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roders · Nov 13, 2003, 09:42 AM

What's this like, I'll be playing at the native screen res on both machines (maybe 1024x768 on the 15") also could/should be adding 512MB ram to the stock amounts too.
Has anyone seen any reviews on/including the gaming performance of these machines?

docholiday · Nov 13, 2003, 10:03 AM

I play some Return To Castle Wolfenstein with everything maxed out. While I haven't checked the fps, the game is very smooth at a res of 1024*768.
The only problem is that whenever I switch to anything higher than 640*480 I get black bars on the side....

Crusoe · Nov 13, 2003, 12:25 PM

Playing EQ on the 15" everything maxed in native with 768MB Ram. Very smooth overall. I played with only 256MB Ram and it was quite choppy. 512MB would be the minimum I'd want to run OSX in general neverless games.

Also ran Tony Hawk Demo. No choppyness whatsoever. Everthing Max.

Sweet ATI 9600 chipset!

terrancew_hod · Nov 13, 2003, 01:25 PM

The 9600 on the 15-inch is very respectable. One of my co-workers that plays the 1st person shooters on the PC played around with Unreal Tournament 2003 on my Powerbook and was impressed with how it handled. Now if I get some time myself to actually play with it myself...

Terrance

deviousgelatin · Nov 13, 2003, 02:02 PM

I haven't done much gamng on my 15 yet, but the UT2003 demo ran very smoothly.

nagromme · Nov 13, 2003, 03:07 PM

Can UT2k3 be made to run in widescreen 1280x854?

I got the original UT to do that (on my NON-widescreen eMac no less!) by just putting those dimensions into the .ini file. But that doesn't work with the UT2k3 demo.

(I think there may be a command-line trick for RTCW too.)

What 3D games can be made to run in widescreen?

Skypat · Nov 13, 2003, 03:25 PM

Is it possible to run UT2003 on a Powerbook 12" rev B ?

xylon · Nov 13, 2003, 03:29 PM

Originally posted by nagromme:
Can UT2k3 be made to run in widescreen 1280x854?

I got the original UT to do that (on my NON-widescreen eMac no less!) by just putting those dimensions into the .ini file. But that doesn't work with the UT2k3 demo.

(I think there may be a command-line trick for RTCW too.)

What 3D games can be made to run in widescreen?

This may only be because you have the demo. People have stated that you can just change the .ini file as well in UT2k3. Speaking from experience though, I wasn't able to find the resolution list in my .ini, so I'm playing at the pre-given lists.

With regards to the original post, I'd say fill up on RAM. I can't give you any real hands-on 15" experience since I have a Rev. A 17", but my comp handles UT2k3 like a champ.

I wouldn't like running UT2k3 on a 12" though. I don't think it'll handle very well...

dennis88 · Nov 13, 2003, 03:29 PM

Originally posted by Skypat:
Is it possible to run UT2003 on a Powerbook 12" rev B ?

Yes.

HotSoup · Nov 13, 2003, 04:47 PM

I wonder how the new 12" PB's will do playing Halo when it comes out for Mac.

How do the new 12" perform, guys? I've seen 2 good 15" reviews.

jewing80 · Nov 13, 2003, 05:14 PM

I've played both Spearhead and Maxpayne on my 12" 1GHz. The the stock configuation (256 MB of RAM) both games were very choppy. Even with settings to low the machine still felt very sluggish.

I upgraded to 768 MBs (512 CL 2 Corsair) and there was a dramatic improvement. I can now play both games at medium settings with little to no slowdown. Having said this I still can't really recommend the 12" for gaming. As many have said the screen is not very angle friendly thus it's almost impossible to get an consistent image. Additionally my 12" does not deal with deep black very well, this really hurts games like Max Payne that are nearly always set at night in dark invironments. Turning up the brightness tend to give the entire screen a milky look.

I'm sure with a nice external monitor the 12" would be more than suitable for todays games. Currently I'm still gaming on my Ti, although the setup is over a year old it still works very well!

nagromme · Nov 13, 2003, 06:37 PM

Here's how to run UT widescreen, and the .ini file looks just the same for UT2k3 so it should work. (You're probably right though--it doesn't work in the demo.)

1. Open the .ini file (in your Library/Application Support/Unreal Tournament 2003/System/UT2003.ini) with TextEdit.

2. Do a Find for "viewport" to get to the right area.

3. Enter the desired resolution into FullscreenViewportX and FullscreenViewportY. (You can also control the menu res and windowed-mode res if you wish.)

4. Save and play!

There is no list, apparently--all you can do is manually enter a size NOT on the list. But it seems to work.

In UT I can even enter weird sizes of my own creation: the game will use the next-largest "real" size and add black borders. That's how I got my eMac to play at 1280x854 like a PowerBook. The game automatically switched to 1280x960 and letterboxes the view without distortion or stretching. Cool.

I've also been told (but can't yet test) that you can fool a game into using a "stretched" version of 1024x768, if you set to that mode before launching. For games that won't run native, stretching may not always look so bad.

HotSoup · Nov 14, 2003, 03:13 PM

Originally posted by jewing80:
I've played both Spearhead and Maxpayne on my 12" 1GHz. The the stock configuation (256 MB of RAM) both games were very choppy. Even with settings to low the machine still felt very sluggish.

I upgraded to 768 MBs (512 CL 2 Corsair) and there was a dramatic improvement. I can now play both games at medium settings with little to no slowdown. Having said this I still can't really recommend the 12" for gaming. As many have said the screen is not very angle friendly thus it's almost impossible to get an consistent image. Additionally my 12" does not deal with deep black very well, this really hurts games like Max Payne that are nearly always set at night in dark invironments. Turning up the brightness tend to give the entire screen a milky look.

I'm sure with a nice external monitor the 12" would be more than suitable for todays games. Currently I'm still gaming on my Ti, although the setup is over a year old it still works very well!

Thanks for the info, I guess RAM is the key.

Ever play UT 2k3 on it by any chance?

Thanks.

nagromme · Nov 14, 2003, 03:33 PM

FYI, bot AI in UT2k3 is apparently a big CPU hog. So the "botmatch" benchmark with 16 bots may bog down a Mac that can run fewer bots just fine. So: play more humans and fewer bots for best results!

Also there's a UT2k3 patch now that's supposed to be significantly faster.

(Funny, my G3/333 can handle 16 bots in the original UT without a problem--and the ones in 2k3 don't seem THAT much smarter.)

elmer · Nov 20, 2003, 02:47 PM

Am I going to be able to run Halo on my 12" PB RevA? i.e. is the video card as good as a GeForce 2MX?

(Posted requirements (from IMG) are 800MHz G4, 256MB RAM, "32MB AGP; GeForce 2MX/ATI 7000 or better" )

terrancew_hod · Nov 20, 2003, 06:22 PM

The minimum specs just means it will run but not well. You probably should be looking at the recommended specs.

So chances are although you'll be able to run it, you'll have to turn graphic settings down; and the performance will most likely suffer...

Terrance

The Jackalope · Nov 20, 2003, 09:28 PM

My 12" Rev B plays SNESX really, really well.

terrancew_hod · Nov 21, 2003, 07:05 AM

That reminds me to test MAME on my powerbook. That was my favorite program on my PC (right after Rollercoaster Tycoon). Loved playing Final Fight and Ms Pacman...

Terrance