MacBook Gaming: Not Part of the Equation

Okay, so I'm a Macbook Pro gamer. I've got Spore, Airburst, the Blizzites (Starcraft/Diablo2), Civ 3/4, Neverwinter Nights, and Icewind Dale for my Mac OS and they play great (though they're not all installed atm). I also made the gaming decision to Bootcamp the puppy and now I have the Orange Box and Baldur's Gate 1(Tutu)/ 2(xp) that run absolutely perfectly at high graphics levels on the Windows XP OS. Obviously, mac gamers have to go out of our way (bootcamp) to get access to the majority of games, but the hardware is powerful, and I'd never choose Windows to run my other applications.

Meh, I wouldn't spend the extra money based on being able to play a few games every now and then.  I bought a Macbook Pro about 5 months ago with the 8-series 512MB video card, which is OK, but not great (for games).  I primarily use my laptop for web browsing, e-mail, documents and some iTunes.  What I do appreciate with the Macbook Pro vs the Macbook is the somewhat higher screen resolution you get.  A little more realestate for my many open windows.

Desktops for gaming, laptops for working. Right?

look, the next top of the line desktop macintosh is what i will look forward to for a gaming pc. 

The big thing about it here, is that I wish that I wish that more PC games had Mac/PC support from the same box. It's annoying to have to buy seperate versions of your games just to play on Mac.
Boot Camp is amazing, but I don't want to restart just to play some games. WoW is so time consuming that it is fine, but what if I decide not to play that, at some point in the future? What then? Then there ain't alot of games to play.
The Mac ports of many big games like BF2142, Doom 3, CnC TS3 and Fable are really crap and not optimized. Blizzard seems to be the only ones who really do great mac ports. And WoW on a Mac is pretty damn sweet. inuitive built in Itunes support, aswell as in game recording device. It's seamless integrated and it's very nice. Mods work perfectly aswell.(UI addons)!
I think quite a segment of WoWs players are Mac gamers.

And havent like... Apple now 10% markedshare now? So every 10th person on a computer might be a mac user. Thats why I dont understand why there are not Mac support for all the current big and upcoming free computer games like Battlefield Heroes, Mythos(even though its cancelled), Maple Story, Requiem, Flyff, Silkroad, and so on...

I can't really decide. Why can't they just get the licens to use directx on Mac!? it's the only main difference. And ain't it retarded? I heard that DirectX is on its way out. DX10 has been a massive dissapointment, that has lead pioneer wizards like John Carmack to embrace OpenGL once again! And according to Intel, GPUs are going to die, and will start to be CPU driven again. And Apple already has Intel.

I want nothing more than to see Apple succed with the Mac. I am one of the few who think that Vista is okay, but OSX is so much better. I was chocked when I tried it. After I got used to it for a month it was like the second coming of christ. I hate Mac fanboys who act snoobish all the time, but I truly believe, that Leopard is one of the greatest OS ever, and developers should embrace it. PC gaming needs a reboot. To Mac gaming. More simple. More easy. Not all this driver hell.

I thought I saw quite a few Apple products in all the "Build a Bomb" videos.  I wondered if that was just the office, or more widespread.  Personally PC gaming drives me a little bit crazy.  I've got the previous rev MBP and it plays most things somewhere between ok'ish and unbearable (except WoW, which runs beautifully, though I run it in Boot Camp, which brings me to my next point).  The problem is that I can't stand a rough framerate.  It absolutely has to be smooth (even if it's low), otherwise it ruins the experience.   "Set it at a lower res, then" you say.  Well that seems great in theory, until you see what emulated res does to the image on an LCD (I feel like I need glasses when I run non-native).  Then, I get this itch to up that framerate, which you can usually do, but it takes time and drivers and blah blah blah.

Brad, don't you use one of the sweet new iMacs in your office at your desk? I say use that for your gaming then buy the low end (aluminum) macbook to use for everything else.

Personally I find macs horrible to use however sadly I have to use them as engineers (of which I am one)  for some reason traditionally use macs for programming in university. I always thought that macs were the easy to use computer but have since found them to be unintuitive and tedious.

That's fairly odd Timlump,  I've rarely heard anyone with such an opinion that has actually used a Mac for an extended period of time.  From time to time I've heard people say that an operating system is an operating system and thus all have their flaws.  But, yours is a rare point of view indeed.  I'd be interested to know what specifically was unintuitive of tedious, though that discussion is probably for a different place and not here in the comments.

I thought that the specs on those mac books looked good for something so small.  A notebook is suppose to be portable, and those are portable.   And I'd love to be that guy who bought 24 inch apple LED Monitor and the wireless mouse and keyboard, to go home and plug it with. 

"why are you spending the ludicrous premium on an Apple machine in the first place?"

I'd ask you the same question. Can get the same stuff for cheaper elsewhere.

I'm a college student and I have a pretty decent gaming PC back home but unfortunately, I don't have much space to put it here, so I'm thinking of getting a MacBook Pro to play some Blizzard games like Spore since it doesn't rely too much on heavy graphics.

I game on my Dell XPS1710 laptop which I bought two years ago, it works great for nearly all new games even now (I'm not really interested in FPSs anyway, find them boring after the first play through). It's heavy but I can take it with me when I am travelling, which is a major plus point compared to desktops. It really depends on how much you move about I guess, but I think I will stick with laptops for my gaming machines in the future.

What's interesting about Apple's laptops is that although there are few games out for them now, developers will know exactly what to expect in the way of hardware and OS, so they can make games more optimised for macs than they can for other PCs. Also since they all now have at least a 9400M it makes even entry level models capable of playing the latest games on low settings (okay again not FPS, but not everyone plays those). It is possible that we will see the Mac emerging as a proper gaming platform in the years to come.

The new MacBooks at least can handle some gaming.

steve jobs is a cocky bastard. and everything by apple is overrated (i never said bad).

You can definitely get a nice gaming laptop for cheaper.

The glass screen has me worried; almost every image/video I've seen has shown noticeable glare. That and the price premium are the real deal breakers for me.

Just to get this out the way first.

I dont like Mac or Apple product.

But unfortunatley I have to work with them, I am an IT Technician working at a medium size college where all the department who are evn the slightest bit artsy "Must have Apple Product".

So unlike most anti 'Apple' hate boys, I actually have ground for my dislike as I use them most days.

I would never buy a mac with an eye on gaming, even if they where a cheaper option (lol, that one made me laugh)
I do however game on a laptop, Im a big pc gamer, and i like my high res, high detail games. I think for the most part (everything apart from the absolutely top end) you are able to get a laptop that will match any PC, which is what I find with mine as it out performs any PC i have found other than the brand new XPS system they have just got for my Game Development Degree course.

Although if you do want to game on the go you are gonna have to pay a HUGE premium for it. At the time of purchase for my laptop Im sure i wouldave been able to get an equally powerful PC for half the price.

So it all comes down to the following things.

Do you wanna look 'cool' playing ZUMA = Buy a Mac.

Do you wanna play Crysis whenever and wherever you want = Buy a high end laptop for about the same amount as a Mac Book Pro.

Or do you just wanna play on you own = Buy a Gaming PC for about half the price.

$400 MORE for a mobile 9600GT! You've got to be kidding me! This is why I build my own windows PC's instead of buying an Apple product, I don't want to pay $400 for a $100 video card.

I'm all about desktop PCs for my PC gaming needs. If you know how put together your own PC it is way cheaper than buying a MAC. Just like alienware PCs, when you buy a MAC you're just paying for a name.  Like the Wii, MACs/Macbooks are nothing but fads that offer very little in terms of gaming.

1: Gaming on a laptop is just foolish. Overheating, poor RAM and graphic capability and conflict with architecture is just foolish.

2: When Apple/Mac decides they want to stop being greedy or being a lame ass pop culture tool. Maybe then they can do some gaming. Until then they have no reason to care about gaming. Nobody buys a mac with gaming in mind. They buy them to be tools to the fad with illusions that their console is superior to others. They're just as delusional as people who think "Alienware" and "Falcon" are the only option for gaming. They're buying a name, not power and when it has power, it costs more than it would on traditional PC's.

@ Fragstoff

I LOVE Macs, I have an iBook that I bought 4 years ago and it's still getting as much if not more use than my 3 month old Dell laptop. Just wish I could afford to go 'all-mac' but it's not likely to happen anytime soon (It will one day, trust me).

For this price you should be able to get a 9800M GTX.  I know Mac (in order to keep it simple) only supports a handful of hardware configurations, but if they are going to charge this much anyway at least the one that they support could better match the price.

They would dominate PC gaming (much more efficient OS) if they could just get their GPU selection and pricing strategy in order.