Comments on: Is Apple's new MacBook Pro a gaming machine?

Gamers and analysts indicate that Apple has made great strides, but that it still hasn't reached the upper echelons of gaming computers.

[pfletch_dotmac]

The previous generations of MacBook Pros all have discrete graphics, not integrated. The MacBook's previous models were all integrated. Check some facts man!

[csilv99]

This article contains inaccuracies. Quotes from Mike Schramm indicates that the old MacBook Pro was not a gaming platform because of integrated Intel video. This is not true. All MacBook Pros have higher end graphics, like the NVidia 8600M GT. It's only the consumer level MacBooks that used integrated intel video.

I myself frequently play World of Warcraft and a MacBook Pro 8600M GT performs like a champ. Hopefully the upgrade to the 9600M GT will yield a good performance boost, but it's not the 5x speed bump that Apple was referring to when it compared the old MacBook to the new MacBook Pro.

[cacarr]

That WoW performs "like a champ" on a MacBook Pro w/8600M GT really isn't saying much. WoW is old. As MMOs go, trying running Age of Conan or Warhammer Online...

"'I don't think it's going to be enough for the highest-end gamer,' Wang said. 'For bleeding edge graphics, those guys will probably stick with Falcon Northwest or Alienware' computers."

We are talking about gaming laptops, yes?

This article is a little confused.

[purcell429]

"That WoW performs "like a champ" on a MacBook Pro w/8600M GT really isn't saying much. WoW is old. As MMOs go, trying running Age of Conan or Warhammer Online..."

Yeah, but I can run Lord of the Rings Online (which is on par with AoC or WAR... it also runs Oblivion like a champ (I know its a tad old, but still...).

An 8600GT is no slouch for a 5.5 pound 15 inch laptop...

[Lerianis]

Fact is the Intel IGC's should have gone the way of the dodo years ago. The things are not even powerful enough to play RealArcade games in some cases, and that is a big knock against Apple for even including them in the first place and all the other companies for including them. In fact, when we went to buy our new computer recently, I absolutely REFUSED to allow my parent's to buy a computer with a IGC from Intel because of their crappy performance.

[jasonschlachter]

an error in the story:

- Macbook pros have not had integrated graphics as the article suggests; historically one of the defining aspects of macbook pros is that they have advanced discrete graphics. The main difference is that they have two graphics cards now so they can switch between them to conserve power.

- Perhaps the author meant for this article to be about the Macbooks and not Macbook Pros.

[play7]

Dan you know better then to promoto Apple as a gaming computer with the game Second Life...... Linden Lab over hasnt even fixed most of the problems withthe client used to play second life. Always crashing always have issues. Even Linden Labs themselves have said they can figure out the problems withte useable of the client and apple. So

[random truth]

Solution = install fink and the linux version.

[close5828]

Whether you like Apple/Macs/Macbooks or not, this can only mean good things for the industry as a whole--competition, competition, competition!

[Lerianis]

Well, with this new announcement and that fact that Boot Camp can dual boot Vista and OSX..... Even I, as a Windows fanboy and PC fanboy, have to say that the competition is getting fiercer now and Microsoft is at a real disadvantage.

Apple now has a way to break into the gaming market (all they need to do is make a MacBook that has an SLI or better setup with 9800 graphics from NVidia or higher), and they are breaking into the casual user market as well..... things are not looking good for Microsoft. They are going to have to TRULY step up their game with Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7, or become a has-been company.

[tadbittipsy]

No one can doubt that the Nvidia change was not the biggest thing. Having two in the Pro is a big thing. Plus all the new architecture included in both the Pro and macbook. The real gem here is the top 15 inch Pro. With upgrades to a 7200 RPM 320 GB HD for only $50 and a 2.8GHz Core Duo upgrade for only $300. You can get a nice pro machine for way less than before. I was looking at almost $4000, now fully loaded its going to be a little over $3000. Now that's the biggest thing. Beware the 17 inch has the slower 800MHz buss system!

[hanzblinx]

I dont want to sound negative, but a 9600 is not a gaming gpu. Just look at notebook benchmarks (see link). Of course Mac fans wont. They just follow Jobs around like the Pope.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

[random truth]

your link is dead. Also it is a customized version with better clock, more cores, and more gigaflops of processing power. It is the first laptop to get it.

[purcell429]

Of course, it doesnt weigh 18 pounds either... or light your desk on fire.

[Raist3d]

Sorry but the 9600 chip *IS* a gaming gpu. The table you describe it actually performs quite well and the bunch of cards you see up there- a lot of them are DUAL SLI configurations. Those are the chips you want when running the game at 1920x1600 with antialias at 16x and anisotropic filtering at 8-16x which is like the highest settings on Earth, which are light years up from the "runs very well still" experience. Your assessment is incorrect.

[theunclesam]

Great! Now all you mac fans can play the latest games like Halo 2, Simcity 4, and WoW!

I'll take Cedega, Ubuntu, and $3000 worth of PC hardware any day over Mac's new offering.

[random truth]

Those arent new games.... Ive played half of them on my macbook with integrated graphics.

[iConquered]

The GMA X3100 was already able to run older games like WoW (which can run on a GeForce 3 and a Pentium III). In fact, the X3100 is roughly the equivalent of a GeForce 61250. And this is just in regards to the MacBook. If you own a MacBook pro, those come with GeForce 8000 series cards, which can run just about any modern game. Besides, not every new PC game attempts to drive your machine to the brink of technological limitations, like Crysis. Games like Spore, actually support the GMA X3100. So upgrading the MacBook pro to a GeForce 9, means that Mac owners who have been playing games, can actually enjoy the latest games, no matter what, rather than having to pay attention to tech specs. Really this article is really misguided, as are most of the comments.

[zarrik]

Having the right hardware is only part of the equation. The Mac has never been a platform for gaming. Unless game developers start developing games for OS X that actually push the limits of the hardware, it will never be a gaming system.

[Lerianis]

Why do that when you can install Vista on a system? The fact is that Vista and Mac are so disparate and their driver schemes are so different that it doesn't make sense to make stuff for Mac's until they get into that 20-30% market penetration range and become a serious competitor to Vista and XP. Add to that, Boot Camp can put XP or Vista on a Mac in a separate partition with very little advanced knowledge, if any, being necessary to do that........ and Vista/XP is going to be the standard for a long while yet.

[zarrik]

Having the right hardware is only part of the equation. The Mac has never been a platform for gaming. Unless game developers start developing games for OS X that actually push the limits of the hardware, it will never be a gaming system.

[zarrik]

The new MacBook Pro will not be good for gaming because of one major design flaw --- a glossy, glass screen that isn't glare resistant.

[nnommu]

Oh come on, Alienware? Gateway kills this thing for half the price. HP has it for less than half the price. And as someone already said, a notebook with a 9600GT is not a hardcore gaming machine.

[Thomas, David]

? It's all in the details. Provide some next time you go off half-cocked. At least this way you won't make mistake myths for facts anymore.

[nhovz]

i guess mac finally caught up to sony - their SZ and new Z class laptops have had dual video processors for YEARS!

[gtyron]

The old Macbook pros were good for gaming, even the old Macbooks to some extent. I have a computer with similar stats to the old Macbook pros and it runs games very well. Granted I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I have a few fairly modern games and I've never had problems with it.

[SNOWM4N7]

Wow, sounds good. I'm always envying my Dad's mac; using voice commands and the other neat stuff. But... I bet the price is going to be eye popping. AGAIN

[random truth]

There is voice controls in vista.

[Thomas, David]

@randomtruth

Random, and half truths. No matter how you slice it, i am sure you know what he meant by his statement. Vista has voice control in it, it also 'finally' has some features OSX, originally shipped with, but even more damning is, the whole voice, and telephony ability in Apple OSs has been around in some user friendly form since 1984. That's a long time.

My point, the I am trying to make, is don't tout features that have been around in other OSs for so long. This actually doesn't help Vistas image.

[bmeson]

The gaming aspect may be true, but I feel that this is the first move to eventually get all of their Mac product lines ready for Snow Leopard with Grand Central. A new way of doing Parallel Programming is the target of this hardware upgrade.

[Boomstickedition]

Macbook Pros can probably play the latest games but at medium to low configurations with the 9600 gt. This is by not made for hardcore gamers. If you want to game get a desktop. You can get the desktop version of of the 9600 gt for about $100 bucks at newegg after rebates. At the person who was talking about Age of Conan or Warhammer those are the games that will show how WoW's graphics have aged. I mean World of Warcraft came out in 2004 pretty much anything can run it so buying a new Macbook Pro just to play WoW is absurd.

[forsakenZen]

Hey all, first time post, and one question. How many of you play games on your current Macbook Pro?

I do! Regularly. Primarily EvE Online and Warhammer Online and both games run great on it. Yeah not the highest settings for the video but pretty g*dd4mned good.

Oh and on that note and represented in the article incorrectly is the fact that windows and windows software DOES NOT RUN INSIDE OF BOOT CAMP! It all runs natively on the hardware. Boot Camp is nothing more than a boot loader similar to GRUB.

While, yes this article is a horrendous depiction of the offerings made available by Apple today and the author rushed his drivel out all I can say is that unless you have first hand experience on the hardware itself then opinion becomes moot.

-Zen (PC by Day, Mac when **** needs to get done right)

[purcell429]

Ditto on playing games. Lord of the rings online, oblivion and spore all run great.

[Sabroson]

I am sorry but whoever spends more than $2000 to play just games is an idiot (or has too much money to spend).

Also, the MacBook is the one with the integrated graphics, NOT THE PRO. Get your facts straight.

And to that person that says Gateway has a cheaper version of the MacBookPro for half the price, I have to say CHECK AGAIN and compare same components. You are dreaming my friend. But if you DO find it .. post the facts here.

If you are in college and are on the PC Laptop camp I have to say that nowadays you are in the minority.
Apple is selling at the tune of almost 50% in Universities, more than Dell, more than HP, more than Gateway. Apple has regained the #1 spot in education ... sorry Dell. Give it a year and Apple will be selling more laptops than all vendors combined in the USA. And in revenue Apple is pretty close to #1, with 1 out of 3 dollars spent on Apple instead of the other vendors in the USA. That is 33% revenue share of the PC market. Sorry Microshit !

[medezark]

Not Gateway, but here goes:
Standard Macbook Pro -- $2799.00 -- 17" Screen
2.5ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB memory, Nvidia 8600 GMT, 320 GB Hard Drive
(NO INFO ON WIRELESS, MODEL NUMBER OF PROCESSOR CAN NOT BE FOUND ON SITE, NO BLUE RAY OPTION)

HP dv7T -- $2,148.99 -- 17" Screen
Core 2 Duo T9400 (2.53 ghz), 4 GB Memory, Nvidia 9600 GMT, 320 GB Hard Drive, BLUE RAY ROM/ SUPER MULTI DVD Writer, TV TUNER, WIRELESS N.

Hmmm. Similar machine with some really great options, even has a better video card, for around $650.00 less. And Apple doesn't have Blue Ray drives, and from the comments by Mr. Jobs, won't have them for a while.

So, put down the kool-aide.

[random truth]

@Medezark
Why did you use the specs on the old one?
The standard macbook pro costs $1,999
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz
15-inch widescreen (1440 x 900)
2GB Memory
250GB hard drive1
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 256MB
Bluetooth 2.1
Backlit Keyboard
Led Display
Wireless N.
The better Macbook pro is 2,499.
2.53GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo
15-inch widescreen (1440 x 900)
4GB Memory
320GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB
Backlit keyboard
Bluetooth 2.1
Wireless N
Led Display
Both Macbook pros have a better graphics card, better display, better wireless, longer battery, and faster bus speeds. Also if you know anything about computers I dont need to mention the huge difference in parts from 17 in. to 15 in. Its really comparing apples to lemons. (sorry I am sour at HP from my laptop repair that took 7 months).
So really comparing a notebook that is dead practically (the 17 inch has not been updated in something like 1.5 years) with a brand new laptop. Because that makes alot of sensel

[Dalkorian]

Why did he use the specs on the old one? Because it proved the point he was trying to make. Don't confuse him with FACTS, they don't prove his point. Notice how he hand selected the "features" he wanted to discuss instead of listing everything that comes with both machines? I wonder why that is ...

[Lerianis]

No, they are not an idiot. The fact is that I would be very willing to spend about 2,000 dollars every 5 years for a realistic gaming rig, but since Gateway made a machine for ONLY 1300 bucks that is a bombshell gaming machine with a 64-bit operating system..... I didn't have to do that.

[play7]

True.........but think about it university students get a student % off when they buy apple products.........Right? But why even spend this much money when you can build a better windows system from part the way you like itJust ask Second Life users and apple computers........They given up and went to windows.... Daniel Terdiman expert unknowing views just confuse more unknowning young people to buy yet another waste of money apple system.....

[stuz0r]

I know this post was made a while ago but......"microshit" is probably one of the funniest words I have heard in a long time! Kudos to you for that!! hahaha awesome

[digger4cnet]

These articles are misleading at best. To be clear, MacBookPros (like the one I am typing on right now) do not use integrated Intel graphics processors. They either used ATI or NVidia graphics processors. You can make arguments on what integrated means (to me it has to do with the GPU being embedded in the north/south bridge) but regardless the GPU in a laptop is not replaceable by the end user so it really doesn't matter. What matters is performance.