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peterauch21 · Nov 14, 2006, 05:01 PM

What are your experiances with Quake 4 on a macbook with the maxxed ram? Is it playable? I guess the easiest way for me to find out would be to DL the demo but was just curious what you guys thought.

Tomchu · Nov 14, 2006, 06:00 PM

I tried the full version on my MacBook Pro/2 GHz/128 MB, and it was pretty slow, even with lower details. I wouldn't bother trying it on the MacBook.

peterauch21 · Nov 15, 2006, 10:51 AM

How much ram did you have in your MBP?

MattJeff · Nov 15, 2006, 11:51 AM

it should run smothly on HI res

Tomchu · Nov 15, 2006, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by peterauch21

How much ram did you have in your MBP?

2 GB

The amount of RAM makes no difference in rendering performance, unless you're swapping insanely.

peterauch21 · Nov 15, 2006, 05:20 PM

It would make a large difference for me since my MB VRAM is shared and pulls from the system ram.

Tuoder · Nov 17, 2006, 06:45 AM

Originally Posted by peterauch21

It would make a large difference for me since my MB VRAM is shared and pulls from the system ram.

I am pretty sure that the amount of VRAM is more or less static on your system.

peterauch21 · Nov 17, 2006, 04:49 PM

I thought I read that when needed more ram would be pulled from the system ram up to 256mb if you have two gigs in your MB.

CheesePuff · Nov 17, 2006, 05:08 PM

It will use a minimum of 80 MB and up to 224 MB of system RAM.

But no, Quake 4 will not be able to be playable on a MacBook. Possibly on the new C2D with 2 GB of RAM on a fresh restart and on the lowest resolution and detail you should be able to get 25 FPS.

Sbtrfuge · Nov 17, 2006, 06:19 PM

You have to understand that the macbook has integrated graphics. In other words, putting in a dead bug for a graphics card might be an improvement to what the macbook currently has. Hence why I'll never own one.

moonmonkey · Nov 21, 2006, 08:20 AM

it works acceptably on my MacBook 2ghz CoreDuo.

Seems to be much faster than the demo.

Try it!

Sbtrfuge · Nov 21, 2006, 09:30 AM

"acceptibly"? Do you find getting low FPS at the lowest res possible with everything turned down or disabled acceptable? I don't.

peterauch21 · Nov 21, 2006, 03:35 PM

Well it runs on my macbook with 512mb.. It's choppy but not unplayable. It's not the super stellar game that it obviously could be but it was playable. I dont think I would recommend it to anyone.

Sbtrfuge · Nov 21, 2006, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by peterauch21

Well it runs on my macbook with 512mb.. It's choppy but not unplayable. It's not the super stellar game that it obviously could be but it was playable. I dont think I would recommend it to anyone.

Um.... I don't consider that description 'playable'. Especially once you saw it's performance on outdoor levels, like the transport, tank, etc.

peterauch21 · Nov 30, 2006, 10:03 AM

Hmm the demo might not have been universal.. I might attempt to take another stab at it with the real deal once I upgrade my ram.. In the demo they were cursing up a storm does that continue in the regular game?

jmelrose · Dec 1, 2006, 09:51 AM

I am running Quake 4 on my MacBook Pro 2.33 with 3GB RAM.

I have it set to "High" settings at one of the 16:10 widescreen settings (don't remember which offhand). It's very playable once an external keyboard is attached. Don't have the framerates but no stutters on the first level anyways.

Unreal Tournament is maxxed out to "Holy SXXX" level and it is smooth as buttah.

peterauch21 · Dec 1, 2006, 02:11 PM

With a mbp you have a dedicated video card unlike the macbook so that doesnt surprise me that it would run well.

Velocity211 · Dec 3, 2006, 06:04 PM

it runs pretty good on my PB. Medium settings, 1024x768, No AA, about 20FPS, it ranges from 5FPS to 40FPS depending on what level i'm on. BTW, the GPU is overclocked.

Sbtrfuge · Dec 3, 2006, 06:27 PM

Dude. This isn't about powerbooks. Powerbooks have videocards. This is about macbooks, without real videocards. They only have pretend ones. Of course a modern powerbook will run this pretty decently.

Velocity211 · Dec 3, 2006, 06:29 PM

i know, i'm just saying because of the MBP comments saying that performance is bad on them. I just thought that's kinda weird because the MBP's video card and CPU are a lot better than my Powerbook. sorry for getting too OT.

TheoCryst · Dec 4, 2006, 01:36 PM

The Quake 4 demo (Universal) runs pretty poorly on a maxed-out MacBook. However, the full version is patched to take better advantage of the MacBook's two cores. I don't know how much of an improvement there is, however.

miserereiam · Dec 4, 2006, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by TheoCryst

The Quake 4 demo (Universal) runs pretty poorly on a maxed-out MacBook. However, the full version is patched to take better advantage of the MacBook's two cores. I don't know how much of an improvement there is, however.

Are you saying the demo only uses one CPU? I thought the application was almost identical to the retail version, it just doesn't include the all the maps, levels, etc. Have any more info on this?

However yeah, I doubt that even if you're correct, and the retail version is dual CPU aware and the demo isn't, that it'd be noticeable. The Macbook is limited because it's graphics card is retchid, it's not CPU bound.