Just tried HL2 Lost Coast and I was utterly blown away. Compared to my friend's ATI x1600 equipped c2d, this thing screams. Its just breathtaking! Now I know that there are titles out there that push the envelope even further, but lost coast was always considered taxing (even by todays standards) and I have never seen it rendered like this! Simply awesome!
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MBPSR has a spectacular gfx card
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Didn't check the temps but the fans were pretty loud. I had everything set to max!
Yes, bootcamp, AFAIK HL is not available on Mac and I didnt run it on parallels or fusion
Well as long as the fans are working as they should and you dont overclock, I really dont see how it could significantly shorten the lifespan!
It could shorten the lifespan if you're playing a frustrating game that makes you want to throw the MBP across the room. Otherwise, it should last long enough for you to want to dump it for the next latest and greatest technology.
the Nvidia 8600M GT is a fantastic mid-high end card =)
it is even better than ATi's Radeon x1900!!!
it is even better than ATi's Radeon x1900!!!
I agree, but under MacOsX the original drivers were crap.
2 or 3 days ago Apple updated them and now they are working really well.
Quake 4 it was impossible to play, now I get from 60 to 25FPS w/h max settins.
MBP sr 2,4 4Gb RAM
2 or 3 days ago Apple updated them and now they are working really well.
Quake 4 it was impossible to play, now I get from 60 to 25FPS w/h max settins.
MBP sr 2,4 4Gb RAM
No, its not. The radeon is a better card but it uses more power and its much hotter. The 8600 (especially the mobile version) is a low end directx 10 card. It is better then the mobility x1600 that used to be the Macbook Pro by a long shot but its no where near mid range. And 8800gts is midrange.
Try running it with crossover office, with my experiance it sould run a little faster expetially the boot times than if it were running on windows.
The 8600gt is not low end. The 8400/8500 series are. The 8800 is a high end card, and the 8600gt is mid range.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
check this
the 8600M GT is on par against the X1900.
In 3Dmark06, it even beats the X1900.
it is a mid-high card (High level mid-range)
They updated the graphics drivers? Was that in the Macbook Pro 1.0 update a few days ago? I havent really played any games on my macbook pro since that update so i havent tested it.
They did update the drivers, yes. That was what the update was for. I don't know if anyone has noticed any really big gameplay improvements though.
Trust me, the Radeon X1900 is much more capable than the Geforce 8600M GT chip used in the current MacBook Pro.
Unfortunately the X1900 in that list is the mobility version not the desktop version and the 8600M only just wins out. It is the same as 8600 GT versus 8600M GT same numbers but different performance. Mobile chipsets will always be a few generations behind in terms on performance because of heat, power and space requirements.
Having said all that for most things the 8600M is very capable but it is no desktop GPU replacement.
It is a very worthy replacement for me, but thats probably not saying much since my desktop pc only had a Radeon 9600 pro in it, but i know what you mean.
But either way i look at it, its a very very good card. I'm running most games on this thing better than my brothers desktop PC with a GeForce 6800. As far as i'm concerned, the performance of this card actually surpassed my expectations.
Indeed, it is a very good card. Hopefully Apple will take hints and keep updating with each new revision like CPU's.
lol, I doubt many people agree with your definition of midrange thought.
It was a mobility version..
Still very good for being a laptop card.
Now if only they had put 256MB vram in there aswell..
Everyone, chill out, i'm just grateful that apple decided to put a very up to date and very powerful mobile gfx card into this baby. I don't really care if the desktop x1900 might be faster. I am just comparing the current card with the former one (x1600) and its way better!
I also noticed that dell's refreshed inspiron line of notebooks now come equipped with the same nvidia cards (mainly the higher end configurations) which is good news as it means that if the mass market has it, there will be more driver development for it. Wooooohooooo!
I also noticed that dell's refreshed inspiron line of notebooks now come equipped with the same nvidia cards (mainly the higher end configurations) which is good news as it means that if the mass market has it, there will be more driver development for it. Wooooohooooo!
I can only agree with the topic starter...very happy with it... Only game i play with my macbook pro is CS Source and i was amazed by how much smooother and faster it runs compared to my X1600 128MB. It also runs cooler! At this point in time thats the part of the new Santa Rosa books im most impressed about.
