LOW QUALITY GAMING:
MacBook 2.2GHz "Rosa"
with GMA X3100
versus 2 rival Mac laptops

Some of you say you would buy the new MacBook if it will run games at decent frame rates at lower quality settings. In response to your requests, we re-tested the newest MacBook 'Rosa' with the GMA X3100 integrated graphics chip using lower resolution and lower quality graphics settings.

GRAPH LEGEND
MacBook Pro 2.2 = MacBook Pro C2D "Rosa" 2.2GHz with GeForce 8600M (128M)
MacBook 2.2 = MacBook C2D "Rosa" 2.2GHz with GMA X3100
MacBook 2.16 = MacBook C2D 2.16GHz with GMA 950
(All three systems had 2GB of RAM (two matching 1GB SODIMMs)

NOTE: World of Warcraft "Medium" means all World Appearance parameters are set to Medium except for Texture Resolution and Terrain Detail which were set to Low. No Special Effects were enabled. Under Miscellaneous, Character Shadows were OFF, and Level of Detail was ON. We chose 24 bit color 1X sampling. Vertical Sync is OFF and Windowed Mode is OFF.

CONCLUSION
If you are willing to give up quality, some games are actually playable on the new MacBook with the GMA X3100. But neither MacBook 13" is a match for the MacBook Pro 15" or 17".

WHAT IF I INSIST ON PLAYING AT NATIVE RESOLUTION AND HIGH QUALITY?
You are going to be very depressed -- take a look at the high rez results.

WHAT ABOUT NON-GAMES?
What about "serious" pro graphics apps like Motion? See our pro graphics test page).

We also did a page on CPU CRUNCHING.