I want to purchase a MacBook Pro for my son to use at college next year. He'll be pursuing and engineering degree, but is also a big PC gamer.
1. Are the 13" MacBook Pros capable of playing PC games like Guild Wars 2 and WOW?
2. What's the best way to run PC games on a Mac–Bootcamp, Parallels, or Fusion?
3. What's the best/most affordable MacBook Pro configuration I can get away with?
Thanks!
Then get him a PC laptop. MacBook Pro's are not designed as gaming machines, it's that simple, & the 13" MacBook Pro is a poor choice for games. If you want to play games on a MacBook Pro, you need to look at the 15" or 17" models. But, if he's a big gamer, get him a PC.
Then get him a PC laptop. MacBook Pro's are not designed as gaming machines, it's that simple, & the 13" MacBook Pro is a poor choice for games. If you want to play games on a MacBook Pro, you need to look at the 15" or 17" models. But, if he's a big gamer, get him a PC.
Yeah, I was thinking the same. What about an Alienware MX14?
That's where I'd start looking. Also look at ASUS.
I used Bootcamp to play Guild Wars 2 over the Beta Weekend Event and the game ran incredibly smoothly on my 15" Macbook Pro. WoW also runs MUCH better on my MBP than on my PC desktop, with hardware being similar. Don't discount MBPs for gaming.
That's great to hear. May I ask what model of MacBook you have?
I have the 15" MacBook Pro, purchased last October. Runs great. If he wants to game make sure u get him a mouse. I recommend te apple magic mouse since it is Bluetooth and won't use one of the two USB ports
Can you be more specific? There were several models made. Thanks!
It's the same as the one currently available :-)
Look in System Profiler and post the model identifier, it takes this form 3,2, 2 numbers seperated by a comma.
You, sir, just made my day. I used bootcamp to run SWTOR, and it ran VERY well. Granted, I had to run the game at relatively low graphics, but I never had trouble. My MBP absolutely owned WoW. The thing is, I have been worried that GW2 wouldn't run well on it. I'm feeling ten times better now that you have said that you actually had experience with it via beta. Thank you so much!
Hey man how much hard drive space and ram did you have to dedicate to windows(if you even need to dedicate ram when you use Bootcamp Idk?) because i planned on using windows with bootcamp to play gw2, but i am unfamiliar with bootcamp and how to optimize my GW2 play on my mac. I have the new MBP with 8GB ram and Nvidia graphics. So i was just wondering what you did since you said it ran very well, and i figure this info would be useful to others planning to do the same. Thanks ahead of time.
Hard drive I think I gave 160gb or so and ram it uses all that is available, so if u have 8gb it will use what it needs. The game ran fine on 4gb of ram but I upgraded to 16gb of ram recently cause I got it on sale at future shop for what new egg was charging (gotta love price matching). Also if u are looking to run bootcamp, I recommend buying your copy of windows from newegg.com; u can buy a one-motherboard-use only copy for 100 bucks as compared to like $200 at bestbuy or even Walmart.
I'm going to go ahead and disagree with wjosten on this one. Macs can be great gaming machines. For example, the iMacs always have the 2nd best mobile graphics chipset available. The same can't be said for the MacBooks Pros, but if you take wjosten's advice, you won't have the luxury of the Mac OS either. I have a mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro, and I play Guild Wars 2 under Boot Camp. I can play it on medium-low graphics settings with no lag, and it still looks great. I have also installed it on the Mac side using Winskin, but that's much more complex, and the results aren't as good. If you opt for the cheapest 15" MBP, you'll get a dedicated graphics chipset that will be able to play the game on high graphics settings no problem. Do the kid a favor and get him a Mac, and not a PC...
MacBook Pro and Guild Wars 2?
