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New Macbook Pro Now Competent Gaming Computer?

w00t951

w00t951

macrumors 68000
Original poster
It seems as though the new Macbook Pros are actually ahead of most of the PCs, and many of the features (especially the 1GB GPU) are gamer-oriented. Anyone think that the new machines can actually serve as gaming computers?
 
Gonna find out once my BTO with SSD and the 1GB VRAM 15" shows up. Should be able to get some good benchmarks from this unit as I'll be starting completely fresh this go around. I've had the same OS and ~/Home folder since OS X 10.3 or so. I need a fresh start 🙂
 
Does anyone have experience installing Windows 7 64-bit onto the new Macs? I wonder if Apple will provide 64-bit support or if we will have to hunt around for manufacturer drivers.
 
w00t951 said:
It seems as though the new Macbook Pros are actually ahead of most of the PCs, and many of the features (especially the 1GB GPU) are gamer-oriented. Anyone think that the new machines can actually serve as gaming computers?
Click to expand...

The 15" and 17" MBP's have always been halfway decent gaming machines imo. Obviously they've never been in the same league as the laptops using nvidia 480M's, etc. but you can only fit so much power into a 1" thick computer. The 6750 they put in the high-end 15" and 17" certainly exceeded my expectations for what Apple would include. I was expecting a nvidia 525M or AMD 6630M.
 
The 6750m isnt that great for gaming in 1680x1050

Dont expect settings on high.

Most people were expecting the 6830m. As it is the same the tdp as the old gt330m
 
henrikrox said:
The 6750m isnt that great for gaming in 1680x1050

Dont expect settings on high.

Most people were expecting the 6830m. As it is the same the tdp as the old gt330m
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the 6830 didn't have a 23 W TDP. In another thread a few people were claiming the TDP of the 6830M was only 24 W, but someone else said that AMD only says the TDP of the graphics chip alone and does not include the other things in the TDP, whereas nvidia gives the TDP of the entire thing. I find it hard to believe a GPU as powerful as the 6830M only has a TDP of 24W. The 5830M has a 24 W TDP, but the core clock in it is slower.

The 6830M also uses DDR3 for the memory and Apple usually uses the superior GDDR memory, in this case GDDR5.
 
Last edited:
vipergts2207 said:
Pretty sure the 6830 didn't have a 23 W TDP. In another thread a few people were claiming the TDP of the 6830M was only 24 W, but someone else said that AMD only says the TDP of the graphics chip alone and does not include the other things in the TDP, whereas nvidia gives the TDP of the entire thing. I find it hard to believe a GPU as powerful as the 6830M only has a TDP of 24W. The 5830M has a 24 W TDP, but the core clock in it is slower.

The 6830M also uses DDR3 for the memory and Apple usually uses the superior GDDR memory, in this case GDDR5.
Click to expand...

The 6830M is a 50-75 watt TDP part (AMD lists chip only TDP - they omit the RAM and GDDR5 requires lots of current). It is a faster 5850 - i.e. something that ships as an upgrade in the M15x gaing notebook.

That other poster is nuts.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6830M.43739.0.html
 
w00t951 said:
Does anyone have experience installing Windows 7 64-bit onto the new Macs? I wonder if Apple will provide 64-bit support or if we will have to hunt around for manufacturer drivers.
Click to expand...

I am dual booting with Windows Server 2008 R2 (very similar to Windows 7 x64) with no problems.
 
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