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Mirth Dragonfire
Amarr ironwood ink
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Posted - 2008.02.12 20:06:00 -
[1]
Has anyone tried playing EvE on the new Macbook air yet, please ?
I've never had a Mac before, but I've always been impressed by a cool gadget. I need a new laptop and am very tempted to switch to a Mac, as I do a lot of photoshop stuff .
When I read the specs, I notice it only has an integrated graphics card rather than the 8xxx series Nvidia cards of the earlier model.
I want surfing, photoshop, Eve and a decent small laptop. All advice gratefully recieved by a mac noob.
:) Mirth :) :) Mirth :)
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Real Poison
Minmatar Mutually Assured Destruction Angels Of Discord
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Posted - 2008.02.12 20:19:00 -
[2]
the eve client for mac wouldn't run playable on an air, if at all. only way to run eve would be to run windows via bootcamp and play the windows version.
best for you would be a 15" macbook pro. but then again wait for the end of month. there'll be a new macbook pro with multitouch trackpad like the air has (at least rumors say so).
so current macbook pro's are a "DON'T BUY" atm.
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Mirth Dragonfire
Amarr ironwood ink
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Posted - 2008.02.12 20:31:00 -
[3]
Thanks for the quick reply
:) Mirth :)
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Soldara
C.R.M Productions Legion of Honor
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Posted - 2008.02.12 20:34:00 -
[4]
I have to agree with Real Poison, the Macbook Air isn't going to cut it for running Eve, all of the benchmarks so far peg it as slower than even the Mac Mini & the current Macbook.
If you are willing to spend the money on the Macbook Air, I would highly recommend the Macbook Pro. You will get a real graphics card, larger & faster HDD, more expansion ports, up to 4 GB of RAM(buy separately, NOT from Apple), and an overall better bang for your buck.(particularly since you mentioned Photoshop)
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Magiis
Gallente Cult of NimaNima
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Posted - 2008.02.14 13:56:00 -
[5]
I have recently purchased a MacBook Air (for travel purposes). I tried to play both EVE and WOW on it.
WOW ran fine, a bit shoppy in shattrath, but other than that it was fine (if your expectations are low).
But what i mostly wanted to run was EVE. Just to maintain my market transactions and travel from place to place. I ran the client fine. It logged me in and I was able to play (albeit not very well) and I thought I would be able to do my market transactions on the MBA. However, sometimes, the client crashes. For no reason at all, it just crashes sometimes - no error message, no weird screen. I think its the jumpgates that make it crash... not even all the jump gates only some of them.
I will try to install bootcamp on the mac to see if PC version does the same thing. I'll keep you posted.
** MAGIIS
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Mara Rinn
Minmatar
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Posted - 2008.02.19 00:30:00 -
[6]
Originally by: Magiis However, sometimes, the client crashes. For no reason at all, it just crashes sometimes - no error message, no weird screen. I think its the jumpgates that make it crash... not even all the jump gates only some of them.
Welcome to EVE on the Mac!
There are several issues being investigated, it's worth checking the threads by CCP staff on this forum for more details.
It's worth noting that once EVE crashes, the safest option is to log out of your Mac OS X account, and log back in before starting EVE up again. There are problems with EVE, Cider (the translation layer between EVE which is a DirectX game, and OpenGL which is what the Mac uses), Mac OS X and the various video chipsets. These problems are usually addressed by resetting the graphics environment, which is achieved by logging out and back in again.
Hope this helps.
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Akrinos LuCont
Gallente No Quarter. Vae Victis.
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Posted - 2008.02.25 02:50:00 -
[7]
Edited by: Akrinos LuCont on 25/02/2008 02:54:07 Edited by: Akrinos LuCont on 25/02/2008 02:51:40 Unless Eveonline will be played on an ipod / itunes, or iphone...I really wouldnt recomend getting an apple laptop.
it seems apple has only been focusing on their popular entertainment products and forgotten their computer Market (not just releasing a thin laptop cuts it-sad to say)- really slow and incompatable on their computer sofware issues.
i would recommend getting a gaming laptop or a laptop brand that only focuses on computers.
yes, i have come to the realization that apple has persued different venues and not seeking solutions to computer software issues...
i have seek elsewhere to play my online games.
oh yes btw- i do own a macbook pro.
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Sheepbringer
Royal Amarr Institute
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Posted - 2008.03.27 10:59:00 -
[8]
I should be getting my Air in few weeks. I'm also interested to see how it works. I'm not even thinking about playing Eve on it (I use my iMac for that), but to just to check the skills (while in the office) and perhaps the market etc. Mostly just the skills. As long as you can log on, that's enough for me.
Of course a widget to train skills would be perfect... ;) or from the site.
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Tippia
School of Applied Knowledge
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Posted - 2008.03.27 16:11:00 -
[9]
Originally by: Sheepbringer I should be getting my Air in few weeks. I'm also interested to see how it works. I'm not even thinking about playing Eve on it (I use my iMac for that), but to just to check the skills (while in the office) and perhaps the market etc. Mostly just the skills. As long as you can log on, that's enough for me.
I use my Air for exactly that, and it works great. The framerate is too low to do anything useful in space (except maybe go pick up a couple of new skillbooks in a shuttle), but in-station stuff can be done without any problem at all...
...if you make sure to turn off the frame buffering as explained in this thread. Leaving it on will make the client incompatible with the integrated graphics in the Air.
After you've installed the client, find the ~/Library/Preferences/EVE Online Preferences/config file and look under the [d3dgl]áheading. There, change "FBO" = "Y" to "FBO" = "N", and everything should work just fine after that.
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XD Andy
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Posted - 2008.03.29 10:07:00 -
[10]
My beloved wife (whom I worship with every passing breath) has just bought me a MBA for my birthday; hey ... just turned 39 and feeling decidedly sorry for my self as I'm now counting days til I hit 40.
Anyway, its the model with the 64Gb SSD, and first thin I did was d/l and install Eve.
After an initial crash during the intro movie, I can whole heartedly say that it does run. Frame rates in the order of 5-10 fps in space, but I did get 20 at one stage.
Graphic settings options seem limited (eg no option to run windowed, only fullscreen, and at 32 bit) and does not appear to run premium graphics despite the x3100 gfx being SM3.0 (apparently - yet to 100% confirm this, and have premium gfx been implemented yet for the mac client?)
But hey ... it is sexy as hell, and Im currently trying to work out how to bootcamp XP without a dvd drive ..... will keep you posted.
Andy
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Pak Narhoo
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Posted - 2008.03.30 09:52:00 -
[11]
Originally by: XD Andy Graphic settings options seem limited (eg no option to run windowed, only fullscreen, and at 32 bit) and does not appear to run premium graphics despite the x3100 gfx being SM3.0 (apparently - yet to 100% confirm this, and have premium gfx been implemented yet for the mac client?)
Premium graphics for the Mac is coming soonÖ. Was put back after initially promised to be delivered in Q1. But they have transgaming working on it. ----------------------------- No, you cannot have my stuffÖ. |
wenxiu
3M Institute Namtz'aar k'in
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Posted - 2008.03.31 04:20:00 -
[12]
Try running the Windows client using Crossover Games. You can download a 7 day trial to check it out. It might give you the ability to run the client over OS X even if the official Mac client can't.
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XD Andy
KIA Corp KIA Alliance
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Posted - 2008.04.02 00:45:00 -
[13]
Just a quick note to say that I succeeded in setting up XP Pro, which once I got hold of the external DVD drive for the MBA, was incredibly easy.
Anyway, installed the primium client, and OUCH. A whole 7 fps.
Decided a tactful retreat was the better part of valour, and disabled premium graphics, and managed to get a whopping 10-12 fps! Bizarely, the frame rate worsens if you drop down to 16 bit colour, although 8 bit buffer does improve things slightly. As does full screen.
Set the graphics cache to normal, and really didn't make much of a difference which was it was set.
Audio set to off, as was Eve Voice.
Kind of disappointed as the GFx chip isn't amazing, but it is SM3 and has 140 odd of ram assigned to it, so I would have expected more than 10 fps on the classic client, tbh.
Not had much chance to play with it, but there you go.
Oh, and the gfx driver option has a setting for battery or performance ... I maxed performance.
Any idea's, anyone?
Andy
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Tippia
School of Applied Knowledge
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Posted - 2008.04.02 07:35:00 -
[14]
Originally by: XD Andy Anyway, installed the primium client, and OUCH. A whole 7 fps.
Decided a tactful retreat was the better part of valour, and disabled premium graphics, and managed to get a whopping 10-12 fps! Bizarely, the frame rate worsens if you drop down to 16 bit colour, although 8 bit buffer does improve things slightly. As does full screen.
Was this in space or in station? I'm currently getting ~20 fps in station, but 4-5 in space using the OSX client, and I'm wondering if it's worth cutting out a couple of gigs for XP...
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XD Andy
KIA Corp KIA Alliance
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Posted - 2008.04.02 10:26:00 -
[15]
Edited by: XD Andy on 02/04/2008 10:30:43 In space. And its a playable 10fps, if you don't plan on PvP. I would even consider doing npc missions with it as things stand.
Should say, with the premium client enabled, there are hellish graphical anomolies over the ship models with what looks like flashing lights over them.
Oh, and make sure you set asinde more than a couple of Gigs! I've used 16 Gb for my install, and have 5 Gb left after installing XP Pro and Eve Premium. And you will need to get hold of an/the external USB DVD drive in order to install XP, and ensure that your copy is a full/OEM version and not an upgrade if using the apple external superdrive ... no way to eject the XP disk to put in a 'previous version' to autherise the upgrade. And make sure its XP SP2 you install; don't try SP1 (according to apple) so if necessary get nlite and slipstream an SP2 version.
Andy
Andy
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Shin Chogan
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Posted - 2008.04.02 10:38:00 -
[16]
Edited by: Shin Chogan on 02/04/2008 10:41:03 Wait till the next patch happens ... If you are following some of the other threads the Trinity 1.1 patch introduced a change that has significantly reduced FPS.
Prior to me getting my MBP I had a 1Ghz Centrino with an Intel 845 gfx with 512Mb ram running windows XP and I was getting about 15-20fps in space (pre trinity so it was what is now called classic graphics) - I wouldn't have PvP'd using it but it was perfectly acceptable for Level 1 missions. I don't see why the MBA wouldn't get better performance - in fact I tried it on a friends Intel Core (can't remember if it was solo or Duo) with the 915 chipset gfx and it was getting about 30 fps in space under windows.
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Cheshire Moon
Brazilian Commonwealth
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Posted - 2008.04.02 16:46:00 -
[17]
Sorry to go a little off-topic, but you guys seem to know what you're saying.
I was planning on getting a Macbook (2.4 Core2Duo, 2Gb Ram, 160gb HD...) non-Air, non-Pro.
Do you guys know if Eve will run ok there?
I'm going to travel a lot at work and want to have a notebook that allows eve (mostly NPC mission).
Thanks
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Equipment Warehouse
Hedion University
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Posted - 2008.04.02 21:42:00 -
[18]
Originally by: Cheshire Moon Sorry to go a little off-topic, but you guys seem to know what you're saying.
I was planning on getting a Macbook (2.4 Core2Duo, 2Gb Ram, 160gb HD...) non-Air, non-Pro.
Do you guys know if Eve will run ok there?
I'm going to travel a lot at work and want to have a notebook that allows eve (mostly NPC mission).
Thanks
The MacBook Air and MacBook have the exact same GFx chip : Intel x3100 with 144 meg of memory.
My Air has a 1.8 GHz dual core cpu and is a significant improvement on my previous laptop, wich was a single core 1.7 Ghz centrino.
Both have the same amount of memory, and my Acer is 3 years old now, and has keys falling off.
My Acer can run classic at something like 70-100 fps in station and 40-50 fps in space, or two clients at about 20-30 fps. That's windowed at 16 bit colour with normal cache and all effects on. Audio off.
I know Eve is/was suppossed to be highly CPU dependant, and I know trinity has offloaded some of that to the GFx card now, but the main difference is my Acer has an ATI x700 mobility radeon in it with only 64 meg of ram.
My Air should really wipe the floor with my acer ... except I seriously expect its the intel gfx chip that is holding everything back.
Bottom line is, if you want to play Eve on it, and that's a major factor in your purchasing a laptop, get a pro. I know you are talking about ú400 more, but it is far better that than regretting your choice. Trust me.
Andy
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XD Andy
KIA Corp KIA Alliance
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Posted - 2008.04.03 03:27:00 -
[19]
Edited by: XD Andy on 03/04/2008 03:29:08
Originally by: Cheshire Moon Sorry to go a little off-topic, but you guys seem to know what you're saying.
I was planning on getting a Macbook (2.4 Core2Duo, 2Gb Ram, 160gb HD...) non-Air, non-Pro.
Do you guys know if Eve will run ok there?
I'm going to travel a lot at work and want to have a notebook that allows eve (mostly NPC mission).
Thanks
The MacBook Air and MacBook have the exact same GFx chip : Intel x3100 with 144 meg of memory.
My Air has a 1.8 GHz dual core cpu and is a significant improvement on my previous laptop, wich was a single core 1.7 Ghz centrino.
Both have the same amount of memory, and my Acer is 3 years old now, and has keys falling off.
My Acer can run classic at something like 70-100 fps in station and 40-50 fps in space, or two clients at about 20-30 fps. That's windowed at 16 bit colour with normal cache and all effects on. Audio off.
I know Eve is/was suppossed to be highly CPU dependant, and I know trinity has offloaded some of that to the GFx card now, but the main difference is my Acer has an ATI x700 mobility radeon in it with only 64 meg of ram.
My Air should really wipe the floor with my acer ... except I seriously expect its the intel gfx chip that is holding everything back.
Bottom line is, if you want to play Eve on it, and that's a major factor in your purchasing a laptop, get a pro. I know you are talking about ú400 more, but it is far better that than regretting your choice. Trust me.
Andy
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XD Andy
KIA Corp KIA Alliance
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Posted - 2008.04.03 03:29:00 -
[20]
In fact .... hard data (sources = wiki)
My MBA x3100 specs.
Chipset : GM965 Express Memory Controller : 82GM965 I/O Controller : Intel 82801HBM/HEM I/O controller hub (ICH8M) SATA Controller found in IDE mode Integrated Graphics : Intel 965GM Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) Clock Speed : 400 or 500 MHz Vertex Shader Model : 4.0 Pixel Shader Model : 4.0 Pixel Pipelines : n/a Unified Shader Processors : 8 Hardware Vertex Shaders : Yes Peak Memory Bandwidth : 12.8 GB/sec Video Mem : 144 Mb shared DDR2 Open GL Support : 1.5 DX API Support : 10.0 MPEG-2 Hardware Acceleration : MC+iDCT+VLD VC-1 Hardware Acceleration : MC (for WMV9 only) AVC Hardware Acceleration : No
ATI x700 Mobility (sources = wiki)
Clock Speed : 350 MHz Vertex Shader Model : 2.0 Pixel Shader Model : 2.0 Pixel Pipelines : 8 Unified Shader Processors : ?0 Hardware Vertex Shaders : 6 Peak Memory Bandwidth : 11.2 GB/sec Video Mem : 64 Mb dedicated Open GL Support : 2.0 DX API Support : 9c MPEG-2 Hardware Acceleration : ? VC-1 Hardware Acceleration : ? AVC Hardware Acceleration : ?
And a
Quote: Modern gaming The Intel GMA products are designed to allow Intel to offer a full system platform that includes graphics hardware. However, due to the GMA's nature as a highly cost-sensitive product, performance and functionality is limited relative to more expensive discrete graphics components. Some games and 3D applications will not recognize support for some hardware functionality because of the simplification of parts of these graphics accelerators. The GMA X3x00's unified shader design allows for more complete hardware functionality, but the line still has issues with some games and has significantly limited performance.[44]
Intel, not oblivious to these problems, has put up a page with 'Known Issues & Solutions' for each version.[45] For Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Software Development concerns, there is the Integrated Graphics Software Development Forum.[46]
With recent driver updates, many more games have become playable on this hardware.
Basically sounds like that the x3100 has the potential to be a reasonable gfx chip to run Eve ..... if apple/intel/CCP get their collective **** together to get it all working properly.
= 'soonÖ'
Until then, I got crap performance I guess. There is a link to the Intel web site, which gives some tips and info, along with drivers for Windows based systems.
installing the driver gives me 25-30 fps in station, but doesn't actually make a difference in space at all, which still sits about 10 fps (unless looking at the sun, when it drops to 4).
Andy
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Arimathea Anthalas
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Posted - 2008.04.03 07:29:00 -
[21]
I've tried playing it. I had to make a lot of tweaks to get it to play. I can fly and warp and dock to stations and train skills, but the framerate is absolutely abysmal.
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XD Andy
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Posted - 2008.04.03 07:54:00 -
[22]
And two bits of (sort of related) MBA info ...
You can get a 'hacked' Win XP driver for the MBA USB Ethernet adapter via thiswebsite. A short way down there is an article with a link. Download and unzip the folders, and after plugging in your adapter, point the new hardware wizard to the inf of your choice for your Win OS.
The other thing is that I've managed to set pair my MBA with my windows based PDA phone (running windows mobile 6)with the MBA : bluetooth for OS X, and wired USB for XP, though presumably bluetooth is an option there as well. And Eve plays ok under both with no obvious detriment - given the poor performance Eve is giving anyway.
Andy
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XD Andy
KIA Corp KIA Alliance
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Posted - 2008.04.03 07:58:00 -
[23]
Edited by: XD Andy on 03/04/2008 08:01:47
Originally by: Arimathea Anthalas I've tried playing it. I had to make a lot of tweaks to get it to play. I can fly and warp and dock to stations and train skills, but the framerate is absolutely abysmal.
What OS were you playing it with, classic or premium, and what sort of fps were you getting? And what tweaks did you make that you found helped?
Oh, and which MBA you got? The 1.6 Ghz or the 1.8 Ghz with the solid state drive?
IMHO a lot of the performance issues are likely to surround poor GFx support for Eve from the chipset (or visa versa). Hopefully there will be big improvements if CCP/Apple/Intel can be persuaded to give the drivers some love.
Andy
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Cheshire Moon
Brazilian Commonwealth
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Posted - 2008.04.03 18:50:00 -
[24]
Thanks Andy.
A lot to think about before choosing the notebook now.
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Sheepbringer
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Posted - 2008.04.12 08:55:00 -
[25]
I just got my MBA (1.6) and I tried eve on OSX. Well I can log on and that all works. I can check my skills etc. as i wanted. In space I get a whopping 5fps or so. Not really anything you can work on. In dock I can't see the ship either...but in space i can.
I didn't do any tweaking other than disabling graphical effects. I'll see if some of you people come up with something usable. I'm just happy to check my skills and market :)
And I looooveeee this laptop.
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Shin Chogan
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Posted - 2008.04.12 09:19:00 -
[26]
Originally by: Sheepbringer I just got my MBA (1.6) and I tried eve on OSX. Well I can log on and that all works. I can check my skills etc. as i wanted. In space I get a whopping 5fps or so. Not really anything you can work on. In dock I can't see the ship either...but in space i can.
I didn't do any tweaking other than disabling graphical effects. I'll see if some of you people come up with something usable. I'm just happy to check my skills and market :)
And I looooveeee this laptop.
Please report back after the patch on Tuesday ... hopefully you'll see a bit of a boost in FPS.
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XD Andy
KIA Corp KIA Alliance
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Posted - 2008.04.14 00:17:00 -
[27]
I bottled it, and took my Air back, and exchanged it for a MBP.
Big difference. Both in performance, and wieght.
Had to make a snap decision as I was at the end of my 14 day return option. I hope that the patch deos make a difference, but from what otehrs have been saying, it's unlikely to ever give a big performance boost. Hope they are wrong though.
Andy
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Sheepbringer
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Posted - 2008.04.15 14:56:00 -
[28]
I'll check the running on MBA when the patching is done. I've never expected that Even would "run" on the MBA, but I didn't get my Air for Eve anways. If I had Eve 100% on my laptop I would never get any work done in the office ;)
As for MBP, well it should run as well as any Intel iMac etc. I have a 20" C2D iMac (white) and Eve runs fine.
But, lets see how the Air performes after the patch. Well how all Mac perform for that matter...
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Shin Chogan
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Posted - 2008.04.15 16:26:00 -
[29]
Yep well that was anticlimactic. Patch installed and my Mac Pro is still only running at about 25-45 fps in space depending on which system I'm in.
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Sheepbringer
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Posted - 2008.04.16 09:28:00 -
[30]
Well my iMac gives 40-50fps at any given time in any system.
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