Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

danengel · Nov 4, 2006, 07:57 PM

How good is the new MacBook Pro (2.33 GHz, 2 GB RAM, ATI Mobility X1600 256 MB) for gaming? I'm considering replacing my Dual 1.25 GHz G4 with a MBP.

Timetheus · Nov 4, 2006, 08:14 PM

Certainly better than your G4, assuming the games you want are Universal or have a Universal patch. I have one of the orignals (see below), and it works quite well with everything I've thrown at it (Call of Duty 2, RollerCoaster Tycoon III, Civ 4, etc.) Plus you can install Windows to play games otherwise not available on Mac, it works quite well for that as well.

MattJeff · Nov 4, 2006, 08:16 PM

im sure it will eat em up

(if the games are Universal)

danengel · Nov 4, 2006, 09:18 PM

1) How long will the MBP last? My G4 was O.K. for gaming for about 2 years, then started to decline.

2) Non-Intel games won't work (Call of Duty 1, Medal of Honor, Max Payne, Doom, Star Craft, etc.)?

theyoda3 · Nov 4, 2006, 10:37 PM

Non Intel games work. They work well actually. I have the non Universal Halo and it runs really smooth at full screen with the graphics set really high. It was a huge improvement from 1.33 G4 PowerBook to C2D MBP.

mduell · Nov 5, 2006, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by danengel

1) How long will the MBP last? My G4 was O.K. for gaming for about 2 years, then started to decline.

2) Non-Intel games won't work (Call of Duty 1, Medal of Honor, Max Payne, Doom, Star Craft, etc.)?

1) Depends what you play and how you play it. The new Maxis Sim game in 5 years will probably be fine, but Crysis today with maxed out settings will be a slideshow.

2) The Windows version of all those games will work with BootCamp.

Velocity211 · Nov 5, 2006, 07:19 PM

I thought Doom 3 is universal

MattJeff · Nov 5, 2006, 09:27 PM

doom 3 is

quattrokid73 · Nov 5, 2006, 10:43 PM

if you have enough HD space, put XP pro on and run windows games on that. itll run better actually since they are more optimized for XP.

phoenix78 · Nov 5, 2006, 10:54 PM

yeah go for the C2D... there is no question that it is perfectly suited to games. the specs are awesome and the games that i have played so far run super smooth.

BUT!!!! expect that games are gonna be made with more demanding graphics since hardware is always improving so in about a year or so you should not be expecting to get the best possible framerates.... (as you would expect anyway with any system)

So also consider that it is a LAPTOP designed for mobility... and when you push the machine like you would a desktop its gonna get super hot so i would recommend getting the two fan cooling pads to keep your sysytem from getting too warm.

HAPPY GAMING!

rob.

buddy1065 · Nov 5, 2006, 11:23 PM

As far a the hand rests go they do not get super hot. Perhaps the bottom gets very warm or even hot, but I will never play a 3D 1st or 3rd person combat game on my lap using the trackpad, so I wouldn't know. To me that is frustratingly ridiculous. I would have to have a mouse and a table to put my Macbook on. You can hear the fan clearly running though; very audible; no mistaking that when running such games. So I prefer earphones in that case.

DevNine · Nov 6, 2006, 04:34 AM

The new MBP offers you both windows and Mac gaming. I play battlefield on high settings without a glitch on the 1gb c2d 128vram MBP.

danengel · Nov 6, 2006, 04:53 AM

Ordered! I couldn't resist... Hopefully it ships soon.

fongyuen · Nov 6, 2006, 09:50 AM

i played a little GRAW on winxp c2d mbp over the weekend and it ran very well at the native resolution.

just wondering if anyone else has tried clocking the 1600 up more than the 418/450 that it came with....

justinkim · Nov 6, 2006, 04:17 PM

I've installed WinXP on mine and have had very good results playing Half Life 2 (plus the expansions, including HDR rendering) and Dawn of War. I'm planning on giving F.E.A.R. and Far Cry a whirl soon.

World of Warcraft on OS X seems to run much smoother than it does under Win XP on my Athlon 64 3400+/GeForce 7800GS box, though at least some of that may be because the MBP has twice the memory of the A64 machine.

DevNine · Nov 8, 2006, 07:06 AM

Anyone get sound problems with Battlefield 2? Initial audio is fine but I lose the sound after the intro finishes.

justinkim · Nov 8, 2006, 03:26 PM

I've only played the demo, but it worked well enough for me.

allenranger2 · Nov 9, 2006, 03:14 PM

Final Fantasy XI works great on the C2D with XP installed. It is so smooth, I want to leave my 64-bit AMD Opteron for it :-D.

buddy1065 · Nov 9, 2006, 05:08 PM

Anyone play Oblivion on their new C2D?

Elektrix · Nov 9, 2006, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by buddy1065

Anyone play Oblivion on their new C2D?

I've got it installed but haven't played it yet. I'll try and get some time in to see how it goes.