MacBook: Gaming

[Qion]

I'm really enjoying my new MacBook.

However, before I actually got to use it, I was worried that my occasional gaming habits would go out the window along with my dedicated graphics card. This, to my jubilation, is not the case.

So far I've played: Doom 3, Half Life 2, Halo, and Unreal Tournament 2004. All of these games actually play exceptionally well, considering my gig of RAM is still in the mail and my GPU siphons from the RAM. When I say exceptionally well, I mean to say that I can turn up the graphics options to a decent degree and still get playable frame rates (UT04 in particular is great; I get 30+ with most of the settings maxed). I just don't understand where people get off saying that the white/black MacBooks can't play games... because they definitely can.

Overall speed is also incredibly impressive. I work occasionally on a 20" iMac G5 at my studio, and when paired to a keyboard, mouse, and external monitor this MacBook feels even quicker than the G5 . Ableton Live 6 is just ridiculously fast; multiple processor support + universal binary = virtually unlimited number of simultaneously playing tracks. Not to mention the MacBook plays 1080p without a hitch!

[nixgeek]

This is good to know as I'm looking to get either a MacBook or a MacBook Pro. It might end up being a MacBook since I don't know if I could wing the Pro financially, especially if the performance is really good despite the GMA950 shared RAM. And what with all the rumor sites saying that we might see some updated (or even new) portable models, I'm more eager than before. Thanks for the info.

[fryke]

How is it that people again and again abuse the Café for Mac stuff? :/ Sorry, Qion, for using _this_ thread specifically for mentioning it, but the forum descriptions aren't _that_ bad, are they? Moving the thread...

On the topic of the thread: I've said it a lot in the past - people just seem to want "a decent graphics card" without having any idea what that really means. They don't test the games they're gonna play, they simply _assume_ that an on-board chip can't deliver any performance.
What you have to take into account, though, is that newer games down the road will one day simply refuse to play on this particular graphics chip - or will seriously underperform. A MacBook Pro's graphics card will probably hold out a _little_ longer, although not _that_ much longer, I believe.

The closing argument from me, however, is always this: If you _truly_ value playing games, you should invest in a decent console. It enables you to buy the (much!) cheaper MacBook with a better gut feeling, probably, because it'll do the OS' graphics stuff just fine for quite a while, handle your _work_ quite easily as well and is an all-around good package. The Mac, seriously, is not a gaming platform, whatever others might say. See: In the PC world you can buy almost the cheapest no-name PC and install the greatest and latest graphics card, and it'll do new games perfectly. Processor and harddrive speed etc. just don't matter that much. In the Mac world, however, only the most _expensive_ model, the Mac Pro, comes with the ability to install such a graphics card, and even there you still have to wait for a Mac version of the card or at the very least for a working driver - and might get performance that is _not_ exactly up to par with a Windows PC. Not because the Mac is technically challenged, but because the wide support for the games just isn't there.

[Qion]

Originally Posted by fryke

How is it that people again and again abuse the Café for Mac stuff? :/ Sorry, Qion, for using _this_ thread specifically for mentioning it, but the forum descriptions aren't _that_ bad, are they? Moving the thread...

Sorry. I did look at other sections, though; I think a lot of people do, and then just go with the blanket choice.

[Ferdinand]

Why people post Apple stuff in the Café is, because mostly news in this forum is Apple Rumors and News, so they would think that Apple discussion goes in the Café.

[Alex470]

Originally Posted by Ferdinand

Why people post Apple stuff in the Café is, because mostly news in this forum is Apple Rumors and News, so they would think that Apple discussion goes in the Café.

Agreed!

[fryke]

The Café should only be for everything that clearly does _not_ fit another forum. "Apple discussion" is part of the News, Rumours and Discussion forum.

[Qion]

...the café is for drinking coffee, which I did alongside my MacBook yesterday and awed some PC-users as I played *gasp* Doom 3 on my pitiful GMA graphics. Hehe. One of them said he would make the switch because of it!