Portal 2 on HD 3000 Graphics Chip

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

Fellow members,

I've decided that I don't need to be able to play GTA IV on my MacBook Pro I'll be buying. The good news about that is I can pickup a 13" MBP Refurbed for $929.

BUT, I am a PORTAL ADDICT! Will I be able to play Portal, and Portal 2 on the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chip? Keep in mind Portal is via Steam, and Portal 2 would be the retail disc version.

Thanks, Mates!

- William

 

[NutsNGum]

You may be able to play the original at reasonable settings, I imagine Portal 2 will look like a dog's dinner, however.

If you're playing it through bootcamp, expect it to be worse, as the Windows drivers for the HD3000 are reputedly awful.

 

[aCondor]

I've played through both Portal and Portal 2 on the HD3000 (MBP in signature) and they both ran flawlessly. Settings were on medium. You'll have no problems.

 

[Wattser93]

I have the 13" with the 320M, and with a mild overclock in bootcamp, I run Portal 2 at high settings with AA and pull constant 30FPS (capped to reduce heat).

A mild overclock on my 320M doesn't increase heat more than 2 or 3 degrees, and picks up framerate by 30-50%. I don't know how the HD3000 responds to an overclock, but the 320M is helped tremendously.

 

[0000757]

Fellow members,

I've decided that I don't need to be able to play GTA IV on my MacBook Pro I'll be buying. The good news about that is I can pickup a 13" MBP Refurbed for $929.

BUT, I am a PORTAL ADDICT! Will I be able to play Portal, and Portal 2 on the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chip? Keep in mind Portal is via Steam, and Portal 2 would be the retail disc version.

Thanks, Mates!

- William

They'll run flawlessly on a HD 3000. I play P2 on my 13 inch (2.5Ghz i5, 4GB Ram, HD 3000) and it runs smoothly and looks the same or even greater than my PS3 plays it.

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

They'll run flawlessly on a HD 3000. I play P2 on my 13 inch (2.5Ghz i5, 4GB Ram, HD 3000) and it runs smoothly and looks the same or even greater than my PS3 plays it.

Really?! I wasn't expecting such a game like Portal 2 to run on a horrible chip like the IHD 3000! What settings do you use for Portal 2?

 

[0000757]

Really?! I wasn't expecting such a game like Portal 2 to run on a horrible chip like the IHD 3000! What settings do you use for Portal 2?

Those were the default settings established by the game.

 

[akhbhaat]

Yeah, Portal and Portal 2 both run well on the HD 3000. Remember that the Source engine that powers those games is still fundamentally eight years old (albeit with some updates through the years to keep it looking somewhat current). The HD 3000 is roughly equivalent to a mid-high end desktop GPU from around 2005-2006 or so.

The good news about that is I can pickup a 13" MBP Refurbed for $929.

FYI: you can buy the same machine (2.3 Ghz) brand new in box from various resellers for $999 with free shipping and no tax. I know that the refurbs carry the same warranty as new, but they're still technically used machines*, and the sales tax makes the price a wash.

Personally, I think paying the same amount for a guaranteed new machine with all the nice retail trimmings is a better deal.

*I've considered the idea that Apple pushes never-used, recently discontinued models through the refurb store, though they'd obviously have a strong enough command over their own supply chain to prevent massive overflows during new model introductions. Therefore, it's much more likely that they sell them off the remainder at a discount to third party resellers and/or retain them as warranty spares and replacements.

 

[0000757]

I've included some screenshots. These are also my computer specs exactly. I am also running the Steam version of Portal 2. The image quality are slightly lower as I had to save them smaller so i could upload them, but the game does run at 60FPS and looks good, and I feel the screenshots are high quality enough to see the visual elements.

13-inch Macbook Pro (Late 2011)
2.5GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz)
4GB DDR3 RAM at 1.3GHz
500GB Toshiba HD @ 5400RPM
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2

The game runs smooth with just a few jagged moments. It's completely playable. I've found that using my external mouse, the camera is a little jagged but I believe it is because of the surface I'm playing on.

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

I've included some screenshots. These are also my computer specs exactly. I am also running the Steam version of Portal 2. The image quality are slightly lower as I had to save them smaller so i could upload them, but the game does run at 60FPS and looks good, and I feel the screenshots are high quality enough to see the visual elements.

13-inch Macbook Pro (Late 2011)
2.5GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz)
4GB DDR3 RAM at 1.3GHz
500GB Toshiba HD @ 5400RPM
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2

The game runs smooth with just a few jagged moments. It's completely playable. I've found that using my external mouse, the camera is a little jagged but I believe it is because of the surface I'm playing on.

Thanks for the screenies, and your settings! I'll save those for when I get my refurb MBP (whenever the late 2011 models become refurb'd)

 

[dylan.shenton]

I play Portal and Portal 2 on my 13" MBP, Portal runs about as well as is possible, and portal 2 runs awesome with slightly reduced anti-aliasing and reduced shaders. I have to say it performs a lot better than what I expected of this mobile chip!