Old games on a GMA 950 MacBook

[Topher15]

I just bought a refurb MacBook (black) from the Apple online store as an on the go notebook.

Specs:

Refurbished MacBook 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - Black
13.3-inch glossy widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
1GB memory (2x512MB SODIMMs)
120GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
£570 ex. VAT
£670 inc. VAT

I don't really play modern games on a computer any more (and I'm not buying this MB specifically for games at all) but I used to play Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Diablo II, the original Half Life and plan on running them and some other games from that era via XP.

How would the GMA 950 handle these?

Also, how many years back would I have to go before games can be played at a decent rate. In other words, it'll be able to handle games made prior to year: ???

Much appreciated.

 

[scienide09]

I can't really answer your questions, but the folks over in the games forums probably can.

 

[aaron.lee2006]

Yes they will all run without a question. I ran all those games on an older integrated than that in the MacBook.

 

[spaceballl]

i have that macbook - they WILL run, but not very well - be prepared to crank down all detail levels and suffer through some 15 - 30 fps games

 

[aaron.lee2006]

i have that macbook - they WILL run, but not very well - be prepared to crank down all detail levels and suffer through some 15 - 30 fps games

Why would the user need to crank down the detail levels on like 9 year old games? :S

They won't need to do anything, those games requires barely any hardware.

 

[spaceballl]

Why would the user need to crank down the detail levels on like 9 year old games? :S

They won't need to do anything, those game requires barely any hardware.

You're right... I looked up benchmarks - it seems that quake FOUR will give him problems, but number 3 should be no problem

-Kevin

 

[aaron.lee2006]

Yah Quake 4 would be hell on a GMA 950
That's why I love my MBP

 

[blahbrah]

yeah I play homeworld 2 on my macbook with 0 problems. have to turn off shadows but that seems like such a minor thing in a space rts.

 

[aaron.lee2006]

Either way the bottom line is, if you are going to need a laptop that can play games, buy the bottom line MBP.

 

[Topher15]

Either way the bottom line is, if you are going to need a laptop that can play games, buy the bottom line MBP.

No won't be needing one of those. As I said it it isn't really for games. I also have an iMac and although I don't really want to install XP on it (I can't right now anyway since my hard drive is almost full), if I did want to play newer games I'd use that.

 

[djinn]

Kudos to the OP for mentioning Diablo II!

 

[Richdmoore]

I managed to convert the quake 1,2,3 doom 1&2 and others using the info from this forum.

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=36848

Might be worth a look, they older games work great, and play well in my GMA 950 Macbook.

 

[djinn]

Anyone with the new Macbook with the x3100 get Diablo to work with OpenGL support? I tried and my graphics were displaced. Guessing its a compatibility issue with the drivers.

 

[Fezzasus]

Max Payne runs at full detail on my SR Macbook, the GMA should put in a similar performance.