GearWERKZ TechBlog

Just because someone is a gamer, does not necessarily mean that they are a power-user. A lot of people are out there playing on antiquated rigs. They may be struggling; they may have to tweak their system like it was a Windows98 rig (remember TweakUI?); they may suffer some dropped frame rates here and there. But since what is most important about a game is its content and not how many polygons it pushes, they are getting the majority of their return on investment on a game title. I have a problem with all of the so-called power-user gamers out there who do not answer a person's question in the various forums I haunt. It is not absolutely necessary to have a uber-huge laptop that has a 17” screen and lasts 45 minutes on battery for it to be a respectable gaming rig.

Follow up:

Such a concept is preposterous, and clearly the opinion of someone who probably has only ever bought one laptop in their life. These likely snob-kids of affluent parents have no business offering advice to other (less affluent) consumers who are looking to buy a gaming rig. In order to be an honest and unbiased advisor, you need to be just as knowledgeable in telling people what they can buy to just meet the requirement, as well as telling them about the completely tricked out rig that only few will be able to afford.

More to the point, I have become frustrated by the trolls who suggest that a MacBook Pro is an unacceptable gaming rig. More to the point, they tend to do so without justification. Comments like “...if you want to play PC games, buy a PC...” and “...BootCamp will work ok but it is not worth the hassle...” are what I see driveled across the forums. No one ever says why you should supposedly only buy a PC for playing PC games, or why BootCamp is not worth the hassle. Most of these comments are just tripe. So, I am going to take some time to blow some wholes in some of the reasons I see people provide for not getting a Mac in general, and then some reasons as to why it is a viable choice for use as a gaming rig.

This is my response in a thread on a gaming forum that I frequent. The OP had asked if the newer MacBook Pro's (this was just shortly following the release of the unibody aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro lines) were suitable for gaming. Two trolls immediately jumped in and proceeded to not answer his question. They recommended all sorts of reasons (unsubstantiated) as to why he should buy a PC, never answering the question, that if he wanted to to buy a MBP, would it also serve duties as a gaming rig. And so, I leaped into the fray:

“I will offer a perspective from a multi-platform user. While I do not align with your view of large notebook PCs being for nerds, I also do not agree with the opinions of people who offer their recommendation based on a "dislike" of Macs. I've been working in OS X for a 18 months now, on both a MacBook and a MacBook Pro. I also use 6 other laptops using various Operating Systems.
Deciding whether or not a Mac is the right platform for you has to do with more than just games. If you have assessed whether or not a Mac and the OS X platform is right for you and have decided yes, and are now just wondering if it will dual as a gaming platform, then that is an entirely acceptable question to ask.

The answer is yes, the new MacBook Pros will run games fine. No, you will likely not be able to crank up Crysis or Supreme Commander to max settings, so decide whether or not you care about those things. I personally do not, so I have been satisfied with running WinXP via BootCamp on my February 2008 MBP 15.4". I also game on a COMPAL IFL-90 and a Gateway P-6860FX. The MacBook Pro is no poor Sally to these other two gaming laptops. If you want to talk benchmarks, and you are strung to the numbers, you need to pull the thread on the configurations involved that you are looking at if you rate your computing and gaming experience by frame rates. If there are other factors involved, decide what requirements and factors are your primary concern and base your decision on that, not what platform you or anyone else is a fanboy of.

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