Macbook upgrades, creates new platform for gamers
Last Tuesday at Apple Headquarters in Cupertino California, Apple unveiled the new Macbook, and Macbook Pro.
For a long time now the Macbook has been a solid white plastic laptop that you could spot all over any college or university campus. In fact, the Macbook is the most popular laptop among post-secondary students, but one thing has always been lacking with the Macbooks, their ability to play games.
The old Macbooks, which many of you may own yourselves, of course can play 3D Chess without breaking a sweat. They cannot on the other hand play any sort of actual new video games. This is because the old white Macbooks do not have their own graphics card. The chipset, an important part within computers that help tie all the components together, also doubled as the graphics work horse in the Macbooks. The chipset, Intel's GMA X3100 graphics processor, is slow, and was actually a step down in graphic power when the Macbooks first came around.
Before the Macbook was the Macbook, it was called the iBook, of which this writer himself uses. They had their own graphics cards before Apple axed them when they transformed the iBook into the Macbook.
Now, Apple has bounced back. No, the new Macbooks don't have their own graphics card again, but their chipset are actually made by probably the world's more well-known graphics card maker, Nvidea. Nvidea knows their graphics, and they've incorporated that knowledge into the Macbooks new chipset to, frankly, belt out graphical power. Approximately five times the amount of graphical processing power over the old Macbooks.
In fact, the graphical output of the new Macbooks, which sport an aluminum body now instead of white plastic, is almost comparable to the previous Macbook Pro's graphical output. The Macbook Pro was also made faster last week, but prior to that, it ran Nvidea's 8600M GT graphics card. The new chipset in the Macbook is dubbed the Nvidea 9400M. For students wanting some game in their Apple Laptop, they no longer have to fork out an extra $700 or so for a Macbook Pro, because if you're looking to play games like Spore or Call of Duty 4, the Macbook can do it.
Nowadays more and more games are coming out for the Mac as well, and the timing couldn't be better. As mentioned, Call of Duty 4 and Spore are now out for Mac, but so are Guitar Hero, Madden, World of Warcraft, and Need for Speed among many others.
The other nifty thing about Macs to remember is they can also run Windows, and all the games that play on it. Lucky for many, but-not-all, Fanshawe students, the Help Desk in room E2030 installs Windows XP or Vista on Macs for free, if it comes with your Fanshawe program.
For a long time now the Macbook has been a solid white plastic laptop that you could spot all over any college or university campus. In fact, the Macbook is the most popular laptop among post-secondary students, but one thing has always been lacking with the Macbooks, their ability to play games.
The old Macbooks, which many of you may own yourselves, of course can play 3D Chess without breaking a sweat. They cannot on the other hand play any sort of actual new video games. This is because the old white Macbooks do not have their own graphics card. The chipset, an important part within computers that help tie all the components together, also doubled as the graphics work horse in the Macbooks. The chipset, Intel's GMA X3100 graphics processor, is slow, and was actually a step down in graphic power when the Macbooks first came around.
Before the Macbook was the Macbook, it was called the iBook, of which this writer himself uses. They had their own graphics cards before Apple axed them when they transformed the iBook into the Macbook.
Now, Apple has bounced back. No, the new Macbooks don't have their own graphics card again, but their chipset are actually made by probably the world's more well-known graphics card maker, Nvidea. Nvidea knows their graphics, and they've incorporated that knowledge into the Macbooks new chipset to, frankly, belt out graphical power. Approximately five times the amount of graphical processing power over the old Macbooks.
In fact, the graphical output of the new Macbooks, which sport an aluminum body now instead of white plastic, is almost comparable to the previous Macbook Pro's graphical output. The Macbook Pro was also made faster last week, but prior to that, it ran Nvidea's 8600M GT graphics card. The new chipset in the Macbook is dubbed the Nvidea 9400M. For students wanting some game in their Apple Laptop, they no longer have to fork out an extra $700 or so for a Macbook Pro, because if you're looking to play games like Spore or Call of Duty 4, the Macbook can do it.
Nowadays more and more games are coming out for the Mac as well, and the timing couldn't be better. As mentioned, Call of Duty 4 and Spore are now out for Mac, but so are Guitar Hero, Madden, World of Warcraft, and Need for Speed among many others.
The other nifty thing about Macs to remember is they can also run Windows, and all the games that play on it. Lucky for many, but-not-all, Fanshawe students, the Help Desk in room E2030 installs Windows XP or Vista on Macs for free, if it comes with your Fanshawe program.
