Macbook and gaming

[nekomaidcafe]

Hi, I'm probably guessing that this question has been asked many times, but I hate to search for a specific question so here goes.

Anyways, I recently bought a macbook pro 13 inch to be exact, and I know that macintosh in general isnt really meant for gaming but I still have the urge to play window-based games on my mac. I heard about programs such as bootcamp, wine, parallel, etc. My question is what would you guys recommend as a good program to run window-based games, I'm aiming for performance on the games itself. Battery life doesnt really matter to me. Also, if I were to get bootcamp and get windows, would that ever slow down the macintosh performance in general? I'm scared that I might regret getting all this windows programs and it'll slow down, or even damage my macbook in general.

Thanks!

 

[mattxi]

If you're going to buy the machine for gaming, do yourself a favor and spend the extra money on the 15 inch. It's worth it as far as specs and screen size go.

Use boot camp to install windows 7 or 8, doesn't matter. Games don't run well if at all through parallels, etc.


It won't do damage to your machine.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't realize you had actually already bought it. If you can still, I really suggest upgrading...also is it retina or classic...?

 

[nekomaidcafe]

Thanks for the heads up! I recently purchased it but I'm willing to switch it for a 15 inch one. Just a classic btw

 

[mattxi]

Okay, well it's a significant amount more, but optimized gaming as far as MacBooks go would be through a retina machine due to the entirely flash architecture. If you're sticking to the classic, but upgrading to 15inch, upgrade the ram for starters (16gbs), and if you're willing to go the extra mile an SSD will do wonders as far as overall performance and especially in gaming.

 

[leman]

Okay, well it's a significant amount more, but optimized gaming as far as MacBooks go would be through a retina machine due to the entirely flash architecture. If you're sticking to the classic, but upgrading to 15inch, upgrade the ram for starters (16gbs), and if you're willing to go the extra mile an SSD will do wonders as far as overall performance and especially in gaming.

I am not sure if this poster is serious, but I must point out that this is a horrible advice. The SSD does absolutely nothing for gaming besides level loading. The most important component for gaming is the graphcis card and the 13" MBPs do not have a good graphics card. The only 'gaming' laptop Apple has is the 15" MBP. Personally, I consider the 15" rMBP to be one of the most interesting gaming laptops in the industry, because it competently runs any modern game while being considerably more portable than the competitors.

 

[FluJunkie]

The SSD does absolutely nothing for gaming besides level loading.

Depending on what games you play, shortened loading times can be a pretty nice feature. I know I miss my SSD whenever I'm playing on a slower drive. Plus the general improvement in overall system snap for everyday use.

 

[leman]

Depending on what games you play, shortened loading times can be a pretty nice feature. I know I miss my SSD whenever I'm playing on a slower drive. Plus the general improvement in overall system snap for everyday use.

True, but this only applies if your CPU/GPU can already handle the game. Its a bonus feature. However, if all your hardware can manage is 10fps, a SSD would't change a single thing about that.

 

[makaveli559m]

I use my 2010 model for gaming works pretty well, Bootcamp at the moment is the best way to run video games. I upgraded the firmware plus ML with Bootcamp 5.0 everything has been running better even the heat has been greatly reduced. I suggest you update all of the above for a good experience on yours.

 

[snaky69]

Hi, I'm probably guessing that this question has been asked many times, but I hate to search for a specific question so here goes.

Anyways, I recently bought a macbook pro 13 inch to be exact, and I know that macintosh in general isnt really meant for gaming but I still have the urge to play window-based games on my mac. I heard about programs such as bootcamp, wine, parallel, etc. My question is what would you guys recommend as a good program to run window-based games, I'm aiming for performance on the games itself. Battery life doesnt really matter to me. Also, if I were to get bootcamp and get windows, would that ever slow down the macintosh performance in general? I'm scared that I might regret getting all this windows programs and it'll slow down, or even damage my macbook in general.

Thanks!

Macs aren't any less meant for gaming than a comparable PC, it's simply that most people pick up a 13 inch mac with a very crappy integrated graphics card and then complain they can't play games with it. You have to understand that with Apple's main goal of great battery life and thinness, they cannot fit a "good" (I put that in quotes as the definition of good almost changed by the hour with graphics cards) graphics card in there, due to heat related issues that would arise.

With that said, for my money's worth, if I were to game, I'd buy anything but a Mac. I could get a lot more gaming performance bang for my buck going with a PC or console.

You should do some research if you think bootcamp or parallels would slow down you machine, you don't seem to understand how those things operate.

Bootcamp is just like booting into windows, on a windows computer, no more, no less. It has no effect whatsoever on the OS X side of things. It also allows you to dedicate all the computer's power to windows.

Parallels or VMWare let's you run Windows ALONGSIDE OS X, so definitely not recommended for gaming, you don't want your computer having to manage 2 operating systems at once + a game, do you?

Wine is a wrapper for older windows game, I have no experience with it but I wouldn't expect performance to be all that great.

 

[takeshi74]

My question is what would you guys recommend as a good program to run window-based games, I'm aiming for performance on the games itself. Battery life doesnt really matter to me.

Definitely Boot Camp. There's overhead with emulation (Parallels, Fusion, Winem etc). You want as much resources as possible available for your game.

Also, if I were to get bootcamp and get windows, would that ever slow down the macintosh performance in general? I'm scared that I might regret getting all this windows programs and it'll slow down, or even damage my macbook in general.

Nope. Boot Camp doesn't run under OSX. You're directly running Windows which is why it's recommended for gaming (again, no overhead).

Hi, I'm probably guessing that this question has been asked many times, but I hate to search for a specific question so here goes.

You really should look at prior threads. Your questions are extremely common and the existing threads are very useful resources.