macbook pro + gaming

[vivithemage]

A friend gave me his 2006 MBP 15.4" to play with OSX 10.6...I like it, so now I am looking to move my current laptop x220 and get a new MBP 13"~ or MBA 13"~.

I am thinking i'll wait until Q1/Q2 next year to see if they have higher resolutions in the MBP, but in the meantime, which software has the best integration for gaming through a windows 7 VM, since not all games seem to work natively in MAC?

 

[tmagman]

nothing is going to game good through a windows VM. You'll have to bootcamp for decent performance.

 

[vivithemage]

Works for me...is it possible to access bootcamp from within OSX at all?

 

[tmagman]

It'll work (sometimes), but with the virtualization a lot of games won't support this, not to mention the power your computer is using just to run the VM. Bootcamp is your better option

bootcamp can only be accessed during the startup or restart of your computer by holding the option key for the boot screen and choosing your bootcamp partition. Not a huge hassle really for me, I leave most of my documents in a dropbox folder so they're accessible on both sides (or you can create an exFAT partition on your hard drive) which both OS' can read and write to

 

[teknikal90]

bootcamp=dualboot

 

[thekev]

It may be kind of brutal partitioning and older/slower hard drive to dual boot. Keep in mind this is a five year old hardware design. It was a reasonably good laptop at that time. Today it's a bit behind the times.

Even if you can get something like Parallels up and running, you'll probably feel a bit strained on ram given that this is an older machine. If it's a macbook pro 1,1 it seems to max at 2GB of ram.

 

[yusukeaoki]

Dont think about playing Crisis or BF3 on a VMware fusion lol

 

[vivithemage]

That is why I am hoping to wait for MBP with a bit higher res, and maybe dedicated GPU come Q1/Q2 to try this.

I know what dual boot is, I just thought apple had some magic should you could access it from within mac if needed.

 

[heisenberg123]

not a huge gamer, play some emulators, but recently i see a few games that are older in the App Store that i would like to give a try.

But in all my serching i have a hard time finding any recent blogs/posts that say what MBP users are using for a gamepad, is the PS3 bluetooth controller still the best option?

2nd part to this question i would also like for the controller to work on bootcamp

3rd part is if there is a controller that only works on Bootcamp but not OSX than that feedback would be appreciated also

thanks

 

[Steve's Barber]

That is why I am hoping to wait for MBP with a bit higher res, and maybe dedicated GPU come Q1/Q2 to try this.

The GPU you wish for will never happen on a newer MBP13. They will always be integrated as they are now.

 

[vivithemage]

I would only use it for League of Legends or something, but if it had an OK GPU, I wouldn't mind trying out BF3 on it.

The GPU you wish for will never happen on a newer MBP13. They will always be integrated as they are now.

Why do you say that? Rumors are a big change coming in the 13" arena, no?

 

[nickjf20]

I've got the 2010 mbp with the 512mb 330m.

Natively in OSX, it runs League of Legends fine on all medium/high settings, and it runs Bad Company 2 fine at about 30fps under Windows @ medium 2xaa

Just to give you an idea for what to expect from next years machine, it should be roughly double what mine gets.

 

[vivithemage]

I've got the 2010 mbp with the 512mb 330m.

Natively in OSX, it runs League of Legends fine on all medium/high settings, and it runs Bad Company 2 fine at about 30fps under Windows @ medium 2xaa

Just to give you an idea for what to expect from next years machine, it should be roughly double what mine gets.

with hopefully a higher res

 

[thundersteele]

I would only use it for League of Legends or something, but if it had an OK GPU, I wouldn't mind trying out BF3 on it.



Why do you say that? Rumors are a big change coming in the 13" arena, no?

Well, there are all sorts of rumors, including people that believe the 13'' MBP will be discontinued. I don't think we will see a dedicated graphics in the 13'' MBP. The new Ivy Bridge chips that are supposed to be in the next generation MBPs will have much improved integrated GPUs, so there's even less reason to have dedicated graphics.

From the current Macbook lineup, neither 13'' model will give you a good performance on current games. Older titles will work mostly.

 

[Steve's Barber]

Why do you say that? Rumors are a big change coming in the 13" arena, no?

One has to look beyond the mere nuts and bolts of the machine. Without a doubt Apple has long term deals with Intel regarding integrated graphics and their chips.