I'm sick of windows XP, and Mac sounds like it's just for me. I don't know a macbook yet, but i will in the near future. One thing that worries me though, are the games. I have a 6 years old Dell with a 733Mhz P3, which cannot run any new, good games, but that doesn't bother me at all, my PS2 is good enough. But i'm really interested in playing world of warcraft on my new mac, and because it's going to sport an Intel Processor, i was wondering if it would perform better on the Mac OS X, using the Mac version of WoW, and i'm guess Rosetta would be involved. Because of the issues of speed with rosetta, would it be better if i played it on windows XP using boot camp, with the windows version of WoW, or stick with the Mac version. This also goes for PC games in general. Or should i forget the idea of playing games at all on a macbook. I'm also considering getting 2 GB of Ram, and the 2 GHz model. How much would that improve? Thanks.
WoW is not in universal binary. This means that this game will run Natively under the intel chip. http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2004/11/worldofwarcraft/ The extra ram on that would do you a very great help. You should have NO hang-ups at all.
they have a native installer for wow you go to blizzards webpage and download it and you can then use it on intel based macs it works the same way as the installer for starcraft and my recommendation is wow for mac needs at least a duo core intel based mac to run great my recommendation go out and purchase a mac mini not a macbook
I see three options: 1. Don't play it. 2. Run Windows XP via bootcamp. 3. Run Windows XP via parallel.
i wouldn't buy a mac mini, i'd get a decent iMac. I'm actualy trying to figure out which one would be better for me. Boot camp would probably be the way to go then, for non-universal games and programs, but what about paralells. Isn't it an emulator, so wouldn't it run slow?
Yeah, parallels does run slower. A friend of mine uses parallels on his macbook and it's ok for most things- except games. Even stuff like Age Of Empires II goes noticeably slower. I use boot camp and find it to be faster and more stable, because it is running natively. Besides, it only takes a minute to reboot, not a huge deal really. Because WoW is a Universal binary, there will be no performance lag running it in OSX. So it just depends on what system you would prefer- a nice, stable, secure system, or Windows The macbooks have core duo chips on them anyway, but for games I'd recommend a macbook pro, just because you get a video card. Otherwise an iMac will do the job at a much cheaper price if that's a concern for you.
Parallels is virtualization software not emulation. It means that software runs at almost native speed and some people are even reporting that applications in XP under Parallels are faster than when booting on XP using BootCamp for some unknown reasons. There are exceptions though, and that is when the software makes use of the GPU. Because the are not drivers for graphic cards under virtualization (PC & Mac) all the work that is supposed to be done by the GPU has to be done by the CPU slowing things down. So for 3D and games Parallels is not a good option. Look a guy using XP in OSX with Virtue Desktops and Parallels on a Macbook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7b6T_34QKM&search=virtue desktops WoW on a MacBook is playable. Check the link below and make up your mind if it is good enough for you. If it is, get the MacBook and enjoy the portability if not go for the iMac. http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/games/mac_wow_performance.html Whatever you buy, do not buy upgrades from Apple. If you want more information on that let us know.
first of, with that parallels clip, you can actualy run windows XP and Mac OS X at the same time, and just switch by hitting a button, that's pretty cool. Well at least for easy stuff like web browsing and stuff like that. Games would surely do better with bootcamp. About that WoW performance, he said from 6 frames to mid 20s, but that would only be for 512 megs of Ram. I'd better getting 2 Gigs of Ram on mine (and the 2GHz model of course), and i'd be getting that ram not from apple but from this site i found called datamem.com. They have some pretty good deals. If there's anything better let me know. About the 2 Gigs, how much would that help, the frame rate? I think i'm going to go with the Macbook, instead of an iMac or MacBook pro (i can't afford a MBP). I want my new computer to be portable, and i'm about to start my senior year in high school, so i can't be dicking around too much with games. It's not like games are going to disapear, i just want a few goods ones to be enjoyable on my new computer, especialy the ones that don't run on my P3 Dell. Thank you for all the feedback.
Parallels can handle at native speed everything but 3D and games. Even high demanding engineering software runs as well as it does using BootCamp. I do not know how much 2GB of RAM are going to improve the frame rate in WoW but what I know is that if you can afford it, go for the 2GB and you will not regret it. The best budget memory you can get is Patriot. Many people is using it in their iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook or Mini and I have not read of a single complaint. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220078&Local=y The HD is the MacBook is user replaceable and it is as easy as adding more memory. I would get a 120GB HD as internal and I would put the original one in an external case. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/WD1200BEVS/
