Macbook pro 15 inch mid/late 2014 model and light gaming

[FRWRDNVRBCKWRDS]

Hey guys,

If I use bootcamp and put windows on my mac will I be able to game on it? I am only looking to play 2 games. I got the mac for video editing and learning to code but I wanted to make sure that gaming on this machine wont hurt it. My specs are

2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
512GB PCIe-based flash storage 1
Intel Iris Pro Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5 memory
Built-in battery (8 hours)2


and the games I want to play are
1.DAYZ


MINIMUM
Intel Core 2 or AMD Dual-Core Athlon 2.4GHz Processor
1GB RAM
10GB Hard Disk Space
512MB Nvidia GeForce 8600GT/ATI Radeon 3650 Video Card


RECOMMENDED
Intel Core i5 or AMD Athlon Phenom X4 Processor
2GB RAM
20GB Hard Disk Soace
896MB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260/ATI Radeon 5770 Video Card




2. H1Z1

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 or higher / AMD Phenom II X2 or higher Memory - 4 GB RAM Hard Drive - 15 GB free Video Memory - 256 MB RAM Video Card - nVidia GeForce 8600 series or higher / AMD or ATI 4850 series or higher Sound Card - DirectX compatible


Recommended System OS - Windows 7 Processor - Intel i5 processor or higher / AMD Phenom II X6 or higher Memory - 8 GB RAM Hard Drive - 15 GB free Video Memory - 1,024 MB RAM Video Card - nVidia GeForce GTX 560 series or higher / AMD HD 6870 or higher Sound Card - DirectX compatible

 

[yjchua95]

Hey guys,

If I use bootcamp and put windows on my mac will I be able to game on it? I am only looking to play 2 games. I got the mac for video editing and learning to code but I wanted to make sure that gaming on this machine wont hurt it. My specs are

2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
512GB PCIe-based flash storage 1
Intel Iris Pro Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5 memory
Built-in battery (8 hours)2


and the games I want to play are
1.DAYZ


MINIMUM
Intel Core 2 or AMD Dual-Core Athlon 2.4GHz Processor
1GB RAM
10GB Hard Disk Space
512MB Nvidia GeForce 8600GT/ATI Radeon 3650 Video Card


RECOMMENDED
Intel Core i5 or AMD Athlon Phenom X4 Processor
2GB RAM
20GB Hard Disk Soace
896MB Nvidia GeForce GTX 260/ATI Radeon 5770 Video Card




2. H1Z1

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 or higher / AMD Phenom II X2 or higher Memory - 4 GB RAM Hard Drive - 15 GB free Video Memory - 256 MB RAM Video Card - nVidia GeForce 8600 series or higher / AMD or ATI 4850 series or higher Sound Card - DirectX compatible


Recommended System OS - Windows 7 Processor - Intel i5 processor or higher / AMD Phenom II X6 or higher Memory - 8 GB RAM Hard Drive - 15 GB free Video Memory - 1,024 MB RAM Video Card - nVidia GeForce GTX 560 series or higher / AMD HD 6870 or higher Sound Card - DirectX compatible

It'll run fine.

I've got the late-2013 with 2GB GT 750M as well and I play BF4 at 1680x1050, mix of high and ultra, 16xAF and FXAA, and get around 47-50 fps, with the lowest being 35 and experiencing 60 fps in quite a number of situations.

So the GT 750M will suffice for your needs.

The games that you want to play are pretty old, so they'll run really smoothly on the GT 750M.

 

[FRWRDNVRBCKWRDS]

It'll run fine.

I've got the late-2013 with 2GB GT 750M as well and I play BF4 at 1680x1050, mix of high and ultra, 16xAF and FXAA, and get around 47-50 fps, with the lowest being 35 and experiencing 60 fps in quite a number of situations.

So the GT 750M will suffice for your needs.

The games that you want to play are pretty old, so they'll run really smoothly on the GT 750M.

H1Z1 is a new game but I think you mean the specs needed for the game are old.


I was wondering how should I keep the mac from over heating? I have the fan app but if I bootcamp I cant control it at the same time.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

It won't overheat

H1Z1 is a new game but I think you mean the specs needed for the game are old.


I was wondering how should I keep the mac from over heating? I have the fan app but if I bootcamp I cant control it at the same time.

that chip will throttle or shut down before overheating.

It will get pretty hot while gaming though the aluminium is great for dispersing heat but that means dispersing heat to your hands I'm afarid.

Manage your expectations keep things at medium settings turn down AA and FX etc.

Get a laptop cooler with a fan in it.

 

[Toutou]

Turning the settings down is not a way to cool a laptop. On medium settings your GPU manages to drive more FPS and it generates the same amount of heat it would generate on High settings.


The way to avoid this is by lowering your settings to a point where the FPS are way above what you would like to have, and then locking/capping them to a lower value. For example, my (iGPU) Macbook can run Half-Life 2 always above 50 FPS with peaks as high as 80 FPS - and it gets hot, 90°C or even 100°C. I don't like it at all! Sure, it throttles and shuts itself down just before it melts into a silicon puddle, but that's an emergency system. It won't stop you from torturing your precious hardware with extremely high temperatures (100°C sounded almost insane only a few years ago). So i lock it (ingame console command) to 40 FPS (which is okay for me) and play happily on 65°C with my fans much quieter and a cool laptop under my hands.
On Windows, locking FPS is easy, there are many apps that can do it for any game (even if it doesn't have its own FPS limiter, like Source games or Minecraft do). On OS X there is no such way. And btw, I'm not talking about VSync, that's a different thing.

A laptop cooler with a fan is a way to go if you can't keep it cooler by any other means. It works, but can be noisy/clunky/ugly.

So if you absolutely positively want to game on a super thin aluminium notebook - use Bootcamp, lower your settings, lock the FPS, keep it cool.

 

[dusk007]

You can cool your notebook by changing the powerplan for the CPU. You can also underclock the GPU but because you cannot change the Voltage that won't do much other than reduce performance. Setting the CPU to 70-80% will limit Turbo but is usually plenty for Games and cuts easily 15W of TDP about half the GPU total TDP. You don't really notice the difference in performance but the brick will be noticeable less noisy.
The notebook won't actually be cooler because what will happen is that the fans will just spin not as loud but the temps will stay about the same. So it is really more of a noise reduction measure than a cooling one.