WoW on a Macbook?

Venkman90

I ask this here as It's the only PC game I play right now, but if I was to "go Mac" and get a sexy little black Macbook with the optional extra of 4gig of ram and as much horsepower as it can have out of the box, how will WoW run on it? I have never owned a Mac and I hear the macbook (not the pro ofc) has limited Graphical capabilitys?

Anyone can enlighten me on this before I shell out? I may invest in a 22" screen for it for when it's docked at home.

/mac noob

Thanks in advance

TIE Fighter

No.

I have a first gen Macbook, and the fact that it has integrated graphics means that WoW will run, but it will run like ass. Think one frame per 2-3 seconds in Shattrath. Outside the cities, it kinda runs, but it's basically less effort to get a second job, save up a couple of thousand bucks, and get a new computer than it is to run WoW on a Macbook.

On a Pro, though, it'd run acceptably. That's the difference an actual graphics card makes.

TIE Fighter

Hmm. Looking at the Apple website, it seems like it's no longer a GMA 950 in there, it's a GMA X3100. From what I've heard, those are a fuckload better. I wouldn't know, though.

mastman

WoW runs on a macbook. I raid with it. The resolution is down, but not awful. The FPS can be really low at crazy places like Shatt, but it's playable. The new X1300 chips are sposed to provide a nice boost though, especially because they consume more of the shared memory.

The MBPro will get like 40-60 FPS, the regular macbook runs between 7-25.

Echo

A few years back my buddy raided MC on an iBook of the time. Kinda crappy framerate in raids, but I can't imagine it has gotten worse since then.

Venkman90

mastman wrote: »

WoW runs on a macbook. I raid with it. The resolution is down, but not awful. The FPS can be really low at crazy places like Shatt, but it's playable. The new X1300 chips are sposed to provide a nice boost though, especially because they consume more of the shared memory.

The MBPro will get like 40-60 FPS, the regular macbook runs between 7-25.

To be honest I tend to get around 20 now on my Dual Core Acer laptop with 1gig of ram and a reasnoable ATI card so that's not a huge issue, I could do with seeing it in action on this new one with the X1300 I guess.

My fault for being a whore for aesthetics

Zython

I play WoW exclusively on a Powerbook. The framerates aren't to die for, but if you turn down the graphic settings, one can more than easily raid with it. I'm not sure how much better or worse a Macbook is by comparison, but if a two-year old powerbook can play it passibly well, I'm fairly sure a brand-new macbook is up to the task.

Venkman90

The usual cause for low FPS tends to be ram, but as I said above I would be getting the 4gig version if possible, I am just unsure of how much difference this would make if the graphics processing was a hamster wheel

Caswynben

WoW can be kind of dumb on what it caches, so it often makes huge cache misses that kill your framerate for a little while. A good hard drive is just as important as a lot of RAM, so you should see what you can do about getting a better HD.

Yall

I was playing WoW on this one:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MB22White/

Even with the integrated graphics, WoW ran fine. No framerate issues whatsoever.

Wavechaser

Mac... limited graphics capabilities?

I'm a PC user, and will never switch to Mac, but ask any graphic designer what they use and they will tell you Mac. Their capabilities in that department are far beyond that of PC's.

If you can use their OS and file system without tearing your hair out, i'd say go for it. They are overpriced, but they are really well built, and I would die for one of those stainless steel (G4?) cases.

Carnarvon

On my dad's shitty old iBook(7 years old) ran WoW at acceptable frames(pre-BC, 17fps). If what wikipedia says is true, and you have a C2D 2.6ghz, 4gb of ram, and an 8600M, you should be running WoW like a greased cat that's been set on fire. Hell, most of those parts weren't even commercially available when the game was released.

Medopine

Just FYI, the black ones are a ripoff. :P

GnomeTank

How come whenever someone asks a Mac question, do the Mac haters feel the need to stick their head in and comment? Seriously, it gets old.

Anyways, my wife has a gen 1/rev 1 MacBook Pro, with the ATI x1300 in it and original Core Duo (Yonah core) in it, and it runs WoW fine. Your MacBook with better components should do fine.

Carnarvon

GnomeTank wrote: »

How come whenever someone asks a Mac question, do the Mac haters feel the need to stick their head in and comment? Seriously, it gets old.

If that was directed at me: I meant shitty as in 'He had a ton of shit loaded on it', not shitty because it was manufactured by Apple. If it wasn't directed to me: zomg macs suck

humble

i have a core duo 2 macbook with 1 gig of ram and it runs wow fine

Medopine

GnomeTank wrote: »

How come whenever someone asks a Mac question, do the Mac haters feel the need to stick their head in and comment? Seriously, it gets old.

Anyways, my wife has a gen 1/rev 1 MacBook Pro, with the ATI x1300 in it and original Core Duo (Yonah core) in it, and it runs WoW fine. Your MacBook with better components should do fine.

I own a Mac and play WoW on it, and it works just fine. I ain't no Mac hater. But I do think black Machbooks are stupid; you're effectively paying hundreds of dollars for the paint job. Dumb.

Wavechaser

GnomeTank wrote: »

How come whenever someone asks a Mac question, do the Mac haters feel the need to stick their head in and comment? Seriously, it gets old.

Anyways, my wife has a gen 1/rev 1 MacBook Pro, with the ATI x1300 in it and original Core Duo (Yonah core) in it, and it runs WoW fine. Your MacBook with better components should do fine.

How come Mac Fanboys get so defensive? I wasn't dissing on Mac, I was actually praising their superior graphics capabilities even though I am a pc user.

GABBO GABBO GABBO

Wavechaser wrote: »

They are overpriced

Compare the specs of a MacPro to an equally bad ass Dell and you'll more often than not find that the Dell is more expensive.

Venkman90

Medopine wrote: »

GnomeTank wrote: »

How come whenever someone asks a Mac question, do the Mac haters feel the need to stick their head in and comment? Seriously, it gets old.

Anyways, my wife has a gen 1/rev 1 MacBook Pro, with the ATI x1300 in it and original Core Duo (Yonah core) in it, and it runs WoW fine. Your MacBook with better components should do fine.

I own a Mac and play WoW on it, and it works just fine. I ain't no Mac hater. But I do think black Machbooks are stupid; you're effectively paying hundreds of dollars for the paint job. Dumb.

Dumb? yes

Pretty? yes

Im sold Im afraid

Medopine

Well as long as you know it and accept it, then go for it.

:P

Casual Eddy

Just noticed this in the patch notes

The latest patch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade shows a benefit on today's popular multicore processors like the Intel(r) Core(tm)2 Duo processor family. The enhanced patch has demonstrated higher frame rates by spreading the work across both processor cores.

Macbooks run on dual intel cores... I'll give wow a spin when I can and report back to you.

Carnarvon

Casual Eddy wrote: »

Just noticed this in the patch notes

The latest patch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade shows a benefit on today's popular multicore processors like the Intel(r) Core(tm)2 Duo processor family. The enhanced patch has demonstrated higher frame rates by spreading the work across both processor cores.

Macbooks run on dual intel cores... I'll give wow a spin when I can and report back to you.

No love for my quad-core? /cry

Venkman90

Casual Eddy wrote: »

Just noticed this in the patch notes

The latest patch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade shows a benefit on today's popular multicore processors like the Intel(r) Core(tm)2 Duo processor family. The enhanced patch has demonstrated higher frame rates by spreading the work across both processor cores.

Macbooks run on dual intel cores... I'll give wow a spin when I can and report back to you.

Cool thanks 8-)

Wavechaser

Carnarvon wrote: »

Casual Eddy wrote: »

Just noticed this in the patch notes

The latest patch of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade shows a benefit on today's popular multicore processors like the Intel(r) Core(tm)2 Duo processor family. The enhanced patch has demonstrated higher frame rates by spreading the work across both processor cores.

Macbooks run on dual intel cores... I'll give wow a spin when I can and report back to you.

No love for my quad-core? /cry

I'm sure your quad-core gets love as well, they were using the above as examples of multi-core processors. Since the concept of dual and quad core is pretty much the same, i'm sure you will get the benefits.

Casual Eddy

I've noticed a difference... it runs about the same, but the patch reverted my graphics settings to their normal state. So if I turn the graphics back down it should run a lot smoother.