Gaming on the Mac with Windows

So what I am wondering is, if I get a MacBook pro and use BootCamp for XP, would I be able to game as well as just any laptop that would be built for a Windows OS?

I am wondering if performance loss is evident when gaming on a MBP with BootCamp?

Possibly not quite as good, since the video card options may not be optimized with directx, but I think you would probably be in pretty good shape.

A MacBook Pro comes with either a 256 or 512 GeForce that should run many games adequately. You can also run any Mac native games too.

So you are insisting that maybe buying a separate gaming Laptop/platform other than a Mac (even with bootcamp) is recommended for optimal performance?

It can be done, but I think if you really want to game, Windows would be your option there. There are numerous amounts of hardware readily available for a PC, and it can be easily upgraded.

If you use Bootcamp to run XP out of emulation, you'll be extremely well set with the GeForce 8 Series video in the MBP, it uses the same exact GPU core as do the Windows laptop systems, it's still DirectX 9/10 compliant (if ya ever wanted to game under Vista YUCK) but under XP either the 256 or 512Mb options will work fine.

I game fairly heavily on my MBP.

Some of the games I have tested with no problems:

Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2142
Company of Heroes
Empire At War
Command And Conquer 3

I am boot camping volume license 32 bit XP to game in Windows.

I also run games fairly often on bootcamp...

I have no problems except for how hot the computer gets...

You should not plan to play games while the computer is on your lap..

NPuter said:

I also run games fairly often on bootcamp...

I have no problems except for how hot the computer gets...

You should not plan to play games while the computer is on your lap..

Click to expand...

Turn your fans up when you play!

http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/software/smcfancontrol2/index.html

Although, that's only for OS X

I wonder if there are any fan control apps out for XP that work on the mbp

durkajosh said:

Turn your fans up when you play!

http://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/software/smcfancontrol2/index.html

Although, that's only for OS X

I wonder if there are any fan control apps out for XP that work on the mbp

Click to expand...

smcFanControl allows you to set a fan speed in OS X that will also be present in windows.

Usually, before I switch over to XP to play a game, I max out my fans on OS X, then switch over to windows...

However, my computer still gets very hot even with the fans maxed out...

NPuter said:

smcFanControl allows you to set a fan speed in OS X that will also be present in windows.

Usually, before I switch over to XP to play a game, I max out my fans on OS X, then switch over to windows...

However, my computer still gets very hot even with the fans maxed out...

Click to expand...

Hmmmmm

Put a fan behind it?

hah

I had a fan blowing on me last night and noticed my MBP temps dropped considerably.

You could also get a laptop cooling pad and use that when you game.

I wouldn't use a laptop at all for real gaming
A desktop will be much cheaper and better for gaming

Hit said:

I wouldn't use a laptop at all for real gaming
A desktop will be much cheaper and better for gaming

Click to expand...

MBP with the 512mb video card is about as good as it gets IMO. unless you have an SLI or Crossfire setup you might as well use the laptop you've got.
~~and here's what i would like to know:
which is better for gaming. Bootcamp for VMware Fusion??? i have some PC games that i would like to play every once in a while. i have a copy of XP and would like to be able to play
Call of Duty 4
Command and Conquer 3
FEAR
Battle for Middle Earth 2 (not sure why these aren't out for Mac yet)