Gaming on the Macbook Pro

I am planning on buying a 15 inch macbook pro 2.3ghz model with 8gb of ram. I am wondering mostly if the upcoming game "The elder scrolls: Skyrim" will be able to run on this setup with maxed settings.

I have seen Crysis 2 run on this mac with very high settings and expect that Skyrim should run well as well. I am ok with 25-30 fps.

Hard to say on an unreleased game, but generally speaking, the current MacBook Pros have very solid hardware and should be able to handle most modern games quite well.

But before you spend, I would question the wisdom of buying a Mac laptop (or any laptop for that matter) if one of the major uses for it will be gaming. For one thing, gaming on a laptop (just due to the form-factor) generally sucks and is not immersive. But beyond that, the machine you purchase from new is pretty much what you're stuck with. There is no way to upgrade the video card or CPU down the road.

For those reasons, I maintain a custom-built gaming PC strictly for playing games. My laptop is used for pretty much everything else. In this way, I find my laptops "age" more gracefully, and I don't regret having bought a particular model or not waiting for the next big thing.

Just something to think about, especially considering the cost differential between the low-end 15" model and the upper-end machines. For just a little more, you could have a pretty nice gaming rig, and a brand new MacBook Pro that is still quite capable.

Thanks for the reply. I am aware of not being able to replace anything but the hard drive and the ram. That doesn't bother me, as this computer will be mostly for school. I'm no hardcore gamer so I dont need to build a gaming rig, I am just trying to figure out if the current generation of macbook pros will satisfy my elder scrolls addiction.

Quiglesigles said:

Thanks for the reply. I am aware of not being able to replace anything but the hard drive and the ram. That doesn't bother me, as this computer will be mostly for school. I'm no hardcore gamer so I dont need to build a gaming rig, I am just trying to figure out if the current generation of macbook pros will satisfy my elder scrolls addiction.

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I think in that case, you'll be fine.

Your MBP will probably do okay for Skyrim, based on two bits of evidence, but they are just good guesses:

1. Apparently Bethesda is developing Skyrim with consoles as their primary focus this time. If Crysis 2, Deus Ex 2, etc told us anything, it's that these games are generally far easier on everyone's hardware. Console version of Skyrim Bethesda’s “lead SKU” | VG247

2. If you remember Oblivion, it was hard on machines at the time. It favored good gfx, but also just about everything else. Assuming they don't favor quad cores or dx11... With the 6750M (which is about a 4800 for desktops? or 4600, I forget), you're well rounded enough that it probably won't be maxed out but will still look good. There will probably be a DX9 option that will allow you to run it on higher settings too.

A skooma addict eh? I think you'll do fine with an MBP. You will be disappointed when future games start to surpass its abilities though. As a rule, gaming is what PCs do best. Macs are for absolutely everything else!