what games can i comfortably run on a macbook pro with bootcamp?

[Shtinky]

Ok, so, i have a 2013 Macbook pro, 2.6 GHz intel core i5, 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3, and the intel iris 1024 MB graphics card. If i were to use bootcamp and run windows 7, what games could i comfortably play on it. How much storage should i dedicate to windows aswell?

Thanks :)

[Jim Bond]

I'd say you should be able to run most games of today, are you sure you don't have a NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M in that mac? If you do, then you really shouldn't have trouble running anything.

There are some key things to remember for getting the most performance out of you mac in windows. Make sure to upgrade the intel (or nvidia) graphics drivers to the latest from their specific websites, apples bootcamp drivers won't cut it. I wouldn't bother trying running anything at the native resolution of your retina display, just pick a resolution with a vertical resolution close to 1080 pixels max. Also, since you have a retina display, you may want to get windows 8 as I believe it handles high resolution monitors better.

It'd give windows a healthy partition of +150 GB.

[Shtinky]

Im positive that i have the intel iris, the 15" pro's have the i7 with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M. So in regards to upgrading my intel iris, would i have to go to the official website (intel) and download an update? And what should i use to run windows as oppossed to using bootcamp? I apologize if i sound a bit unknowledgeable, im still learning my way around the ropes.

[Jim Bond]

OK, yes go to the official site. Intel has a utility that scans your hardware to check exactly what driver you should use, I believe this is it: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect/graphics

Definitely use bootcamp, other virtualization options (parallels and crossover) trade minimal convenience for decreased performance and compatibility. Bootcamp allows you to run windows completely natively.

What I meant in regard to the bootcamp graphics drivers is that they are not adequate to run games at the highest levels of performance that your system can produce. Apple does not update them regularly so they are often out of date and somewhat generic. That being said, you should most definitely install apple's bootcamp driver's as they are most adequate and necessary to run all the other hardware of your computer. I'd recommend just going one step further and installing the latest intel graphics drivers after the bootcamp drivers.

Specifically, this is the order I'd install things in:

1. Windows 7 or 8
2. Bootcamp drivers
3. Windows updates (this will take a while...)
4. The latest intel graphics drivers
5. Then head over to ninite.com to install all the other software every computer should have (firefox, chrome, steam, Skype, etc.)

Definitely give Ninite a look, it is truly the most awesome find I ever discovered for setting up a clean installed PC! It is awesome!!