New MBP gaming question

404ender

Ever since the original release of the MBPs I've been tempted to replace my now 2 1/2 year-old HP laptop with one, and now that the Core 2 Duo line laptops are out I don't think I can resist any longer.



Right now I'm really bouncing between the $1999 and the $2499 model, mainly because I don't know the capabilities of either when it comes to a few particular games. I really don't do much PC gaming anymore, but I do enjoy playing Half-Life 2 and Unreal Tournament 2k4. My current laptop can't run them well, so when I'm at college I don't get to play either of those games. I have no real interest in future PC gaming so all I really need to know is how well those 2 games will run on the cheaper model MBP.



Also, although this isn't as important, theoretically if I were to want to eventually play games like UT2k7 or Hellgate: London, would the $2499 model be powerful enough to run those or would I just need a completely different non-laptop rig to think about playing those?



Oh, and boot camp does require a legal copy of Windows XP right?



Thanks a lot in advance

aiolos

dunno about the gaming, but yes about the windows copy

fongyuen

if you're concerned about playing future games, then i would def. go for the $2500 model with the 256 mb vid card. i have that model and i played some GRAW over the weekend and it seems to run really well on native resolution (but some of the effects turned to medium).

sandau

halflife2 / counterstrike:source run great on the mac book pros under bootcamp. yes you need a licensed copy of windows. to up my framerates even beyond the very acceptable fps you do get with the underclocked (yes, the first MBP's have underclocked gpu's), you can use a some tools off the web to increase the clock speed of the x1600s. I hear the new MBP Core 2 Duo's have 'less' underclocked gpus.



overclocking is at your own risk. but it is a very good gaming laptop in my opinion.

jheath

I really hate to go all anti-mac at this point, but if you plan on playing games like that I would sincerely recommend you get either a PC or a Console. OSX does not have sufficient driver support for some of the older graphics cards and running games on Bootcamp isnt as effective as actually running games on a x86 or x64 bit PC system. Best of luck.

iomatic

Could you back that claim up: "Bootcamp isnt [sic] as effective as actually running games on a x86…" ?



Seriously? I want to know more.

sandau

Quote:

Originally Posted by jheath


OSX does not have sufficient driver support for some of the older graphics cards and running games on Bootcamp isnt as effective as actually running games on a x86 or x64 bit PC system. Best of luck.

well, MBP (macbook pro) happens to be a true x86 system, bootcamp happens to be running Windows XP natively, all the drivers are there and work perfectly, because it IS 100% intel x86 with 100% Windows XP. So what you are saying doesn't make sense even in the slightest.



For a true gaming machine, sure, a regular PC built from the ground up with the best processor, ram, graphics card, HD and memory is going to blow away a laptop in playing games, but by no means is a MBP a poor gaming machine, quite the contrary. I have had both systems, a very good gaming PC and MBP, and I dropped the gaming PC since it was pretty redundant, the MBP was definitely good enough. I'm happy playing Counterstrike Source at 40-50fps online with all the goodies turned on.

greglo

If you can easily afford it, the 256 VRAM would probably help a bit, especially if you play with lots of other people. Even if you only get the 128 VRAM though, they should run fine.



As for future games, the 256 is definately more future proof and would probably help a bit, but if your like lots of gamers, you'd probably want to update again for UT2007 as the X1600 isn't really a high end card. I mean it would run, no doubt, but at low-medium quality.