Hi I am a student and am getting a Macbook 13" Aluminium 2.0Ghz with a NVIDIA 9400M graphics card and 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM. What i am wondering is that will the middle range new 13" macbook run things like GTA 4, Fallout 3, Farcry and other recent PC games on the laptop. I am not hoping to play them at full capacity just so they are playable rather than jittery and prone to crashing. Could anyone help before i go out and get some Pc games.
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MacBook Aluminium 13" Game Help
- Thread starter angryvader13
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I have a 2.0 aluminum and have used bootcamp to successfully run Fallout 3 and Farcry 2 on your list of games of at least 30+ FPS. Medium/low settings, no HDR or shadows on both, runs fine! Those are the most graphics demanding games I've installed, all other VALVe games work great, L4D runs on medium similar to Fallout 3 settings. HL2/CS:S etc run on high. Great chipset!
This is me using the bootcamp drivers, did nothing else, just installed windows vista 64bit (tiny/gamers ed) and good to go.
oh yeah I have 4GB ram, not sure how much it helps but installed that before I had any games.. so can't tell yo uabout 2gb, although many other users (try the MR games forum) have 2GB and don't seem to have issues.
hello and welcome to the forums.
There is actually a whole subforum dedicated to games
https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/101/
you might be able to find your answers there.
There is actually a whole subforum dedicated to games
https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/101/
you might be able to find your answers there.
why did you install windows vista?
or specifically, the 64bit edition?
vista takes up a lot more resources (baseline) than XP. you're automatically handicapping the macbook right off the bat by using vista.
(even if you turn aero off, it is still more resource-hogging.
why the 64 bit edition? i read that the most compatibility comes with 32bit edition.
The macbook isn't a gaming laptop to begin with, so why burden it with vista? you're only making it harder on yourself (and your macbook)
or specifically, the 64bit edition?
vista takes up a lot more resources (baseline) than XP. you're automatically handicapping the macbook right off the bat by using vista.
(even if you turn aero off, it is still more resource-hogging.
why the 64 bit edition? i read that the most compatibility comes with 32bit edition.
The macbook isn't a gaming laptop to begin with, so why burden it with vista? you're only making it harder on yourself (and your macbook)
I have now put XP on my machine it runs great! Is there any other games which are recent that work on macbooks?
Why did I install Vista? Like I said I installed Tiny Vista.. to use my 4GB Ram potential. 32bit only allows like 3.3GBram Plus it was the gamer's ed. The 64bit allows me to use 4gb ram, and all games will work with it unless it's old as balls lol, if not in 64bit there is still the 32bit architecture that will be used to run games. Half-Life 2 has 64bit coding..
I don't even have aero interface or hardly any vista things, no .net framework, classic look, seriously it's SMALL. It's a very bare min install. Fast boot up and only uses if I remember right like 60MB ram on boot up. Very small foot print, runs games awesome, even better than my TinyXP install.
did it read 4gb in the OS? TinyVista is indeed a slimmed down version of vista, you can do it yourself with your own vista copy and the software or if you have a Vista license you can download it via torrent. "damn tiny vista"
Check out vlite.net. It's pretty usefull. I got a (LEGAL - I own it) basic installation of Vista Ultimate (needed for work) slimmed down to the point where the default installation is only 3.3 GB and a base memory footprint of 140 MB.
Macbook 13" (not PRO) with vista 64
So, I think you answered what I meant to ask! But I would still like a confirmation and could not find a way to send you a message.
If you check on the Apple website, you will notice that only the PRO versions are supported on vista64. So, they do not support or provide drivers for the regular Macbook to the 64bit version of Vista (or XP).
I have 4gb of RAM as you do and I am currently using a Windows XP 32-bit. It only recognizes 2.72 GB of RAM (which is normal as the system is 32bit and does not have any clever way of addressing more then that). But this is also a pain. Specially if you think that the main reason for having this XP running here is to play games. Vista64 not only has support for heaps of RAM (as any 64bit system does from scratch) but it also has DX10 and other stuff that are good for games.
The main question is: Could you get drivers to everything on Vista64? I understand you used a "reduced" version (that does not really change much on my question). I just want to know if I can get all the embedded hardware of my macbook to be recognized by Vista64. Did you use the drivers for the Macbook Pro Bootcamp? Did you download them from the apple website? Did you find any of those from the manufacturer?
Any help is appreciated,
if we could talk on msn or skype it would be great!
Cheers!
I'll be around here now! This forum is quite good!
ps: I have this XP copy for quite a long time, and really would not care on getting rid of it... lol (but I would probably keep it on a virtual machine anyway).
So, I think you answered what I meant to ask! But I would still like a confirmation and could not find a way to send you a message.
If you check on the Apple website, you will notice that only the PRO versions are supported on vista64. So, they do not support or provide drivers for the regular Macbook to the 64bit version of Vista (or XP).
I have 4gb of RAM as you do and I am currently using a Windows XP 32-bit. It only recognizes 2.72 GB of RAM (which is normal as the system is 32bit and does not have any clever way of addressing more then that). But this is also a pain. Specially if you think that the main reason for having this XP running here is to play games. Vista64 not only has support for heaps of RAM (as any 64bit system does from scratch) but it also has DX10 and other stuff that are good for games.
The main question is: Could you get drivers to everything on Vista64? I understand you used a "reduced" version (that does not really change much on my question). I just want to know if I can get all the embedded hardware of my macbook to be recognized by Vista64. Did you use the drivers for the Macbook Pro Bootcamp? Did you download them from the apple website? Did you find any of those from the manufacturer?
Any help is appreciated,
if we could talk on msn or skype it would be great!
Cheers!
I'll be around here now! This forum is quite good!
ps: I have this XP copy for quite a long time, and really would not care on getting rid of it... lol (but I would probably keep it on a virtual machine anyway).
there's a work around to install 64-bit drivers for Vista or Win 7. I am now using Windows 7 RC 64-bit. Bootcamp drivers 2.1 will work and everything will be fine. As for graphics drivers if you want the best performance you can just go to www.laptopvideo2go.com to find the latest nvidia windows 64bit drivers to install, they're modded drivers and work fine with the 9400m. If you do want to go this route, reply or PM me I would love to help - but may not be necessary, I just like the latest/best drivers for my graphics card to squeeze out all the frame rates I can get).
If you want to use XP (which is perfectly fine for gaming I did it for the longest time before switching to win 7 a couple weeks ago as I prefered the Win7 "dock") then it's all straight forward. If you prefer to go Vista or Win 7 (free for now) then let me know, here's how to install 64bit drivers from the system restore disc (using 4gb ram for 64bit)
Open the start menu and type "cmd" in the search field and when the option comes up in the menu, right click and choose to run cmd as an administrator.
type what is in bold
D: (this is your dvd-rom drive letter)
[ENTER]
cd "Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple"
[ENTER, and note the use of slash and back-slash and type in the quotes as well]
msiexec /i BootCamp64.msi
[ENTER]
then it will run the installer for the 64bit drivers.
also download from apple the MTTU.exe the multi-touch trackpad update which fixes the trackpad for 2finger right click scrolling and sensitivity.
If you want to use XP (which is perfectly fine for gaming I did it for the longest time before switching to win 7 a couple weeks ago as I prefered the Win7 "dock") then it's all straight forward. If you prefer to go Vista or Win 7 (free for now) then let me know, here's how to install 64bit drivers from the system restore disc (using 4gb ram for 64bit)
Open the start menu and type "cmd" in the search field and when the option comes up in the menu, right click and choose to run cmd as an administrator.
type what is in bold
D: (this is your dvd-rom drive letter)
[ENTER]
cd "Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple"
[ENTER, and note the use of slash and back-slash and type in the quotes as well]
msiexec /i BootCamp64.msi
[ENTER]
then it will run the installer for the 64bit drivers.
also download from apple the MTTU.exe the multi-touch trackpad update which fixes the trackpad for 2finger right click scrolling and sensitivity.
That was fast!!
Wow!! Thanks for the fast response man!
Well, I am from Brazil but currently studying IT here in Australia. I am quite experienced with windows but I got a MacBook here in Australia and that is the only box I have here. So, I have not yet used Windows7, and I am not sure if that would be better then Vista for me. In any case, I was using Vista Ultimate 64 on a Core2Duo 2.4ghz 2gb ram in Brazil and I liked it a lot better then any 32bit Windows.
Many people would say that it is slower, etc.. But it has always seemed to be better for me, even for 32bit games. WinXP64 was quite good as well, but it is a system that had a very short life and not many drivers support. So my main system was vista64, I also had XP 32bit on another partition for when I needed to do something not supported by Vista64 (as my palm apps and other stuff) and even another partition with OpenSuse 64bit.
I think I can not PM you because I am new to the forum (I tried that even before posting here, but there was nothing like that on your profile).
I am not going to format my bootcamp partition today, so, I will probably take some time to research about that. I also have a MSDN account, so I think I can download Win7 from there.
But it is good to know that other people were successful on using Vista64 and Win7 64 on a Macbook Aluminum Unibody 13" (not the PRO). As I have VMWare with a WinXP image on it, my bootcamp system is pretty much only for gaming.
As the HOLE memory allocation for any Win32 is only 4gb and that includes even the Video Memory, I can only get those 2.72gb ram recognized (which is quite a waste).
At least the games run well even on the XP32 (even the Battlefield2142 with many settings on high and wide screen on runs well).
What IM do you use? Can you PM me so I can reply to you with my address? I would like to ask you a bit more about Win7 and other stuff.
Thank you for all your help!
Cheers!
Wow!! Thanks for the fast response man!
Well, I am from Brazil but currently studying IT here in Australia. I am quite experienced with windows but I got a MacBook here in Australia and that is the only box I have here. So, I have not yet used Windows7, and I am not sure if that would be better then Vista for me. In any case, I was using Vista Ultimate 64 on a Core2Duo 2.4ghz 2gb ram in Brazil and I liked it a lot better then any 32bit Windows.
Many people would say that it is slower, etc.. But it has always seemed to be better for me, even for 32bit games. WinXP64 was quite good as well, but it is a system that had a very short life and not many drivers support. So my main system was vista64, I also had XP 32bit on another partition for when I needed to do something not supported by Vista64 (as my palm apps and other stuff) and even another partition with OpenSuse 64bit.
I think I can not PM you because I am new to the forum (I tried that even before posting here, but there was nothing like that on your profile).
I am not going to format my bootcamp partition today, so, I will probably take some time to research about that. I also have a MSDN account, so I think I can download Win7 from there.
But it is good to know that other people were successful on using Vista64 and Win7 64 on a Macbook Aluminum Unibody 13" (not the PRO). As I have VMWare with a WinXP image on it, my bootcamp system is pretty much only for gaming.
As the HOLE memory allocation for any Win32 is only 4gb and that includes even the Video Memory, I can only get those 2.72gb ram recognized (which is quite a waste).
At least the games run well even on the XP32 (even the Battlefield2142 with many settings on high and wide screen on runs well).
What IM do you use? Can you PM me so I can reply to you with my address? I would like to ask you a bit more about Win7 and other stuff.
Thank you for all your help!
Cheers!