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The thread that was up until recently called the Seanachai is Challenged OS X thread


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Doh! I'll probably keep calling it a PowerBook for the next 4 years or so. I've had a PowerBook of one sort or another since 1993, so it's not going to be an easy habit to shake :D

I have no idea how well it will run on the MacBook (there, I said it!) since, as Pzman points out, the graphics card sucks. Same for some of the iMacs too.

Steve

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Steve,

If you need someone to try it on a MACBOOK under XP I would be happy to do so smile.gif

Honestly, I think the GMA chip gets kind of a bad rap...I play all CM versions and they look just fine...of course I do have 1 GB of RAM in my MACBOOK and if I got a new one I would get 2 GB...I have determined that XP allocates the full 227MB of RAM to the GMA chip (via the Intel website) which is much better than the supposed 64 MB allocated under OS X...

Anyway, I am a realist and wouldn't expect CMSF to look as good on my MACBOOK as my Imac with the graphics card...BUT I have a little trouble personally justifying an extra $500 for a MACBOOK PRO just to have a graphics card for games when the MACBOOK is a nice little machine..and when I need a CMSF fix while traveling, I can live with less eye candy....

Anyway, what do you think? Want an honest review :D

As you can tell, I am REALLY fired up about this game.

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worth noting:

Apple underclocking MacBook Pro graphics cards

By Prince McLean

Friday, April 21, 2006

Published: 04:00 PM EST

Apple is trading graphics performance for battery life with its new line of Intel-based MacBook Pro notebooks.

The ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card inside each MacBook Pro is capable of running both its graphics processing unit and memory at about 470MHz, but avid computer users have discovered the cards are underclocked to 310MHz (GPU) and 278MHz (RAM).

The modifications cripple the speed of the graphics processor by about 34 percent and the memory by 41 percent.

Users discovered the change after installing Microsoft's Windows XP (with the help of Apple's Boot Camp software) and running a third party application called ATITool (0.25).

By sacrificing graphics performance, Apple was able to improve the MacBook Pro's battery life and keep the units near-silent.

Some daring MacBook Pro users successfully used the third party ATITool software to uncap the full potential of the ATI chip. They found it reduced the battery life of their MacBook Pro by about 30 minutes, but did not over heat the notebooks or cause any other side effects such as display artifacts.

However, one user said the uncapping "took only couple of seconds" to cause the system's cooling system fan to spin at a speed he "never experienced before."

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The chipset in the MacBook is newer than CMx1's graphics engine, so of course it runs great :D The problem is it is a lot older than CMx2's graphics engine. That's why there is bound to be a significant difference in performance between the MacBook (and some iMacs) and MacBook Pro.

I also heard about the underclocking. I've not changed the clocking speed of mine because of heat and artificat concerns. I use my laptop plugged in most of the time so I'm not as concerned about battery life. But I will say this... having 3 solid, reliable hours of battery life on my MacBook Pro is soooooooooooooo cool compared to the 1 hour or less on my PowerBook G4.

Steve

[ February 22, 2007, 08:54 AM: Message edited by: Battlefront.com ]

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BTW, the framerate is extremely good. I generally average in the 30s even with fairly busy maps and texture/speed settings nearly maxed out. My real problem with it is the same issues I have with all ATI cards - shadows and drivers suck. When a graphics card company has to direct customers experiencing problems to some 3rd party Joe Schmo who hacks ATI's drivers to make them work better, well... one can't help but be underwhelmed by the company's ability to code good drivers.

Steve

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Wellll, I guess what I should have said is the GMA doesn't suck that much...anyway...can I safely assume that my IMAC Core Duo with the X1600 and 128 Mb VRAM will play CMSF okay?

I guess if I can only play it on my desktop, I will still gladly buy it...just have to cut down on my travel so I can be home to play!

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Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

Therefore, I think Mac user's fears about Windows' engineering problems are overblown.

I'm not worried about their 'engineering problems'. I'm worried about my bloody Immortal Soul. I'm not an Evangelical Christian, so I'm not going to be able to either bribe or kill my way into heaven. I'm going to have to depend on how I've treated the Planet, good works, acts of charity and whether or not I protested when Microsoft rolled a pig-shaped idol covered in bronze-colored foil into the middle of the compound and started rounding up everyone who didn't fall to their knees in front of it, while ignoring the boxcars behind them that were being loaded with everyone who fancied the right of choice in their software and hardware.

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

Seanachai, I think you are a good example of the dilemma we face.

Umm...how to make a Customer still feel valued, even though you think they're a goddamn whack-job? Oh, no, wait! You mean, despite the fact that you know they're a goddamn whack-job!

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

We don't want to lose you (yes, even YOU!) as a customer.

That's just because you believe that, by retaining me as a Customer, your current 'Appeasement Policy' towards Microsoft (Read: being able to make money), will leave you, somehow, Untouched By Evil.

It will not. You have, fundamentally, been corrupted. I cannot, as a Way Freaking Weird Mac Customer Who Began the Peng Challenge Thread, return you to Innocence, and Purity.

The best I can do is Remove the Stain of Sin that attaches to you, and all your actions, since you chose to surrender yourselves to The Great Satan. But you must, to some degree, actually regret the fact that you have surrendered yourselves to the Realities of the World.

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

However, if you are to stick with your G4 I don't think you would be playing CM:SF even with a universal binary OSX version. The reason is performance. Then again, since we don't have a universal binary to try out on a G4 it's kinda hard to estimate. At the best, though, it would be the low end of the spectrum. Bottom line, for someone like you there probably is no solution for you until you upgrade your hardware no matter what we do.

Always blaming ME, the freaking VICTIM! I don't want to talk about the Hardware right now. I just want to shower, over and over and over again, until the memory of how you lured me into playing Combat Mission and then abandoned me to that whore in fish-net stockings, with her Syrian boob-job, fades from my memory...

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

If we do a MacOS version it would be Universal Binary for sure. Since it would be coded from scratch I can't think of any reason why we would be forced into limiting ourselves to something that would run only on Intel based Macs.

Then...that means Little Johnny might grow-up strong-limbed, literate, and able to blink?

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

Lastly, please don't lose hope...

Bloody leaping hell, let's see...You lot have had to ban me once, you yourself have personally brutalized me in an email at least once, I've personally pissed on every concept in sight like a rotating sprinkler in overdrive...

I guess I can play mumblety-peg with Boo until you feckers sort things out.

Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

As I said, we have made no decision at this point. If it were simply a Dollars and Cents decision to make we likely wouldn't be making a MacOS version. But there is more to it than that, and Seanachai somehow was able to illustrate the other reasons using comprehensible English. Wonders will never cease :D

Steve

It's a freaking gift. Personally, I figure the only reason you bastards keep producing something like a Mac version is so that I'll come 'round and talk trash, versify, tell stories, gibber on like a Psych Ward regular, and lead everyone in the odd jolly singsong.

I like to think that I add a certain cachet to the whole place.

Let's face it. You buggers are dealing with the need to balance between things like Grog Dorosh and John Kettler. Angry Syrians, and equally angry Israelis. The entire Cheery Waffle. Mac and Windows.

I'll wait and see what's coming. And if I can't play the new game, well, Steve...

We'll always have the Peng Challenge Thread. We didn't have it, we'd lost it, until you came in here. We got it back with your post.

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Originally posted by aka_tom_w:

This thread was retitled as Steve as recently posted some Mac OS X tidbits to it.

You annoying halfwit bugger. Don't re-title something people are posting to as the means of keeping it active. Simply post again. Or start another thread.

There are times when I worry about your mental abilities...

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Originally posted by aka_tom_w:

worth noting:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Apple underclocking MacBook Pro graphics cards

By Prince McLean

Friday, April 21, 2006

Published: 04:00 PM EST

Apple is trading graphics performance for battery life with its new line of Intel-based MacBook Pro notebooks.

The ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card inside each MacBook Pro is capable of running both its graphics processing unit and memory at about 470MHz, but avid computer users have discovered the cards are underclocked to 310MHz (GPU) and 278MHz (RAM).

The modifications cripple the speed of the graphics processor by about 34 percent and the memory by 41 percent.

Users discovered the change after installing Microsoft's Windows XP (with the help of Apple's Boot Camp software) and running a third party application called ATITool (0.25).

By sacrificing graphics performance, Apple was able to improve the MacBook Pro's battery life and keep the units near-silent.

Some daring MacBook Pro users successfully used the third party ATITool software to uncap the full potential of the ATI chip. They found it reduced the battery life of their MacBook Pro by about 30 minutes, but did not over heat the notebooks or cause any other side effects such as display artifacts.

However, one user said the uncapping "took only couple of seconds" to cause the system's cooling system fan to spin at a speed he "never experienced before."

</font>
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Originally posted by aka_tom_w:

This thread was retitled as Seanachai as directly challenged my state of mental health, in a Peng Challenge Thread Like Imortal manner. To him I raise my keyboard in defiance of defiling my thread!

Back into the cesspool with you I say to Seanachai, you Mac loving, deviant, Peng Challenge thread fanatic.

Martin

You sick little puppy. The only question about your state of mental health is whether you'll go into spasms when you're tazed as they come to drag you away from finger-painting on the walls with your own filth.

I will return to the Peng Challenge. Not at your bequest, but because it remains the only place where a man of intellect still has a place.

Take care, Tom.

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