Help me with this game: GTA 4 on a Macbook Pro 4,1 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

okyoureabeast · #1 03-04-2010, 04:20 PM

I'm at whits end. I really want to play this game and for the love of me I cannot get it to work.

I have a Macbook Pro 4,1 (Pennryn) with 4gb of ram, the 256 mb Nvidia 8600mgt, and windows 7 professional.

All of the drivers are up to date.

The game looks like crap and it complains about not having enough system resources. This is complete BS in my eyes as I can play Crysis at high quality with a frames per second count that is more than acceptable.

Does anyone have any tips on getting this working short of me buying an xbox 360? I'd love to finally be able to play this game!

tbomachines · #2 03-04-2010, 06:36 PM

A macbook with windows 7, interesting! Usually people do the opposite, put Mac OS on other machines. Not sure how to help you, do you know if it is overclocked at all? Once I tried overclocking my celeron machine for the heck of it and messed up all the PCI bios settings and it limited the framerates to 10fps on some games and not others (counterstrike but not TF2, which use same graphics engine). Did you do the 7 install yourself?

Ara T. · #3 03-04-2010, 06:49 PM

Thats normal for that game, it's an extreme system hog. Your RAM is good but your video card sucks, as does your processor (for gaming). Unfortunately Rockstar (the developers) weren't able to optimize it very well so you need a pretty hefty CPU and video card. Unfortunately you're going to have to get a PS3 or Xbox to play it

Or just get Vice City, its more fun anyways.

MTI · #4 03-04-2010, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbomachines

A macbook with windows 7, interesting! Usually people do the opposite, put Mac OS on other machines.

Pretty common thing since Apple switched to intel processors and Boot Camp was integrated into Leopard. You can boot into either OS. Using software, like VM Fusion or Parallels, virtual ms windows can be run without having to reboot.

okyoureabeast · #5 03-04-2010, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ara T.

Thats normal for that game, it's an extreme system hog. Your RAM is good but your video card sucks, as does your processor (for gaming). Unfortunately Rockstar (the developers) weren't able to optimize it very well so you need a pretty hefty CPU and video card. Unfortunately you're going to have to get a PS3 or Xbox to play it

Or just get Vice City, its more fun anyways.

I figured that much. I should just put it up in the parts forum for sale

I did try over clocking the GPU, but that did very little for me in the long run.

I dual boot between the two. I have a 500gb HD and both of them are split evenly. I can't buck the gaming addiction.

Also I love the Windows XP virtual machine. It has saved me countless problems since a lot of programs don't like 7 yet. 10.6 has its own issues that I'm working through.

Personally I like Windows 7 more than 10.6. My next computer won't be a Mac that's for sure.

pawoSD · #6 03-04-2010, 10:14 PM

Why are you using a MAC laptop to try and play a game? That is like trying to push around 20 ton logs with a bobcat......

Build a real PC and enjoy some real gaming!

tbomachines · #7 03-04-2010, 11:18 PM

(shrug) Macs are great for music and video editing...I built a PC a couple years ago dedicated to music production and it worked well, but not as quick as a mac.

iwrock · #8 03-05-2010, 12:56 PM

Hmmm, were those the ones with the dual video cards?

My old MacBook would run it no probs, and it was a crappy core duo.

okyoureabeast · #9 03-06-2010, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawoSD

Why are you using a MAC laptop to try and play a game? That is like trying to push around 20 ton logs with a bobcat......

Build a real PC and enjoy some real gaming!

Real men look at specs and not the OS

My macbook pro is 2 year sold. It has a dual core processor at 2.4 ghz, 4gb of ram, a sick optical audio out sound card, express card slot, firewire 400/800, AND a pretty good video card 8600m gt.

Operating systems are tools to me, nothing more. Fanboyism is a sickness and should be avoided.

I love OS X for Pro Tools. That program just sips on ram. Otherwise i'm back in windows land for mostly everything else.

I'm quite happy with my Macbook Pro. I wouldn't have purchased it without the steep $1000 discount my school gave me.

@Iwrock my machine was the last macbook pro with just one video card before the design change to the unibody frame. They got rid of a lot of things on the newer macbook pros.

pawoSD · #10 03-07-2010, 01:33 AM

The 8600GT is an ancient and weak graphics card....not really adequate for playing modern games at any decent resolution/frame rate....my work PC has that card in it, and it is 2-3 yeas old.

If real men look at specs, then most macs are girly men.

People always "claim" that a mac is faster, when in reality it just just an average PC with a different (linux based) OS on it....the speed-feel is mostly a psychological thing for the user.

#11 03-07-2010, 08:05 AM

LOL, real men don't waste time playing games.

pawoSD · #12 03-07-2010, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig

LOL, real men don't waste time playing games.

True, at least I can say I spend about 95% more time working on my car than I do playing games.

okyoureabeast · #13 03-07-2010, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig

LOL, real men don't waste time playing games.

So what do you call poker

My laptop is two years old. I'm happy with it.

The unix base of OS X in terms of stability and the like will run on the most lacking of processors. It's ram that will choke you down!