33 replies to this topic

[M G]

Just picked up one of these new machines and absolutely loving it. Who else got one?

My big question though is will MWO support the 2880x1800 resolution? Obviously I'll be booting into Windows, but I'd love to know if I'll be able to take full advantage of this new beast.

[xHeero]

M G, on 20 June 2012 - 08:43 AM, said:

Just picked up one of these new machines and absolutely loving it. Who else got one?

My big question though is will MWO support the 2880x1800 resolution? Obviously I'll be booting into Windows, but I'd love to know if I'll be able to take full advantage of this new beast.

Good luck rendering the game at that resolution on an Apple laptop.

[Vulpesveritas]

Yeah... your GPU won't be powerful enough unless you are running a couple of 7970s or 680s off of an Xfire / SLI Thunderbolt port or something... which there isn't... so that's a negative.

in short, since your hardware other than your screen is crap, even if you did you'll only get about 1-5 frames per second. Enjoyable for screenshots, but for the price of that computer you could get a multiple monitor setup on a windows machine that will run at 30+ frames per second.

[OfficerTaco]

Another Victim falls to Apples advertising...so sad...

wait that costs....$2000 wow

do you have any idea what $2000 in a PC could have done?

Edited by NotoriousForce, 20 June 2012 - 11:20 AM.

[silentD11]

Vulpesveritas, on 20 June 2012 - 11:09 AM, said:

Yeah... your GPU won't be powerful enough unless you are running a couple of 7970s or 680s off of an Xfire / SLI Thunderbolt port or something... which there isn't... so that's a negative.

in short, since your hardware other than your screen is crap, even if you did you'll only get about 1-5 frames per second. Enjoyable for screenshots, but for the price of that computer you could get a multiple monitor setup on a windows machine that will run at 30+ frames per second.

Indeed, laptop GPUs are gimped compared to desktop GPUs and the macbook pro doesn't even have a high end laptop GPU on it, it's got a 650m. No way in hell can it render the game at that resolution. You'll get like 2 fps.

High resolution screens without multiple desktop grade GPUs are pointless. You're not going to push 1880p with a mobile GPU.

[M G]

Just to point out, I'm able to run Diablo 3 at full specs, 2880x1800 very smoothly with only a few dropoffs when there's a massive amount of sprites on the screen.

Taking a look at the specs, my guess is that it should play more than fine at a lower resolution, but obviously the native resolution would be preferred.

Funny though, seems like there's a pretty massive Mac vs. PC fight going on here. I'd have thought we were here to play, not criticize each other on our preferred platforms. Can't we all just be friends?

[Vulpesveritas]

M G, on 22 June 2012 - 09:21 AM, said:

Just to point out, I'm able to run Diablo 3 at full specs, 2880x1800 very smoothly with only a few dropoffs when there's a massive amount of sprites on the screen.

Taking a look at the specs, my guess is that it should play more than fine at a lower resolution, but obviously the native resolution would be preferred.

Funny though, seems like there's a pretty massive Mac vs. PC fight going on here. I'd have thought we were here to play, not criticize each other on our preferred platforms. Can't we all just be friends?

It's less of a Mac vs PC but rather a "If you're running dual-boot on a Mac, why didn't you just get a PC with better hardware?" point. Seeing as outside of that retina display, you can get a much better Sager laptop. Or for a Sager with the same internals, and a super-color-accurate 1080p screen, around $1500 vs $2200/2800.
For the price you paid, you could have had a much faster system all around.

Also, Diablo 3 is a very low graphics requirement game. Sure you will run MWO on lower resolutions and settings... until you update your OS and you have to reinstall everything on your windows partition. And if you're running bootcamp there is no guarantee of compatibility.

But, that somewhat ruins the point of having that uber high resolution screen and MWO, doesn't it?

That's the main point we're trying to get across I think.

[Dark Fact]

Even though you guys are technically correct, you're still not being nice to the guy. He paid top dollar for what he believed to be a top-grade system.

And it is a top grade system (I personally prefer ThinkPads, however!)--for content creation professionals who benefit from the super high resolution, nice IPS panel display. It is not a gaming system, however. You'll have to run MWO on a lower resolution and probably on medium-low settings.

Edited by Dark Fact, 22 June 2012 - 10:19 AM.

[FrozenWaltDisney]

Hey paid for and got a Top dollar machine. The only problem is that no laptop is going to be the "Best" gaming machine.

Other then that, games have to support a "non-standard resolution" which hasn't been released by the devs yet if that will be supported. That being said, the new MBPs have a 650m w/ 1gb of memory. At 1920x1080, you shouldn't have to many problems running at decent graphics on most games.

Also consider that retina displays are so pixel dense that you will not see 2880x1800, plus IPS panels have a slower refresh rate on average. I would only suggest putting it on 1920x1080 because you just won't see a very big difference on a 15" screen unless you have your face buried in it. Here is a pretty popular graph of this:



I have a few of the these macs in my store... in general your not supposed to see all the pixels, so just like the other retina displays, its there just "in case"

As you can see as well... it only shows benefits of 1920x1080, much less 2880x1800... If you kinda guestimated, you will see that you will never see the benefit of that resolution on a 15" screen.

Edited by FrozenWaltDisney, 22 June 2012 - 10:35 AM.

[Torcip]

The game will most definitely support that resolution.

Whether your apple will be able to run it at any reasonable fps or graphical fidelity, probably not, but hey, you never know.

[B B Wolfe]

Torcip, on 22 June 2012 - 10:46 AM, said:

The game will most definitely support that resolution.

Whether your apple will be able to run it at any reasonable fps or graphical fidelity, probably not, but hey, you never know.

Can't know until You try! I, for one, hope it turns out well.

[M G]

Well, I'll certainly keep people up on the performance.

As far as purchasing this vs. a gaming laptop: I haven't been a PC gamer for years. Aside from Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and a few other indie games, MWO will be the first big game I play since World of Warcraft years ago (which I ran on a Apple PowerBook). Most of the value of my MBP is derived in the work that I do and the fact that I've been a Mac user for over ten years certainly plays into it. So I fully agree that I won't be getting my "bang for the buck" argument when it comes to the games alone, but combined with everything else that I do, I derive plenty of value.

In any case, I'm still crazy excited for this game and despite the random issues I'm sure I'll have with BootCamp, I'm quite excited to play it on this machine.

[AlanEsh]

Don't listen to the cretins here; great choice of laptop. There is life/computing beyond gaming, and Mac OS is wonderful. Congrats on your purchase, and yes please do keep everyone posted on your experiences playing MWO under boot camp.

[Dark Fact]

I dislike commenting on petty stuff, but calling people 'cretins' only because they disagreed with one's choice of laptop? Come on.
Someone here's got trouble with language or social skills.

[Koshadows]

Mmm i'd like to agree with most of the people who commented above that the gtx 650m would not be able to push out the 1800 resolution with any given FPS.

Even on diablo 3 the fps is only 15-20 with full settings at that resolution. Which for comparison, at 1080p you'd need an old old OLD nvidia GT 440 to hit that low of a fps on this game. Diablo 3 is NOT a great way to benchmark how well your computer runs.

On the other hand, i think at 1080p and running low-medium graphics the macbook should do a solid 30 fps. The 650m has about the same cuda cores as a gtx 560, which puts out enough muscle to at least make it playable at that resolution

[Exploding Boy]

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences; I am considering picking up one of these "beasts" myself.

[Torcip]

Exploding Boy, on 22 June 2012 - 01:19 PM, said:

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences; I am considering picking up one of these "beasts" myself.

If you want to pick it up to play MW:O or other games, don't. If you have a legitimate reason to be using an apple, then by all means go right ahead. I'm sure it will be great.

Angelicon, on 22 June 2012 - 11:51 AM, said:

Don't listen to the cretins here; great choice of laptop. There is life/computing beyond gaming, and Mac OS is wonderful. Congrats on your purchase, and yes please do keep everyone posted on your experiences playing MWO under boot camp.

That's pretty harsh for what is mostly a civil conversation. Or you just don't know what cretin means.

Edited by Torcip, 22 June 2012 - 01:30 PM.

[Mason Storm]

Unless you are running a Radeon 7970M mobile chip (such that alienware is using) it probably won't handle the game well. I hate AMD for making a mobile chip that is right now in the top 10 of all graphics cards in performance including desktops. I hate AMD because I don't have one in my gaming laptop..... hehe.

If I had some artistic talent I would definitely buy something like a mac book pro but I was not gifted in such ways so I have never seen the need personally.

Edited by Mason Storm, 22 June 2012 - 01:33 PM.

[Boltz]

Please update on how it runs! I have an older "gaming" PC I built up about 4 years ago, that I plan on using. I use my macbook pro for everything, and even though I could build a beast of a PC for the cost of the mac I simply like the mac better.

[Exploding Boy]

Torcip, on 22 June 2012 - 01:30 PM, said:

If you want to pick it up to play MW:O or other games, don't. If you have a legitimate reason to be using an apple, then by all means go right ahead. I'm sure it will be

I currently have a 15" MB Pro so yeah, I know what you mean. It is definitely not a hardcore gaming machine (although there are more and more games supporting Macs). It is, however, most excellent for my design and web development work. I am still quite curious to see how the OP fares trying to get this game to work on that screen.