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Comment by jkincaid | Hacker News Reader

Anyone with knowledge of the current generation of video cards know how recent models of iMacs and Macbook Pros will perform (assuming performance of Steam on Mac is comparable to its Windows counterpart).

I tried checking out the video card in my 27 inch iMac (by far the most expensive desktop I've ever purchased) and was a bit underwhelmed to find out the card was released in 2008...

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My 2008 Macbook Pro (C2d 2.5ghz, 512MB Geforce 8600gt, 4GB ram) holds up pretty well with most Steam titles at reasonable settings and resolutions. I'm sure the newer ones fare even better. I wouldn't worry about your graphics card so much- even 'older' ones are pretty good still.

Will it play Crysis at full settings on a huge screen? No, but it does TF2 and Portal nicely at 1440x900.

That's the same laptop I have. Do you think it'll last for a while?

I don't really intend on getting another for a while. I might build a gaming system someday, but for daily coding- this is the best computer I've ever owned.

Any of the Source engine games should run great on the last few generations of MacBooks and iMacs. Half Life 2 actually ran fairly well on my old GMA950 based MacBook. I know Valve has added some bells & whistles to the engine since then however to target older Mac's they may simply disable some of those features when running on Intel GMA or X* hardware.

Don't expect much from a 9400M. I hope you went for the iMac with the better graphics chip.

Edit: hopefully this move helps prod Apple toward including better graphics chips by default, as paying three times as much for a computer vs DIY from Newegg shouldn't give one third the performance for games.

Hardware parity has never been a big priority for Apple. The Mac as a gaming platform may force a change that has been overdue for years. Gamers aren't going to put up with weak GPUs that run things "well enough" in medium settings or less. And they will want more than Cider ports of games, for sure.

I am able to play Half Life 2 at full settings on my older generation MacBook Pro with an 8600M when running Windows, on a 1080p monitor.

I would be interested in seeing how the 9400M does in the latest MacBook Pro's.

Some of the latest MBP's have a 9600 as well as the 9400. The 9600 runs mirrors edge pretty well on a 24" monitor at native resolution.

I played CoD: MW2 (Bootcamp) on my 27" Core Duo 2 iMac and it ran well. Not at highest quality settings, but about as well as the PS3 I'd say. No crashes either.

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