MacBook Pro

hey so i want to get a laptop thats good for gaming simple school work and some video editing,

the games i want to play are diablo 3 and starcraft 2 which havnt come out with tech specs yet so im a little lost, i also want to play cod 4

i went to the mac store and asked them what i should get and the guy said i need a mbp 15" for gaming, but then i asked another guy and he said the 13" would be fine....

what should i get??? i want some really sick graphics too

some help would be really appreciated

i hate shopping

The guy at the Apple store probably suggested the 15 inch MBP because of the dedicated graphics card, which should be an improvement over the cheaper models, but Macs aren't known for their jawdropping gaming capabilities to begin with. If you're going to use it primarily for gaming, you might consider a different brand, designed with that it mind. But all Macbooks can handle light-to-moderate gaming, some people even say they get some heavy gaming out of their MBP's. Of all the MBP's, I'd recommend the 15 inch too. Definitely better graphics, plus the bigger display might make a bigger difference.

okay okay
but im in love with the macs design and their format

would the 13" be decent with only 1 major game at a time sayy diablo 3 or starcraft 2?

the guy i talked to said he plays alot of role playing games and it runs beautifully

can i upgrade the graphics on the 13"?

badmeds said:

the games i want to play are diablo 3 and starcraft 2 which havnt come out with tech specs yet so im a little lost..

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It's hard to recommend anything if we don't have system requirements.

badmeds said:

would the 13" be decent with only 1 major game at a time sayy diablo 3 or starcraft 2?

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Only one at a time? You only ever play one game at a time. And again, with no system requirements, it's hard to say what you'll need.

badmeds said:

okay okay
but im in love with the macs design and their format

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Don't go with style over what's practical. Gaming is not the strong point for Macs and if your goal is gaming, go with a Windows machine.

u misunderstood me i mean only having one game installed at a time

and i dont really have a main focus for my laptop i would just like to game once in a while when im not studying or boarding

i also want to start editting my own videos and mayb a little photo shop here and there. does it come with or do i need to purchase other programs?

Again, without specs, it's hard to know what you'll need. If you have Mac games with specs, you can compare them to the tech specs on the Apple website.

No, Photoshop does not come with Macs. It comes with iMovie (as part of the included iLife suite). If you're interested, take a look at some iMovie videos on YouTube to see if it will meet your needs.

badmeds said:

u misunderstood me i mean only having one game installed at a time

and i dont really have a main focus for my laptop i would just like to game once in a while when im not studying or boarding

i also want to start editting my own videos and mayb a little photo shop here and there. does it come with or do i need to purchase other programs?

Click to expand...

Having one game installed is not going to make any difference. You can have 10 games installed and the performance would be more or less the same.

Just a side note, if you plan to do any gaming on a Mac. It needs to be for the Mac OS, otherwise you need to have a copy of windows installed via Bootcamp. It becomes a hassle if you don't know what you are doing.

I would say wait till the specs for the games come out then compare that to the MBP models. At least thats what i would do

Please don't buy a Mac for gaming because you will be disappointed. Like others have said, get a Windows machine for that.

I have used my MBP for gaming and have not been disappointed. I always boot Windows XP when I want to play a game, though.


I would say get a 15" with it's own dedicated graphics card, and you will be set. It should handle most new games very well, and future games also, but maybe with some aspects of it "turned down."

I highly doubt you will be disappointed with it's performance as long as you get a 15" with it's own dedicated video card. ($1999 model)

GL dude.

Interesting comments Kevin. I'm interested as I'm about the hit button on the purchase of 15" MBP 2.8Ghz. It's an upgrade on my old Macbook Black, and the gaming on this that is very poor. So you feel that you can play most of the new games on it as long as you bootcamp into XP?

Badmeds, you can probably play one game at a time well enough on a 13" MBP. You kinda made it sound like you might be a hardcore gamer at first. And, with Boot Camp, which comes with every Mac, you can install Windows and play all your Windows games still.

If gaming is only going to be something you do once in awhile for fun, then you'll do fine with a 13" MBP. You can do some basic photo editing with iPhoto (resizing, red-eye control, etc) and basic video editing with iMovie. If you think you'll want Photoshop or Final Cut Pro at some point, definitely get the 15 inch with dedicated graphics. You'll probably want a bigger screen for that kind of work anyway.

jezster said:

Interesting comments Kevin. I'm interested as I'm about the hit button on the purchase of 15" MBP 2.8Ghz. It's an upgrade on my old Macbook Black, and the gaming on this that is very poor. So you feel that you can play most of the new games on it as long as you bootcamp into XP?

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Absolutley. The main reason I boot XP is just because I don't play many games that support OS X. If you can afford the extra money for the more expensive model with dedicated video, then frankly, I don't see any purpose to buy a model without it. The computer will be faster in the long run and will simply be usable for a longer period of time. All of this talk about OpenCL with graphics chips and being able to utilize the raw power of the graphics processor in the near future will allow you to be satisfied with the computer's speed for a much longer time. I've read a couple articles talking about how important graphics cards are becoming and how they may become more important than processor speed.

And the graphics chips and graphics memory Apple is putting in these laptops are very quick.