Macbook Pro

[anotherlevel]

I will be running Windows on it, so I can use either the OSX or Windows version of Dolphin.

The specs for the 2012 13" model is either:

2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz

2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
With Intel HD 4000

How well would the 2.9GHz i7 run games like Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower?
If it can't run it well, I think I will just opt for the cheaper 2.5GHz version and maybe play these games whenever I get a Wii U down the line.

[Starscream]

Intel graphics are worthless. You'll be able to use 1xIR in some games, but my belief is that no one should ever buy a machine with Intel graphics if they intend to play games, period. As far as the processors go, you'll be able to play some games decently well (as long as you don't overheat) but most of the games you mentioned are going to need more power (4.0GHz or more).

[anotherlevel]

Intel graphics are worthless. You'll be able to use 1xIR in some games, but my belief is that no one should ever buy a machine with Intel graphics if they intend to play games, period. As far as the processors go, you'll be able to play some games decently well (as long as you don't overheat) but most of the games you mentioned are going to need more power (4.0GHz or more).

Thanks for your reply. Playing any games is just a bonus. The laptop will be for college work, so I was just wondering whether I should bump it up to 2.9GHz.
One of the main reasons I would rather use Dolphin rather than a Wii/Wii U is for the enhanced IR. But it figures that I won't be able to bump up the IR with an Intel GPU of all things.

I suppose I will just go for the base 2.5Ghz model and save some cash.

[pauldacheez]

A 15" MBP, Retina or not, would work well for light-to-medium games in Dolphin, what with its faster quad-core CPU (yay, LLE on thread!) and dedicated GPU. (Aside from that one lighting issue on Nvidia cards, but delroth the miracle worker is actually diagnosing and working on that now, so it'll be fixed soon.) But even that thing wouldn't run The Last Story at full-speed - that game's godawfully CPU-intensive in Dolphin.

[admin89]

For the same price , I would buy gaming laptop instead , something like Asus G75vw i7 3610QM (Turbo : 3.1GHz - 3 or 4cores ; 3.2GHz -2 cores ; 3.3GHz - 1 core) + Nvidia GTX 670M
Macbook pro is garbage compare to that gaming laptop . Ultrabook is cheaper if you need portability
Even if you bought Macbook Pro Retina 15" which is much better specs , you would have to install windows for Dolphin
Gaming laptop + Macintosh = win!

[pauldacheez]

admin89, installing Windows wouldn't be necessary at all. As I mentioned, the one lighting issue is currently being worked on, and there are no other major problems with Dolphin on OS X. The only benefits to running it on Windows are a few less bugs (stupid stuff like being able to use the mouse as a Wiimote pointer) and a few more frames per second from the DX backends (5-10, mostly, 20 very-best-case).

[admin89]

Linux , OSX : OpenGL forever and no other options . There are some games only work with Directx 9 and Directx 11 (total black screen with OpenGL)
Windows : OpenGL , Directx9 , Directx11
I fail to see why i have to pay ridiculous price for laptop that is low performance , less option to choose than a cheap gaming laptop

[pauldacheez]

No, there are games that work *better* with DX9/DX11, but I highly doubt there are any games that are completely broken under only OpenGL. (And if there is it's probably some crap game that nobody wants to play anyway.) Feel free to show examples to the contrary, though.

As for paying out the ass for a weaker laptop, I honestly don't know why we Mac people do it either. We're crazy, but at least we have the money to be.

[Starscream]

You can't argue with Apple guys. There aren't very many of them, but when you do run into one, they'll fight you to the death about why their overpriced and less powerful machine is the better one.

[pauldacheez]

Y'got that right, [SS].

Honestly, for me it's just the keyboard/trackpad and the OS itself that prevent me from ever buying anything else. Minor UX things like this just drive me batshit insane on other OSes.