Just bought the new 2.4ghz MBP

Avenger2SER · Mar 2, 2008

I finally gave in retired my 1.67ghz G4 Powerbook for a new 2.4ghz MBP. I must say the speed is astounding compared to the old machine (expected of course).

My only disappointment so far is in the graphics department.

I was expecting to be able to run games natively under OSX very well, but so far this has been so so.

I downloaded the Doom 3 demo and set everything to high and it was dropping frames left and right. I know this was a universal binary game, so I didn't expect to see this on a 2+ year old game.

Other than that, I'm loving the glossy display and the significant power boost.

Ricky55 · Mar 2, 2008

Although DOOM3 is a few years old now it does use a fairly intensive engine and the graphics in the mac book pro are not really cut out for good 3d performance in modern games.

If you want to play games on a laptop you are still better with a PC in my opinion.

But for everything else the mac is best. I have a mac book pro too and I love it.

dtravis7 · Mar 2, 2008

Are you SURE that the doom 3 demo is a universal binary?

All I can tell you is back even on the G5 Power PC Macs Doom 3 was very slow with very low Frame-rates. It was said they never did optimize it properly for OSX. There was a lot of discussion and even war about it and why it was slow on Macs blaming of course OSX.

SJTV1 · Mar 2, 2008

Ricky55 said:
If you want to play games on a laptop you are still better with a PC in my opinion.

OK, so find me equally specced PC that runs 4+ hour on batteries. Dell XPS M1530? Doesnt get more than 3 hours, or weights a ton with bigger battery that would go 4 hours. HP 8510? 3 hour max, also. Plus I've had like 3 HPs in a row and all were hot and noisy ...
So what else is there?

Avenger2SER · Mar 2, 2008

I could really care less about gaming, I just wanted to see what this baby could do. I'm downloading the quake 4 demo now, so we'll see how that is.

The only game I really enjoyed playing (though it ran poorly on my old G4) was Stubbs the Zombie, but that is definitely not UB, and runs really badly under rosetta. Oh well, thats what I have the PS3 for

kgeier82 · Mar 2, 2008

windows, even on your MBP will handle doom3 much much bettter than OSX ever will.

apple just has crummy video drivers, no optimization whatsoever.

Avenger2SER · Mar 3, 2008

Installed and played Quake 4, runs amazingly well. I suspect that doom 3 wasn't optimized for OSX as previously stated.

Kalison · Mar 3, 2008

SJTV1 said:
OK, so find me equally specced PC that runs 4+ hour on batteries. Dell XPS M1530? Doesnt get more than 3 hours, or weights a ton with bigger battery that would go 4 hours. HP 8510? 3 hour max, also. Plus I've had like 3 HPs in a row and all were hot and noisy ...
So what else is there?

I think everyone knows gaming laptops dont get great battery life. He was simply stating that hardware is far better (or more customizable) in the PC laptops than Apple Laptops. People who buy gaming laptops generally don't give two squats about how much battery life it gets... just that they can get from LAN to LAN or whatever and still play games on high settings. The PCs you mention also cost less than even a base MBP. If you are only comparing Dells and HPs... then I am shocked you aren't comparing more customizable variants of the OEM models they are based on.

Also, who seriously games on battery? Just seems stupid to me.

The OP also stated he really didn't care about gaming anyway. So why are you trying to get someone to compare laptops?

Anyway, this is a dead topic.

Village Idiot · Mar 3, 2008

Avenger2SER said:
Installed and played Quake 4, runs amazingly well. I suspect that doom 3 wasn't optimized for OSX as previously stated.

I was going to say, I'm running some graphics intensive games on my 1 1/2 year old Dell notebook with a 7900gs, the 8800gt should do much, much better.

theonegod · Mar 3, 2008

It is not just about the hardware. It is more about the software and driver support in the OS.

SJTV1 · Mar 3, 2008

Kalison said:
I think everyone knows gaming laptops dont get great battery life. He was simply stating that hardware is far better (or more customizable) in the PC laptops than Apple Laptops. People who buy gaming laptops generally don't give two squats about how much battery life it gets... just that they can get from LAN to LAN or whatever and still play games on high settings. The PCs you mention also cost less than even a base MBP. If you are only comparing Dells and HPs... then I am shocked you aren't comparing more customizable variants of the OEM models they are based on.

Also, who seriously games on battery? Just seems stupid to me.

The OP also stated he really didn't care about gaming anyway. So why are you trying to get someone to compare laptops?

Anyway, this is a dead topic.

I need everything: performance, gaming, battery life, weight (and yes, size design too). I only ever have 1 computer at the time and use it for work (lots of travel) and fun so it has to give a much of everything as possible. MBP seems best choice (and no, I dont look at the price too much). I just wondered if anyone knows a better one ...