I feel screwed over

Now, I love my macbook in every way. I've had it for over a year and wow, this is by far the best computer i've ever had. It hasn't crashed, simply I just love it.

I'm a 15 year old computer noob. Last year I made the switch from PC-->Mac, and didn't really research it that much since not only was I inexperienced, but there was only 2 choices of laptops to buy.

I spent a good 1700 on my macbook (black), and haven't had a single problem with it up until recently.

I started playing WoW a few months ago, which runs pretty poorly. I thought nothing of it, after all I spent 1700 on my computer and it's amazing.

Recently I started playing other games such as Counter Strike Source and WOW!!!! MY MACBOOK CAN'T PLAY GAMES AT ALL. This was virtually unplayable. Along with other games as well.

Now, frustrated that I can't play games (and WoW was getting substantially more annoying to play with my 12 FPS with the graphics turned down, which is already bad because WoW has bad graphics) so I decided to look into my video card which I thought was supposed to be amazing.

64 MEGABITES?!??! And I can't even upgrade it!??!?!
This blows.

I spent 1700 on this thing (2 summers worth of working and I'm only 15) and I can't even play a video game.

Is there ANYTHING I can do to either upgrade the card, drastically increase its performance, or am I basically just screwed.

I feel really jipped right now.
Thank you very much.

if u spent 1700 u could of spent another 100 and got a macbook pro (with the education discount)
i knew from the day i bought my macbook that it couldnt play games after all i have a PS3 for games

a macbook is not inteded to be a gaming machine! An apple clearly stated the macbook comes with a 64MB graphic card on their website.

tacsniper said:

a macbook is not inteded to be a gaming machine! An apple clearly stated the macbook comes with a 64MB graphic card on their website.

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Um no they don't but that's besides the point,
Can someone actually answer the question without trying to prove me wrong?

bestmacbook said:

if u spent 1700 u could of spent another 100 and got a macbook pro (with the education discount)
i knew from the day i bought my macbook that it couldnt play games after all i have a PS3 for games

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Well I'm including the extended warrenty but yeah, I wish at this point I would have gotten the MBP

do to the bottom of the page and click compare specs on the right. it doesnt look like you did enough research.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...browse&mco=2F15A1DE&node=home/macbook/macbook

for the original question. you cant upgrade the graphics card since it is incorporated in the motherboard.

tacsniper said:

a macbook is not inteded to be a gaming machine! An apple clearly stated the macbook comes with a 64MB graphic card on their website.

Click to expand...

kkelly122 said:

do to the bottom of the page and click compare specs on the right. it doesnt look like you did enough research.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...browse&mco=2F15A1DE&node=home/macbook/macbook

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Listen dude, I'm not denying that I didn't do enough research. What I'm wondering is if there is a solution, or a way to upgrade.

no you cant upgrade (above post)

kkelly122 said:

no you cant upgrade (above post)

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There's no way to unsolder it and replace it?

lol no unless you want to destroy your machine

kkelly122 said:

lol no unless you want to destroy your machine

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So is there a way to increase the video card? I heard that getting more ram and running in Windows XP will increase your video card to 256 mb. How do I do that? Thanks.

Ram is about all you can do. P.S. Apple did not rip you off, jipp you, or screw you over in any way whatsoever.

jaster said:

I have seen the gaming question asked over and over and over on this forum by people interested in their first Mac. I can't count how many threads there are started by people thinking of getting a mac who are interested in games. You obviously didn't do your research. If you want to have a vehicle to haul stuff around town, you get a truck, not a sedan. If you want a computer that plays games, you get an alienware, not a Mac. Having said that, I have no troubles gaming on my mac. Now granted, i am not a hardcore gamer, that's why I chose a Mac. In answer to your original question, no the graphics card is NOT upgradeable. You best bet is Max out the ram. Other than that, not a whole lot can be done. You were not jipped though. You bought an excellent machine, but you failed to research and you purchased a machine that doesn't do what you want. It is your fault, not Apple's. They are straightforward on their website about the components of all their systems. You can't blame anyone but yourself for what you purchased. If you by a porsche and then can't fit your great dane into it, who's fault is that?

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Thank you for the response.
I don't feel like I was jipped in anything other than the gaming department.

When I first bought the mac, I didn't care about gaming and I was 14 years old :lol: hence the reason I didn't even think about it.

That being said, you mentioned maxing the ram. Can you go a bit more in depth with this? I currently have 1.25 GB Ram (or is it actually 1gb). Would maxing the ram to 2gb increase my video card to 256 mb?

Also, is there a difference in gaming between the core duo and the core 2 duo?
Thank you.

the ram wouldnt make your video card go to 256 mb since it is incorporated in the motherboard with only 64mb. the ram is just going to speed things up to make it look like you have a faster video card. it isnt going to magically upgrade the card to 256mb it just might seem that fast.

kkelly122 said:

the ram wouldnt make your video card go to 256 mb since it is incorporated in the motherboard with only 64mb. the ram is just going to speed things up to make it look like you have a faster video card. it isnt going to magically upgrade the card to 256mb it just might seem that fast.

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I read that if you run it in Windows XP, it will actually be 256... it just takes away from your ram. Is that right?

BTW, is this a good 2gb?
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/53DR2SPAIR2G/

I have a macbook (Black) 2ghz intel core duo

i never heard about the xp thing. i doubt it can change the actual physical properties of the video card. as for the memory i have never heard of it. i would recommend crucial.com. very nice memory.

hillbilly181 said:

Last year I made the switch from PC-->Mac, and didn't really research it that much

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Dude... the only person who screwed you over in this scenario is yourself for not taking just a little bit of time to research a $1700 purchase.

Your Macbook is not made for gaming, regardless of what you do to it. There is no way to change the graphics card for more dedicated ram which is what you need for gaming.

BTW: Click "compare specs." This same page has been up for the models before these... and the models before that...
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=2F15A1DE&node=home/macbook/macbook

Graphics Macbook: Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory4
Macbook Pro: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB of GDDR3 SDRAM
Macbook Pro: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM

Yeah, thanks for justifying the fact that it was a stupid thing to do. Good job repeating what everyone else has said. I appreciate your contribution.

What I need to know is if theres anything i can do?
Look at this thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-209511.html

the guy says that Windows video card is "bigger" than OS X. I was wondering how I could go about doing that to crank it up to 256. Thanks.

hillbilly181 said:

So is there a way to increase the video card? I heard that getting more ram and running in Windows XP will increase your video card to 256 mb. How do I do that? Thanks.

Click to expand...

It wont increase the ram. But in windows, you are likely to be able to use an overclocking program to make it run faster. But this may void your warranty, and since its a laptop, its already hot, this might be to far. You may ruin it. I wouldn't try it on a laptop.

hillbilly181 said:

What I need to know is if theres anything i can do?
Look at this thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-209511.html

the guy says that Windows video card is "bigger" than OS X. I was wondering how I could go about doing that to crank it up to 256. Thanks.

Click to expand...

In that link, it states that it is shared video memory, meaning the video memory and system memory are shared. But it also says that the video memory is caped at 64, although the chip is capable of higher.

There is no way to "crank up" a 64mb card to 256. If there was, then it wouldn't say 64mb. If you go to windows xp on your mac, then you simply have windows xp on a 64mb card. the card is what it is. Anything short of tearing open you mac and replacing the guts isn't going to turn a 64mb card into anything else.

Thanks for the responses.
In the link I posted above, however, people are saying that thier video card (64 mb) is running at 256 mb because it's taking almost 200 mb out of the ram and using it for the video card.

I know this is the case, since WoW on Windows (bootcamp) runs fairly decent, but WoW on Mac runs horrible. So there must be some sort of way that it's doing it.


EDIT: In Windows, it says I'm running at 224 MB on my video card! That means that my ram is now at 800 mb which is kinda low. So my question is would upgrading my ram from 1gb to 2gb (which would end up being 1.8 gb) straighten out my gaming problems? I'm really only looking for someone who knows Windows XP, and has tested the ram memory-->video card memory thingy.

Thanks.