Question about MBP graphics

[Spacesim]

Hello

I've followed this forum for about a year. It was thanks to this site and all discussions that i managed to time my savings account exactly to the day(at least the right week) of my first MBP-buy in february.

Anyway, I'm not a specs-nerd, i know a decent amount of the specs of the MBP and computers in general. On thing i didn't get so much knowledge about is the graphics in the MBP2011 models.

(now, before you start screaming at me to search google and previously forum posts, read on)(yeah i know the drill)

I recently got into space simulators(as you can tell from my nick). And after a bit of research i downloaded an open source project that seems descent. I looked at youtube and at pictures and my jaw dropped. These beautiful landscapes, and the ability to travel to other solar systems and planets....in my macbook pro! wonderful....

BUT


I installed tha game and was very dissapointed, so the question i have to you is:

Does the MBP2011 models have some crappy graphics card so i can't get the full experience out of this space simulator(or other graphic intensive games for that matter)? Should i continue searching for a solution or is this just the way it is?


Below i attached two images, the first one is a random picture from the game found on google. The second is a print screen i took while i was flying over Europa(moon of Jupiter). Yeah i know, it's not the same planet. But i assure you that i have traveled to many many planets and moons to get dissapointed every time. Also you can see the massive difference, it hardly appears to be the same game. Of course i had all the preferences set to best quality when i took the printscreen. Is the graphics in MBP really this bad?



I've asked for advice on the game developers forum as well.

Cheers

 

[SPEEDwithJJ]

I know you said that you've a 2011 MBP but which exact MBP (as in what GPU) do you currently have?

 

[Prodo123]

The 15" has decent graphics power, even the low-end can handle heavy taxing. However, the Intel HD3000 has been heavily criticized as a downgrade from the 320M in regards to gaming, and equal to the 320M in all other areas.

 

[fat jez]

His screen grab is 1920x1200, so a 17" Macbook Pro?

What are the framerates like? If it rattles along at 100+fps, then it's just how the games is written.

 

[Gallium Spoon]

Hello

I've followed this forum for about a year. It was thanks to this site and all discussions that i managed to time my savings account exactly to the day(at least the right week) of my first MBP-buy in february.

Anyway, I'm not a specs-nerd, i know a decent amount of the specs of the MBP and computers in general. On thing i didn't get so much knowledge about is the graphics in the MBP2011 models.

(now, before you start screaming at me to search google and previously forum posts, read on)(yeah i know the drill)

I recently got into space simulators(as you can tell from my nick). And after a bit of research i downloaded an open source project that seems descent. I looked at youtube and at pictures and my jaw dropped. These beautiful landscapes, and the ability to travel to other solar systems and planets....in my macbook pro! wonderful....

BUT


I installed tha game and was very dissapointed, so the question i have to you is:

Does the MBP2011 models have some crappy graphics card so i can't get the full experience out of this space simulator(or other graphic intensive games for that matter)? Should i continue searching for a solution or is this just the way it is?


Below i attached two images, the first one is a random picture from the game found on google. The second is a print screen i took while i was flying over Europa(moon of Jupiter). Yeah i know, it's not the same planet. But i assure you that i have traveled to many many planets and moons to get dissapointed every time. Also you can see the massive difference, it hardly appears to be the same game. Of course i had all the preferences set to best quality when i took the printscreen. Is the graphics in MBP really this bad?



I've asked for advice on the game developers forum as well.

Cheers

The MBP 15" and 17" have proper graphics cards, the MBP 13" has an integrated graphics card, which is apparently underpowered and its GPU memory depends on how much RAM you have.

Which space simulator is this, by the way?

 

[fat jez]

If the GPU in the MBP were bad, you'd end up with a game that looked just as good as your first image, but that ran very, very slowly, i.e. a few frames per second.

 

[Spacesim]

Oh i'm sorry. I have a 17" macbook pro.

The space simulator is called pioneer space simulator. Here's a video. Amazing isn't it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K3jRY5BfWk

 

[Prodo123]

Oh i'm sorry. I have a 17" macbook pro.

The space simulator is called pioneer space simulator. Here's a video. Amazing isn't it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K3jRY5BfWk

TBH it's a bit lo-fi but it's very good considering the current space technology. It's bound to improve as we explore more.

If you're using a graphics card switcher (e.g. gfxCardStatus), make sure you have "dynamic switching" enabled when you play games. If the game detects a switch in graphics, then all of its video settings will reset to the lowest possible, not to mention hinder the performance itself.