Macbook Pro and gaming

[Lydon]

So how does the 2009 Macbook Pro 15" fare in general in the gaming department?

I'm considering getting one, but it won't primarily be used for gaming. I won't have very much time for gaming at all, so it will be sort of an after-thought if you could say.

EDIT: I guess I posted this in the wrong section, lol.

[Raven Gold]

1: It's a bloody mac! It's horrible for gaming!
2: It's a laptop, deffenatly not meant for gaming.

[Lycanthrope]

According to the specs for the 15" it has an nVidia 9400M GPU.

Specs for that are:

* 16 Stream Processors.
* Memory Clock depend on System Memory.
* 64 bit memory interface (single-channel mode) / 128 bit memory interface (dual-channel mode).
* Memory Bandwidth depends on System Memory.
* 3.6 billion texels/s texture fill rate.

Source: Wikipedia

The Apple site continues saying:

Selected models: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR3 memory on 2.66GHz configuration; or 512MB of GDDR3 memory on 2.8GHz and 3.06GHz configurations

Which, to quote Wikipedia again, has the following specs:

* 32 Stream Processors.
* 500 MHz core clock.
* 1250 MHz shader clock.
* 1000 MHz memory clock.
* Up to 1024 MB memory.
* 128-bit memory interface.
* 25.6 GB/s memory bandwidth.
* 8.0 billion texels/s texture fill rate.

So, you asked if it can play games? Yes. Will it be able to play Crysis? No

You're into MMOs though, so it'll suffice for that, I believe, as long as they support the OS. As you said, it won't be primarily used for gaming, and obviously that isn't its intention to begin with. But yeah, you'll be able to entertain yourself with it as well

[Lydon]

Thanks

Unfortunately a laptop is essential, as I'll need to use it on campus etc. Considering I've been given the go-ahead regarding the price, I thought why not

[Sockmonkey]

If you can afford it then go for it, its obviosly not going to perform as well as a gaming laptop, but I'd say its worth getting.

[Lydon]

I have a few other questions I'd love answered if anyone is in the know:

1) Does Windows Live Messenger for Mac integrate well? In other words, are all the features that are available on the Windows version, available in the Mac version? I'm specifically interested in the little useful features such as what song your contacts are currently listening to etc.

2) Does Google do Mac? I'll be using things such as Sketchup next year, for example.

3) Otherwise, is running Windows in Mac OS pain-free and simple?

4) Lastly, does the default document-writing program on Mac save documents in a format recognisable on Windows?

Random I know haha, but I need to consider everything before we fork over R22 000 on a laptop

[AnathemA]

RE: Gaming...

I've got a 2007 Toshiba A100 notebook, Core Duo 1.8, 2GB RAM and an ATI X1600 256MB, Running Vista... And it Games... OK! I mean it DOES run Crysis & CoD4 at acceptable levels for a notebook. It even plays Prototype and Wolverine, so an '09 MBP should suffice as a backup games machine, me thinks.

[Dohc-WP]

new mac's can run windows flawlessly so just install windows on it

[Dan]

I have a Sony Vaio PC at the moment and I miss my Mac Pro like crazy. Plus it ran COD4 like butter, so I wouldn't stress about not being able to game on it.

Also, there are Mac equivalents/superiors to every Windows proggie you can think of so I wouldn't even bother installing Windows on it if I were you.

[mcryan]

Yeah I know some guys that have used it to play games. It certainly isn't a gaming laptop at all, but it is good enough that you can install and enjoy a game on lower settings. SO from that point of view it's a plus.