Base MacBook for games?

specular

I'm going to be buying a cafe computer fairly soon and would like to get a Mac, but I can't afford to get more than the base MacBook. I'm primarily going to be using the laptop for writing, but I'd also like to use it for occassional gaming (DragonAge being the main one for the moment; future strategy and CRPGs when they're released; no FPS's). Will the base MacBook give me acceptable gaming performance? Will I see big gains in usability by waiting until I can afford a MacBookPro? My knowledge of mobile stuff is close to nil.

Marvin

The 13" Macbook Pros use the same GPUs so only the 15" model would give you the 330M, which is 50% faster for games.



You can get the Macbook Pro for $100 more if you get a refurb:



http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC...co=MTgwOTc3Mjg



Just for the fact you get an extra 2GB RAM and the metal enclosure, I'd get it over the entry Macbook. Refurbs have the same warranty and you can extend it to 3 years.



The 320M GPU is a decent GPU, it can play Crysis at medium quality and get a smooth framerate. Dragon Age plays on the 9600M GT on high quality so the 320M should be able to get similar performance, although it is a little slower so you may have to turn a setting down here or there. The framerate doesn't look overly smooth in the videos here on high quality:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8utIWIrILkw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yak22y0w82Y



so you'd probably turn down anti-aliasing and lower the resolution.

specular

Thanks, Marvin. That $100 bump might well be worth saving for, given the memory boost and more durable enclosure. The DA framerates seemed okay to me?I'll be able to live with that given how I don't want to spend too much time playing