[newbiemacman]

How are they, because I am thinking about either getting that, or a PC desktop. Do you think it will be okay for games like Quake and MOH:AA? I need to keep this thing for about four years, so do you think it will perform well until then? Right now, I am running a K6-2 475.....

[k2director]

I have the old Ti 800 (oh, that's painful to say that now) with the 32 meg ATI 7500, and while I encounter lag on games like Wolf and MOH during heavy action or in big outdoor levels, I still found the games very playable and fun.

So, by my standards at least, an ATI9000 with 64 megs of RAM would be appreciably better and good enough to enjoy games like this (the upcoming Doom 3 in another matter, of course, but if it doesn't run well on a Ti with ATI9000, it won't run well on any laptop).

Being a good games machine 4 years down the road is another matter. I highly doubt it. 2 years will be pushing it for running the newest, cutting edge games well. If you want longevity, go for a desktop (PC or Mac) where you can upgrade the graphics card.

[Fyre4ce]

If you are looking for a computer strictly for gaming, get a PC desktop. They're very fast, dirt cheap, and upgradeable. Also there are a lot more games available for the PC.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a great all-around computer which you can ALSO play games on from time to time, the PowerBook is a great machine. Of course, you won't be able to run the latest games at maximum resolution and high frame rates, but this might not be critically important to you. You just have to ask yourself what you want.

Also, it's not really fair to compare a desktop to a laptop, especially for games. Desktops by their very nature have a huge advantage in that dept. With a laptop, what you gain in mobility (and in the case of the Titanium, style) you lose in value and performance. It's your choice...

[Corys]

I finally bit the bullet and built a PC for gaming about 6 months ago.
I am very pleased with the decision.

total hardware cost was about $500. I didn't shop for the best deals, so i'm sure I could have gotten it down to $400 if I really hunted.

I still do 100% of my work on the mac, but now do 100% of my gaming on the PC.

I also purchased an IOGear KVM switch, so I can share my mouse, monitor, keyboard, printers. with the mac and PC. big space saver.

what frustrated me the most with mac gaming, was not the selection of games, but how expensive the video cards are.

I was looking at getting a decent $350 video card for my mac, that same card was about $150 for the PC. I know everyone needs to make money, but it just didn't make sense to put that much money into a video card.

my $.02

[newbiemacman]

Corys, I was just wondering what your PC setup was........and what kinds of games you play.

[Corys]

I went low end with the intention of upgrading parts over time..

but here are the specs
P4 1.5
256 megs 2100 RAM
40 gig HD
32/12/40 CDRW
ATI 7000 64 meg card

the vid card is the next thing to upgrade..probably will go with the nvidia ti 4200 for about $100, then more RAM, and finally upgrade the processor.

if I had to do it over again, I would have spent more money on a better processor up front..

didn't do enough research and should have gotten a 1.8 or above (northwood chip) apparently it can be OC'd easier and better than the one I got. eh! live and learn.

forgot to mention the games I am playing:
UT2k3
MOHAA
SOF 2
NOLF 2
BF1942

all FPS

[El Pre$idente]

Tom's Hardware found the Radeon 9000 Mobility only 5-10% faster overall than the 7500 with the same memory (64MBs on both). This was also with the far better Direct X and Open GL on Windows.

Considering the Ti800 barely runs MOHAA decently in multiplayer mode I don't think you should expect to play Doom 3 or Unreal 2003 at high res on the new Ti1000 at very high frame rates. The CPU is still a massive bottleneck and these latest games really do use a lot of polygons.

In terms of bleeding edge laptop gaming the Powerbook needs to be running at 1.5Ghz.

[rm199]

this is a hard one. dvi667 is running all games at 1600x1200 acceptable with settings either in the middle or on low. yes SOF2 is crazy slow outdoors with rain. to be honest its fine because when i travel everything is very playable at 1280x854.

Im looking forward to setting everything on max but that is going to need more than the new 1ghz laptop.

RM

[t_hah]

The new Ti1000 looks fast, but I doubt that it will be able to keep up with games 4 years down the road. Laptops always lag behind desktops when it comes to performance. You can get close, but not close enough. PC laptops have the same problem, this is not a Mac only issue. They use pretty much the same graphics cards as the Powerbooks and iBooks.
The Ti is not built for gaming. You can play games on them, but they are just not for games. If you want to play games get a dual with the best graphics card you can get. Do not expect much from a laptop...not for another...hm...4 years.
My Ti runs fine. I do lot of graphics work it using Photoshop, and Illustrator. I also use it with Office (Yucko...MS), and Dreamweaver. I do play games on it, such as Quake 3 arena, and Unreal. The gaming speed is incredible (in my opinion) for a laptop. I love it. Quake is really smooth, Unreal is a little slower, but very enjoyable. Maybe you could get a dual for gaming, and an iBook for the road. I seriously doubt that Doom 3 will play nicely on ANY of the current laptops. It will probably have problems on most desktops PCs. But hey...that is technology.

t

[rampant]

Originally posted by t_hah:
The new Ti1000 looks fast, but I doubt that it will be able to keep up with games 4 years down the road. Laptops always lag behind desktops when it comes to performance. You can get close, but not close enough. PC laptops have the same problem, this is not a Mac only issue. They use pretty much the same graphics cards as the Powerbooks and iBooks.
The Ti is not built for gaming. You can play games on them, but they are just not for games. If you want to play games get a dual with the best graphics card you can get. Do not expect much from a laptop...not for another...hm...4 years.
My Ti runs fine. I do lot of graphics work it using Photoshop, and Illustrator. I also use it with Office (Yucko...MS), and Dreamweaver. I do play games on it, such as Quake 3 arena, and Unreal. The gaming speed is incredible (in my opinion) for a laptop. I love it. Quake is really smooth, Unreal is a little slower, but very enjoyable. Maybe you could get a dual for gaming, and an iBook for the road. I seriously doubt that Doom 3 will play nicely on ANY of the current laptops. It will probably have problems on most desktops PCs. But hey...that is technology.

t

Caramak sez: Latest PC notebooks with the Radeon 9000 will be able to play Doom 3 quite well.