Unibody 17" MBP Game Performance

[Viper2005]

I'm wondering how much of a hit in gaming performance there is from the 15" unibody MBP compared to the new 17" with the higher resolution 1920x1200 screen?
Specifically I would like to know how WoW runs on the 17".

 

[Gloor]

I'm wondering how much of a hit in gaming performance there is from the 15" unibody MBP compared to the new 17" with the higher resolution 1920x1200 screen?
Specifically I would like to know how WoW runs on the 17".

WoW will run fine. Its not very demanding game

 

[Viper2005]

I know WoW is not very demanding, but i am only getting around 40avg fps on my Late 2008 Uni 15". I know the 9600 GT is generally a weak card, so I'm wondering what kind of fps to expect if I am to run it at native 1920x1200.

 

[ayeying]

If you're gonna run it at all high + 1920x1200, you should except some frame drops. At that high resolution, I think other settings can come down a little and it'll still look just as pretty.

 

[kastenbrust]

If you're gonna run it at all high + 1920x1200, you should except some frame drops. At that high resolution, I think other settings can come down a little and it'll still look just as pretty.

Thats true, i took some screen shots of left for dead here which might interest you from mine.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/642965/

It runs any game maxed out fine, and in 1920 x 1200 they're just simply beautiful, but sometimes framerates do suffer a bit, but thats not really important.

 

[Viper2005]

Thx for the info!

Actually I found an interesting video on youtube that ppl made to document WoW performance on the new 17" unibody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XdtGkbHTxc

avg is about 20 fps

 

[kastenbrust]

Thx for the info!

Actually I found an interesting video on youtube that ppl made to document WoW performance on the new 17" unibody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XdtGkbHTxc

avg is about 20 fps

20 fps with maxed out graphics in High Def resolution, thats nothing bad, infact thats pretty incredible, Windows 7 rates it 6.8/7.0 for gaming graphics performance, and its a laptop! If you put the graphics to a reasonable level then you get 60 to 90 fps easily on most games.

 

[Nikos]

Thx for the info!

Actually I found an interesting video on youtube that ppl made to document WoW performance on the new 17" unibody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XdtGkbHTxc

avg is about 20 fps

That's my video. I actually did Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad tonight on the laptop and performance was good. Sapphiron's blizzard kind of slowed things down but it does the same thing on my gaming PC, though it's a little dated (Q6600, 2GB memory, 8800GT).

I also posted a Wintergrasp video but things slowed down there too.

Turing down AA doesn't seem to have much of an affect on performance, at least not in Dalaran. Overall I would say WoW is playable so far but I think if you are doing 25+ man PvP or raids you'll probably have to turn something down.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I've been playing mostly on my PC because it's more convenient but I'm starting to test the laptop more.

 

[Viper2005]

Well your video was very informative
I was considering replacing my Late 08 15" unibody MBP but I think I will wait till maybe they release a better video card. I really want the high res screen but I don't think I can live with 20 fps avg.. my MBP can put out ~35-40 fps and even that can be slow at times (wintergrasp, dalaran, 25 man raids)..

 

[fallenhitokiri]

Let me know if you have any other questions. I've been playing mostly on my PC because it's more convenient but I'm starting to test the laptop more.

First let me say thank you for your work. Helped me to decide if I'd prefer the 15 or 17" version.

What I'd love to know is how much frames do you have while raiding Kel in a 25 man setup? (without recording and other stuff slowing down your system)
Do you constantly reach the magical 25fps?

 

[MagicWok]

Well your video was very informative
I was considering replacing my Late 08 15" unibody MBP but I think I will wait till maybe they release a better video card. I really want the high res screen but I don't think I can live with 20 fps avg.. my MBP can put out ~35-40 fps and even that can be slow at times (wintergrasp, dalaran, 25 man raids)..

The MBP's have never been designed for games. They run them adequetely, but not great. You shouldn't get a MBP if your main usage is games. It's just the wrong purchase. Get a windows-based laptop, or build/buy a PC.

If you're going to play the waiting game for new graphical architecture, you're going to have a to wait a while, around a year at least. So it's not worth it.