[icarus523]

I'd like to report my LAN-party experience on a MacBook Pro. This was just with a group of workmates, who are PC-geeks. I usually bring my gaming PC on these occasioins simply because I don't lose respect - but just this one time, I decided that the MBP will be holding its own.

Specs:
MacBookPro 2GHz
2GB RAM
25GB HD partition for Windows XP

Games played:
Call of Duty 2
FlatOut
Unreal Tournament 2004
BattleField 2
Far Cry

The opposition were all with their customed rigs, P4 3.2, Radeon 9800 Pro's etc. etc.. As a customary prior to gaming, each player would announce their specs - kind of like comparing in the shower and saying who's got the bigger schlong.. right.. When it came to my turn to patt the proverbial back, I received some raised eyebrows and a few coughs.

I knew that I was going to get an earful...

I overclocked the X1600 core to 400Mhz and memory to 350MHz using ATITool. After that the games began.

The MBP is definetly cut out for PC gaming - once overclocked the performance is quite admirable. Call of Duty 2 proved to be only game which seemed to suffer performance hits. But this was fixed simply by choosing DirectX 7 as oppose to DirectX 9 - frame rates shot up to 90fps and I managed to even play with 2x Anti-Aliasing just for kicks.

Battlefield 2 with all details max'ed also showed little to no lag in performance. Far Cry handled quite well, with details up - this game is beautiful, multiplayer - well.. could do some more. FlatOut was a lot of fun, racing game with damage modelling and physics were top notch - again the MBP had no trouble with this. Unreal Tournament 2004 - while an old game, with full details played without hiccups.

Problem:
Playing an overclock MBP video card for 12 Hours straight (12pm-12midnight), has serious consequences. Although the video card did not suffer from any misuse, the fans did. My MBP is now in service due to a noisy fan on the left side for the video card. The next day after the LAN day, the MBP suddenly had a "purr'ing" sound - the more it was used the louder the noise became, until to the point where the sound was making "scratching" sounds. I've heard of this sound before - similar to a failing case fan on a PC - turned off the MBP and waited for 3 hours to recover - upon powering it back up. The noise was prominant.

Damage has been done. The next workday - I took it in for service, and that's were it has been all week, I was told that it will have a new processor board replacement - which is odd, just for a fan failure.

Moral of the Story: Careful when playing excessive games on the MacBookPro while the GPU is overclocked - make sure that it is cooled effectively, and have fun.

Oh yeah.. PC workmates were a push-over with all their "schlongs"... Could have rubbed the "Oh my god! you got whipped by a Mac User" - statement, but I just let my scores do the talking. It's not how big your PC is, but how you use it.

Peace.

[Cadaver]

Any time you overclock hardware, you risk damage.
Be glad Apple is accepting your MPB under warranty.

But cool to hear the Mac kept up with the big boys.

[Danoldo]

Originally Posted by Cadaver

Any time you overclock hardware, you risk damage.
Be glad Apple is accepting your MPB under warranty.

But cool to hear the Mac kept up with the big boys.

I believe it should be accepted under warranty no matter what, as Apple did not underclock the GPU for fear of performance problems, but general aesthetics.

The GPU is meant to be ran, from the factory, as much higher ratings than even what the thread starter was running.

[Thraxes]

So, which company will be the first to provide a small external blower that clips onto the MBPs airvents and pushes some serious cubic-inches of coolness through the machine? Preferably geting its power from USB or Firewire, made in silver and illuminated with blue and red LEDs... Seriously, for a LAN I would buy one right away!

[tooki]

Originally Posted by Danoldo

I believe it should be accepted under warranty no matter what, as Apple did not underclock the GPU for fear of performance problems, but general aesthetics.

The GPU is meant to be ran, from the factory, as much higher ratings than even what the thread starter was running.

That's a VERY naïve assumption. The chips are designed to run at their maximum speeds given appropriate power and cooling. If the computer the chips are installed in has less-capable cooling, the chips must be run slower to keep them within temperature specs.

tooki

[Tomchu]

I've been to countless LAN parties, including helping run a rather big one in downtown Vancouver with my work a while back, and I have *never* heard of this practice of announcing one's specs.

That's so lame and "ghey" that I have to wonder whether you were playing with a bunch of 13-year-olds.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by icarus523

Playing an overclock MBP video card for 12 Hours straight (12pm-12midnight), has serious consequences. Although the video card did not suffer from any misuse, the fans did. My MBP is now in service due to a noisy fan on the left side for the video card. The next day after the LAN day, the MBP suddenly had a "purr'ing" sound - the more it was used the louder the noise became, until to the point where the sound was making "scratching" sounds. I've heard of this sound before - similar to a failing case fan on a PC - turned off the MBP and waited for 3 hours to recover - upon powering it back up. The noise was prominant.

Weird. I experienced similar fan noise with my MBP w/o overclocking the GPU or running it at 100% load for extended periods of time. I thought it sounded like some obstruction of the fan blades. Fortunately after I once removed and re-seated my battery, the noise has gone away (strange, huh?) and I'm hoping it will stay that way. If it comes back I guess I'll have to bring it in.

[Drakino]

My MacBook Pro has been making this fan noise for a little while, I just haven't had time to take it in to a service center yet. I fear my video card is damaged somehow, as after a 4 hour session in WoW under OS X, I start seeing graphics issues. This with no overlocking, and the laptop on an iCurve stand. Windows, most games tank graphically in 10-20 minutes, again with no overclocking. Never used ATITool on mine at all and this is an issue.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by Drakino

My MacBook Pro has been making this fan noise for a little while, I just haven't had time to take it in to a service center yet. I fear my video card is damaged somehow, as after a 4 hour session in WoW under OS X, I start seeing graphics issues. This with no overlocking, and the laptop on an iCurve stand. Windows, most games tank graphically in 10-20 minutes, again with no overclocking. Never used ATITool on mine at all and this is an issue.

I'd take it in for sure. It sounds like the GPU or VRAM is dying.