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Why does everyone say you need dedicated graphics for gaming?

I have to agree. This isn't even a newer COD like Black Ops II. COD 4, although an awesome game, doesn't really tell much about graphics performance. That game is like 7 years old.

As stated, show some footage running something like Battlefield 4.
 
TechZeke said:
I have to agree. This isn't even a newer COD like Black Ops II. COD 4, although an awesome game, doesn't really tell much about graphics performance. That game is like 7 years old.

As stated, show some footage running something like Battlefield 4.
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Well, I don't have Battliefield 4. I had it for Xbox One but sold it off because I didn't like multiplayer. None the less, this is at 1600p though.

I don't have Black Ops II b/c only 3.5 star review in App Store. I want to get Ghosts but of course it's N/A :mad:

I do play Ghosts on Xbox one though.
 
Hieveryone said:
Well, I don't have Battliefield 4. I had it for Xbox One but sold it off because I didn't like multiplayer. None the less, this is at 1600p though.

I don't have Black Ops II b/c only 3.5 star review in App Store. I want to get Ghosts but of course it's N/A :mad:

I do play Ghosts on Xbox one though.
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You could try running the Cinebench benchmark for the GPU and measure its performance. It's free and is a widely-utilized benchmark for measuring GPU performance.
 
So in other words, you can satisfactorily play and older game on the latest integrated graphics, and you take the leap that your integrated graphics can handle any game?

Sorry, no. Maybe in another generation or two of integrated graphics. But not yet.
 
Count Blah said:
So in other words, you can satisfactorily play and older game on the latest integrated graphics, and you take the leap that your integrated graphics can handle any game?

Sorry, no. Maybe in another generation or two of integrated graphics. But not yet.
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Battlefield 4 isn't even in the app store.
 
Hieveryone said:
Battlefield 4 isn't even in the app store.
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Nope. It's a Windows-only game. You need Boot Camp for that.

None of the App Store games are really graphics intensive. For actual gaming performance, you need to install Boot Camp and install a game like NFS Rivals or BF4 in there to accurately measure gaming performance.

Or you could just use Cinebench R15 to measure the performance. Easy as that.

On my 21.5" iMac with GT750M, I get around 58 fps in the OpenGL Cinebench R15 benchmark. On my 13" rMBP (2.8 i7/16/512), it can't exceed 25 fps.
 
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Hieveryone said:
I've been playing Call of Duty on my MBPr 13", 2.6 GHz, 8GB RAM, and a 256 SSD at 2560 x 1600.

It's smooth. I know people won't believe me so I made a little video. It works great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcfeS9a0orw&feature=youtu.be
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PC's from 10 years ago even ran Call of duty 4.

But of course you can game with an integrated GPU. Just turn down most settings to low and it should run fine.

Most gaming laptops these days are equipped with the GeForce GTX 880M instead of relying on the integrated GPU. Integrated GPU's are no contest against a dedicated GPU for gaming.
 
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Intel Iris 5100 is pretty decent but can still struggle on older games. This morning I was trying to play Left4Dead 1 (released in 2008) at 1280x800 and couldn't get a consistent 20fps with everything maxed out. So I wouldn't say we're there yet...
 
Count Blah said:
So in other words, you can satisfactorily play and older game on the latest integrated graphics, and you take the leap that your integrated graphics can handle any game?

Sorry, no. Maybe in another generation or two of integrated graphics. But not yet.
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This.

Hardware and software have always played catchup against each other. To get on a "side" and stay there is a bit disingenuous.

1) Determine your need
2) Find the best machine that suits it
3) Enjoy

That being said, it's always fun to argue and predict #2 based on #1. :D
 
At the end of the day, what you need for gaming is very different from what other people need for gaming.

The reason people say you need dedicated graphics for gaming is because it's the best way to avoid a situation like "Hey I got this Retina 13" because you said it'd be good and it isn't! What the hell man?!"

The truth is, someone educated enough to know the difference between their gaming needs and the gaming needs of a more "hardcore" gamer, wouldn't ask people for advice to begin with.

Let's face it, any Apple notebook you buy is essentially a $1000+ machine. It's outfitted with at minimum, a medium to top grade mobile processor, fast memory, fast storage space, fast networking hardware and an excellent screen. It's premium built and any premium built machine is going to at least be "capable" of doing anything you throw at it.

Let's put it this way:
A BMW 328i is not a sports car like its big brother the 335i or even a 235i M. It's a premium built small sedan that accommodates all of its drivers needs from quality of materials, quality of drive, braking distance, handling and comfort features. However, it still pulls a 0-60 of 5.6 seconds and a quarter mile just shy of 13 seconds. So while it's not a "sports car" by pure performance standards, it's capable of being "sporty" under the right circumstances.

I consider the MacBook Pro 13" Retina to be the F30 328i of notebooks. So in short, no you don't need dedicated graphics to game on a Mac or any notebook for that matter, but if people are looking for a gaming notebook, they do. I like the 328i though myself, personally. :)
 
depends on what people call gaming. You have people that insist you cant play games on a mac, EVER, which is obviously not true, evidently.

Then you have people who claim gaming is only when you have 4 780's in SLI and 3 monitors running 2560x1600 ea..

bottom line? if you can play the games you want on your machine, be happy with it and don't give two ****s what everybody else says.. i've been to a LAN party with a macbook retina and gotten some comments through that, but who cares really, a mac can play fine, it's maybe quite expensive if you buy mac JUST to play games, but then again, do whatever you want :D
 
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Zeov said:
depends on what people call gaming. You have people that insist you cant play games on a mac, EVER, which is obviously not true, evidently.

Then you have people who claim gaming is only when you have 4 780's in SLI and 3 monitors running 2560x1600 ea..

bottom line? if you can play the games you want on your machine, be happy with it and don't give two ****s what everybody else says.. i've been to a LAN party with a macbook retina and gotten some comments through that, but who cares really, a mac can play fine, it's maybe quite expensive if you buy mac JUST to play games, but then again, do whatever you want :D
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What's interesting, is that especially in College, all the people with PC gaming laptops all have mid-range ones. I remember guy having a big fat ASUS only to point out it has a 650M, and was shocked that my much thinner, MacBook of all things, had the same GPU. After that incident, I immediately stopped caring about people and their Alienwares. My MBP plays all the games I want to play and that's all that counts.
 
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TechZeke said:
What's interesting, is that especially in College, all the people with PC gaming laptops all have mid-range ones. I remember guy having a big fat ASUS only to point out it has a 650M, and was shocked that my much thinner, MacBook of all things, had the same GPU. After that incident, I immediately stopped caring about people and their Alienwares. My MBP plays all the games I want to play and that's all that counts.
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But not during exam times. Although, come to think of it, I played more than usual during exam times back when I was at Uni.
 
Confusius said:
But not during exam times. Although, come to think of it, I played more than usual during exam times back when I was at Uni.
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I have a pathological issue much like you. Whenever I need to study the urge to game just overcomes me.

I need the 750M in my Mac, it's a solid chip to game on but I'm itching to get a 20nm Maxwell chip in it. Then it's gaming performance will finally nail all my expectations. Right now it's solid and is perfectly capable of playing all I throw at it but it's still not perfect.

BF4, CoH2, WoT, Civ 5 all run great.
 
Just because it works with integrated graphics doesn't mean it can be improved with dedicated graphics.

I'm glad you're satisfied with your gaming needs, because in the end that's all that matters.
 
alphaod said:
Just because it works with integrated graphics doesn't mean it can be improved with dedicated graphics.

I'm glad you're satisfied with your gaming needs, because in the end that's all that matters.
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Well, the thing is, if the integrated GPU can max out all the games someone are interested in, then there is no point for them to get a better one. After all, the display refresh rate is limited in hardware.
 
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