EPTI am planning on buying a Mac, not sure which make yet (either Pro, Air, or Retina). I am curious about others playing experiences while using Mac laptops. Is there a clear choice that I should make between three? From a non gaming perspective, I was leaning towards the 13 inch Retina. I am not very computer savvy and would just like to be steered in the correct direction. Any insight here would be extremely helpful to me! Thanks in advance.
Mac SC2 Experience Advice
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The_Goliath
11 Posts
I am planning on buying a Mac, not sure which make yet (either Pro, Air, or Retina). I am curious about others playing experiences while using Mac laptops. Is there a clear choice that I should make between three? From a non gaming perspective, I was leaning towards the 13 inch Retina. I am not very computer savvy and would just like to be steered in the correct direction. Any insight here would be extremely helpful to me! Thanks in advance. | ||
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lobsterblock
United States6 Posts
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EtherealDeath
United States8366 Posts
On June 11 2013 15:27 lobsterblock wrote: I would shoot for a Pro. I use mine for just about everything (Professional Sound Production, SC2, School) and it does it all without hassle. Macbook pros play sc2 with no hassle? What settings are these at o.O | ||
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zuqbu
Germany797 Posts
a piece of general advice, apple updates their models only about once a year and macbook airs are updated right now while apples 15 inch pro and retina models where introduced almost exactly a year ago. the 13 inch pro/retina was updated in october. if you end up deciding on an air, you can buy it right away – but if you want a retina macbook pro i would wait a few weeks, they will very likely update these to haswell specs very soon. my guess is that the non-retina macbook pros will be discontinued, so the currently available specs won't change but inventory will get spare. edit: anand already has a new air, and is promising an extensive review soon link I just got my hands on a 13-inch 2013 MBA and I'll be running performance tests (including the first look at Intel's HD 5000 graphics) over the coming days. I'm still traveling until Thursday but I'll do my best to run battery life tests while I'm on the road as well. More soon! i would wait for his say before making any buying decision. | ||
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EkiTh
France12 Posts
SC2 is still playable but at the lowest game settings in 1v1, 2v2 is pretty laggy in late game (no surprise...), fans are turning on crazy mode. My advice would be to get the best GPU currently available on apple machines and also a bigger screen because SC2 on a 13" isn't really amazing. If I had to (and had the money to), I don't know if I would buy a macbook as my next computer because it sucks pretty bad not being able to play many games. | ||
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theinfamousone
United States103 Posts
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Kevin_Sorbo
Canada3217 Posts
I noticed that the game had a MUCH easier time on windows than on the Mac OS I had back then. I dont know if its still the case but it worked a while for me. but as stated earlier, im pretty sure that with a 2013 macbook pro, you can play sc2 on low/medium without fuss. | ||
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cmcaneff5502
United States116 Posts
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The_Goliath
11 Posts
And just to clarify, the main uses in order of priority for this new laptop would be as follows: 1) general internet browsing 2) netflix and hbogo streaming 3) music storage (but will be on external hard drive) 4) sc2 5) sc1/d3/d2 | ||
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Ponchmeister
United States73 Posts
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Ben...
Canada3485 Posts
On June 12 2013 04:08 The_Goliath wrote: You will need a VM (either for Windows or Snow Leopard) or to dual boot to play those. They took out support for old PowerPC applications a couple years back and SC1 and D2 were originally made back in the PowerPC days. There may be some work around to get them to work (I haven't checked lately), but out of the box they are no longer supported on OSX. It sucks but that's how it is.5) sc1/d2 Otherwise though, I definitely recommend getting a Mac of some kind (if you want to play SC2 get something with switchable graphics between the discrete card and the integrated GPU. It gives you the best of both worlds. Power when you need it, battery life when you don't. There's a handy application that lets you control which GPU is in use and with that I can easily get 7 hours on my 2012 15" Pro). They're wonderful machines. I do all my work on mine. If not for game support, I would fully switch over to OSX. Plus Mavericks is looking pretty amazing so far and I can't wait to try it. | ||
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billy5000
United States865 Posts
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Quakecomm
United States344 Posts
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Quakecomm
United States344 Posts
On June 12 2013 04:08 The_Goliath wrote: 5) sc1/d3/d2 You can't play sc1 on a mac these days no powerpc support | ||
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sluggaslamoo
Australia4494 Posts
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Rollin
Australia1552 Posts
On June 12 2013 10:26 sluggaslamoo wrote: Well I found SC2 to be pretty terrible on mac simply due to mouse movement. You actually can't disable mouse acceleration, on Lion, you kinda can but its 1:1 which means you need a really high sensitivity mouse and it still didn't feel right to me. Why would you want anything other than 1:1, ever? | ||
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sluggaslamoo
Australia4494 Posts
On June 12 2013 11:21 Rollin wrote: Why would you want anything other than 1:1, ever? Because optical mouses (which are superior to laser mouses) aren't sensitive enough for 1:1. | ||
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SecondHand
United States329 Posts
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Rollin
Australia1552 Posts
On June 12 2013 13:09 sluggaslamoo wrote: Because optical mouses (which are superior to laser mouses) aren't sensitive enough for 1:1. 1. There are optical sensors that go beyond 2k dpi. 2. I don't think there is a sensor that is worse than not being at 1:1. | ||
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
On June 12 2013 09:38 Quakecomm wrote: My macbook pro 13" from about 2 years ago really chugs running sc2. I wouldn't recommend mac. 2 years ago is quite a while. The 15 inch MBP will run SC2 great. The 13 inch MBP or the Macbook Air could still run it. But if you're sensitive to low frame rates then it's not a good idea. | ||
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shubcraft
Germany145 Posts
Any new model above that should give even more frames. | ||
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TypeLex
Germany62 Posts
In OS X, I barely get 35fps on low settings while in Windows 7 I goer 90fps in 1v1 on ultra settings (With Indirect Shadows switched off). On windows, I installed the Nvidia driver from the website which came with the GeForce Experience tool, it did the SC2 settings for me and it run beautifully. Just trying to figure out why it won't run well under OS X (right now 10.9). | ||
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Necrotic[OD]
United States9 Posts
Also if you're going to go for a macbook, I'd say aim for a 15" pro, and pay especially close attention to the video card. Guaranteed any macbook you buy post 2011 is going to have at least 4 gigabytes of ram, and a very nice processor, but they don't always give them good video cards. My card is a radeon hd6490m. So make sure it has either that or a card that is higher up in the series (HD6750m) | ||
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zuqbu
Germany797 Posts
On June 23 2013 06:09 TypeLex wrote: I have a top of the range Retina MacBook PRO here and it's been quite difficult running SC2 in Mac OS X. In OS X, I barely get 35fps on low settings while in Windows 7 I goer 90fps in 1v1 on ultra settings (With Indirect Shadows switched off). On windows, I installed the Nvidia driver from the website which came with the GeForce Experience tool, it did the SC2 settings for me and it run beautifully. Just trying to figure out why it won't run well under OS X (right now 10.9). oh i can tell you why it won't run well: you're using developer preview software. i have iOS7 installed on my carrier phone right now, and i am currently evaluating if i will go through all the pain that is downgrading back to iOS6 – because the current release is slow, buggy and eats through a charge in an hour or so (xcode tells me itunesstored constantly crashes in the background). and apple had OS X engineers crunch on iOS for months, so i can only guess mavericks is in an even sadder state right now. i have the entry level 15inch retina MBP and sc2 runs under OS X 10.8.4 at ~250 fps at the game start, and never below ~90 fps in late game battles (1vs1, 1920x1200, low settings but textures high). if i cap the frame rate at 60 i can play without the fans kicking in ever. i guess boot camp performance could even be better but why bother? if your rMBP can't run sc2 well on mountain lion – something might be seriously wrong. or do you have the 13inch rMBP without a discrete GPU? you can PM me for assistance, i will be glad to help. On June 23 2013 08:07 Necrotic[OD] wrote: Also if you're going to go for a macbook, I'd say aim for a 15" pro, and pay especially close attention to the video card. Guaranteed any macbook you buy post 2011 is going to have at least 4 gigabytes of ram, and a very nice processor, but they don't always give them good video cards. My card is a radeon hd6490m. So make sure it has either that or a card that is higher up in the series (HD6750m) the current 15 inch Retina and regular MacBook Pros all come with the GT650M. the retinas all got 1 GB of VRAM, on the regular ones you get 512 MB with 1 GB as a BTO-option. this may change when the MBP line gets upgraded to haswell in the next weeks. @OP, anand's review of the 13inch 2013 MBA is up: There's a surprising number of games that are actually playable on Intel's HD 5000 in the MacBook Air. You have to be ok with the fan spinning quite loudly, but it's possible to get some ultra portable gaming in if you're up for it. | ||
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nichan
United States158 Posts
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Targe
United Kingdom14103 Posts
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