I’m currently looking for a new computer, and while I’m not buying it specifically for gaming, coincidentally there are several games coming out around now that I’m interested. So I figure I ought to see what will run what, and factor it into my decision.
Specifically, I’ve already decided I’ll be buying a Mac. That much is non-negotiable; let’s not get into the Platform War in this thread. The models I’m looking at are the 13" Macbook Pro with NVidia 320M, for $1100, the 21.5" iMac with NVidia 9400M graphics card, for $1150, or the 21.5" iMac with ATI Radeon HD 4670, for $1400. All else being equal, I’d prefer the iMac to the Macbook, and of course I’d also prefer a lower price.
The specific games I’m interested in are Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Portal, and Portal 2. I realize that official requirements aren’t out yet for Diablo 3 or Portal 2, so there will necessarily be some guesswork, there. I’m not too concerned with hypothetical games that might come out after Diablo 3. High graphics settings aren’t a big deal: I’m mostly concerned just with whether it’ll run or not.
Are you sure about that? I’m seeing reports online of the 9400M working for both Portal and SC2, and from what I understand, that’s the weakest of those three cards.
The 9400M is pretty weak at best. You WILL be disappointed with it with those games–it barely can play Spore at a reasonable rate. The 320M is even worse.
The Radeon HD4670 on the other hand will comfortably play Portal and Diablo 2. I can’t imagine it failing to play Portal 2 or Diablo 3 at a reasonable framerate, but you’ll likely have to turn the quality down (at 1920x1200 max quality, it plays CoD4 at 60+ FPS but Crysis at 10FPS). Starcraft 2 isn’t all that big a graphics hog, either, it oughta be fine.
To be honest, you’ll probably be at least somewhat happy with the 4670 if you’re tied to the idea of a Mac. Last I checked, it’s not upgradeable except on the 24" models, although I haven’t had one open in a few years. Paging MacTech!
Oh, I’m quite sure that any of these would be fine for Diablo 2, given that my six-year-old and eight-year-old machines neither one have a problem with it. That’s why I didn’t even ask about that one.
For the acceptable level of quality, let’s say that I want something in the vicinity of 25 FPS at low settings. Telling me how something handles Spore doesn’t really tell me anything, since, first, I have no interest in Spore itself, and second, I don’t really know how it compares, graphics or optimization-wise, with other games.
Okay. I cited “Spore” because that was the only benchmark I could find for the 9400M, none of the cites I found would even TRY it on something more complex. (for the record, it barely pulled 25FPS)
Diablo 2 was just a brainfart trying to remember the fourth game on your list. =P
If you are looking for minimum playable experience, the 4670 will do you just fine but I don’t really think you can expect even that minimum out of the 9400M.
Valve and Blizzard make games that can scale down very well and work on a huge range of systems, so I have no doubt you’ll be able to run those games playably at some setting on a 4670. I can’t speak to the mobile cards, I don’t know what they’re capable of.
Do you have a better option, though? I have no idea how hardware works with macs - now that they just use X86 machines, can’t you just pop in your own video card, or do they do some sort of proprietary BS to keep you from installing your own hardware? A Radeon 5750 or 5770 are great cards for only $130-170, and they definitely would have no problem with those games - probably at the highest settings too.
The problem with that is that the only tower boxes Mac makes any more are the top-end machines that start at $2200. I’m sure that you could swap out a video card in one of those, but all of their lower-end machines (iMac and Mac Mini) are basically built like laptops, and very difficult to upgrade anything in. And yes, that does really annoy me.
To bring some closure to this thread, I bought the Macbook Pro. What I’m hearing from knowledgeable friends and elsewhere online suggests that it should run Portal and SC2, will probably run Portal 2, and who knows with D3. I figure that D3 is far enough out that if it doesn’t run it, I’ll just put off getting that one until it’s time to upgrade my office computer. Plus, by getting the laptop, I have the option of selling my old laptop for one or two hundred (since I have need for one laptop, but not for two).