macbook or pro for gaming

Hey guys this is my first post, im thinking about getting a macbook or a macbook pro for gaming and i just have a few questions.

1.can the macbook handle games like supreme commander?
2.sense the macbook pro has 2 graphics cards can you run both cards at the same time?
3.i heard the macbook and pro can handle up to 8 gigs
4. what would you guys recommend between the two?
thanks guys i really appreciate it!

You'll have to compare the specs of the systems with the sys reqs of the games. Generally, the MBP would be a better choice because of the discrete vid card.

They also support only up to 4GB.

ender321 said:

Hey guys this is my first post, im thinking about getting a macbook or a macbook pro for gaming and i just have a few questions.

1.can the macbook handle games like supreme commander?
2.sense the macbook pro has 2 graphics cards can you run both cards at the same time?
3.i heard the macbook and pro can handle up to 8 gigs
4. what would you guys recommend between the two?
thanks guys i really appreciate it!

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1. The new unibody (aluminum) MacBook with nVidia graphics should be able to handle Supreme Commander. Just max out the memory = 4 Gb.

2. You can only run one graphic card at a time.

3. The MBP (according to MacWorld) can use up to 6 Gb.

4. What can you afford?

Regards.

My 2.8ghz Macbook Pro plays Half-life 2, COD 4, and Doom 3 all at max settings... haven't gotten to load in XP and Crysis yet.

Very few games can use more than 2gb. Especially if you are running a 32bit os. 4gb of ram is lighting fast.

chscag said:

3. The MBP (according to MacWorld) can use up to 6 Gb.

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We were both off ;D. According to the Apple tech specs, the 15" can do 4GB while the 17" can do 8GB.

vansmith said:

We were both off ;D. According to the Apple tech specs, the 15" can do 4GB while the 17" can do 8GB.

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You're right, that's what Apple says, however, MacWorld found that the 15" can see and use up to 6 GB. 1 x 4 Gb module and 1 x 2 Gb module. They've got the money to experiment.

I forgot about the new 17" model being able to use 8 Gb though.

Regards.

Yeah, some people tried putting 8 GB in the 15" MBPs and ran into all sorts of bugs, but it can take 6 GB without any trouble. Of course, the official limit is just 4 GB, but it's not the actual ceiling.

As for Supreme Commander, that's a pretty demanding game. I think it's more CPU-intensive than GPU-intensive, which is good news for the MacBook, but I'm still not sure of how well it'll play it.

Honestly, I might consider getting a MacBook for as cheap as possible and then using any extra money to put together a gaming PC. It can be done for around $550-$600 and it'll play games better than anything but a Mac Pro.

For Supreme Commander? Get a loaded Quadcore desktop PC "Gasp!" with at least a Geforce 9800GTX and 4GB ram, Supcom is a 32 bit game and can only access 3 gigs of ram however the more CPU power you can give it the better. My Core2 duo I have at home is Overclocked to 3.5Ghz W/6GB ram and it still slows down quite a bit.

has anyone tried any gaming on either the macbook or pro with 6 gigs of ram?

ender321 said:

has anyone tried any gaming on either the macbook or pro with 6 gigs of ram?

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6 GB of RAM will cost a lot and it won't help with game performance.

The MacBook Pro is the only way to go if you insist on gaming on a Mac laptop, but laptops in general suck for gaming. If you really want to do any amount of serious gaming, build a desktop PC and use that.

You want either the 15" 2.53ghz or the 17" 2.6ghz aluminum Macbook Pro with the 4 gigs of ram, for gaming. Do not go with the regular Macbook.

The 15" with the 2.4ghz has the weaker 256mb graphics card, the 3mb L2 cpu cache, the 250 gig HDD...

As far as the dual cards go... The 8400M which is build into the motherboard is for light graphics. but when your system senses you need more graphics, the 9600GT kicks in and does amazing stuff!

chscag said:

You're right, that's what Apple says, however, MacWorld found that the 15" can see and use up to 6 GB. 1 x 4 Gb module and 1 x 2 Gb module. They've got the money to experiment.

I forgot about the new 17" model being able to use 8 Gb though.

Regards.

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Interesting. Didn't know that. You learn something new every day.

BSchorr said:

As far as the dual cards go... The 8400M which is build into the motherboard is for light graphics. but when your system senses you need more graphics, the 9600GT kicks in and does amazing stuff!

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No it doesn't you must tell it which card to use. This will change in the future but at the moment you decide.

ahh, My buddy has a program he found that switches it for him, by bad. I guess it would be better to decide manually what card you want to use

Is it possible/recommended to play the likes of Call of Duty 4 on my Aluminium 2.0Ghz 2GB RAM AL MB? Also, anyone know where to get a cheap ps2 controller - USB adaptor for the MAC?

Any tips are much appreciated.

You could play it on your mac OK - wouldn't have the best quality graphics but it would work well. Not sure where you could get that adapter from but if you find one let me know!

oh aswell, there won't be a problem playing multiplayer online with just a basic wireless connection from a HUB offering up to 8GB download speed??

Cheers for the help.

I've had issues playing games wirelessly. Even with lots of bandwidth, it seems to increase ping times. IMO, wireless networking is great for normal Internet surfing and the like, but it's never as good as it ought to be on paper.

Not that it won't work, but for FPS gaming, I'd strongly recommend plugging in.

Mama Luigi said:

I've had issues playing games wirelessly. Even with lots of bandwidth, it seems to increase ping times. IMO, wireless networking is great for normal Internet surfing and the like, but it's never as good as it ought to be on paper.

Not that it won't work, but for FPS gaming, I'd strongly recommend plugging in.

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Well it depends on the throughput of your wireless router, I use wireless for xbox live and have excellent up/down speeds