Gaming on the MacBook Pro

The MacBook Pro is the professional part of Apple’s Mac laptop line, but how well does it do in playing games?The old MacBook Pros came with the Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT, and the new ones come with the Nvidia Geforce 9400M + 9600M GT. And while the MacBook Pro can crank out some impressive frame rates for it’s slim size and weight, it does come with quite a few negatives.

First off, the Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT and 9600M GT are both poorly designed for heat ventilation. Playing games on your MacBook Pro WILL heat it up to the point where you can hear the fans running at around at least 4000 RPM. Playing continuously will damage your fans and you can have Apple replace them for you if you have AppleCare, but it will take your Mac away from you for at least a week. Or, you can order replacement fans and put them in yourselves, but that will void the warranty. And if you play games with your MacBook Pro on your lap, well good luck keeping it there for any period of time. THIS IS NORMAL BEHAVIOR. If you ask Apple about it, they will simply tell you that the MacBook Pro is a very powerful machine and it’s normal for it to heat up. So don’t bother going to them for support about it, just ask them to replace the fans for you.

Putting aside the heat, the graphics performance on the MacBook Pro is very good compared to other laptops. The reason for that is because you will rarely find an inch thick 15″ laptop made of aluminum that can be as powerful as the MacBook Pro. 

There’s not much to be said about gaming performance on here, but basically, you can get good frame rates from most games by running at as 1280×800 resolution and changing settings to medium/high. If you put the resolution at 1440×900, you’ll have to lower some settings, but images are sharper. It’s nowhere near the level of custom built gaming PCs, but that’s pretty obvious. 

However, there’s a lot of exaggeration about the MacBook Pro’s capabilities. People will tell you it is amazingly powerful, that it can run the best games at highest settings, but don’t count on it. If you want to have a portable gaming laptop, go for an Alienware, Dell, or HP. High end PC laptops will be much better at gaming than the MacBook Pro. Tons of Apple Fans won’t like this, but it’s the truth. Don’t get the MacBook Pro if you’re just using it for gaming.

On the other hand, if you’re just using the MacBook Pro for some light gaming or you don’t care for the highest frame rates, it’ll be good enough for you, and perhaps even more than good enough. Regardless of how well the MacBook Pro compares with gaming PCs, it still has very powerful graphics and is still a great option. So in conclusion, the MacBook Pro will heat up like a beast while gaming, but that’s normal. Gaming PCs will far outrun the MacBook Pro in gaming as well, but if you don’t want all those extremely high frame rates, the MacBook Pro is more than good enough for you. You also have to consider that powerful PC laptops come as 17″ models that are very thick and heavy to carry. The MacBook Pro is less than one inch thick and is very light for its size. So if you want a very nice, but not best gaming performance, and still keep an excellent form factor, the MacBook Pro is good for you.