
That's a joke and not the truth. Sure when you compare $2K MBP to, say, $500 DELL W7 might run better on MBP but if you compare it to a decent Windows laptop (say, HP Envy or Sony Vaio) you will be better off running Windows on those laptops, not on Mac.
The fact that there are many Macs in colleges does not necessarily mean that people use them to run OS X. Just check this forum. Questions about Boot Camp are the most prevalent ones here as of late.
macbook pro with windows 7 on ssd
I recently purchased Windows 7 and I'm trying to decide if I should just install it now on my current MacBook Pro or to wait until I can purchase a SSD and install it on one of those. How are the speeds using a Macbook Pro with a SSD running Windows 7? Is there any performance loss versus using a normal laptop? Thanks.
I recently purchased Windows 7 and I'm trying to decide if I should just install it now on my current MacBook Pro or to wait until I can purchase a SSD and install it on one of those. How are the speeds using a Macbook Pro with a SSD running Windows 7? Is there any performance loss versus using a normal laptop? Thanks.
Hmm, interesting notion. I guess that's sort of the same thing here. The fact that this is a Mac forum does not necessarily mean that there won't be DB Mac hating trolls registered here. Just check this forum.
Hmm, interesting notion. I guess that's sort of the same thing here. The fact that this is a Mac forum does not necessarily mean that there won't be DB Mac hating trolls registered here. Just check this forum.
What exactly are you trying to say? Are you trying to deny that the issue of running Windows is the most popular topic on this forum?
Good to know Windows 7 runs fine on the MBP i5. I am thinking about getting one for Law School in August but one of the requirements is that if you have an Apple laptop is to be able to run Windows for certain law school things. I stop running windows xp on my gen 1 macbook but its good to know if I need it I can. Now to find a place to get 7 without paying an arm and a leg.
First of all, the test back in 2006 is hugely biased for Apple
1. Eventhough the Macbook and the HP Compaq have the exact same CPU, the Macbook had the ATIX1600 GPU while the HP Compaq had the crappy integrated Intel GPU, so ofcourse the Macbook will win in tests like Photoshop
2. They compared it to low end cheap laptops from HP Compaq, a Macbook is not even the in same price range. ( The Compaq series are HP low end models )
To say that a MBP runs Windows better than a non MAC is complete non-sense and it's false advertisement
There are many laptops that will destroy any MAC in CAD, games, parallel programming, photoshop and all sort of stuff. But ofcourse that a MAC will beat a low-end non MAC computer with inferior spec, that's pretty obvious isn't it.
1. Eventhough the Macbook and the HP Compaq have the exact same CPU, the Macbook had the ATIX1600 GPU while the HP Compaq had the crappy integrated Intel GPU, so ofcourse the Macbook will win in tests like Photoshop
2. They compared it to low end cheap laptops from HP Compaq, a Macbook is not even the in same price range. ( The Compaq series are HP low end models )
To say that a MBP runs Windows better than a non MAC is complete non-sense and it's false advertisement
There are many laptops that will destroy any MAC in CAD, games, parallel programming, photoshop and all sort of stuff. But ofcourse that a MAC will beat a low-end non MAC computer with inferior spec, that's pretty obvious isn't it.
Background: I had the exact same situation as you before i bought my MacBook Pro last fall. I use Autodesk Inventor for school (a huge AutoCad program) and it only works with Windows. So, after doing some research, i found nobody who had used it on a Mac with bootcamp. So i took my chances and bought the computer, installed windows (a big pain!) and installed the program.
It works about 95% as well as it does on the Windows-exclusive HP's at school. I found that there are some functions i needed that couldn't be inputted with the multi-touch mouse (such as clicking the scroll wheel on a regular mouse) that i needed. So i bought a wireless laser mouse and now i have no problems.
If you are running a huge program on windows, you have to use bootcamp. I was told by Autodesk that i shouldn't run my program on Parallels or VMWare Fusion unless i have 6-8gb of RAM. And restarting the computer to go to windows is very annoying sometimes.
make sure that you buy a full version of windows, not an upgrade. also make sure you get 64-bit. although full versions are over $200, i bought mine from a local classifieds website for $30.
let me know if all this helps, or if you have a question
Depending on the school and program, you may also be entitled to MSDN access, meaning possibly at least one free windows 7 license.
My Macbook Pro i7 works terribly with Windows 7 via Boot camp but that's just one of the MBP users' cases.
The drivers are unstable and does not work as it's supposed to be on certain machines.
I went a lot of troubles with Apple support via online, phone and the B&M store Genius Bar and they never decided to not honor mine as one of the defects.
I've seen people who were having same issues including network instability, random freezing, problems related to sound, but also people who are running Windows 7 quite well. Same product, same driver, same operating system, but different symptoms.
The test to determine if these symptoms were random was done in right after a clean install of Windows 7. So it's a matter of luck, I assume.
All of the problems were able to be solved by finding a better driver, not necessarily newer one, but I have yet to find a sound driver that works properly for those who are having sound-related issues. The symptoms were such as randomly having no sound output while the Windows Sound Mixer clearly shows sound is on output by the active volume bar, or causing some CPU overload thus creating a lag when it's in zero volume state on software side.
Freezing issues can be solve for finding a right video driver, and for the network instability problem, it could be resolved by manually overriding a driver that was designed for a different network adapter which could be found somewhere over the net.
So basically replacing drivers with the right ones solves everything if you happen to pick up a bad MBP, but it would be quite an adventure until you have ones that work for yours.
The drivers are unstable and does not work as it's supposed to be on certain machines.
I went a lot of troubles with Apple support via online, phone and the B&M store Genius Bar and they never decided to not honor mine as one of the defects.
I've seen people who were having same issues including network instability, random freezing, problems related to sound, but also people who are running Windows 7 quite well. Same product, same driver, same operating system, but different symptoms.
The test to determine if these symptoms were random was done in right after a clean install of Windows 7. So it's a matter of luck, I assume.
All of the problems were able to be solved by finding a better driver, not necessarily newer one, but I have yet to find a sound driver that works properly for those who are having sound-related issues. The symptoms were such as randomly having no sound output while the Windows Sound Mixer clearly shows sound is on output by the active volume bar, or causing some CPU overload thus creating a lag when it's in zero volume state on software side.
Freezing issues can be solve for finding a right video driver, and for the network instability problem, it could be resolved by manually overriding a driver that was designed for a different network adapter which could be found somewhere over the net.
So basically replacing drivers with the right ones solves everything if you happen to pick up a bad MBP, but it would be quite an adventure until you have ones that work for yours.