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Looking to buy a Pro, and need advice for games?

H

heatfanaman

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 7, 2011
42
0
I'm looking to buy a Macbook Pro and have a price limit of $2000. Will any of the models be able to play Starcraft 2, Diablo 2(didn't work on my White '08 Macbook), Diablo 3(not out, but hoping to get), WoW, and Counter Strike: Source? I'm don't really care about screen size... I care more about performance. Any help would be greatly appreciated :) .
 
With a budget of 2,000 I assume you'll be getting a 15" or 17". Go to Notebook Check and check the GeForce GT 330M (my link) and go down, it has some benchmarks depending on the graphics level you want. :)
 
Photoshop's a great Mac game also...:p

Although the titles are old, I've played Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy on my MBP without any issues. I have the "base" 15" MBP.

That said, if you're getting it primarily to play games, it's kind of a waste of $$. If you're doing anything else (image/video/music editing) and playing games occasionally, then it'd be ok.
 
The Mac is the main focus, the gaming is just something extra I'm wondering about
 
Kauai said:
With a budget of 2,000 I assume you'll be getting a 15" or 17". Go to Notebook Check and check the GeForce GT 330M (my link) and go down, it has some benchmarks depending on the graphics level you want. :)
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I looked at the website and was like :confused: lol. I'm kind of a noob as far as tech specs goes. Also, I really only care about these games... which I heard work on MBP's. They don't have to be at high settings. I'd be happy with med if thats the highest I can get.
 
The new models will be out in the next 1-3 months. They are rumoured to have the new Radeon 6000m series graphics chips. This will mean an incremental or possibly big graphics boost depending on which model goes in.

A Radeon 6750m would be a big boost and with a low TDP is certainly possible.
Some of us dream of a 6830m which is again possible TDP wise but perhaps too hopeful.
 
The current Pro models, coming from the 2010 13" MBP are capable of playing the games you listed - except unknown about Diablo III.

I have Steam, TF2 works fine, CSS for sure, WoW plays great, only one that is a little less is SC2, on mediums it plays well until you get a 4v4 big battle. Then lows works great but medium will hiccup a few getting to 15-20FPS at times here. This of course is all in OSX. I also have bootcamp and in bootcamp all the games you listed will play even better, although the source games + WoW already play well in OSX.

SCII is the big one that plays much better in Bootcamp. Medium/high settings at 30+ FPS. Since your budget is $2000 you can afford the i5/i7 + 330m which will be even better depending on resolution. I play at 1280x800 all the time on my 320m + 2.4ghz C2D. No worries! I assume D3 will be fine too, but I can't say for sure.
 
heatfanaman said:
I looked at the website and was like :confused: lol. I'm kind of a noob as far as tech specs goes. Also, I really only care about these games... which I heard work on MBP's. They don't have to be at high settings. I'd be happy with med if thats the highest I can get.
Click to expand...

Macbook Pro 15" Has a 330m (ideally you want the version with 512mb memory but its a bit over your $2000 budget)

This is how a current Macbook Pro will run these games

WoW - Will run high no problems
Counter Strike: Source - Will run on high at insanely high frame rates
Starcraft 2 - Will run medium fine (42fps) and high ok (28fps)
Diablo 2 - No probs on high


The soon-ish released new one will be faster still
 
Do you know any more details about their release? I might be able to w8 one month but I'm not sure about 3. Also, should I get boot camp? How much is it(70ish)? and any good mouses? If I have boot camp will I be able to play other PC games well(nothing planned, but never hurts to have options i guess) ?
 
heatfanaman said:
Do you know any more details about their release? I might be able to w8 one month but I'm not sure about 3. Also, should I get boot camp? How much is it(70ish)? and any good mouses? If I have boot camp will I be able to play other PC games well(nothing planned, but never hurts to have options i guess) ?
Click to expand...

I wish we had some solid info on the new MBP refresh, but no official information has been released to date. Most people are speculating mid-late March for release, but some (very few) are even saying as late as June or July. As for bootcamp, that is free with all Macs, but you have to pay full price for Windows, and it will be a full fledged (play anything your hardware can support) PC when you boot into Windows. Also approx 80-90% of accessories such as game pads, mice, headsets are also Mac compatible.
 
dreilly1982 said:
I wish we had some solid info on the new MBP refresh, but no official information has been released to date. Most people are speculating mid-late March for release, but some (very few) are even saying as late as June or July. As for bootcamp, that is free with all Macs, but you have to pay full price for Windows, and it will be a full fledged (play anything your hardware can support) PC when you boot into Windows. Also approx 80-90% of accessories such as game pads, mice, headsets are also Mac compatible.
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It comes with Boot Camp? I have a little knowledge on it, my old macbook had bootcamp put on for school. Are there two versions? One that lets you run windows games/applications and one that lats you run windows completely? Are the new MBP's going to much better, or just a slight improvement? Also, thanks to everyone so far for helping me out, I went to the right place for info :p .
 
Ok... I think I'm close to making a decision on what to buy. Is the 2.66 GHz model with i7 processor a big step up from the 2.53 GHz model with i5. I'd rather not spend 2,200, but can manage it if it is a big improvement. Also, what is the difference between free boot camp and full boot camp? Is full better for games?
 
I have no idea what free vs full bootcamp is. Bootcamp is included on OSX but you have to partition, install windows all yourself. Bootcamp just helps partition and is your boot loader to choose OSX vs Windows.

the i7 is a great choice since it also gives you the 330m 512MB vram, which is good if you get the higher res also..
 
Should I install windows on it? Will the games run better? Not sure if I can afford an i7 and bootcamp.
 
heatfanaman said:
Should I install windows on it? Will the games run better? Not sure if I can afford an i7 and bootcamp.
Click to expand...

Your games will run much better, and you will be able to play a lot more.

As others have said, Boot Camp is free. You just have to provide your own copy of Windows.

If you don't like Microsoft, enjoy sticking it to the man, you hate evil DRM and don't mind downloading Windows 7, I might suggest you google "removeWAT". I "hear from a friend" that it works great ;)
 
Ok, I think I've decided to get the 2.66GHz with i7. Can Mac's use any bluetooth mouse? and if I use bootcamp I should probably by my games on the PC format not Mac(although i think SC2 and Diablo 2 are both). If I have windows on my mac, will it slow it down performance wise? My old White Macbook had windows and was very slow after receiving it. I also heard that an i7 can run Crysis, is this true?
 
I have a nicely overclocked 2008 Macbook Pro (2.53 to 2.94 GHz, dramatically increased GPU clock speeds) that plays nicely with games. Windows 7 64-bit edition. 4 GB of RAM. 512 MB of video RAM.

List of games:

Dead Space: Runs with everything except for vsync on maximum at around 50-70 FPS, sometimes breaks 130 and other times goes as low as 30.

Dead Space 2: Same as above, everything maxed out except for vsync, and gets slightly higher FPS.

Bad Company 2: All textures on medium, shadows on low, medium filtering, full res, no AA. Varies from 90 FPS to 25 FPS.

Team Fortress 2: All maxed except for water, which is left at default (soft reflections of world) and 2x AA. 70 FPS steady, some 50 FPS during intense Pyro vs. Pyro vs. Pyro fights.

MW2: Everything except for shadows and AA maxed, gets smooth 70 FPS.

Black Ops: Naturally glitchy game, everything except for AA and shadows and shader warming is enabled. Textures and other effects are high/medium. Feels stuttery but FPS stays around 50-60 FPS. Inexplicable, probably a game issue.

Fallout: New Vegas: Used "High" profile, changed resolution from 1280x700 to native 1440x900 and turned down AA but left filtering where it is. 60-80 FPS, sometimes 40, sometimes 100.

Portal: Everything maxed, 130 FPS.

Garry's Mod: Everything maxed, 130 FPS.

Bioshock: Defaults, but changed to no AA and lowered shadow warming, maxed out resolution. 50-90 FPS, feels kinda stuttery for no reason at times when hacking.

Only crash was when I pushed the processor to 3.06 GHz and it did a hardware crash. I've gotten a few BSoD's, but that's because Daemon Tools messed up with an .iso file.
 

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Do you need a specific version of Windows? Do some work better for gaming than others?
 
Yes, MBP's have bluetooth. As for Windows 7.....you will want 64-bit and I would recommend at least Pro, but you could easily get by with Home.

PS Not to be rude but 90% of your questions could have been answered with a little research on Google.
 
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