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Oh the Woohs.....

G

gregnash

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
2,164
.....of trying to pick a Macbook!!!

So I have a question for everyone. I finally got to go to my local CompUSA and actually take a look at the MB and MBP. I really cant tell the much of a difference between the 13" and the 15". So here is my question....


I basically plan to use this for school, my fiance' to surf the net while I am working on my desktop and for light gaming when I need something else to game on. I will also be using to construct a very basic website for my fiance's salon. Which do you think would be a better fit. I have not problem paying the money for the 15" but after looking at them last night there just really doesnt seem to be that much of a difference.:D
 
Wait until you play games on it, then it'll make a difference :) We'll be able to help you out a lot better if you define "light gaming"

The MBP has discrete graphics while the MB contains integrated which can make a huge difference in game experience.
 
But even the x1600 or whatever the MBP has will scald your legs. :rolleyes:
 
if you mean world of warcraft or warcraft 3 when you say "light gaming" then yes, it will run
 
piako said:
But even the x1600 or whatever the MBP has will scald your legs. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


Not if you turn the fans up to 45% with SMC fan control!

The MBP is required for ANY gaming really... WoW will run (as will D2, WC3, and older games) on a macbook, but be expecting to look at the ground alot (reduces graphics strain)
 
Hello,

While we're on the topic of MB and MBP differences in video performances... I'm also in the same boat as the OP.

Now, I'm fresh off the boat in the mac world.... in fact, I haven't even stepped off the boat yet as I'm still looking into buying a mac!

I have had experience with the mobility radeon 9700. How much better/worse is the x1600 on the mac book pro?

Also, I play World of Warcraft on my desktop with the 7800GT at max setting... Will I be able to do so on the x1600 in the 15" version of the MBP? (I mean.. it's little, but I'm too used to seeing WoW the way it is)

Much thanks!
 
DuyNgn said:
Also, I play World of Warcraft on my desktop with the 7800GT at max setting... Will I be able to do so on the x1600 in the 15" version of the MBP? (I mean.. it's little, but I'm too used to seeing WoW the way it is)

Much thanks!
Click to expand...
I've got a 15" MBP 2.16Ghz Core Duo with the 256MB x1600. In the Hellfire Peninsula (Outlands) at the default settings, I get about 15-25FPS. With everything turned up to max, I get between 5 and 15FPS. With everything at the lowest setting, I get between 30 and 60FPS, but randomly drop to 5-8FPS for a split second or two. Odd. Anyway, this is inside Mac OS X. I've heard Windows gives much greater framerates at the expense of battery life. (And the ability to overclock the video card, should you choose)
 
Ah I see. Thanks for the response. Just as i had expected.

to get frame count I believe it's Ctrl+R
 
Cool thanks for the info guys. Yeah "light gaming" is meant that I will probably load WoW onto it but only play it if I am on the road for work and.....well.....(addiction)...yeah.. What is the saying... "Only alcoholics go to meetings.... I gues I would be considered a WoW drunk then":D

So basically I can play on either of them, because the other gaming will be more like my fiance' playing bubblet or something to that sort, she likes card games too, on it while I am working on a school project or something. The rest of the time it would be used to for her to watch movies in the car on long trips, play games in the car and for me to use for school and designing her salons webpage. Which brings up another questions, the MB's come with iWeb right? Can I publish directly to their domain name or do I need .Mac to do that?
 
WoW and Warcraft 3 are probably bad examples in this case...

WoW - Runs like poop in OSX on the 13", but is playable in Win XP. As for the MBP (X1600 graphics) it runs like a charm in both OSX and XP.

Warcraft 3 - No Universal Binary, basically unplayable in OSX, runs perfectly in Win XP.
 
Ok looks like I am starting to lean more towards the 15" then.

Next question. How much worse/better is a last gen G4 Macbook compared to a new Macbook (pro versions of course) Reason I am asking is there is one on the local craigslist that is up for 1k.
 
Gillette said:
WoW and Warcraft 3 are probably bad examples in this case...

WoW - Runs like poop in OSX on the 13", but is playable in Win XP. As for the MBP (X1600 graphics) it runs like a charm in both OSX and XP.

Warcraft 3 - No Universal Binary, basically unplayable in OSX, runs perfectly in Win XP.
Click to expand...

Umm, with the 1.21 patch of Warcraft 3 released like.. the day before yesterday... WC3 and WC3:TFT are Universal Binary applications now. And I admit it's MUCH faster and better now that it's been compiled as a Universal application, of course I still played it before it was, it's better now though.

And I play WoW regularly on my MacBook, runs fine for me with medium detail even at 1280x800.

The Blizzard games are great examples of games a MacBook *CAN* play because they scale so well and were made with many machines in mind.

My Blood Elf has no idea why you said this runs like poop. In busy cities and raids of course, but just going around doing stuff, questing and hanging with my friends it's perfectly fine. I'm hardly a hardcore player though, I only play while my GF is at work and I only play if there isn't something better I could be doing. So what if I'm only level 17.

The only things bundled are OSX and the basic 1 year warranty.
Click to expand...

Also not true... all Mac computers come with the full iLife suite including iWeb, iDVD, iMovie HD, and iPhoto.
But if he will have to get a plugin for iWeb if he wants to publish to her domain or just do it manually which isn't much of an issue either.

OP, you should also make sure to get a MacBook or MacBook Pro because the Intel architecture is where Apple is going so compatibility is more assured.

Lots of weird incorrect information in this thread.....
 
Optional87 said:
Umm, with the 1.21 patch of Warcraft 3 released like.. the day before yesterday... WC3 and WC3:TFT are Universal Binary applications now. And I admit it's MUCH faster and better now that it's been compiled as a Universal application, of course I still played it before it was, it's better now though.

And I play WoW regularly on my MacBook, runs fine for me with medium detail even at 1280x800.

The Blizzard games are great examples of games a MacBook *CAN* play because they scale so well and were made with many machines in mind.

My Blood Elf has no idea why you said this runs like poop. In busy cities and raids of course, but just going around doing stuff, questing and hanging with my friends it's perfectly fine. I'm hardly a hardcore player though, I only play while my GF is at work and I only play if there isn't something better I could be doing. So what if I'm only level 17.

Also not true... all Mac computers come with the full iLife suite including iWeb, iDVD, iMovie HD, and iPhoto.
But if he will have to get a plugin for iWeb if he wants to publish to her domain or just do it manually which isn't much of an issue either.

OP, you should also make sure to get a MacBook or MacBook Pro because the Intel architecture is where Apple is going so compatibility is more assured.

Lots of weird incorrect information in this thread.....
Click to expand...

@ Warcraft 3: About damn time! I've been waiting for a fix like that for months! Sorry about not keeping up to the minute :p

@ WOW: I average FIVE frames per second while running it in OSX with no other apps running. Rarely see below 20FPS while running in XP. Yes, everything is up to date with Software Update. Both examples @ 1280x800 @ minimum settings. Now maybe something bugged out and it didn't automatically update to the universal binary, but everything was patched through the Blizzard downloader up to 1.12. Haven't tried again since BC came out.

@ iLife: Yes, it comes bundled, but that's not relevant to the .Mac question. On a similar note, I sure as heck didn't get an iLife CD/DVD, just OSX...
 
Ok wow you guys are awesome. Thanks for all the information.

Looks like basically for what I want to do my best bet is to stick with the MacBook Pro and go with the 15" version. The 13" will offer good quality but should I want to install WoW on it, then it will be lacking in some respects. I

If you guys can think of anything else that might be pertinent information please let me know.... Thanks!!!
 
I just brought home a 2.16 Core Duo version of the 15" MacBook Pro.... Costed me 1513 and change out the UCSD bookstore. Price tag was 1399, uncle sam up the rest of the bill. They are selling fast at this price. I think I got the second to last unit.

Moral of my post, if you are debating now and is a student, get to your bookstore asap and see if they're still clearing out the Core Duo version.
 
Gillette said:
@ Warcraft 3: About damn time! I've been waiting for a fix like that for months! Sorry about not keeping up to the minute :p

@ WOW: I average FIVE frames per second while running it in OSX with no other apps running. Rarely see below 20FPS while running in XP. Yes, everything is up to date with Software Update. Both examples @ 1280x800 @ minimum settings. Now maybe something bugged out and it didn't automatically update to the universal binary, but everything was patched through the Blizzard downloader up to 1.12. Haven't tried again since BC came out.

@ iLife: Yes, it comes bundled, but that's not relevant to the .Mac question. On a similar note, I sure as heck didn't get an iLife CD/DVD, just OSX...
Click to expand...

1. Yeah seriously.

2. Are you sure? I average 25~30 just questing around with no issues... that's using the real FPS numbers WoW gives me... That's also me running no extra programs and there is no problem, no slowdowns except for when places are busy. You know that 2.01 patch for WoW added Multi-threaded OpenGL which allows for full use of the CoreDuo/Core2Duo processors by WoW, huge speed increase there.

3. What are you talking about... iLife is ON your two OS X DVD's in that sleeve... If you install OS X from those, iLife is all on it, no need to purchase anything else, you can even reinstall the applications from the DVD without having to go through the full OS X installer. If you had ever put in these DVD's you'd know that.

And .mac is something he won't need if he already has hosting and a domain, he can just manually upload the files that iWeb creates.
 
Yeah I would but the thing is I attend school through the University of Phoenix so any purchase would have to be through the Apple Education website. Actually at this point I will either go off Ebay or get a refurb through Apple. Thanks for the info though.

See the thing is I wont be buying it until probably around March (next disbursement) so hopefully by then they will have some CD versions sitting around.:D
 
Optional87 said:
1. Yeah seriously.

2. Are you sure? I average 25~30 just questing around with no issues... that's using the real FPS numbers WoW gives me... That's also me running no extra programs and there is no problem, no slowdowns except for when places are busy. You know that 2.01 patch for WoW added Multi-threaded OpenGL which allows for full use of the CoreDuo/Core2Duo processors by WoW, huge speed increase there.

3. What are you talking about... iLife is ON your two OS X DVD's in that sleeve... If you install OS X from those, iLife is all on it, no need to purchase anything else, you can even reinstall the applications from the DVD without having to go through the full OS X installer. If you had ever put in these DVD's you'd know that.

And .mac is something he won't need if he already has hosting and a domain, he can just manually upload the files that iWeb creates.
Click to expand...

2) I'm actually reinstaling WoW on my OSX partition right now, so I'll let you know :)

3) Thanks for the information, didn't know that :)
 
Gillette said:
2) I'm actually reinstaling WoW on my OSX partition right now, so I'll let you know :)

3) Thanks for the information, didn't know that :)
Click to expand...

Glad to spread some knowledge! Next time I'll take a more neutral stance on it...
 
Don't worry about it buddy, I was feeding him misinformation :p

As for WoW, I just reinstalled it (and BC) and got everything patched...

For some reason the login screen seems to have VERY low FPS, however the game runs just as well as it does in XP. It's not exactly smooth (~15-20FPS), but what else can you expect from integrated graphics :D
 
Gillette said:
Don't worry about it buddy, I was feeding him misinformation :p

As for WoW, I just reinstalled it (and BC) and got everything patched...

For some reason the login screen seems to have VERY low FPS, however the game runs just as well as it does in XP. It's not exactly smooth (~15-20FPS), but what else can you expect from integrated graphics :D
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just where I am but I'm in the mid 20's most of the time when I'm playing, 1280x800 32bit color medium detail with lots of other stuff turned down, gets the job done for me, and the new WC3 Universal Binary is FAST.
 
Arcygenical said:
THERE"S A WC3 UB OUT?!

*downloads*

It worked fine under me with Rosetta though.
Click to expand...

In order to play it you might have to reinstall as the game folder has changed durastically with the UB patch. I just installed WC3, then TFT then installed the 1.21 patch and it worked perfectly.
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
Yeah, but even with Rosetta, a 2GHz Core Duo should probably be about as fast as my machine.
Click to expand...

Eh, from what I've seen Resetta works quite well for desktop apps (Office, etc..) but as soon as you hop into something that's actually processor intensive it takes a big dive.
 
Gillette said:
Eh, from what I've seen Resetta works quite well for desktop apps (Office, etc..) but as soon as you hop into something that's actually processor intensive it takes a big dive.
Click to expand...
Multi-threaded Photoshop filters seem about as fast on a 2GHz Core Duo as on a ~1GHz G4, and that's certainly CPU intensive.

But I guess games are a different matter.
 
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