Waiting for a MBP GPU Update for FFXIV. Speculation.

[PhaseJump]

I'm not a big gamer anymore, more-so a power user in Windows & Linux, but I want to get into Final Fantasy 14 in a few months. The game has high requirements & I've been looking at Asus & MSI notebooks.

They're pretty ugly these days despite being more affordable and still reliable, battery life sucks.

I 'want' a 13" or 15" MBP, and I'm willing to pay the cost/performance difference to a reasonable extent. (Not for a high cost C2D though & the Screen size/resolution is too small for games on a 13" argument is irrelevant.)

Am I right to assume that apple will likely update to include a GT400 series GPU in their next refresh? Will they probably wait for sandy bridge before doing so, or will they even get SB sooner than January? Have they ever pushed something earlier with exclusivity before? (/Wishful thinking.)

As for the GPU itself waiting for better DX10 & 11 support under windows seems like the best option, anybody know how something like a GT420m will perform with FFXIV? For that matter, how is hardware support under windows when using a Mac? I would think the hardware/driver support is pretty ubiquitous and up to date, but I don't know for sure.

Has apple ever raised the price when doing overhauls to the product in the past? As it is right now, I can afford a MBP that does everything I want it to, except for the GPU & I assume I'll be able to spend the same in the future when an update happens.

I realize that nobody really knows what Apple is up to, but I do know that if I were to buy a MBP now, I'd have nothing but buyers remorse. Think they will pull a fast one and release an update soon?

Thanks.

 

[vipergts2207]

Apple might start using the improved arrendale processors before the end of the year but there probably won't be a gpu update to go along with it. I would think apple would upgrade to SB sometime between March and June. At that point apple will probably put a 400m series chip in it. My guess is the 425m.

 

[DesmoPilot]

Apple will never use top-tier GPUs in MBPs so don't hold your breath. This is partly due to their obsession with battery life, but heat plays a large roll as well (hell, they even underclock the ones that are in there now and those can easily be pushed to 90c+). You'll continue to see low-mid rage cards in these machines.

 

[vipergts2207]

I forgot to post this link, but here's what you could expect from a 425m, if it's what Apple ends up using. The requirement of FF14 is a Geforce 9600, but that's probably referring to the desktop class gpu. I'm guessing a 425m would run it at medium settings, give or take.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Geforce-GT-425M.34152.0.html

 

[DJ-R]

Um LOL...

My old Dell 1530 with 8600M GT able to play it...

 

[Creditcard]

The 425m only has like a 5% performance increase over the GT 330M

 

[albazeuro]

FFxiv running under bootcamp windows is not supported

i got this from SE .

my set up is :
8 core mac pro 4.1
GPU : GTX 285
8 GB RAM
bootcamp : windows 7 ultimate 64bit

when i play the game i get appcrash error , dont know why i tried to solve it but nothing worked , contacted SE and this is their reply.

Square Enix reply :

"windows running under mac OS is not Supported"

just wanted to save you time waiting and upgrade for something wont even work even if you have ATI 5870.

note: ffxiv benchmark worked perfectly with scoring 4500+

i hope SE will fix this soon .
best regards