Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

lpkmckenna · Nov 29, 2006, 06:44 PM

Does anyone here run UT2004 on a MacBook? I'm curious to know the performance level.

By way of comparison, I now have a PowerBook G4 at 1GHz. I mostly play Onslaught with Instagib4Ever or 1-on-1 LMS. It's satisfactory but not stellar. But I'm not a hardcore gamer.

I know the GMA950 hurts 3D games, but it's still possible that a new MacBook runs better than my old PowerBook. Could anyone help?

peterauch21 · Nov 30, 2006, 02:50 PM

I've been able to play the quake 4 demo on my macbook. I only have 512mb of ram and it wasnt terrible. I also wouldn't call it stellar.. Expect to run the newer games on very low settings to get them to run period.

stefanicotine · Nov 30, 2006, 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by peterauch21

I've been able to play the quake 4 demo on my macbook. I only have 512mb of ram and it wasnt terrible. I also wouldn't call it stellar.. Expect to run the newer games on very low settings to get them to run period.

Did your MacBook heat up alot when you did this? I wouldn't mind having the occasional game on my MacBook, but not if it will be heating up like crazy and blowing the fans full throttle.

peterauch21 · Nov 30, 2006, 03:12 PM

I didnt play very long as I was just checking it out to see if it would even perform at all. I've been able to play Tremolous (Spelling might be wrong) which is a first person shooter off of the quake 3 engine without any major heat issues. I play that game often and for long periods of time with the laptop on my lap w/o any problems. I'm waiting to really test any of the higher end games since I still just have the stock 512mb of ram.

lpkmckenna · Nov 30, 2006, 09:36 PM

Geez, the Q4 demo is half a Gig! What a crazy size for a demo.

stefanicotine · Nov 30, 2006, 11:14 PM

I just wonder how well CS:S would run in Boot Camp

peterauch21 · Dec 1, 2006, 10:47 AM

To play a demo of WOW you have to download the entire game which is almost 3 gigs I think.. That is crazy.. =p I have two gigs of ram in the mail so I'm going to do some more testing once I get them in the system.

Grrr · Dec 1, 2006, 08:16 PM

I have tried UT2004 on a 1st gen MacBook 1.83ghz. At 1st it was pretty terrible. But then the thing was stock, including the 512mb of ram, which isn't even nearly enough.
It now has 1gb in it, and it plays much much better. Still not stellar, but playable I think.
And i'd rightly expect it to improve some more with another gb of ram.

xsphat · Dec 1, 2006, 10:47 PM

I Play both games on my 1.83 ghz C1 Duo MacBook with 2 gigs of ram. UT2004 runs fast and good, Quake 4 gets choppy though. Both have updates that help.

peterauch21 · Dec 3, 2006, 11:03 AM

I just downloaded the ut2004 demo. Here are my findings.
Under normal mode at 640x480. I'd average 20 FPS.
30 in small areas.
15 in larger areas with a lot of fighting.

This was running in rossetta. So it is possible that when it is being played with the universal patch that those FPSs will go higher. It was playable with 20fps but i'd still want more. I may buy the game and post again. Any places where one can legally DL an actual copy of ut2004.

I was using a CD 2ghz macbook with 2gigs of ram.

lpkmckenna · Dec 3, 2006, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by peterauch21

I just downloaded the ut2004 demo. Here are my findings.
Under normal mode at 640x480. I'd average 20 FPS.

You should try at the MacBook's native resolution.

stefanicotine · Dec 3, 2006, 03:09 PM

I just downloaded the COD 2 demo for my MacBook and can run it at very high settings. Textures are on normal (putting them on high, or even extra, is still playable), at the native resolution with bilinear filtering. Not bad for integrated graphics! It almost keeps up to my friend's gaming Toshiba

xtal · Dec 3, 2006, 04:39 PM

Originally Posted by stefanicotine

I just downloaded the COD 2 demo for my MacBook and can run it at very high settings. Textures are on normal (putting them on high, or even extra, is still playable), at the native resolution with bilinear filtering. Not bad for integrated graphics! It almost keeps up to my friend's gaming Toshiba

I'm assuming you have the ram maxed to 2GB?

stefanicotine · Dec 3, 2006, 05:13 PM

Originally Posted by xtal

I'm assuming you have the ram maxed to 2GB?

Yuppers. I've seen it played with a gig and runs very well too.

peterauch21 · Dec 4, 2006, 11:03 AM

Will running the games in macbooks native resolution help with performance and give better FPS?

kick52 · Dec 4, 2006, 12:35 PM

i was thinking about getting UT2004 for my ibook (sig)..

i dont know how well it would play, but the UT2003 demo plays pretty well.

stefanicotine · Dec 4, 2006, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by peterauch21

Will running the games in macbooks native resolution help with performance and give better FPS?

In my experiences gaming, native resolution is usually the best. Running the game at lower resolution can result in better performance, but at what cost? If you run games at 640x480 on your MacBook, they look alright. You can probably even afford to turn up a few settings such as textures, filtering, or antialiasing. However, you take less of a hit in performance if you run the games at native resolution with fewer settings turned up (and it usually looks better).

Just my two cents.

peterauch21 · 01:58 PM

Hmm I'll check it out and post my findings. Is the CoD2 demo universal binary? Or is it still a PowerPC app?

TheoCryst · Dec 4, 2006, 01:28 PM

The CoD2 demo is universal, and runs surprisingly well on a MacBook. At a high resolution and with many effects enabled, the game is still very very playable.

lpkmckenna · Dec 4, 2006, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by peterauch21

Will running the games in macbooks native resolution help with performance and give better FPS?

Lowering the resolution means that processing power is used to interpolate onto the higher native resolution. You're gonna lose something either way, so go with native res.

The best way to run a game on a laptop is in native res, and then lower the details like shadows, weather, and physics. Texture to taste, according to your video ram.