The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    MacBook Pro 13" Questions

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Siwek06, Nov 19, 2011.

  1. Siwek06

    Siwek06 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hello there.

    I am looking in buying a 13-Inch MacBook Pro in the next couple of weeks and I have a few questions if anyone could be of help. I'm looking at purchasing the Macbook with these specs:

    # 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
    # 4GB 1333MHz
    # 750GB 5400-rpm1
    # Intel HD Graphics 3000

    I will be using the Macbook mainly for word processing and some programming/designing, as well as occasionally play some games on it. I am aware that the HD 3000 graphics are integrated, so i was wondering what kind of frame rates would i be getting if i run these games on low settings with a native resolution of 1280 by 800? Will Windows 7 on Boot camp effect the frame rates? And also, will upgrading from 4gb ram to 8gb affect the frame rates of my games?

    # Left 4 Dead 2
    # World Of Warcraft
    # Skyrim
    # Assassins Creed: Revelations
    # Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

    Thanks in advance!
     
    Siwek06, Nov 19, 2011
    #1
  2. mavo82

    mavo82 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    203
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    World of Warcraft should run fine, as it depends mainly on RAM. There were times, I played it on a machine with 1GB RAM, so 4GB should be more than enough.

    CoD:MW3 runs not at fullspeed so far. I've just played an unofficial port for now, in Win7 in may run better, I guess. But the Intel HD 3000 is no top gaming card. It might work for you, if you're no hardcore gamer.

    In general, native ports of games work better. From the games you mentioned, only WoW has a native MacOS client.

    The bottlenecks are the GPU and the HDD. More RAM might not be a big upgrade, a SSD would be a bigger upgrade. The CPU might get upgraded as soon as there are external PCIe-Slots over the Thunderbolt-connection.
     
    mavo82, Nov 20, 2011
    #2
  3. Mobius 1

    Mobius 1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    3,447
    Messages:
    9,069
    Likes Received:
    6,376
    Trophy Points:
    681
    Left 4 Dead 2


    native res, maxed out, but AA= 2 or 4 x MSAA, 8x MSAA you'll start having horrible lag
     
    Mobius 1, Nov 20, 2011
    #3
  4. LinkRS

    LinkRS Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    56
    Messages:
    295
    Likes Received:
    22
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Hello Siwek06,

    If you intend to game, you should really consider upgrading to the 15" MBP. Even the "low end" 15" is going to be much faster than the 13" MBP for gaming purposes. The weak link is the Intel HD 3000 graphics. This is an integrated card and only has 12 SPs, and while it is very fast for an Intel graphics IGP, it is not very good for games. I own the Early 2011 13" MBP (has a 2.7 GHz Core i7 and 500 GB HDD, otherwise the same as your specs), but have not even attempted to run any demanding game on it. Check out this website to get an idea of what you can expect with this setup in Windows:
    Intel HD Graphics 3000 - Notebookcheck.net Tech

    I use my MBP for school and app development, and leave the gamng to my Alienware systems :)

    Good luck!
    Rich S.
     
    LinkRS, Nov 20, 2011
    #4
  5. Lieto

    Lieto Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    108
    Messages:
    896
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    # Left 4 Dead 2
    # World Of Warcraft
    # Skyrim
    # Assassins Creed: Revelations
    # Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

    Something along this lines
     
    Lieto, Nov 21, 2011
    #5