MacBook pro, can it handle trainz?

I wouldn't really recommend macbooks because they are not really great for Trainz. If you were to get a mac, I would choose Mac Pro 4,1 or 3,1 because of it's powerful graphics card support list and CPU upgrades to 12 cores.
 
conrailfan1999 said:
Hello, I am looking at purchasing a MacBook pro laptop, the main reason I am looking buy one is because of it's great video editing. I am looking two different models.... http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MD101LL/A&step=config and http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MGX72LL/A&step=config Which would get better frame rates for trainz? Thanks!
Click to expand...

If i were you, i'd use an Air, despite the tiny screen. MacBookPros are not very good Trainzing computers. I finally replaced my old MacBook Pro, with a nice 2009 MacPro (Desktop), and it runs Trainz 2 like a charm! Perfect FPS, Everything loads, SpeedTree doesn't really bother it, e.t.c.

If you want a PC, i'd use that First one. The trackpads on that second one are terrible. They make your wrist hurt, and you need to smash your fingers (Much to their dismay) unto the trackpad for it to click. Then again, i have a hard time with one-piece trackpads. If you used any MacBook Pro, i'd recommend NOT loading up routes like Balezino-Mosti, The ECML, Mojave, Quahog Sub, EK3, or such routes. Thanks! ~JGR
 
Four things:

People buy an Apple product, just to purposely sidestep Bill Gates and Microsoft, when in fact they are only hurting themselves by choosing to buy an inferior Apple machine.

People by a Dell PC on QVC as the advertisement says it has high end parts ... when in fact it has low end parts ... and all you get is a pricy PC with a colorful outside shell skin.

People buy a PC from a BigBox store, and get a low end, overly priced, inferior PC, at a 300% markup price, when they should have bought from a mail order house.

People buy Trainz on Steam, just to purposely sidestep the official N3V store Sim Central, and to save tons of money ... When in fact they are only hurting themselves by being cheapskates.
 
Last edited:
I don't know how a Macbook pro or Macpro would handle trainz because I have never really used them but I have seen them before and they do look like really good computers. Very fast and user friendly. I'd say, if you want a real computer, build a computer. Then again, I know computers from staples or best buy and most likely apple computers can handle trainz because my 2009 Dell Inspiron 1545 from Staples handled Trainz 2006, classics 1&2 and Trainz 2009. No matter what, I was happy with it even though I had low fps most times. I think using Trainz on any computer is better than not using Trainz on any form of computer.
 
cascaderailroad said:
Four things:

People buy an Apple product, just to purposely sidestep Bill Gates and Microsoft, when in fact they are only hurting themselves by choosing to buy an inferior Apple machine.
Click to expand...

As a previous MacbookPro owner, I honestly beg to differ. It's not worth the price new, but getting one at a used price isn't a bad deal at all.
Note: I only sold it due to financial issues.

cascaderailroad said:
People by a Dell PC on QVC as the advertisement says it has high end parts ... when in fact it has low end parts ... and all you get is a pricy PC with a colorful outside shell skin.
Click to expand...

True for no-brain consumers which an Inspiron series would be fine with. Precision, and Latitude series (i.e. E6530 like I have) are definitely game changers in comparison to Inspiron. They're not the absolute beast of machines, but mine makes me happy and that's all that counts (I'm not whining about an i7 especially when it makes a difference compared to my budget HP-2000 laptop I used to have)

In all honesty, you may want to consider that description fitting HP all the way up to their ProBook models. I rented one and I can vouch for the awful, AWFUL quality of those machines.


cascaderailroad said:
People buy a PC from a BigBox store, and get a low end, overly priced, inferior PC, at a 300% markup price, when they should have bought from a mail order house.
Click to expand...

100+ You nailed that to the tee.

cascaderailroad said:
People buy Trainz on Steam, just to purposely sidestep the official N3V store Sim Central, and to save tons of money ... When in fact they are only hurting themselves by being cheapskates.
Click to expand...

Don't really know about this because I only use steam for Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Goat Simulator (Which runs butter smooth on my E6530)

Do you need a mac?
Easy, if you want a flashy, minimalist design, artist concentrated, decently spec'd (ahem and overpriced) machine, then it's for you.
If you don't care what your machine looks like, just get anything with an i7 and a nVidia card. You really don't want to hear about my Radeon Horror Stories.

Just for goodness sake, DO NOT buy a laptop with a SCREEN RESOLUTION of 1366x768 or YOU WILL REGRET IT.
 
Last edited:
I will concur with Neon here on the Dell Latitude and Precision machines. They are made for the road warrior business and traveling engineer so they are made to handle things a lot better than similar-spec'd out Inspiron which needs a lot of inspiration to remain operable over a long period of time under stress. Don't get me wrong, they are fine for the casual home user who wants to play some games, but the Inspiron machines are made with lesser-quality parts than those found in the business-class machines so they tend to break sooner.

Regarding HP laptops... I have used some very much old Compaq machines that were truly crap. I had one that would crash randomly and produce all kinds of memory faults even when all components tested fine. I had technicians in every week for close to a month as they replaced nearly all the components except for the motherboard which I told them was the problem in the first place. Well, eventually the motherboard died and the problem went away! Go figure! It's more than that though. Overall their quality has slipped even further and they also have overheating problems. More recently, I support some HPs which look okay in the specs and on the desk, but don't start using them too hard...

Lenovo machines vary in quality. I supported close 400 of their T-series business-class laptops. Their old T61s were great machines - true workhorses - especially those that were built before the production was sent over to China. The much newer T400s had all kinds of repeated problems, and then finally their latest T430 and T5xx machines are pure crap. The hinges break, they overheat like crazy, and the quality of the hard drives they use is at the bottom of the pit. I had more DOA machines due to dead hard drives that we would send them back by the pallet load rather than replace the drives with service parts.

Regarding Macs... They are truly over-rated for what they are. The desktops are overpriced Intel-based workstations which can be put together with the same components without the proprietary case, Apple-chip on the motherboard, and the price.

Ah ATI cards... There has always been an issue with Open/GL. This has to do with the developer not implementing the complete Open/GL chipset on the video cards. This presents a problem with certain applications such as Trainz, and many CAD and 3D modeling programs which make heavy use of Open/GL. Running them in DirectX works sometimes but not always. Many years ago I used to run only ATI video cards on my machines. We then started running 3ds Max and other cad programs which would complete lock up and black screen with the only option then to press the reset button. After talking with Discreet reps regarding the problem, we determined it was the video cards, and we ended up replacing them with NVidia cards instead. After that I have run mostly NVidia and have had no video issues since.

John
 
conrailfan1999 said:
Hello, I am looking at purchasing a MacBook pro laptop, the main reason I am looking buy one is because of it's great video editing. I am looking two different models.... http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MD101LL/A&step=config and http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro?product=MGX72LL/A&step=config Which would get better frame rates for trainz? Thanks!
Click to expand...

The listing says nothing about graphics, if any. It has no SSD and the add on price for an extra 4GB RAM is an outrageous $100. To put that in perspective I just bought an old Dell Inspiron N5110 for £112 and installed a used 128GB SSD for £42 and bought 8GB of used RAM for £25. Total £179 for a machine which has better specs than the one you are looking at.
 
lewisner said:
The listing says nothing about graphics, if any. It has no SSD and the add on price for an extra 4GB RAM is an outrageous $100. To put that in perspective I just bought an old Dell Inspiron N5110 for £112 and installed a used 128GB SSD for £42 and bought 8GB of used RAM for £25. Total £179 for a machine which has better specs than the one you are looking at.
Click to expand...

Watch what you do with that or you may have the smell of melting plastic like I did with my old HP.

In regard to your post JCitron, the Probook I had rented for a few days was from 2014, and I just wish I could describe how garbage it really is, but I'll save that for my HP rant.
Don't get me wrong, I owned an HP Compaq 6510b and that thing was a beast, but I've moved onto much greater and better things.

I was pondering about getting a Lenovo T430 or my E6530. After reading on some of the reviews and issues the lenovo had, I'm happy I went with what I'm typing on now.
My only peeve is the hard drive that's in this thing. Since we're discussing horror stories, I'll cut a long one short.

Neon's Thoughts on Western Digital Storage Devices
Rubbish, Rubbish, Rubbish, Rubbish. I had 7 WD HDs in a row quit after 3 months owning and using them daily. This makes me fear that the one in this laptop is going to go ker-plunk and that's a bad feeling, so I'm seriously trying to find a way to buy a SanDisk SSD.
My personal feeling on WD is to stay far away. I use a Seagate on my old laptop and it's been running daily 24/7 from March 2014 to August 2014.
My Desktop? 2-3 Years of 24/7 active use and still chugging.

Back to the original topic, to anyone who may be reading this now or in the future, please note that you truly do get what you pay for.
Don't trust a cheap laptop's cooling system, because they're not meant to be ran at full speed, so the cooling system is going to choke doing it's job if you max out the proc.
Also keep in mind you get what you pay for as far as design, I mean come on this looks better to me than any laptop you can find in a retail store.

be341f7827238b26cbae6fc8f9836314.png

(Stickers seem to be a fad in my school)
 
Last edited:
I will second you, Neon on the WD drives! I too had multiple WDs go ker-plunk on me as well.

Here's my support experience with Lenovo which actually cost them a ton of revenue... We had a bad hard drive which required a call to their corporate support. The usual question comes up... Did you run the diagnostics? Sure I said and I got back "zero-zero-zero", meaning the drive wouldn't spin up and is essentially a little flat brick. The technician on the other end flipped out and said I was just telling him that to get an extra drive and I was lying about the dead drive. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he hung up on me.... I then called our sales representative and canceled an order for 350 Lenovo T420s, which cost them a nearly $400k order because that dork on their helpdesk. Instead I went to Dell and picked up the then current 6410s for a lot less. These 6410s are still in operation and we had very few problems with them compared to the Lenovo machines at the same time.

I agree we get what we pay for when it comes to machines such as this and this is especially true with portable machines which need all the help they can get with thermal conditions. For my old Alienware, I invested in one of those laptop coolers. The cooling pad cost me $35 at BestBuy and has proven its worth more times than not.

John
 
JCitron said:
I will second you, Neon on the WD drives! I too had multiple WDs go ker-plunk on me as well.

Here's my support experience with Lenovo which actually cost them a ton of revenue... We had a bad hard drive which required a call to their corporate support. The usual question comes up... Did you run the diagnostics? Sure I said and I got back "zero-zero-zero", meaning the drive wouldn't spin up and is essentially a little flat brick. The technician on the other end flipped out and said I was just telling him that to get an extra drive and I was lying about the dead drive. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he hung up on me.... I then called our sales representative and canceled an order for 350 Lenovo T420s, which cost them a nearly $400k order because that dork on their helpdesk. Instead I went to Dell and picked up the then current 6410s for a lot less. These 6410s are still in operation and we had very few problems with them compared to the Lenovo machines at the same time.

I agree we get what we pay for when it comes to machines such as this and this is especially true with portable machines which need all the help they can get with thermal conditions. For my old Alienware, I invested in one of those laptop coolers. The cooling pad cost me $35 at BestBuy and has proven its worth more times than not.

John
Click to expand...

You didn't feel like being vindictive, phoning Lenovo and quoting the time of the call and the resulting cancelled order ? :D
 
LNERlover5 said:
Funny, my WD Caviar Black 1TB has been going strong for over 4 years and is still reporting perfect health through Hard Drive Sentinel.
Click to expand...

The problem is once we've been hit by a bug like this, it's difficult going back to the product. I can say that I do have one remaining WD Black 2TB drive and it too has been working for the same amount of time as yours. The subsequent drives, however, became toast very soon after purchase. In the past I used all WD drives as I found them to be very stable, since then they've gone through this unstable period.

This could very well be a batch type issue, but unlike a PC OEM manufacturer, we don't buy enough of the drives at once to be able to track a trend. In my old days in manufacturing, we would track lot numbers and date codes on components. When we saw a trend, based on a particular date code and lot number, we would notify manufacturing test and quality control who would then contact the component vendor. Sadly, being home users we don't have that ability.



John
 
Never had any issues with Western Digital here either, Seagates didn't seem to like me much for a while, Fujitsu definitely didn't, I was one of the victims of the 20GB drives with the faulty controller chips back in 2001/2 ish, had 4 of the flipping things at the time in a Linux server, all died were replaced and died again, then they recalled all 300,000 of them I think it was............. My supplier by then had given up and I got 4 larger WD's as replacement, I think loosing the custom was on his mind ;o)
 
clam1952 said:
Never had any issues with Western Digital here either, Seagates didn't seem to like me much for a while, Fujitsu definitely didn't, I was one of the victims of the 20GB drives with the faulty controller chips back in 2001/2 ish, had 4 of the flipping things at the time in a Linux server, all died were replaced and died again, then they recalled all 300,000 of them I think it was............. My supplier by then had given up and I got 4 larger WD's as replacement, I think loosing the custom was on his mind ;o)
Click to expand...

Oh I forgot about those... :D

I had a bunch of those die too, but not in a server. This too was many, many years ago and around the same timeframe. The drives used to run quite warm from what I remember. I'd say warm enough to substitute as lap warmers one could use at a football game!

The other gems of the IT world came from IBM. These 75XP-series drives or Deskstar branded units became un-affectionately known as Deathstars because they'd die without any cause at all. I used to RMA these back to Hitachi who had bought the business from IBM back in the early 2000s. We had used their SCSI-3 9.0GB (big at the time) drives in some PCs used as RIPs for the big laser proofing devices the company made. I used to get bunches of them from service and send them back to for replacement under warranty.

John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Which MacBook Pro for Trainz 2019/2022?
Replies
4
Views
141
dangavel
D
B
Can I redownload Trainz on Windows if I purchase the Mac version?
Replies
5
Views
1K
wreeder
W
P
Where can I find a pictured/video tutorial/guide to import a locomotive/rolling stock into Trainz 'Step-by-step'??
Replies
19
Views
805
pcas1986
P
S
Thoughts around "my future"
Replies
7
Views
665
Bobbergibbs
B
M
Would a Macbook Air be decently capable of running Trainz?
Replies
8
Views
2K
capdiamont
C
Back
Top