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skysailing

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 26, 2012
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I've been browsing every YouTube video I could find to see how gaming is. I cannot even tell you how excited I am for this freaking RMBP to arrive to me!!

Here's to:
  • BioShock: Infinite
  • Tomb Raider
  • SimCity
  • TS3: University Life
  • Last of Us, heh.
  • Watch Dogs

..all on Ultra.

2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, and 512GB Flash Storage.

For those who have the Retina, how has your gaming life been so far? Damn I'm excited.
 
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Just out of curiosity, do you find it bad to play at 1440 by 900?

Does it look bad on that resolution with the retina screen?
 
Just out of curiosity, do you find it bad to play at 1440 by 900?

Does it look bad on that resolution with the retina screen?

From the videos i've seen, it plays smooth. I'm sure somebody will quote you about this soon.
 
I do love gaming on the rMBP, though i don't do it that much. I mainly play games that are pretty easy to run though, like Diablo, Eve Online and stuff. But i have to say i am impressed by the gaming performance of a machine this thin and light. I haven't bothered installing Windows on it yet, so that really keeps me from playing a lot of games.

Playing games on 1440x900 can be a bit of an eye sore when used to the retina screen, and scaling like that never comes out perfect, but i never have to bump my resolution that low. I rather just sacrifice some shadow quality or something.

But in all honesty, you can get a much better gaming laptop if you go with Windows. You'll get a huge, heavy monster though, more fit as a desktop replacement, and i have no use for that. :p
 
I do love gaming on the rMBP, though i don't do it that much. I mainly play games that are pretty easy to run though, like Diablo, Eve Online and stuff. But i have to say i am impressed by the gaming performance of a machine this thin and light. I haven't bothered installing Windows on it yet, so that really keeps me from playing a lot of games.

Playing games on 1440x900 can be a bit of an eye sore when used to the retina screen, and scaling like that never comes out perfect, but i never have to bump my resolution that low. I rather just sacrifice some shadow quality or something.

But in all honesty, you can get a much better gaming laptop if you go with Windows. You'll get a huge, heavy monster though, more fit as a desktop replacement, and i have no use for that. :p

Haha I agree. Well, all the applications on Mountain Lion are an absolute must for me, so I will NEVA go back to windows, lol.

I can't wait to put the machine to work! Shelling out A LOT of dough to make sure it is perfect for all my needs, and based on nearly every review, it is well worth it. Especially for gaming.
We have the same awesome specs! :p
 
Battlefield 3 plays abysmally even on low, and on 1080p resolution. You can probably beat the single player, but multiplayer that needs a steady 60fps is hard to do. It jumps from 45-60, although 45 is still playable, the precision you need in that game is crippled by the unsteady framerates.
 
Battlefield 3 plays abysmally even on low, and on 1080p resolution. You can probably beat the single player, but multiplayer that needs a steady 60fps is hard to do. It jumps from 45-60, although 45 is still playable, the precision you need in that game is crippled by the unsteady framerates.

On the full reso. with everything on high, yes. I've seen B3 on dedicated gaming computers and even then it's horrible.
Thankfully, I won't be playing that game but:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rrbNFSanv2E
On the native resolution, it looks pretty fantastic.
 
rMBP is not made for gaming. Expecting to play games on Ultra is highly unrealistic. The 650M is an okay mobile card, but even a $100 desktop GPU crushes it in performance.

I'm not saying that you can't play games on it, because you definitely can, just don't expect high-ultra settings, especially in the games you mentioned.
 
On the full reso. with everything on high, yes. I've seen B3 on dedicated gaming computers and even then it's horrible.
Thankfully, I won't be playing that game but:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rrbNFSanv2E
On the native resolution, it looks pretty fantastic.

I saw that video already. There's nothing really going on where hes playing. If you load up a 64 man map, the fps starts to stutter.

Dont hate on BF3 :p. Just giving you my experience with it. Other than that, this thing runs all my games very well.
 
I've been browsing every YouTube video I could find to see how gaming is. I cannot even tell you how excited I am for this freaking RMBP to arrive to me!!

Here's to:
  • BioShock: Infinite
  • Tomb Raider
  • SimCity
  • TS3: University Life
  • GTA V
  • Watch Dogs

..all on Ultra.

2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, and 512GB Flash Storage.

For those who have the Retina, how has your gaming life been so far? Damn I'm excited.

How are you going to play GTA V on it?
 
How are you going to play GTA V on it?

Oh God, lol.
My bad. LAST of US should have been that. *facepalm*

----------

I saw that video already. There's nothing really going on where hes playing. If you load up a 64 man map, the fps starts to stutter.

Dont hate on BF3 :p. Just giving you my experience with it. Other than that, this thing runs all my games very well.

Haha I hear you and believe you. Never really been a BF3 fan but I can see why people like it.

Freaking can't wait till March.
 
I do love gaming on the rMBP, though i don't do it that much. I mainly play games that are pretty easy to run though, like Diablo, Eve Online and stuff. But i have to say i am impressed by the gaming performance of a machine this thin and light. I haven't bothered installing Windows on it yet, so that really keeps me from playing a lot of games.

Playing games on 1440x900 can be a bit of an eye sore when used to the retina screen, and scaling like that never comes out perfect, but i never have to bump my resolution that low. I rather just sacrifice some shadow quality or something.

But in all honesty, you can get a much better gaming laptop if you go with Windows. You'll get a huge, heavy monster though, more fit as a desktop replacement, and i have no use for that. :p


Well that pretty much sums it up for me. Thanks
 
Macs are good for gaming, I hate hearing peeps that have Macs saying get a pc for gaming :| Is that suppose to make others not want a Mac when you guys say stuff like that?
 
You're not running some of those games at ultra with it's native resolution at a decent frame rate.

And obviously not the Last of Us. lol
 
Macs are good for gaming, I hate hearing peeps that have Macs saying get a pc for gaming :| Is that suppose to make others not want a Mac when you guys say stuff like that?

No, by all means, you can perfectly game on a mac. But if you want a machine mainly for gaming, go for a Windows-based machine. The rMBP is a powerhouse, no doubt, and it can run lots of games at surprisingly high settings and resolutions, but if you want to game the latest games on highest quality, there are many more machines more suited for your needs.

Then again, if you want a pc mainly for gaming, don't buy a laptop at all. Get a desktop. I have one, they're great, but i use my rMBP a lot more than my gaming-machine.

Like i said, the games i play on pc are not the heaviest games to run, so my rMBP can run them pretty easily. For the rest, and most, of my gaming, i have my PS3 and 360.

The heaviest game i run on my rMBP is The Witcher 2, and i can run that on ok settings at decent resolutions. And that's a game that requires a lot of power. I just tried it out to see how it would run though.

But like i said, the rMBP impressed me with it's capabilities in it's compact form.
 
No, by all means, you can perfectly game on a mac. But if you want a machine mainly for gaming, go for a Windows-based machine. The rMBP is a powerhouse, no doubt, and it can run lots of games at surprisingly high settings and resolutions, but if you want to game the latest games on highest quality, there are many more machines more suited for your needs.

Then again, if you want a pc mainly for gaming, don't buy a laptop at all. Get a desktop. I have one, they're great, but i use my rMBP a lot more than my gaming-machine.

Like i said, the games i play on pc are not the heaviest games to run, so my rMBP can run them pretty easily. For the rest, and most, of my gaming, i have my PS3 and 360.

The heaviest game i run on my rMBP is The Witcher 2, and i can run that on ok settings at decent resolutions. And that's a game that requires a lot of power. I just tried it out to see how it would run though.

But like i said, the rMBP impressed me with it's capabilities in it's compact form.

I play all the Call of Duty games on mine on high settings :) The quality of how they look wow and I have used other peoples laptops to test the image quality like on a ASUS or Alienware I saw that mine still looked better considerig those were newer, but the rating on mine was a bit higher.
 
I've been browsing every YouTube video I could find to see how gaming is. I cannot even tell you how excited I am for this freaking RMBP to arrive to me!!

Here's to:
  • BioShock: Infinite
  • Tomb Raider
  • SimCity
  • TS3: University Life
  • Last of Us, heh.
  • Watch Dogs

..all on Ultra.

2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, and 512GB Flash Storage.

For those who have the Retina, how has your gaming life been so far? Damn I'm excited.

just don't try to play a modern game at native res and it apparently runs great
 
I play all the Call of Duty games on mine on high settings :) The quality of how they look wow and I have used other peoples laptops to test the image quality like on a ASUS or Alienware I saw that mine still looked better considerig those were newer, but the rating on mine was a bit higher.

Since your mac is from 2010 and running a 330m, yes, you will be able to run all the cod games on high, since the engine they use have it's roots from 2006/7, though changed a lot, and cod aren't really games that need lots of power to run properly. Though i doubt you ever reach the 45 fps mark, even on cod 4 (with highest settings that is. On medium and low you'll probably reach 80's and 130's respectively).

And just because a machine is newer, doesn't always mean they'll be faster. Now, don't get me wrong, but most Alienware machines from 2010 and up will outperform your machine when it comes to gaming.

I love gaming on my Mac, and most macs are decent gaming machines, but you can always get a better gaming machine than a mac, you just have to (imo) sacrifice a lot of other things.

The fact that i can game on a decent level on my Mac is just a bonus to me. As i guess it is to most Mac users.
 
Oh God, lol.
My bad. LAST of US should have been that. *facepalm*



You do realise that Last of Us is a Playstation 3 exclusive game right?

I dont think you pay enough attention to be honest and I am fairly certain you are going to be disappointed if you think you are going to be playing every single game out there on ultra...

This computer is not created with gaming performance in mind. Sure it fares pretty well for a laptop, but if you are expecting to see games like Far Cry 3 or next gen games like Crysis 3 to run on ultra you are going to feel pretty bad with the results...
 
i use my Retina as my main gaming machine at the moment (thinking about buying either an m17x or m18x in the future)

All the games i've thrown at it are playable at 1680x1050 or 1080P


It really is a great laptop.. The performance and thinness of this machine makes it worth it.. i can hardly feel the weight in my bag when carrying it to school :).

If you've seen all the videos on youtube, i assume you've seen mine too :)
 
Grand theft auto 3?!

The rMBP is not a gaming machine. Sounds like you're buying the wrong device
 
How are you going to play GTA V on it?

There's still hope for a PC release! I think there's a petition out there somewhere.

The 650m isn't the greatest card out there, but apparently it benches better than my 2-yo 5870m, which was a beast just two years ago and can still handle games like Skyrim and Sleeping Dogs very well.

If you're OK with gaming at lower res (1440x900 or 1680x1050) and medium to high settings you should definitely be happy with a rMBP. Ultra settings at full resolution? Not so much.
 
The rMBP is the most mobile of all gaming laptops. Of course if lacks the power of the heavier 'specialised' gaming, but its enough to play any modern game with reasonable settings at 1920x1080p or 1680x1050 and get reasonable performance. Of course, online shooters where you need consistent high performance to be accurate is not its forte.
 
Grand theft auto 3?!

The rMBP is not a gaming machine. Sounds like you're buying the wrong device

Citation needed.

To make this statement would mean you cant play games at all. Ive played a few games so far, Tropico 4, Portal 2, TF2, Star Wars the Old Republic and get great framerates. It would appear your statement is invalidated.
 
Macs are good for gaming, I hate hearing peeps that have Macs saying get a pc for gaming :| Is that suppose to make others not want a Mac when you guys say stuff like that?
If someone wanted to buy a computer specifically for gaming I would definitely not recommend a Mac (nor a PC laptop). There are two big reasons:

1) Availability of titles, and release form on the Mac. Many games are PC-only, only to be released on the Mac years later. The wait isn't the big issue, though: the games are often ports, rather than native applications. That means they require more power and perform more poorly compared with the PC version. They may also be unstable.

Note that this doesn't mean that Macs are inherently worse for gaming than Windows based on drivers and software. It's just not where the support is. And while the support won't be given until there's a sizable gaming base of Mac users, I'm not going to suggest that someone spend their money on a product that doesn't fit their expectations just to further that agenda.

2) Upgradeability. Gaming demands move quickly, as do the advances made in the graphics arena. Being able to upgrade your graphics card and have support for it is very useful here. (If external, Thunderbolt-based graphics cards and graphics enclosures become reality, this point may become a thing of the past.)

Macs can be used for games, and there are many good games currently available. If your primary usage for the machine is games, though, it's a poor choice.
 
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