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Macbook Pro or Gaming desktop?

A

AdventurousJosh

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 11, 2008
300
19
Hey everyone,
I'm having a hard time choosing between whether or not to get a gaming desktop or a macbook pro. I currently have a 2.2 GHZ 4 GB Macbook, and thought "well..I don't need games, I'll go with the Macbook over the pro".
I liked the Macbooks keyboard, small size, case, ect.
Now I'm regretting it.
I absolutely do love my Macbook in every area aside from gaming. I'd like to get back into it. I don't know how to sell a Macbook, but I could probably get a pretty penny for this Macbook and then save up for a pro.

Or, I could pick up a desktop gaming PC and have both a Macbook and a desktop computer.

What do you guys think?


Thanks!


Josh

EDIT: I'm not sure if this will change anyones mind, but, here's the gaming computer I'd get if I choose to get that: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...-details.asp?EdpNo=4138011&Sku=SYXS-DG-038800

Is this faster then a pro?
 
macbook + PC gaming desktop by covers the most ground.

a MBP isn't a gaming machine and costs a whole lot more than a PC desktop and it would make your macbook pretty much useless.
 
MACBOOK PRO. do you even need to ask? Switch to the 9600 when you game. And game whenever you like, wherever you are because you can carry your MBP around. :cool:
 
Actually this is an easy question to answer:

Depending on what games you play and if they were graphically intense, gaming desktop all the way.

If you dont play any intensive games and really really want a MB/MBP, then go with the MB + Desktop combo.

If you were thinking the MBP is satisfactory in playing newer games, go look up some benchmarks. The 3dmark06 scores are not all that great and will never beat a good desktop machine. You can build a MBP-killer desktop for < 1000$ btw.
 
I played COD4 on my uniMBP. Runs pretty well and very playable on the 15" LED screen. I run @ 1024 lines and medium'ish geometries.

I have COD4 on PS3, love it and played a LOT. But now that I have reverted back to a mouse and keyboard, I realized what I was missing while playing with a gamepad.
 
Hey everyone,
I'm having a hard time choosing between whether or not to get a gaming desktop or a macbook pro. I currently have a 2.2 GHZ 4 GB Macbook, and thought "well..I don't need games, I'll go with the Macbook over the pro".
I liked the Macbooks keyboard, small size, case, ect.
Now I'm regretting it.
I absolutely do love my Macbook in every area aside from gaming. I'd like to get back into it. I don't know how to sell a Macbook, but I could probably get a pretty penny for this Macbook and then save up for a pro.

Or, I could pick up a desktop gaming PC and have both a Macbook and a desktop computer.

What do you guys think?


Thanks!


Josh

EDIT: I'm not sure if this will change anyones mind, but, here's the gaming computer I'd get if I choose to get that: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...-details.asp?EdpNo=4138011&Sku=SYXS-DG-038800

Is this faster then a pro? I know I'd be saving a lot of money...
 
I have a both the gaming desktop and the MBP...

My desktop is very close to the same specs as the one you highlighted without the nicer graphics card. I honestly prefer gaming on my MBP but with a lot of the newer games they are requiring a faster CPU speed than the MBP is able to offer.

Therefore I install those games on my desktop...also the plus is that you can always upgrade the desktop easily if you need to for a certain game.

Just my 2 cents...
 
Depends on what you play mate. I've been gaming on my new MBP and its been superb. I only play Half-life and Half-life 2 mods but it plays even the half-life 2 mods(like DoD:s I play full settings and even in intense gun fights it gets around 50 fps) superbly.
 
Really depends on your needs. Do you want portability or power? The MBP can play a good majority of the games out today, not usually at the highest settings, but certainly playable. Personally I would take the MBP but I just play games to waste a little time here and there. If your hardcore into gaming I would go with the desktop. Like a previous poster said its kind of hard for us to make this decision for you, just can point out a couple of the reasons for each one. I do think the idea of keeping the MB and building the desktop could be a great compromise.
 
If you want to play most titles that have been put out in the past year and half, do yourself a favor and get a Macbook plus a decent gaming PC.

You're also really asking the wrong forum lol. 8/10 people in this forum *and that's being generous* are going to tell you that it's alright to accept paltry performance out of a laptop just for the portability and the fact that it runs Vista / XP through BootCamp, and OS X.

Quite simply put, if you want to see decent quality in games, without hiccups and overall bad framerates, just build a relatively midrange PC and get a MacBook. Apple computers aren't built for gaming. Sure, they can play Half Life 2, WoW, and some other games with *alright* frame rates. But you can build a PC at half the price, assuming you have things like an external keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. at hand.



Also, doesn't sound like you need a Pro in my opinion. It's also a very rewarding experience to actually buy components and build a computer yourself.
 
Jpoon said:
If you want to play most titles that have been put out in the past year and half, do yourself a favor and get a Macbook plus a decent gaming PC.

You're also really asking the wrong forum lol. 8/10 people in this forum *and that's being generous* are going to tell you that it's alright to accept paltry performance out of a laptop just for the portability and the fact that it runs Vista / XP through BootCamp, and OS X.

Quite simply put, if you want to see decent quality in games, without hiccups and overall bad framerates, just build a relatively midrange PC and get a MacBook. Apple computers aren't built for gaming. Sure, they can play Half Life 2, WoW, and some other games with *alright* frame rates. But you can build a PC at half the price, assuming you have things like an external keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. at hand.



Also, doesn't sound like you need a Pro in my opinion. It's also a very rewarding experience to actually buy components and build a computer yourself.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's quite good advice. If you're playing any game that is relatively new get a desktop. I check out hardware prices the other day on newegg and you can build a top of the line desktop for about $800-900 these days. MBP's are fine for older games but anything coming out in the next two years will have to be put on low-mid settings on a MBP.
 
This is all up to you. None of us here can make that decision for you. You need to find out what you want out of a system and decide from there. If you like Leopard and can sacrifice graphic performance alittle for portability, MBP would be a better choice... But, if you like to have top of the line graphic card with XP or Vista and lose the portability, you should go with desktop.

I personally hate desktops because of the lack of portability.

Also, not sure if I can ever go back to microsoft Windows....
 
TXBDan said:
macbook + PC gaming desktop by covers the most ground.

a MBP isn't a gaming machine and costs a whole lot more than a PC desktop and it would make your macbook pretty much useless.
Click to expand...

This.

Keep your macbook and get that gaming desktop if you don't want to build your own. It should run most stuff fine.

I have a decent gaming rig that will handle my heavy duty gaming and hd media watching. I'm going to get an aluminum macbook 2.0 to go along with it.. I think they will make a nice pair.
 
I own the 3.06 iMac standard config and the new 2.4 standard config MBP. The iMac is slightly cheaper and really thrashes the pants of the MBP for gaming, the large amount of extra processor power and double the gpu memory REALLY makes a difference. (I know these aren't the only factors but I'm not going into all the pros and cons ;) )
Keep your MacBook and save for the iMac that way you will have a great machine for gaming and when you have finished your gaming you can reboot it in OSX and be happy that you don't own a beige box ;)
Seriously though the top end iMac is a great machine.
Hope that helps.
 
a notebook, even one as powerful as the new MBP will never match a similarly-spec'd desktop.
The new MBP has a formidable graphics setup, especially with the 9600 but this is still a mobile gpu. The major benefit you have with a desktop though is that you can upgrade it.. With the speed that system requirements increase in gaming, it makes sense to buy a machine that you can swap out the graphics card or add another to your setup (SLI) to increase performance as games increase in resource demands. This is considerably cheaper than having to sell and replace your notebook every 2 years to keep playing new games.

Considering you already have a macbook which serves all your mobile computing needs, i'd buy a dedicated and upgradeable PC for gaming. The machine you've picked out is reasonable for the price but i'd probably upgrade to 4GB and i'd personally have reservations in buying a new machine with only one PCI-E slot.
 
Well it depends on what games you wanna play. Personally I like to have one computer so I can see where you're coming from. I am due for an update to my computer and thinking about either the macbook and macbook pro. I like to play some games such as Warcraft and TF2 which the MB and MBP can handle comfortably, but also some future games like starcraft 2 so I'm deciding on the MBP.

However I am no means a hardcore PC gamer, i have an xbox360 for my big games. The MBP will be more suited to my gaming habits for the next 3 years over the MB, maybe it will be fine for yours too.
 
I would advise you to look on You Tube, there are some vids showing even the new Mac Book playing COD 4 posted by a member of this forum no less! It could probably run Crysis on low settings.

As for the new Mac Book Pro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rfHSDgibgo

I have already brought Crysis of fleabay for my new MB Pro :D

The MB Pro will play most of the current games, but to have every little detail maxed out you would really need a dual graphics card setup really and a quad core CPU. Although as far as I know games still aren't coded for dual or quad cores are they?

Now whilst I fully intend to game on my Mac, I also have a PS3 which offers a different experience, yes it is not nearly as good gamming with a joypad, BUT, I brought Dead Space yesterday, and playing that in the dark with my surround sound and my 32" HD telly is a totally different experience my Mac won't offer, you would have to spend as much or more to get the same experience with a PC in fact.

But with a PC you will have to replace parts every year to get maximum performance in every brand new game at fast frame rates.

The idea of the iMac is a good one though, but if you want a laptop then a Mac Book and a desktop is a nice idea as you can replace the parts in a PC desktop to upgrade, a laptop you obviously can't.
 
apolloa said:
I would advise you to look on You Tube, there are some vids showing even the new Mac Book playing COD 4 posted by a member of this forum no less! It could probably run Crysis on low settings.

As for the new Mac Book Pro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rfHSDgibgo

I have already brought Crysis of fleabay for my new MB Pro :D

The MB Pro will play most of the current games, but to have every little detail maxed out you would really need a dual graphics card setup really and a quad core CPU. Although as far as I know games still aren't coded for dual or quad cores are they?

Now whilst I fully intend to game on my Mac, I also have a PS3 which offers a different experience, yes it is not nearly as good gamming with a joypad, BUT, I brought Dead Space yesterday, and playing that in the dark with my surround sound and my 32" HD telly is a totally different experience my Mac won't offer, you would have to spend as much or more to get the same experience with a PC in fact.

But with a PC you will have to replace parts every year to get maximum performance in every brand new game at fast frame rates.

The idea of the iMac is a good one though, but if you want a laptop then a Mac Book and a desktop is a nice idea as you can replace the parts in a PC desktop to upgrade, a laptop you obviously can't.
Click to expand...

I just bought Command and Conquer Red Alert 3.

What is your opinion about the late macbook pro 2.53 able to play this game?

Also I plan to get Fallout 3 but I am not sure if I should buy it for vista or ps3. If you say fallout 3 can play on vista great, 30 fps or more then I'll buy it on Vista
 
Well I wouldn't get Vista cause it's such a resource hog myself, settling for XP as I already have it and it works.
It will run Red Alert 3 no probs I'd of thought, but that kind of game will run better with the faster CPU unless your playing online of course.
As for Fallout 3 it will also run, but I doubt if it's a new 3d FPS it will run with all settings maxed out. All games will run on it but it depends on the level of quality you want, as I said you will need to swap bits here and there to keep the machine up to spec to run all settings at max on new games. I did read that there bootcamp may not support every game either? No idea on that one though?
 
Kusuri said:
Hey everyone,
I'm having a hard time choosing between whether or not to get a gaming desktop or a macbook pro. I currently have a 2.2 GHZ 4 GB Macbook, and thought "well..I don't need games, I'll go with the Macbook over the pro".
I liked the Macbooks keyboard, small size, case, ect.
Now I'm regretting it.
I absolutely do love my Macbook in every area aside from gaming. I'd like to get back into it. I don't know how to sell a Macbook, but I could probably get a pretty penny for this Macbook and then save up for a pro.

Or, I could pick up a desktop gaming PC and have both a Macbook and a desktop computer.

What do you guys think?


Thanks!


Josh

EDIT: I'm not sure if this will change anyones mind, but, here's the gaming computer I'd get if I choose to get that: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...-details.asp?EdpNo=4138011&Sku=SYXS-DG-038800

Is this faster then a pro? I know I'd be saving a lot of money...
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone.
Can anyone answer this question for me?
 
Very simple, if you want to play games, you get a PC.

You will have people going on about how they play COD4 etc on their MBP, its about future proofing, the 9600 is nothing on a 4870 (if you go ATI). And if you want a gaming rig, you want it to play all the new games at max detail, not just run them.

Get yourself a PC with either 2x 4870 crossfire or a 4870x2, this will keep you going for ages, and will cream the MBP in gaming performance.
 
Kusuri said:
Thanks everyone.
Can anyone answer this question for me?
Click to expand...

As for the direct comparison, that PC will be faster. The 9800 GT is a faster card.

If your happy to spend around $1K, you can build a system yourself that will be much faster.

If you want to do more research look for benchmarks for the 9600M GT and the 9800 GT, good way to compare.
 
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