A couple of weeks ago Apple have rolled out new MacBook laptops featuring brand new integrated Nvidia 9400M video chip. It was Intel X3100 graphics on the previous models wich was less than acceptable even for running not so demanding games like World of Warcraft. So this time I was very curious about new integrated graphics performance in World of Warcraft. Now the real life tests available. The first one (all settings at high excepty for the new “buffed” shadows):
The other (moderate settings, no new shadows):
New MacBooks with Nvidia 9400M rocks. very good (for integrated graphics) 30-50 FPS in the first case and excellent 50-65 FPS in the second – it’s just the same performance my Windows Vista laptop with dedicated Nvidia 9600GT 256Mb shows.
December 31, 2008 at 15:15 |
Very encouraging to see the performance is good on these. Does it slow down much in an instance or raid when the grphics chip has more to do?
September 30, 2009 at 04:35 |
This is off topic but who sings this song in the WoW video?
September 30, 2009 at 06:02 |
Hm… I don’t know. Never paid attention, actually.
January 11, 2009 at 07:50 |
I think even in the new raid instances it will be quite tolerable. Well, below 30FPS sometimes but still good for cheap integrated graphics.
January 17, 2009 at 23:40 |
The shattrath sample (top one) doesn’t look that great to me – there’s visible freezing at times and that’s without even the shadows turned on. Given that this game is over 4 years old, I wouldn’t say the 9400M “rocks”
January 19, 2009 at 09:45 |
It’s still far better than any other integrated graphics. I’ve tried to play World of Warcraft on a SiS Mirage machine one day and got 5 – 7 FPS on the 800*600 lowest possible settings.
January 28, 2009 at 20:54 |
Those fps figures seem quite promising, i’m looking for a similar laptop or one from the iMac range to replace my 1.8Ghz G5 iMac. What i am mainly concerned about is performance while raiding, so if you’ve done any on your lappy could you post up some rough figures, in 25man naxx my fps averages 1.5-2.0 fps lol.
June 10, 2009 at 14:57 |
So I’m curious to hear an update on this–how have your framerates been over time? How are they in crowded areas like Orgrimmar/Stormwind centers or Dalaran? What settings are you using? I’m faced with the prospect of a MacBook Pro with only the 9400M card (long story) and am curious to hear how WoW might play on it…
June 15, 2009 at 16:57 |
ME too!
June 28, 2009 at 09:09 |
Thank you for this review of the new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M in the intel based MacBook! just what i needed:)
February 20, 2010 at 21:01 |
Actually my wife and I play religiously on a Macbook 13″ and a Mac Book Pro 13″ with upgraded to 4 gig ram in the Macbook and we get great framerates in all areas minus 25 in WotLK where we have to tune it down from high to low but still everywhere else is great I do recommend smcFanControl keeps the temp down quite a bit when the fans are running on high. If you got any other wow questions for Macbook or Macbook Pro’s with 9400m graphics let me know djstriker02@gmail.com