Gaming potential on the new MacBook 13inch

long and the short is your IMAC is better for games and although you macbook would play games they would look far inferior and at a much lower frame rate than on your imac

Here are some benchmarks:
http://www.barefeats.com/mbcd3.html
As you can see, your Imac is a better platform for games.
John

iMac G5 20'' 2GHz rev B Mac OS X (10.4.6) 2 dogs and an old Cadillac

Also depends on the games. Most games I play have worked fine on the MacBook, such as civ 4, sims 2, simcity 4. Future games titles with more demanding requirements could be an issue, but then again I don't game that often. If you want a portable that will handle all games and future titles just get a macbook pro.

Nick

Hi, I've read on other forums that at some point in the near future mac software developers who produce 3D heavy games, will exclude the macbook and mac-mini from they're minimum requirements list on the packaging, as they both utilize on-board integrated graphics!

I'm running HALO on my base model Macbook (white,1.83 ghz,combo,60GB hd,512mb) I've had to turn off all effects,shading,details,flaring,etc..., and run it in a window, and at 640*480 resolution. So far I can report reasonably good gameplay online, although it depends on the number of other players and the ping rate, but its certainly playable/enjoyable (even to the point of winning a few CTF and SLAYER sessions). I wouldn't attempt hosting a server but I'm happy with the performance considering its not really a laptop designed around 3D gaming.

Hope this helps

Smarteee

anyone try half life under windows on the macbook?

Does it work at all?

Well im going to be getting my MacBook in about 2 weeks from NextByte in Adelaide no matter what.
But I was wondering has anyone tried playing LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth II on the MacBook??
If so how well does it run? and do you need to run it in an emulator of some sort?

I tried Battle for Middle-Earth 2 and it is definatley playable but the graphics need to be on lowest... Which is a shame.

Ohh ok, but it does work? Like you can actually use all the features?
And I see you only have 512mb ram while im going to get 1gig so hopefully that will contribute something.

anybody tried warcraft 3?

I havent tried playing warcraft 3 simply because I do not have my macbook yet. But I do remember reading somwhere that the MacBook is very capible of running it.

And my question which is still un answered, does LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth need an emulator to be able to run on the MacBook?

anyone try half life under windows on the macbook?

I saw it playing on a MacBook Pro, I don't expect it to play on a Mac Book.

Really for any 3D Gaming your going to need a PowerMac or for Windows 3D games a Intel based Mac Pro. (hasn't been released yet)

3D video games are heavily graphics card dependant. You need to be able to upgrade this to play the latest heavy duty 3D video games.

Of course Windows Vista 3D games might need a DirectX capable video card in a Mac. (yikes :O )

I haven't run Half Life, but I just played Day of Defeat: Source. I was experiencing lag, but I don't think that was the system. I'll have to experiment more on that. The important issue, though, is that I had to use the -dxlevel 70 option to get it to run. Otherwise, after the loading screen, it went black. I could still click on the menu options and see the pointer, but nothing else was there.

MacBook 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 512MB RAM, 60GB HDD, BootCamp for games

Also depends on the games. Most games I play have
worked fine on the MacBook, such as civ 4, sims 2,
simcity 4 .....

Nick

Just curious Nick, how does the Sims 2 handle and do you have the EP's installed?

Sims 2 loads and runs well, but most of the eye candy is off. It don't have any lags in the game and it's very playable, I'm sure my 2GB helps. I only have university installed.

Nick

I've emailed the support dept. at macsoft ( Suppliers of HALO for macbook ), the very helpful reply stated that " 3D heavy games that were written to run on powerpc macs will run on an intel based mac through an unseen emulator known as 'Rosetta', this will directly affect the speed, frame rate and stability of non-intel mac software. " it goes onto say " a Universal patch or update for HALO to be released soon will enable HALO to run natively on intel-based macs therfore enabling max speed and playability.

Also, concerning the inbuilt graphics capability, if you check other threads and the macbook help discussion it appears that the macbook will utilize over and above the stated 64mb shared memory if the processor requires!

Hope this helps

Smarteee