Battlefield 2 On MacBook Pro

5 Apr 2006

It is done. Battlefield 2 runs on a MacBook Pro and as far as I’m concerned, it runs well enough for anyone interested in the game. It took me a good minute to get Windows XP installed and updated via Windows Update. I also installed Grisoft’s free version of AVG for my Anti-virus fix. No anti-spyware at the moment, but I’m cool.

The Battlefield 2 install process was long and painful akin to it’s PC counterpart. Being the smart person I am, I didn’t have a backup of the 1.22 updater, so it felt good to download the 300MB patch again. (sarcasm for those impaired). The game was up and running about 11:30PM and I got a quick half game in with FRAPS running. I performed a benchmark using the tool and got the following data: (plotted using Apple Keynote):

As the graph states, I put all the graphic settings on “Medium” and turned off Anti-aliasing. I figured this would be a good place to start since the game looks quite acceptable with these settings. I’ll do more tweaks and settings changes tomorrow when I have more time. I am very pleased with the outcome and I highly recommend the MacBook Pro to anyone who is looking for a MacOS X/Windows XP solution with Battlefield 2 support!

I posted a little video clip of me playing the game. It’s short and sweet, but you’ll get the idea.

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Post written by Bwana

http://www.from-away.net Jeff Smith

I was actually able to get BF2 running on my iMac as well. However, I didn’t have the time to do any benchmarking or the like. I had it running at 1024×768 on High Detail with AA turned on without any glitches whatsoever.

I’m going to try to run some benchmarks on it this weekend and maybe throw HL2 on there as well for good measure. I’m even tempted to do an install of Doom III.
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..t.k.

I’m having big trouble using my headset with WinXP on my MacBook Pro. I can hear the sound comming from BOTH my internal speaker and from the speaker of my headset. …and I can’t use the microphone on the headset at all. Any ideas!??
Bwana

Hmmm, does your headset work fine with other applications? Try something like Skype and see if it does it. If it continues, I think it’s a driver issue. Also, are you using Griffin’s iMic or is this a USB headset. Let us know.
Bwana

2Ghz with 7200rpm 100GB drive. At the time of the test, it had 1GB of ram but I’ve since upgraded to 2GB ram.
Robert

Ahh nevermind, i see you had them on medium…
Robert

Well… no. I dont have any data as to the performance of a USB headset via a macbook pro to BF2. Hes using a Dull Pc with a P4 processor. This being said, however, i dont know why it wouldnt work with the Macbook, unless theres some issue regarding USB support in Boot Camp. I would be interested to find out what happens if you do use the USB headset with the Macbook.
Robert

Sweetness…
http://www.technologybytes.co.uk Andy

I spent all weekend ripping my hair out over this macbook soundcard driver problem, by real issue was that I need to use skype. Anyway, after trying different driver, and failing at getting a bluetooth headset working I resorted to buying a cheap usb phone that has mic and headphone sockets. The one I bought had no name, it’s a real cheap chinese thing but it needs no additional drivers under XP as it installs as a generic USB sound device!

Now I can use Windows XP as my main operating system on the macbook, something I could not do unless I could get skpe to work.
Bwana

256MB here
Stephen

So has anyone got BF2 running in the Parrells program? So you don’t have to reboot inot windows to get it going?
Oscar

I have a few problems with BF2 on my Mac Book Pro. I got a 2Gz, 1GB Memory, 256MB video.

1. When I play 768×1024 HIGH with x6 AA. The game plays great except it lags (literally pauses) frequently. I have a feeling that the video card handles the game great, but not the memory. What do you guys think?

2. Has any of you plugged in the headphones and still heard the speakers working?

3. I keep on getting a USB Driver problem. It seems that the right driver is not installed for a specific USB. Does anyone know if Apple released a patch for Windows drivers?
Hunter

so my pc fried due to a lightning storm – so am intersted in getting the new macbook pro
Will this be able to run BF2 or not and do i need to upgrade on anything right away?
Keep in mind this is the 512ram and 128mb video

HELP!!!

15.4-inch widescreen display
1440×900 resolution
2.0GHz Intel Core Duo(1)
512MB (single SODIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
80GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
4x SuperDrive
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory
One FireWire 400 and two USB 2.0 ports
Oscar

If you play in lowest settings, (800×600 ALL LOW) it might work. Keep in mind that your problem will be memory. From my experience, the better I wanted the graphics, the more system memory I needed (not only video memory).

If you can afford, I’d suggest that you get one 1GB stick with macbookpro (make sure it is not 2 sticks of 512MB). If you go with a 512MB, in the future, you won’t be able to upgrade it to 2 GB, as there are only 2 slots in the machine.

However, whether you want the 1GB or 512MB, you can buy a 1GB stick for around $80 on Newegg.com.

Oscar

MacBook Pro 2.16Ghz
2GB RAM
100GB Hard Disk – 5400rpm
20GB Dedicated to Windows XP
256MB Radeon x1600 Video
Stefan

i have windows XP on my macbook (no pro just macbook) and i am trying to run the BF 2 Demo and it is not working. is playing this ame just a dream with the system i have or is it possible? if not what should i be looking at to upgrad

specs

- 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
2MB L2 cache
- 512MB (2x256MB
- Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory4
OSO

Can BF2 be run on a Mac Book? or just Mac Book pro?
OSO

thanks
spincycle

> Where do u get the windows XP?

Umm…how about from a computer store?
bryce

i have the same prob with a new macbook, install fine vidtest install fine, but wont run, i have a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 which is theoretically a 256mb card but it just wont go past the black screen initialisation any ideas?