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Putting the MacBook through the paces with Warhammer Online


Since the new MacBooks were released earlier this week, everyone's been talking a good bit about gaming on the thing, but our friend (and TUAW alum) C.K. Sample III decided to actually load up a game and make the new Nvidia chips put up or shut up. And as you can see above, put up they did: he loaded up XP in Boot Camp, installed Warhammer Online (not a small task, with a 13GB install and all the patching it took about two hours), and entered the Age of Reckoning with all the graphics turned up. The verdict: it worked. And pretty well -- while there was a tiny bit of slowdown on the highest settings (and YouTube compression makes it look worse than it is), the game was clearly playable and actually looked really good. The trackpad wasn't too easy to use, but you already know that for any substantial games, you've got to plug a mouse in anyway.

This was the 9400M running in the new MacBook, with the 2.4 GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. You have to think the MBP would run even better, too. Seems like Apple's done it -- even on the low end machines, gamers should have no problem (assuming they're willing to load up Boot Camp and deal with a permissions error or two) running even the latest PC games. Now if we could only convince game companies to all make Mac-specific versions...

Since the new MacBooks were released earlier this week, everyone's been talking a good bit about gaming on the thing, but our friend (and...
 

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DCP

I've got a lil question... the game warhammer online aor.. it also works on this iMAC?

iMac 24" / 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 4 GB
MB325, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz, 4 GB (2x 2 GB 800 MHz PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM) 320 GB Serial ATA Festplatte mit 7200rpm, 8x DL SuperDrive, 24" Bildschirm (1920x1200), ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro mit 256 MB GDDR3 Speicher

can somebody give me an answer pls on my email adress?

Thx alot...

Greez

November 05 2008 at 11:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bradv10@gmail.com

ok how about a game people will actually be running in osx... how about you load up the WOTLK Beta, crank all effects shaders and resolutions up then attempt to fly out of dalaran acroos northrend without a hickup?

well?

October 17 2008 at 1:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Troy

The new NVIDIA chipset with the much improved integrated graphics is exactly what I've been waiting for before I can take the MacBook plunge. There was just no way I was going to shell out around $2,000 for a MacBook Pro just to be able to dual boot into Windows XP for games. I'm going to pick up one of these new machines ASAP.

Thank you Apple! I was seriously considering buying an iMac so I could play games but I tend to prefer a laptop versus a desktop system and with this new chipset it's a non-issue!!!

October 16 2008 at 2:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Balls

Face it, apple still sucks at gaming.

They'll never be able to keep up with the gaming sector. It took Apple how long to refresh the MacBook line? Nvidia is readying a new mobile gpu for the holiday season.

And their baller macpro line: Best graphics card you get is the 8800 GT, which is 2 techgenerations old.

I love my Macbook Pro, but it blows ass for gaming.

October 16 2008 at 2:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Balls's comment
colouroflight

9400M and 9600 in SLI "blows ass" for gaming?

October 16 2008 at 5:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Balls

On a MacBook Pro, they're not in SLI, nor are they in Hybrid SLI (yet).

October 16 2008 at 5:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Couch Pundit

I suppose the videographer's tripod money went toward the new Macbook.

If you're gonna post a video on-line and want to be watchable, for love of all things holy, please do these simple things with the camera:

1) Put it on a tripod
2) Turn off instant auto-focus and stabilizer features
3) Focus in on your subject and frame it nicely and shoot

Voila! Professional looking video that doesn't make people sick.

October 16 2008 at 2:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Greg

Yeah, we need Mac specific games. But not how EA's been doing it, with lousy cider ports, but with universal versions, made specifically to take advantage of Mac OS X. As of now, these ports are slower and buggier than their windows counterparts, and I can't use them on my G4, which I've upgraded with a new processor and graphics card specifically for gaming. If I can run UT2004 on full settings on this machine, it should be able to handle games like spore with ease, however, EA refuses to make true, Mac specific, games.
EA has a problem with listening to their customers.

October 16 2008 at 1:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cananito

I only have to say that I don't agree with the guy in the video, he says apple should just do 2 button mouse trackpad, I'm in love whith no button, if he needs it because of games, well if you play games with trackpad, that's kind of your fault, it's a must to have mouse for games, and apple's mighty mouse is really good, scince it has a rightclic.

October 16 2008 at 12:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Cananito's comment
nfoo

Toally agree!

October 16 2008 at 1:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
colouroflight

I have a Mighty Mouse and it's junk for gaming since you can't click both buttons at the same time, and have to lift your finger off the left button in order to right click.

I need a good full-sized Logitech Bluetooth mouse...

October 16 2008 at 5:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nfoo

Can any of you lucky new MacBook owners tell how bad the screen is?

The "old" MacBook's screen had terrible vertical "bleed".
Both brightness and color changed so much from top to bottom, that it was even almost useless for light foto editing.

That was my main reason to get rid of it and go pro.
Is it still as bad?

October 16 2008 at 12:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alex

Great stuff, thanks!

Any chance of a Crysis, or Bioshock video?

October 16 2008 at 11:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Alex's comment
Mystic

THANK YOU C.K. Sample for doing this! I've been wondering this exact thing. Currently I'm playing Warhammer Online on a 2.4ghz iMac with 4GB RAM and it runs pretty well. I can play solo on highest settings and usually turn the settings down for large RvR. I thought it would be nice to get the new macbook with the 24" external monitor if it could play WAR anywhere near how it runs on my iMac, and it looks like it can!!!

October 16 2008 at 11:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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