MBP and gaming in windows

[lapino]

I recently bought a Macbook Pro and used bootcamp to put Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit on it. Works fine, but when I try to play games (Fallout3, HalfLife2) the games often crash. I tried using HWmonitor to check the temps and they do not seem to be overly high for a gaming laptop (cpu around 60°C max, gpu around 82°C). Windows itself does not crash, but the games do.

I tried putting the latest bootcamp on it, tried updating the videocard drivers but nothing seems to help. Only thing I have not tried is putting XP or Windows7 on it.

Also, the fans start to blow pretty quickly (and hard) after a few minutes. I tried a 3D game under Mac OSX to compare (Lego Star Wars) and while the laptop felt about the same heatwise, the fans did not blow that hard under OsX.

So any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[gusious]

Not an expert on gaming but i suggest you install XP. Vista sucks bad at games...

 

[TheSVD]

just get XP.
doesnt eat as much resources as vista does & therefore better gaming.
Yeah, screw your DX10

 

[gusious]

just get XP.
doesnt eat as much resources as vista does & therefore better gaming.
Yeah, screw your DX10

+1. Gonna do it soon.

 

[NickM]

Not an expert on gaming but i suggest you install XP. Vista sucks bad at games...

Thread starter, if you have no previous Vista experience, ignore this guy's post.
I've been using Vista Ultimate 64 bit as my primary OS, and it's never had a problem with one single game that I've thrown at it... and I've thrown a bunch.

People who hate on Vista either try running it on a computer that can't handle it, or don't know how to set permissions for certain programs.
I don't have one single complaint about Vista.

However, I did Bootcamp XP on my new MacBook Pro instead of Vista... only because XP requires less resources and I only plan to use the Windows side for a little portable gaming every now and then.

 

[lapino]

I've got my problem fixed by doing a system restore prior to installing the latest trackpad drivers. Been playing TF2 for about 15mins and no problem, so I hope it's fixed.

One other thing though:is it normal that the fan is spinning almost at full speed when gaming under Windows Vista? It's kinda annoying to hear that fan whine through the game-sound.

 

[ayeying]

I've got my problem fixed by doing a system restore prior to installing the latest trackpad drivers. Been playing TF2 for about 15mins and no problem, so I hope it's fixed.

One other thing though:is it normal that the fan is spinning almost at full speed when gaming under Windows Vista? It's kinda annoying to hear that fan whine through the game-sound.

Rather have your laptop overheat then having fan noise?

 

[areusche]

Well I game on my Macbook Pro 4.1. I have XP Home which is 32bit. I really wish I had the 64 bit version of XP.

Overall it has been an incredibly pleasant experience. Half Life 2 runs well even with the Directx 10 for XP hack.

I would definitely recommend you use XP simply because it is a lot slimmer then Vista. It is an incredibly mature operating system that has been perfected for quite a long time.

It is such a shame that Vista changed all of that.

Edit: On a side note, I have tried Vista. I had home pro as my default installation for quite awhile and I enjoyed using it. My machine had a Nvidia fx5500, 3.0ghz P4 with 2gb of ram. It ran remarkably well. I certainly wouldn't pay the astounding amount of money for it though. I had a legit copy of XP so I might as well use it ya know?

 

[Runt888]

I really wish I had the 64 bit version of XP.

As someone who's tried to use XP 64, trust me, you don't want it. Microsoft didn't really get 64 bit right until Vista (although the majority of the blame should probably be laid on the shoulders of hardware manufacturers who didn't release decent 64 bit drivers). It's been a few years since I've tried it, so this situation could have improved (although I have my doubts).

 

[lapino]

Rather have your laptop overheat then having fan noise?

No of course not, but I just wondered if it's normal for the fan(s) to be this noisy.

 

[gusious]

Thread starter, if you have no previous Vista experience, ignore this guy's post.
I've been using Vista Ultimate 64 bit as my primary OS, and it's never had a problem with one single game that I've thrown at it... and I've thrown a bunch.

People who hate on Vista either try running it on a computer that can't handle it, or don't know how to set permissions for certain programs.
I don't have one single complaint about Vista.

However, I did Bootcamp XP on my new MacBook Pro instead of Vista... only because XP requires less resources and I only plan to use the Windows side for a little portable gaming every now and then.

Yeah of course. That's why every pc gamer has xp and NOT vista on his machine...

Edit: Oh yeah i forgot to mention that every living human on this planet(including Gates) hate Vista... Except you of course!

 

[kastenbrust]

Install XP to game = overheat your 9600 GPU card and suffer constant system crashes with overheating and end up with a broken graphics card...Especially in later Direct X games.

Install Vista to game = suffer low frame rates due to Vista hogging your system resources, and your Macbook Pro getting very hot.

Install Windows 7 to game = get amazing frame rates, a nippy operating system, and no 9600 graphics card issues.

 

[Jottle]

No of course not, but I just wondered if it's normal for the fan(s) to be this noisy.

No one else has chimed in, but I get high fan speeds pretty within minutes under windows xp gaming. Just running bootcamp makes the mbp fan speeds higher even when idling. And yes, once the fans get to about 4000rpm they sound pretty loud. Luckily it's more of a whirring sound than a whining sound. But the left fan makes a slightly annoying high pitch (almost inaudible b/c it's such a high frequency) sound when it gets going extremely fast. It sucks, but that's what you get for gaming with a laptop and having to deal with the heat I'm pretty sure my fans are fine. You can't stop them from being somewhat noisy when they're spinning super fast no matter how well-designed they are. Be thankful they aren't louder! BTW, anyone else notice that the fans are slightly high pitched at the 4000-6000rpm range?

 

[ayeying]

Install XP to game = overheat your 9600 GPU card and suffer constant system crashes with overheating and end up with a broken graphics card...Especially in later Direct X games.

Install Vista to game = suffer low frame rates due to Vista hogging your system resources, and your Macbook Pro getting very hot.

Install Windows 7 to game = get amazing frame rates, a nippy operating system, and no 9600 graphics card issues.

I have no FPS difference between XP and Vista on my system. Infact, Vista has given me 1-2 FPS increase over XP. My vista, is optimized so the background processes don't steal processing power

And why would XP overheat the system and Vista not? That makes no sense especially if you state Vista is a more "resource" hungry OS

 

[yargk]

Install XP to game = overheat your 9600 GPU card and suffer constant system crashes with overheating and end up with a broken graphics card...Especially in later Direct X games.

Install Vista to game = suffer low frame rates due to Vista hogging your system resources, and your Macbook Pro getting very hot.

Install Windows 7 to game = get amazing frame rates, a nippy operating system, and no 9600 graphics card issues.

This is stupid.

I can buy just about any laptop from any company, install xp and games "just work."

The MBP is advertised as being able to run XP... yet I'm going to overheat my GPU if I do? What part of "just works" does apple not understand?