MacBook, Overlord...

[Rahsten]

I just got a copy of Overlord as a few of my friends recommended it to me. So, I went and partitioned my HD and installed XP Pro. XP Pro runs great (actually faster/smoother than I've ever seen it run on a non-Mac).

Anyways when I go to install it I get a message saying my computer doesn't meet the system requirements and that it would play, but with a few 'issues'. My MacBook is 2GHz with 1.25GB RAM. Apparently the game requires 2.4 GHz and GeForce or Radeon Graphic cards. This is when I learned that my MacBook no longer has a Radeon card like my old iBook but instead has some lousy thing called an Intel GMA 950...i think. Overlord wouldn't even load, I'm assuming because of the graphics card?

So, I realize I won't be able to play Overlord on my Mac(XP) but that's OK because my wife has a nice PC. But, now that I have XP installed on my MacBook I was wondering if I can in fact play any PC games on it. Most require Nividia or Radeon cards right? Are there any 'good' PC games that will actually work with the MacBooks inferior Intel GMA card? There are some cool PC games I'd like to play and can't depend on my wife's computer being available when I can play....so...

 

[gloss]

3-D games from the last few years are gonna be awful on your MacBook. The processor is fine, but the GPU is lousy for anything outside of basic OS effects.

 

[Tom B.]

Are there any 'good' PC games that will actually work with the MacBook's inferior Intel GMA card?

WarCraft III is an excellent game and will work fairly well on your MacBook.

StarCraft will work as well as it will on any computer on your MacBook, and is regarded by many as the best PC game ever created... until StarCraft II that is.

And best of all, both of these games will work in Mac OS X, so there's no need to use XP on your MacBook again, except as a party trick.

 

[Rahsten]

Hmm, how about games for someone who isn't a real big RTS fan, lol?

 

[Igantius]

Hmm, how about games for someone who isn't a real big RTS fan, lol?

Hmm, how about one of the MB gaming threads like
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/214214/ ?

If you've got any particular games in mind, just do a google search - if people are running it happily on a MB, you'll see it easily enough.

BTW the GMA 950 isn't actually a card, but an integrated graphics processor built into the motherboard - it takes memory with the MB's RAM. you can find quite a few threads about this but for maximum graphics performance, you need matched pairs of RAM (e.g. 2x1GB) rather than unmatched like you're using - the 2x1GB configuration looks like the optimum when it comes to 3D gaming (although you could install more).

The GMA 950 is very common in PCs, especially consumer laptops, so you will have no shortage of finding (older) games to play. Roughly speaking, most games from the last year or so should play rather well.

Also, although some will advise that you can't play 3D games on them, you can (Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth; Halo; Call of Duty, WoW, HL2 etc etc) - all depends on the game.

The GMA 950 is not a gaming dream by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not the dog that some people claim... particularly those of haven't used it.

As I say, have a look at some of the dedicated threads, but if you've got particular games in mind, google!