will my macbook pro 15" i5 last just as long for gaming as the i7 with the extra 256mb? im hoping the i5 will suffice for atleast 4 years maybe even 5....for gaming like blizzard games and steam and like lord of the rings online. what do you guys think?
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Macbook pro i5 gaming for the next 3-4 years
- Thread starter jdhatt
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In curent benchmarks the only time 512mb vram gained an advantage over 256mb was when they were playing games in 2560x 1600 with textures set to high/very high. So playing games on a resolution of 1440/1650 is sufficient with 256mb. Especially if you have textures set to med or low. But who know what the future will bring 
the 330m will run the games, just not at the best quality.
dont worry my sis's 3 year hp with 7400 go graphics can still play every game as long as it is on low settings
the i5 mbp will survive quite adequately for 5 years for most tasks, yes.
it will be able to play all the new release games in the next 5 years too at low to med settings.
if you have the extra money to upgrade to the i7 that would be a worthy upgrade considering how long you want to keep your mbp. its always best to get every non user upgradeable option that is within your budget.
haha i defs WANT the i7...i just wanna know if its worth it....and if ill be able to utilize it for the next 5 years without having to sell it (like i was planning with the i5) for a newer one in like 2 years. theres also the battery life thats leading me towards the i5, i hear its better
The new MacBook Pro struggles to cope with titles released this year. It will be almost impossible to play anything released in the years to come without severely reducing quality and resolution settings. Your hopes are unrealistic.
This exactly. Don't buy an MBP if you want to game; the 330M is just another nVidia rebrand.
In curent benchmarks the only time 512mb vram gained an advantage over 256mb was when they were playing games in 2560x 1600 with textures set to high/very high. So playing games on a resolution of 1440/1650 is sufficient with 256mb. Especially if you have textures set to med or low. But who know what the future will bring
If you're referring to the Barefeats benchmarks than those are hardly "current" as he tests games over half a decade old. Very pointless test.
exactly. You don't buy a mac to game. Not a single mac (non hackintosh) out there can run the current games that are out with decent graphics settings. The top end i5 imac comes with an 512mb ati 4850. I just took a 1gb 4850 out of my gaming rig to replace it with a 5850, because it could only run Battlefield bad company 2 at low settings.
I'm a mac person through and through, but not for gaming. Even when steam starts to get some good games up and running on mac, they are going to be limited by the hardware that apple gives them to work with.
With gaming, the graphics card is the single most important component. I have an older dell xps gaming rig with a pentium d, that can still run every game out on lower settings, once i put that 4850 in it.
If you have the 2k for a 15" MBP, you could....
Grab a 13" MBP for 1k and then buy something like a Dell Inspiron 580 with the i3-540 for $500, and replace the PSU/GPU. Or get a XPS 7100 with the phenom/5870 for a little less than 1k.
Would be about the same price as the 15" MBP (and less than a i7 with options), and you would have a great portable Mac and a rig with the longevity you're looking for.
I disagree with this, I could be wrong, but I really don't see game requirements jumping much in the next few years, things seem to have stabilized somewhat and graphics aren't as important as they used to be. I personally think that a mbp should be perfectly fine to play games at med/low settings for the next 3-4 years, maybe even longer, especially if you are mostly playing blizzard and valve games and mmos.
Nope. Many of the games in the next 4 years will default to lower graphic settings with the 256M V RAM. You will be able to select higher graphics settings with 512M V RAM but who knows what fps you will get at the higher settings.
The 330M has trouble even with old games. Portal doesn't run at 60fps on my i7 MBP at 1440x900 without disabling antialiasing. Apple won't put powerful video cards in their machines - never have, and it seems that they never will.
i need a laptop only, dont have space for a desktop ima university student thats why im looking into ONE decent mac...and dont want to have to have two laptops to take around either....the 13 inch is crap compared to the 15inch....im planning on using my mac for EVERYTHING, thats why im tryna figure out whats best for me
To me it sounds like you're going to have to look at PCs then, something like an Alienware. There isn't a single Apple portable that will do what you want well at all, at least if you want to run newer titles.