FFXI on Macbook Pro

[framerate]

wow thanks for posting this I have been wanting to get a new notebook for some time now and was thinking about geting a mac, cuz now i can play FFXI on it

could you post some screen shots of game play on your mac plz?
also are you use the 128 or 256 video card?

thanks again

palom

I got the 256. Since FFXI is capped at 30fps anyways, this is WAY more than enough to run it maxed out.

Sounds great, i use a PC at home for FFXI and use a MAc at work for ARchicad and usual work related admin as an Architect. I was waiting to see what this new dueal boot machines are like, when I get more money saved I am looking at getting a G5 tower for home with the intel chips and dual boot function, Macs are so much securer and I love using them, though its a frustration no windows applications runs on them. This may be a great move by Steve Jobs to open up the Mac market more.

How did the installation go? Any problems with installing FF?

Installing of FFXI was super easy. It's just as easy as a non-apple based WinXP install
I did however have many problems with "Boot Camp". The only way I could get the partitioner to work (and you CAN'T partition yourself.. you HAVE to use boot camp) is to do a fresh OSX install, then upgrade to 10.5.6, then install boot camp and XP. THEN I install all my OSX programs/mp3's etc. Otherwise the partitioning would fail (and it did, 3 times.).

Also keep in mind intel is NOT G5 chips. G5 are the previous powerpc processors from IBM. Instead of making G5 laptops and "G6 Desktops" (in theory) then switched to Intel Dual Core..

[sevenpointflaw]

Boot Camp is also in beta right now.

[framerate]

Boot Camp is also in beta right now.

Correct, which is why I'm not complaining. I just wanted to warn people because every other review online says it went "totally smooth".

[kuu]

Boot camp is just a fancy disk utility, abeit a very useful one. It allows you to create a new paritition without erasing old one.

The real meat of boot camp is the drivers, and startup disk(both mac and windows), and the firmware update.

Apple tried to lock it out with windows when they went EFI and took out bios emulation.

The all important intel firmware update 1.0 is what put it back, and made everything right in the world again.

Driver are probably all the dev work apple did on boot camp.

Beta stands for the "extra" options probably not done yet, such as more drivers like IR remote, left mouse button, the problem of reading between partitions, etc. Apple can't write to ntfs, and windows can't do it to HFS+ without a program called "macdrive"

I wouldn't be surpised that ffxi runs so well, the core duos are on par with xeon power, lacking a few things here and there like 64bit. so a 1.8-2ghz xeon would be quite powerful. And we know the the GPU doesn't really matter to ffxi.

I'm thinking of getting a macbook pro myself, besides the fact that I need a labtop, work on a mac, and finally can get a hefty discount....

[Palom]

so I should wait for the new OS X that will come with the final Bootcamp?

[kuu]

so I should wait for the new OS X that will come with the final Bootcamp?

August at the earliest, most likely later, way later.

But no, as I said before, boot camp is bascially a fancy disk utility and drivers.

The real meat is the firmware update, which put back bios emulation, to install windows.

So rest a sure the PC side works fine, except perhaps the track bad left mouse click...that doesn't exist yet, so get a usb mouse

[Palom]

sounds great but I also hear that the macbook pro has some errors in it like the wireless card messes up and such

[Jarre]

Correct, which is why I'm not complaining. I just wanted to warn people because every other review online says it went "totally smooth".

If tis one thing i have learnt with computers is...

computers = never non-problematic, there is always something!!

I never beleive an artical that says it went totally smooth.

as for wireless networks, there the most difficult thigns to deal with when they go wrong, thats why i still have my computer attached to the router via a cable lol. Less things to go wrong = less stress!!!

[ruffrydasean]

OK, then whats the difference between the macbook and macbook pro? I'm not up on apple stuff like that really...

[kuu]

OK, then whats the difference between the macbook and macbook pro? I'm not up on apple stuff like that really...

New naming scheme for intel laptops.

Macbook pro -> professional, high end (previously powerbooks)

Macbook -> not released yet, only a speculative name(but pretty much obvious) consumer level, low end (perviously called iBook

We don't know the ibooks specs yet, since they're not released. so it's hard to say one would have this while not that.

Traditionally, pro/power books are in the $2k range, and larger screen size, etc

ibook/macbook should be around $1k range and have lower 12-14 screenies, among other things...there's talk ot colors now among others.

sounds great but I also hear that the macbook pro has some errors in it like the wireless card messes up and such

That's not really apple's fault since they are using mostly generic parts, if you look at their windows drivers list, you can tell what they're using.

If the supplier has crappy drivers for windows, well it's not really apple's problem, to making it windows certified compatible. If you've heard the rest of the story, users would recomend installing athoros wireless utility, which is better supported then windowsXP's wireless.

Welcome to the windows world, as they say.

[framerate]

We don't know the ibooks specs yet, since they're not released. so it's hard to say one would have this while not that.

Only thing I'm pretty sure is its 13.3" widescreen LCD's now...

Welcome to the windows world, as they say.

So sad, but true. I try to stay out of windows on my macbook unless I'm specifically playing games...

[Palom]

That's not really apple's fault since they are using mostly generic parts, if you look at their windows drivers list, you can tell what they're using.

If the supplier has crappy drivers for windows, well it's not really apple's problem, to making it windows certified compatible. If you've heard the rest of the story, users would recomend installing athoros wireless utility, which is better supported then windowsXP's wireless.

.

I ment runing the notebook on OS X
any know if this is true?

[kuu]

I ment runing the notebook on OS X
any know if this is true?

Not that I heard, besides the usual defective models with any product.

What you may be talking about is an rare problem with wireless under osx, where the keychain password storage gets currupted and thus you can't log in to your wireless network.(Ususally after a system upgrade)

There are various fixes to that.