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Looking at buying macbook

S

Samslice12

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 20, 2008
41
0
Australia
hey everyone,

i was looking at buying a macbook and running boot camp so i could have those useful apps that mac offers and play games on windows.

so basically, what i am asking is what do you think the best mac laptop is for gaming and why.

I was looking at getting:
.
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB memory 120/160GB hard drive. Macbook 13.3 inch screen
but i dont know if this would run many of the newer games such as call of duty 4 and stuff. so any advice would be really great.

thanks in advance
Samslice
 
The Macbook would definately not be the best for gaming and not even close. The intergrated video card will really hurt performance. Certain games should be ok with the resolution turned down.
 
If your a gamer you need a real graphics card, that is everything but the MacBook, MacBook Air and Mac mini.
 
Boot Camp should run fine with a 160GB hard drive, since it dedicates half of your hard drive space for Windows (I think you can configure the hard drive to dedicate more or less space.)

With an Intel graphics card, you won't be able to run some games such as Guitar Hero 3 or World of Warcraft- both games need either an NVIDIA or Atari (ATI) graphic card to run. I think the MacBook Pro would be the ideal laptop for gaming, since the they come with a NVIDIA graphic card standard, and it has more memory, bigger hard drive, bigger screen etc.
 
For portable gaming on a Mac, only the MBP will really cut it. How much stock do you put in crystal clear graphics and high framerates?
The integrated chips in the MBs are good, but simply not that good.
 
ok thanks for your help, with the 15" macbook pro, its says you can choose betweeh glossy widescreen display and normal widescreen display, whats the difference?
 
As long as your games are old like CS:Source or Half Life 2. Your going to be fine with a Macbook. Just dont expect games like Crysis or BioShock to run at all.
 
Samslice12 said:
ok thanks for your help, with the 15" macbook pro, its says you can choose betweeh glossy widescreen display and normal widescreen display, whats the difference?
Click to expand...

Glossy means shiny and reflective, but makes colours richer, and normal (matte) is anti-reflective. For games, Glossy is far superior.

Matte on the left, Glossy on the right:
2125457126_64c05c12dc.jpg
 
yeah i dont need any like awesome graphics games,mainly just stuff like team fortress 2, steam games and stuff like that, but in the future games are going to be better so how long do you guys reckon the macbook would be ok for games and stuff, and i dont know how long it would last
 
Nice pic, Tom B. Let's just hope we don't have another glossy vs. matte debate here.

Great avatar, too!

Samslice12 said:
yeah i dont need any like awesome graphics games,mainly just stuff like team fortress 2, steam games and stuff like that, but in the future games are going to be better so how long do you guys reckon the macbook would be ok for games and stuff, and i dont know how long it would last
Click to expand...

In future-proofing terms, a dedicated GPU like those in the MBPs will be better than the integrated chips found in the MacBooks.
 
honestly if you're gonna get a comp to play games, why not just get a pc or something?
 
doubleohseven said:
Boot Camp should run fine with a 160GB hard drive, since it dedicates half of your hard drive space for Windows (I think you can configure the hard drive to dedicate more or less space.)

With an Intel graphics card, you won't be able to run some games such as Guitar Hero 3 or World of Warcraft- both games need either an NVIDIA or Atari (ATI) graphic card to run. I think the MacBook Pro would be the ideal laptop for gaming, since the they come with a NVIDIA graphic card standard, and it has more memory, bigger hard drive, bigger screen etc.
Click to expand...

I play WoW with my macbook just fine....its the SR one thou
 
Macbook or Macbook pro?

Hi All,
I had been considering getting a macbook since the fall but then waited for macworld in the hopes of seeing an updated macbook pro to jump on. I don't do any gaming or graphics but was considering the macbook pro 15" for the extra screen space. I'm a graduate student and spend a lot of time writing and thought that the 13" might seem too small to work off of. I realize that I can hook the macbook up to a larger external display but I will most likely need to work on the computer when I would not have access to an external display. So, I thought about continuing to play the waiting game on a macbook pro for as long as I could until I saw that my school was offering a deal on a MacBook White 2.2Ghz Core2Duo 2GB 120GB w/AppleCare for $1399. So, I guess I have a few questions: a) does anyone with a 13" ever feel like they wish they had extra screen space? Or is the 13" plenty of space for basic word processing (I may need to have two documents open side by side at times, but not too often) and b) Is $1399 a great deal and worth forgoing the macbook pro giving my needs?
Thanks for the advice.
 
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