Pure Newbie question - 1st post

[Shrapnell59 1]

Pure newbie.  Been playing Simcity for over 20 years... When I saw the promos for City Skylines in 2014 I knew it would be what we all wanted SC-5 to be but wasn't...

I'm in the market to replace my old 2010 macbook with probably a newer macbook pro.  Would appreciate your recommendations, Does CSL work better running from a windows platform like Parallels, Boot Camp or Virtual Box on a Mac than on a Mac directly?  

Thanx!

[rmjohnson144 42]

Well, laptops aren't good gaming rigs as they are designed to run on batteries.  That being said, you should be able to play with an i7-quad core preferably one that ends in a QM like 6700QM or something and a dedicated video card like a GTX 950m or better.  Don't go GTX 960m as it is only slightly better.  Go GTX 970m if you can afford it.  You'll likely need 16GB RAM.  

Windows will like play it better, most use bootcamp with best results.  But you'll likely need the best one they make, so you're talking around $2,500USD

[Shrapnell59 1]

Wow!!! Your recommendations seem way more powerful than what CSL's main website recommend.  Is the website accurate... was hoping to score a new machine closer to what they recommend...  What is your opinion of their recommendations?  ...and thankyou very much for your reply!

 

 

[Koesj 659]

The website's recommendations are fine, I run it on a non-overclocked Ivy Bridge i5 and a GTX 760 at 1920*1080 with everything maxed out, even when until recently I only had 8GB RAM (I upgraded for assetbuilding, now I can run 3ds Max next to C:S smoothly ).

But! A MacBook? Ouch. I'm planning on getting a Skylake 13" as soon as they're available but I'm not banking on playing the game on integrated graphics. A dedicated graphics card would help a lot though but the 15" is hella expensive.

Check out this dude's review on the MacBook: 

 

[Ryno917 102]

45 minutes ago, Shrapnell59 said:

Wow!!! Your recommendations seem way more powerful than what CSL's main website recommend.  Is the website accurate... was hoping to score a new machine closer to what they recommend...  What is your opinion of their recommendations?  ...and thankyou very much for your reply!

 

 

Their recommendations also only cover the base game, remember. Once you start adding mods you'll start needing better hardware.

Also - running windows under bootcamp will be slower than running windows natively, so you'll need a bit of an increase there, as well.

 

Is there any reason specifically that you're looking at a mac instead of a pc?

[Shrapnell59 1]

Koesj!  The review you posted.  Does the machine described have a dedicated video card like the one recommended by Paradox?  nVIDIA GeForce GTX 660.  If not that would explain 7fps...

Why a Macbook Pro?  Need to upgrade my work computer (Have a 2010 macbook now)... Can't afford both laptop and desktop, there's some $$$ available from work to buy new machine.  Most of my game playing, (when I have the time) requires a portable anyway... 

How would this machine run it? http://www.apple.com/shop/product/FE294LL/A/refurbished-154-inch-macbook-pro-23ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display

Your help is invaluable!! Appreciate is SO much!!

[Koesj 659]

1 hour ago, Shrapnell59 said:

Koesj!  The review you posted.  Does the machine described have a dedicated video card like the one recommended by Paradox?  nVIDIA GeForce GTX 660.  If not that would explain 7fps...

Why a Macbook Pro?  Need to upgrade my work computer (Have a 2010 macbook now)... Can't afford both laptop and desktop, there's some $$$ available from work to buy new machine.  Most of my game playing, (when I have the time) requires a portable anyway... 

How would this machine run it? http://www.apple.com/shop/product/FE294LL/A/refurbished-154-inch-macbook-pro-23ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display

Your help is invaluable!! Appreciate is SO much!!

It's a 13"MBP so it hasn't got dedicated video.

I don't run the game on a MacBook Pro, and am hardly the best person to ask questions about the game's relative performance across different systems.

Here's people talking about it on Reddit, and it seems a new-ish 15"MBP should run the base game pretty well.

PS if you like people's help you can always like their posts 

[Ryno917 102]

4 hours ago, Shrapnell59 said:

Koesj!  The review you posted.  Does the machine described have a dedicated video card like the one recommended by Paradox?  nVIDIA GeForce GTX 660.  If not that would explain 7fps...

Why a Macbook Pro?  Need to upgrade my work computer (Have a 2010 macbook now)... Can't afford both laptop and desktop, there's some $$$ available from work to buy new machine.  Most of my game playing, (when I have the time) requires a portable anyway... 

How would this machine run it? http://www.apple.com/shop/product/FE294LL/A/refurbished-154-inch-macbook-pro-23ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display

Your help is invaluable!! Appreciate is SO much!!

Do you need a mac, though, or would a Windows laptop suit your needs? You could get something faster for the same amount if you go that route. Apple products are overpriced for what they are, spec-wise. If you don't need to run OSX for anything you'll get much more for your money if you buy a Windows Laptop (and then you don't also need to buy Windows itself to install in Bootcamp, which isn't cheap). For instance - 2 years ago I got my old company to buy me a brand new top of the line mobile workstation from Lenovo (workstations are more expensive than typical user equipment as they're more specialised and have hardware that is specifically vetted for high-intensity work) which was $2300, including a docking stand, and it was much faster than the Macbook you're listing there. And that was 2 years ago!

As for the one you've linked, I can't find anything about how much VRAM the GPU has available to it, so I can't say for sure, but I think that one will run the base game OK. Probably not with maxed graphics, and you'll start chugging pretty bad when/if you get into mods.

Also note that Macbooks have terrible cooling (many only have a small strip of venting at the base of the screen), so if you're pushing the hardware it is going to burn out much faster than most PC based laptops because it can't keep itself cool effectively. That's a general problem across all laptops, including bulky workstations, but most PC laptops have a lot more airflow going through them, and you can get docks/laptop stands with fans in them that can help. Since Macbooks don't have any venting on the bottom there's really nothing you can do to help except keep them elevated so the surface under them doesn't exacerbate the problem.

[Koesj 659]

58 minutes ago, Ryno917 said:

Do you need a mac, though, or would a Windows laptop suit your needs? You could get something faster for the same amount if you go that route. Apple products are overpriced for what they are, spec-wise. If you don't need to run OSX for anything you'll get much more for your money if you buy a Windows Laptop (and then you don't also need to buy Windows itself to install in Bootcamp, which isn't cheap). For instance - 2 years ago I got my old company to buy me a brand new top of the line mobile workstation from Lenovo (workstations are more expensive than typical user equipment as they're more specialised and have hardware that is specifically vetted for high-intensity work) which was $2300, including a docking stand, and it was much faster than the Macbook you're listing there. And that was 2 years ago!

As for the one you've linked, I can't find anything about how much VRAM the GPU has available to it, so I can't say for sure, but I think that one will run the base game OK. Probably not with maxed graphics, and you'll start chugging pretty bad when/if you get into mods.

Also note that Macbooks have terrible cooling (many only have a small strip of venting at the base of the screen), so if you're pushing the hardware it is going to burn out much faster than most PC based laptops because it can't keep itself cool effectively. That's a general problem across all laptops, including bulky workstations, but most PC laptops have a lot more airflow going through them, and you can get docks/laptop stands with fans in them that can help. Since Macbooks don't have any venting on the bottom there's really nothing you can do to help except keep them elevated so the surface under them doesn't exacerbate the problem.

[toxicpiano 125]

On 4 March 2016 at 4:14 PM, Shrapnell59 said:

How would this machine run it? http://www.apple.com/shop/product/FE294LL/A/refurbished-154-inch-macbook-pro-23ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display

 

This is more than ample to run the game well (16gb of RAM and an SSD is definitely recommended and this has both of those, as well as 2gb of VRAM). I can't comment about full retina resolution but I'm almost certain you'll be able to run the game with all the settings maxed out 1080p.