Gaming Question (Couldn't find anywhere else)

You're SAFE to buy the MacBook. I have a Black MacBook with 1.25Gb RAM - and Windows XP under bootcamp. I can play games like Call of Duty (very very smooth, even on the highest settings) and Half Life 2 - good quality with medium settings, little slow with highest settings.

When I first bought my MacBook, I knew I coudn't play any 3D games on it - but I was wrong - the more RAM you got the better your gaming experience will be.

You mentioned games like StarWars....etc. These games will play on MacBook with ease. Just install WIN XP under bootcamp and off you go

Hope this helped

So you have the Core Duo and you can run games fairly well? I know the C2D have 64 mb shared video RAM, Battlefield 2 requires 128 min (i believe), do you know if you can adjust the amount of RAM that is allocated to video or if BF2 will run on the MacBook? If BF2 will run on a MacBook with medium settings, I'll buy one, if not, gunna have to wait a little longer 😟.

Thanks

Joe Mac

Both the CD and C2D have 64MB of SHARED vram from the main memory on the computer. To play games, I do recommend getting 2 Gigs of ram to ensure enough memory to run the game and supply the integrated video card.

Hope this helps..



-Nick

Does anyone know how to increase the amount of shared RAM the system will use? Can you boot into the BIOS when XP is installed? Hmmm...

Joe Mac

No, it cannot be increased. It is maxed at at 64MB shared on either processor. The next step up is getting a refurbished MBP. Sorry..



-Nick

Alright, the thing with the Macbook is that it has a terrible graphics card. It's not really compatible with alot of games (Battlefield 2, CoD 2, etc.) and it's pretty slow.

I would buy a desktop so that you can replace the graphics card, because you can't do it on a macbook.

Just an update of a games performance on the Macbook. Football Manager 2007 is so so fast on my macbook. I know graphics are not an issue here as processor, RAM and hard drive speed are. I have played just about every incarnation of this game on various macs in the past and it is just so smooth and quick even with a huge database size and a few leagues selected. I am very impressed.

I would buy a desktop so that you can replace the
graphics card, because you can't do it on a macbook.

Im sure that someone somewhere has managed to all you have to do is get one made the same size as apples 64mb one.

if your gonna be gaminng a lot, you might wanna think about upgradingyour ram to 2gigs...

and no, you cannot change the amount of shared ram

Sorry man. I have a CoreDuo MacBook. I've used BootCamp (the ONLY Windows option for 3D gaming). The MacBook has an integrated graphics card, which means it shares memory with the system RAM and cannot be replaced or upgraded.

Not only do Call of Duty 2 and Battlefield 2 require 128 MB of video RAM, but they also require DEDICATED graphics cards, like those found in the iMac and MacBook Pro. Thus, you will NOT be able to run these games, even in Windows.

The prices of refurbished MacBook Pros are falling, but they still have yet to match the hardware value of comparable Windows laptops. Being on a budget, it is an unwise decision to buy a laptop for gaming, but if you must, you had best go with a PC laptop.

Prior to July 2006, I was all Windows, and an avid gamer. Then I made up my mind and quit gaming (High School was getting pretty time consuming). Since then, I'll treat myself to a game of Halo or Call of Duty while in Boot Camp. They run beautifully, and much better than my PC with a dedicated graphics card (128 MB nVidia GeForce 5200). I'm talking about all settings maximized and at 1280x800 resolution

Speaking of PCs, my personal preference for any PC- whether desktop or laptop- is made by Dell. They are a Apple of Windows to me. A great reviewed gaming laptop is the Dell Inspiron E1505. Add a dedicated 256MB ATI Graphics card ($99) to the $999 model and you've got a great, affordable gaming laptop for less than the 2.0 GHz MacBook. In fact, with a $99 screen resolution upgrade, you've got enough to challenge the MacBook Pro in regards to gaming performance. Windows may suck, but when you're playing a game it doesn't really matter. The Dedicated GPU more than makes up for the Dell's slower processor.

PS: Differences between CD and C2D MacBook:

Fast processor (duh)- faster than most PC laptops
Faster DVD burner, now capable of Dual Layer
802.11n Wireless Chipset
MUCH CHEAPER (argh!!!)
am I missing something?

As you can see, the MacBook is an excellent deal for anything but hardcore gaming. For something like Halo and Call of Duty in BootCamp, its still a steal, however...

My advice may not matter to you, but I'd suggest that you get a Windows Laptop for your hardcore (CoD2, BF2) gaming- or just see that the hi-end gaming world is not very nice to those of us without a lot of cash (and get a Mac!)

MacBook CoreDuo (White) Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2.0 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HD

I got World of Warcraft up and running on my CoreDuo BlackBook with 512mb and it ran pretty good even with the small amount of RAM. But, after playing for an hour and having the fans wine at me the whole time, I now have the battery issue where it won't run off the battery even though the computer and the battery itself say it's fully charged.

Gah..

Taking it in tonight to see if the battery is bad. =/

With 2 Gigs WoW runs great.

a lot of incorrect info here. first off i dont have a macbook yet am about to buy one though.

Now the macbook has the intel gma 950 graphics chip which can actually use up to 224 mb of you system ram (as long as you have enough to go around for your system resources as well, so prob need 1gb, that 64mb of shared ram people read about is a limit put on by apple and only applies when your in osx, so if you use boot camp to boot into xp then the graphic chip should use more of your system ram if needed.

they also throttled the macbook pro graphics card on the core duo but have set it back to norm for the C2D.

hope this helps get some facts straight. you can read more here
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/

Hello, In response to gaming in general I always prefered to enjoy my videogames on a console vs any type of computer, the experience seems more stimulating.