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New to Macs - Some help with specs (Re: WoW) would be magnificent.
Opaque Plastic Cup
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
Hello, all. I apologize- you must get this exact same thread on a regular basis.
That said, I'm purchasing a MacBook Pro for the upcoming semester, and I'm curious as to how this setup will handle my World of Warcraft habit. This isn't going to be primarily a gaming laptop, but as WoW is the only game I play on the computer, I'd like to know how well it'll handle it. If there's anyone out there with a knowledge of what this technical gobbledygook translates to, please, act as an interpreter.
Specs:
Processor: 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache
Memory: 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
Hard Drive: 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
Display: 15inch Widescreen
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512MB
Thank you very much in advance for your input, and have a great day.
That said, I'm purchasing a MacBook Pro for the upcoming semester, and I'm curious as to how this setup will handle my World of Warcraft habit. This isn't going to be primarily a gaming laptop, but as WoW is the only game I play on the computer, I'd like to know how well it'll handle it. If there's anyone out there with a knowledge of what this technical gobbledygook translates to, please, act as an interpreter.
Specs:
Processor: 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache
Memory: 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
Hard Drive: 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
Display: 15inch Widescreen
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512MB
Thank you very much in advance for your input, and have a great day.
Opaque Plastic Cup on
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Posts
True enough, thank you. I was a little concerned after googling the individual components- apparently people take issue with that video card.
In any case, thanks again for the reassurance.
It's gonna be fine.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
If you don't mind putting off the purchase for a few weeks, Apple runs an annual "Back to school" promotion, where if you buy a new laptop you get a free ipod. It usually starts around the end of May/beginning of June.
So yeah, you'll be fine.
On the MBP before that, I get 120 fps in Azeroth, 90 in Outland, and 70 in Northrend with most of the settings pushed right up (incl. AA.) Only issues are 20 fps dips in 25-mans and loading into Dalaran. You'll be fine.
PSN: TheScrublet
WoW IS a texture laden game... you may indeed use all 512MB... but the beauty of video texture memory is that it can mostly be easily supplanted by system memory with not much of a performance loss.
It's when you run out of RAM period and start swapping textures from the HD that WoW begins to suck.
With 4GB of RAM you should be perfectly fine with 256MB of video RAM. I've played WoW for ages past with only 128..
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
the macbooks and 13 inch mbp only have shared video memory
the 15 inch and up mbps have dedicated and shared
I say go with 512MB of VRAM and Core i7. Those aren't things you can upgrade later. And you may find performance constrained by lower VRAM in a couple of years. The Core i7 is gravy now, but you'll be glad you have it towards end of life. It'll also make resale easier. Certainly WoW doesn't need a top end machine, but during the lifespan of the laptop you'll need to ask yourself whether you'll play other games, get serious about converting/editing video, etc.
This is true. And they switch to conserve battery or something.
But yeah, dedicated memory from the 15s on up.
-- Your current WoW discs have the Mac client already installed on them. You will have to patch, however, once you get up and running (note: the Wrath DVD has Vanilla through Wrath on it).
-- Your MBP *will* get hot while running WoW. If possible, find a way to prop up the back of the MBP to help with air flow (if you're feeling enterprising, add a small fan)
-- I tried to disable as many features as possible once I installed the Mac client. Native video capture is turned on by default and it was causing some issues with my game. Took some ferreting through the setup menus, but I was able to turn it off.
-- While you won't need Parallels or other virtual software for WoW, it may be worthwhile to pick up a copy for running a Bootcamp Windows install in case you need it. Keep an eye on MacHeist and MUPromo for discounted copies of Parallels.