Gaming on a MacBook Pro

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Hi y'all im new to MacBook's but love it so far. The only problem I have is im a moderate gamer. Nothing extreme but I enjoy games like Civ 5 and Darkspore. I would like to jump up the Video Card to give me a bit of a more enjoyable time while playing games in BootCamp. What are y'all's suggestions?

Thank you,
Egan
 

chscag

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If you're a serious gamer, then you have to think about spending serious $$ on a MacBook Pro. If you're just a sometimes gamer, you can save $$ by purchasing the entry level MacBook Pro 13" machine. It's equipped with 4 GB of memory which you can upgrade yourself and it has an Intel HD 4000 integrated GPU that gives moderate to good performance for gaming.
 
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Ya I have a MacBook already. This is what i'm looking to beef up,
MacBook Pro
13-inch, Mid 2012
Processor 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB
Serial Number C02J77K9DTY4
Software OS X 10.8.2 (12C3012)


Could I do anything with that? I'm not opposed to changing the Motherboard if need be.
 

Raz0rEdge

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Welcome to Mac-Forums

If my "jump up", you mean upgrade the video card, you cannot do that. The graphics chip is an integral part of the logic board.

The 15" MBP most likely has the upgraded video chipset, but it's logic board is not compatible with the 13" MBP. You can't really swap out the logic board randomly, you have what you have. The upgrades that you can do to an MBP (depending on the model) are upgrading memory, installing an SSD.
 
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MBP 17" 2011, 2.3GHz Intel Quad-Core i7, 8GB RAM, MacMini 2011, 2.7GHz Intel Dual-Core i7, 8GB RAM
The Intel HD vid card is not a gaming card. Unless you go with the highest-end video card, then dont bother playing anything too substantial. If gaming is your number one priority, go with a PC, in all seriousness.

And if what you list is what you have, you are pretty much out of luck in upgrading anything but RAM and HDD. There is no way to add video memory or swap out video cards.
 
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Late 2013 rMBP, i7, 750m gpu, OSX versions 10.9.3, 10.10
Unlike some select (and usually expensive) notebook makers that design high end notebooks for upgradeability (Origin, Sager, certain Asus and MSI models, etc.) the Macbooks (depending on model mind you - certain models are fixed at purchase and can't be upgraded) can only have RAM and HD upgraded/replaced.

If you're wanting the Mac experience but have a decent gaming experience, then you'll need to move to the Macbook Pro as already mentioned with the 650m GPU. I wouldn't get the Retina display version but rather the more upgradeable (and lower resolution) non-retina version.

I have the non-retina version and most games I can play at between 720p and 1080p without too much trouble (depending on game and resolution chosen will determine the rest of the settings, but anywhere from low/medium to medium/high and maintain a decent framerate). I have an external Thunderbolt display (2560x1440, which is lower res then the retina @ 2880x1800) which is really too high of a resolution for the 650m to play games on with a decent framerate with even low settings. Sacrificing a little resolution for me (or native resolution on the non-retina MBP) you can get really good performance.

I play a variety of games on mine including BlackOps 2, Guildwars 2, World of Warcraft, Path of Exile, Deus Ex HR, Eve Online, Batman Arkham City, Bioshock, Rage, etc. As long as I'm willing to play with my settings a bit on my screen I get get good performance. Many games I run at 1600x900 which is higher res then the 1440x900 on base MBP 15" non-retina and a bit lower then the 1680x1050 high res display on the mbp non-retina with the optional display upgrade (which I do have, when running in laptop mode, I usually play just about everything at 1680x1050 except a few games like Metro 2033)
 

chscag

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By adding another 4 GB of system memory to your 2012 MBP (total 8 GB) will allow your HD 4000 GPU to borrow 1024 MB of memory rather than the normal 512 MB. That will give you a boost in graphics speed and maybe some better frame rates on certain games.
 

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