Do playing games lower my MacBook's lifespan?

I have a MacBook Pro with Retina Display and want to know how harmful playings games are to it. Does it effect battery life? The overall speed of the machine overtime? Please let me know and if you could explain to me why it would harm my MacBook Pro or why it would not! Thanks!
These are the games I have on a portable HDD:
- Diablo III
- Starcraft II
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- The Sims 3
- Lego Harry Potter

Electronics them self are NOT designed for a certain life span (poorly designed ones are). They can last many years beyond there usefullness but.....and there's a very big butt.
Shorten life span equals:
1.   Heat
2.   Cold
3.   Over Current
3b. Under Current
4.   Neutron exposure
If the electronic part i.e.. transistors, resisters, capacitors, and more are manufactured under strict processes they can literally last many many years beyond the life of the end user needs.
Apple uses what they think are the best affordable electronics in most of what they make so the end user can afford it and enjoy it for a reasonably long period.
Once upon a time buying American meant high quality and buying Japanese or Korean (known as foreign) meant buying low quality. Remember Digital Research?
Turning your computer on and off every day may shorten some components life like HDD, Fan, Power Supply, and Battery.
However playing games that increase the temperature of you computer to maximum design capacity shouldn't effect the electronics life span. If the components exceed the design temperature(s) would effect the life span. And even at exceeded temperatures there are design safety factors which could be 1% to 10% of design?
Play and enjoy without worry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Similar Messages

Should I not play games on my Macbook Pro?

I heard that for laptops, gaming is not a good idea because of the questionable resiliency of the keyboards and trackpads. Is this knowledge applicable to MacBook Pros as well? I know Apple makes products that last, but when it comes to onboard keyboards and trackpads, I'm unsure of it.
So should I not play games on my MacBook Pro? To avoid ruining the keyboard or trackpad? Or is this something that I don't need to worry about?

John Galt wrote:
PCs never get dusty.
That's not true.
They have magic pixies inside that repel dust!
I doubt that, can you substanciate that claim?
I've never had a Mac "wear out". Not one in 27 years.
I'd like to see this 27 year Mac your still using, can you post a picture?
but my keyboards are shiny with wear and still work 100% flawlessly.
For a 27 year old keyboard they better be very shiny with wear!
If I had known they would have lasted that long maybe I would have treated them better.
So this 27 year old keyboard isn't working anymore, what happened you get mad and take a hammer to it?
"Tear" on the other hand is what happens when you dump a lot of money on a piece of junk PC. Lots of tears.
How would you know this if you used the same Mac for 27 years. LOL
Taking people's posts out of context is fun, thanks you two for teaching me this neat trick, I will abuse it well! LOL

Can I play games on my MacBook Pro by using an external graphics card and using windows via a software called "Parallels Desktop" or do I have to use Boot Camp (I have both installed)

Can I use Windows Parallel to play games? I mean will it not get enough power? Like I clearly remember that I read some where one my system that the Paralels is getting only 1 GB of my ram. I have the mid 2012 MacBook Pro, the $1500 one.

You shouldn't use Parallels to pay games. If you want to play games you need to install Windows via Bootcamp so that it has access to all the resources available.

Playing games on a MacBook Pro: Safety?

I recently found old copies of my Half-Life 2, The Witcher, Call of Duty, and a bunch of other PC games. I was wondering if it is safe to play them on my MacBook Pro 15 (Winter 2011 Edition). I will be installing them on my BootCamp partition of Windows 7.
What I'm worried about is whether or not playing games on my Mac (or any laptop for that matter) will damage the motherboard in the long run. I once owned an old HP laptop that was completely decimated after forcing it to play games that were very demanding on system requirements.
I was naive back then, so this time I will be really careful when I play games on a laptop. How many hours do you recommend that I limit my gaming time in order to avoid damage?
Thanks in advance!

it will be fine. the motherboard problem was probably not caused solely by gaming
i have basically had my macbook air at full strength, fans running for 12 hours a day for the last 18 months
it's completely fine

Playing games on a macbook? (GTA...)

Hi,
I plan to buy a macbook but I'm still hesitating with a sony sz laptop... It's more for school and internet that I want to buy it but there are some games I like to play sometimes like GTA for example... Is it possible to play it on a macbook and will it be the same install that the one for windows, so that I can share with my friends?
Thanks,
Jean

review weather or not the integrated intel GM950 can handle this game.
If you want it to be 100% the same as windows you may look into bootcamp or parallels to run windows on an intel mac (purchase of a windows install required).
People have had luck running various games at differnet levels on the MacBook. In general people have had better luck running them in bootcamp. That being said in general the MacBook is not popular for its ability to run games because of it's integrated graphics card.

Playing games on my macbook - Call of Duty 2

Does anyone know if its possible to play Call of Duty 2 on a Macbook (120 HD)?
Regards
Morten

Yes, I play COD 2 on my Macbook (check the specs in my profile). You'll want all the ram you can get, though. I ran COD UO on just 1g ram, but upped to 2g when I bought COD 2.
Online play is not all that great, but works as well. However, I cannot find any way to set graphics like in COD - more limitations on your choices.
Have fun - but you should've gotten a pro if you think you're going to be playing games...

How can i use my xbox 360 controller to play games on my macbook pro?

I would like to use my wired Xbox 360 controller to play COD 4 on my macbook pro. PLEASE HELP ME!!

In the mac app store check out joystick mapper, its pretty awesome.

MACBOOK 1.8 Mhz: Too limited for playing games in Windows?

I’m having a terrible time trying to play games in mi MacBook 1.8 MHz, in Windows, using the last version of bootcamp and 1GB of RAM. Some games don’t start; others crash during the execution, and with others, the whole windows crashes and got restarted.
I've reviewed many posts sent to the BootCamp forum, looking for a solution, but it seems those problems don't affect to the Macbook PRO users.
It seems that our Video Card (the MacBook Card) it's too limited, compared with the PRO video cards (a video memory problem or something related).
Has anyone had similar problems? Have you found any solution?
Thanks.
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

the MacBook is hampered by a low-end graphics solution that relies on shared RAM instead of its own VRAM (although it has 64MB VRAM). About the only improvement you can make is to max-out your RAM to 2GB. Even then, you may not be very pleased, and many games may not work at all. Check the specs on the games to see how they handle the Intel GMA 950. Upgrading to 2GB is not cheap and (IMHO) not worth the $ just to get better gaming performance. The MacBook will never be adequate for that purpose.
Good luck!
MacBook,G5 iMac,15PB,G4 iMac, G4 QS, AX, 3G iPod, Shffl, nano,shffl Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Why does my mid-2010 Macbook Pro suffer from huge FPS drops whenever I try to play games?

Macbook info: 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3, nVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512MB
When I play games on my Macbook Pro, such as League of Legends, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, etc., they operate well with latency of ~80ms usually and fps starting off between 30-60, but after only a couple seconds or minutes my fps drops to 5-15 and the games become unplayable and I must force quit the program. Restarting the computer helps temporarily but then it relapses.
I cleaned out all my downloads, applications, and other deletable files that I could find. I installed and updated Mavericks OS X and the issue persists. Before I installed Mavericks I noticed in Activity Monitor that almost all of my memory was in use while playing a game. After Mavericks the memory is almost all permanently in use, but from what I've read this is what is supposed to happen and instead of looking at memory in use you look at memory pressure, which looks normal.
I was going to upgrade from 4GB RAM (current) to 8GB RAM and see if that helps but idk if that has anything to do with my fps issue or not. Any thoughts?

Alright well I'm definitely not running virus scans or doing system backups and then complaining about slow performance.... The only other application running besides whatever game i'm playing is SMC fancontrol to make sure my computer isn't overheating.
In terms of CPU%, games like WoW and LoL take ~50-60% of CPU while active, but activity monitor still reports ~80% idle. For disk activity, i'm not sure whether it uses optical or not, I assume i just uses the hard drive, which is brand new cus it broke down about a month ago and I had to replace it (the fans are brand new as well, so I don't think it could be build up of dust or anything inside because it was opened and cleaned so recently).
I can set all graphics setting to lowest possible and improve my fps to 20, which is still awful, and enabling vertical sync just sends it back down to 15 fps. I don't see why I should have to use lowest graphics settings anyway. It can't be out of date drivers since i have 10.9.1 running. Could the graphics card be the issue? That would suck since I can replace and upgrade RAM but not the graphics card.
I have repaired disk and disk permissions multiple times, virus scans, the whole gambit and nothing seems to help.

Blowing system run crazy when i play games

is it normal that the blowing system is run crazy when i play games on my macbook 15" 2011 - and can macbook run heavy games?

It's normal that the fans run fast during heavy gaming. The GPU temperatures usually increase with heavy graphics and the fans just keep them within operating range. Nothing to worry about, everyone has it.
Regards,
Captfred

Battery slowly drains when playing games

When I am playing games on my Macbook Pro (15', 2.4GHz) or performing other intensive tasks, my battery slowly drains. This is especially bad when bootcamped into XP at which point it will drain if I simply have the brightness of the screen up past half way. I was just playing Age of Empires 3 and upon quitting saw that my battery was at 13%. The laptop once shut off completely while I was playing Bioshock. Is this normal, and if not, how do I fix it?

It could be normal behavior. This article about running the MBP without the battery installed:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2332
implies that a high-demand process can draw power from BOTH the battery and the AC line:
This prevents the computer from shutting downif it demands more power than the A/C adaptor alone can provide.

Playing Computer games on a Macbook

I own a MacBook with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1GB of RAM, a 2.0 GHz Processor, and a GMA graphics card. Will it be able to handle graphic intense games, like Quake, Doom, Halo? Thank you!
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.9) Black w/ 2GHz Processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive

Well - most likely not on the OSX side. If you like to play games I suggest installing Windows XP using bootcamp and playing your 3D games there. Windows utilizes the GMA950 better than OSX and you also got the directX 9.0c to help you out.
I've played games like Call of Duty (original) on highest settings with no problems - mind you I got 2 Gb of RAM.
I also played HalfLife2 on medium to low settings and got great FPS - but once in a while the game crashed - dunno why.
I heard that Sims2 is very much playable on Windows XP Macbook - but I can't tell you about Doom3 or Halo. Search Youtube and see if someone has done it. I don't suppose that DOOM3 would play very well - that game is very GPU intensive - but you can give it a try

My iPad battery getting low quickly when im playing games. What should i do ?

My iPad battery getting low quickly when im playing games. What should i do ?

The quickest way (and really the only way) to charge your iPad is with the included 10W or 12W (5W on Mini) USB Power Adapter. iPad will also charge, although more slowly, when attached to a computer with a high-power USB port (many recent Mac computers) or with an iPhone Power Adapter (5W). When attached to a computer via a standard USB port (2.5W, most PCs or older Mac computers) iPad will charge very slowly (but iPad indicates not charging). Make sure your computer is on while charging iPad via USB. If iPad is connected to a computer that’s turned off or is in sleep or standby mode, the iPad battery will continue to drain.
Apple recommends that once a month you let the iPad fully discharge & then recharge to 100%.
How to Calibrate Your Mac, iPhone, or iPad Battery
http://www.macblend.com/how-to-calibrate-your-mac-iphone-or-ipad-battery/
At this link http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/galaxy-tab-android-tablet,3014-11.html , tests show that the iPad 2 battery (25 watt-hours) will charge to 90% in 3 hours 1 minute. It will charge to 100% in 4 hours 2 minutes. The new iPad has a larger capacity battery (42 watt-hours), so using the 10W charger will obviously take longer. If you are using your iPad while charging, it will take even longer. It's best to turn your new iPad OFF and charge over night. Also look at The iPad's charging challenge explained http://www.macworld.com/article/1150356/ipadcharging.html
Also, if you have a 3rd generation iPad, look at
Apple: iPad Battery Nothing to Get Charged Up About
http://allthingsd.com/20120327/apple-ipad-battery-nothing-to-get-charged-up-abou t/
Apple Explains New iPad's Continued Charging Beyond 100% Battery Level
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/03/27/apple-explains-new-ipads-continued-charging- beyond-100-battery-level/
New iPad Takes Much Longer to Charge Than iPad 2
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2012/03/new-ipad-takes-much-longer-to-charge-than-ipa d-2.html
Apple Batteries - iPad http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html
Extend iPad Battery Life (Look at pjl123 comment)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3921324?tstart=30
New iPad Slow to Recharge, Barely Charges During Use
http://www.pcworld.com/article/252326/new_ipad_slow_to_recharge_barely_charges_d uring_use.html
Tips About Charging for New iPad 3
http://goodscool-electronics.blogspot.com/2012/04/tips-about-charging-for-new-ip ad-3.html
How to Save and Prolong the battery life of your new ipad
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4480944?tstart=0
Prolong battery lifespan for iPad / iPad 2 / iPad 3: charging tips
http://thehowto.wikidot.com/prolong-battery-lifespan-for-ipad
iPhone, iPod, Using the iPad Charger
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4327
Install and use Battery Doctor HD
http://itunes.apple.com/tw/app/battery-doctor-hd/id459702901?mt=8
To Extend a Device’s Battery Life, Get to Know It Better
http://tinyurl.com/b67c7xz
iPad Battery Replacement
http://www.apple.com/batteries/replacements.html
In rare instances when using the Camera Connection Kit, you may notice that iPad does not charge after using the Camera Connection Kit. Disconnecting and reconnecting the iPad from the charger will resolve this issue.
 Cheers, Tom

When playing games on facebook, I often get the message "virtual memory too low, is being increased" Is there something I can do to clean out the "virtual memory" to avoid this?

As mentioned in my question above, it happens usually during playing games. I wondered if there were someway to clean out the virtual memory, as opposed to it "increasing" continually and overloading my memory in general. You are speaking with a computer novice for the most part, so I am unfamiliar with a lot. I do do updates and general maintenance on the computer, but is that enough for this issue?

Your plugins list shows outdated plugin(s) with known security and stability risks.
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Update the [[Flash]] plugin to the latest version.
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Physical memory is the memory that is installed on your computer as real memory. To be able to run programs that require more memory and more programs at the same time (via time sharing and task switching) it is also possible to move (swap) currently not needed code and data to disk to make room for other programs and data. The total memory available for programs is the Virtual Memory.
You can check the Virtual Memory settings here: Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Settings (Advanced tab)<br />
Windows can manage more memory then is physical available and that memory is stored in a page file on your hard drive.
If the size of that file is not large enough and all available memory is in use then you get the Virtual Memory is low warning.
Make sure that you have at least 1 GB or the recommended setting for the Virtual Memory.
If you have less than 1 GB physical memory installed on your computer then if possible add more memory.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223 - RAM, Virtual Memory, Pagefile and all that stuff

I have a Macbook Pro june 2011... I have 8GB ram but I only have 256mb VRAM... I've read some other questions about this and I realized... Why do I not have 560mb of VRAM since I have 8GB of RAM? Is there any way to get more VRAM to play games on steam?

I have a Macbook Pro june 2011... I have 8GB ram but I only have 256mb VRAM...
I've read some other questions about this and I realized... Why do I not have 560mb of VRAM since I have 8GB of RAM?
Is there any way to get more VRAM to play games on steam?
I've learned by reading other topics that I can't upgrade my graphics card on my Macbook Pro because it's soldered into the motherboard or somthing like that, but please tell me if there is any way to get more video ram by chaning some setting or upgrading something else. I'd also like to know why I only have 256MB of VRAM when I have 8GB of RAM, since I have 8GB of RAM I thought I was supposed to have 560mb of VRAM...
So the two questions are...
Is there any way to upgrade my VRAM, so that I can play games on steam?
Why do I only have 256MB VRAM when I have 8GB total RAM?
Other Info:
I have a quad core i7 Processor.
My graphcics card is the AMD Radeon HD 6490M.
I am also trying to play games on my BOOTCAMPed side of my mac, or my Windows 7 Professional side.
THANK YOU SO MUCH IF YOU CAN REPLY,
Dylan

The only two items that a user can change on a MBP are the RAM and HDD (Retinas not included). You have what the unit came with and the only way you will be able to change that is to purchase a MBP with superior graphics
If you are very much into gaming, the I suggest A PC. They are far superior for that type of application to a MBP.
Ciao.

Do playing games lower my MacBook's lifespan?

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