Are Macbooks Good For Game Design And Coding

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Hi fellow codemonkeys,
I was basically looking for some input.
Most of my free time is spent programming and I absolutely love doing so.
Currently I work on a thinkpad T450s which does ok but lacks a semi-decent videocard for what I'm trying to do.
I also have no way to develop for apple which kinda sucks as I have an iphone and an Ipad Pro.

As such I started looking for other options and I basically enjoy doing the following stuff:
- Video editing
- Generic Programming (Java, C#, Python, PHP, HTML, might want to pick up swift some day).
- Scripting (OSX terminal would be great addon for that)
- 3D programming in Unity (Made tower defense games so far but looking to expand and make my first FPS for example)
- Webdesign

As you can see, I enjoy doing a broad spectrum of things but they are all related to either video, photo editing or programming.

As I enjoy keeping my options open and this is where most of my free time is spent, I started looking for the best option for both my programming needs aswell as my video editing.

Ultimately, I ended up with a dilemma.
Deep down, I have a soft spot for mac OSX and I really want to switch from Windows to it (Had it before on a macbook some time ago). However Macbook Pro's (Apple in general) aren't really known for having great graphic cards. In the new Macbookpro, we can chose a Radeon 450 or 460.

Do you think a Macbook with this card would be a great futureproof investment (I know laptops age faster / can't be kept up to date as easily as desktops) or would I be running into limitations rather shortly?
For example, how well does a Macbook Pro cope with a large unity 3D project with tons of textures and animations (Say, a detailed FPS).

If it handles all of these things well, I think I might opt for a macbook for the sheer diversity it offers me aswell as OSX being the largest factor for me.

If not, what would be the best windows / linux alternative you'd recommend me to go with?
(sorry for the long post)

Thanks in advance!
Depends, what are your target hardware platform's?
Do you want to do any work on AR or VR apps?

Note maybe you could hold on until early next year and see if AMD introduces a laptop version of Ryzen, and shake things up a bit.
Hi late mac mini user here. I have to say I'm happy with my setup. But if you want to do tons of textures and big open worlds, mac minis or laptops aren't the best. You're looking at a dedicated graphics cards built to handle those kind of things. Personally, I don't feel macs are on par with windows machine setups, more to the point unity isn't the best setup for massive open world FPS shooters, creating them or playing pre-made games which tend to be windows only anyway.
Now having said that, you can create gorgeous looking level, scaled right down and utilising baked lighting, very few shadow casters etc. Also, if you're a noob you soon realise a big open world FPS game is quite out of your league especially if you're a one man band, and more to the point the gameplay tends to be boring monotonous stuff like running around and shooting others IMO.
For now I think VR is still out of my league and by quite a margin..
It's not like I claim to be the next SplashDamage or Ubisoft.
Unity 3D is where I have fun and create fun applications and maps that I enjoy
I'm collaborating with 3 or 4 friends to create a First Person Shooter but we realize that it might be far off.
In general, I'm just looking for a great coding laptop and Unity 3D is a way to also keep programming and learning stuff.
Ultimately it's all about experience and I wanna become a better programmer and thus I practice alot

It would be even better if I could put my practice into valueable and useable applications too so keeping options open is nice. Hence I believe Macbook Pro for example wouldn't be too bad as I'd have the ability to develop for all systems.

Appreciate your input!
I wouldn't consider myself a noob in the world of programming but I am relatively new to game development. It's something that really interests me but for now I'm doing small solo projects (like a platform game for a mobile phone) or a collaboration with a couple of friends in which we are trying to build a fps.
As you said it's relatively challenging but we like that and I'm just aiming to keep my options open and enlarge my experience as a developer. You can learn from any experience and I believe being able to program different languages and understand different aspects, is always added value.

Therefore I'd consider a macbook pro as it enables you to work for all platforms as opposed to windows where you can't develop for iOS.
For regular programming, almost any laptop will do. It really comes down to what you want in a laptop. Do you want to sacrifice performance for thinness and battery life, or are you OK with a battery-sucking laptop that's very powerful inside?
There's nothing (besides Terminal) in a MacBook that makes it better for programming. So we come to the graphics.
Long story made short, the new GPU is definitely not future-proof as it is quite lackluster by last-year's standards. If you're going to be loading an FPS level, you're better off with something that has an Nvidia 9 or 10-series card inside.

Overall, if you're willing to sacrifice battery life and a few style points for performance that's cheaper, you should look elsewhere than the new MacBook Pro (Dell XPS 13, Razer Blade etc...). If you want something that looks nice, has Terminal, has iOS build capability but is quite underpowered for its price, get a MacBook Pro.

This claims to build for iOS on a Windows PC, and it has a 5-star rating: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15522

I've never tried it, but it looks impressive and people seem to love it.
Isn't there the option for adding an external GPU to a macbook via Thunderbolt or USB C?
Hmm thanks for your feedback! That seems quite the correct resume.
I think if I'm honest, I fall more into the category of a battery sucking laptop as I'd mostly be connected to the juice anyway and working from home or a desk somewhere else.
Any recommendations in that case for a good windows or linux laptop?
Well if battery isn't an issue, there's so much to choose from. Since you mentioned the MacBook Pro with Radeon 460, I'll say your budget is a bit under $3,000. First worth noting, the Radeon 460 is about the same as a Nvidia 965m, but significantly worse than the Nvidia 970m.
There's so many options, I'll just list a few:
ASUS ROG G752VS - Intel i7, 512GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Nvidia 1070m 8GB GPU, $2850
MSI GT72VR - Intel i7, 1TB SSD + 1TB HDD, Nvidia 1060 6GB GPU, 44GB RAM (wut???), $2600 (on sale)
A more stylish HP OMEN 17 - Intel i7, 1TB SSD + 2TB HDD, Nvidia 1070 8GB GPU, $2600

You should probably do searching yourself for the perfect laptop, but if you're OK with a thicker laptop that has worse battery life, then those are some good options.

If you really need the style points and battery, Surface Book with Performance Base is a competitor. Unfortunately it has a dual-core CPU.
There's more to development than graphics cards. Although my main dev machines (desktop and laptop) are Windows, yesterday I was running regression tests on a Mac, and it was just very pleasant working in the environment. That said, do I still develop primarily on Windows. But if you're not going to be pushing the hardware, you might happier working on a Macbook.
I do prefer mac os by a margin but I am afraid specs of MacBook pro aren't sufficiënt for heavier duties. Then again my old MacBook pro seemed to compile so fast in Eclipse compared to Windows laptops with better specs..
(Not sure why or how though)
Simply put a macbook or mac won't future proof you for game dev that has some sort of AAA content, most devs won't even get close to AAA that so it's hardly an issue, but if you really want to push the boundaries a desktop machine, windows build, with a beefy card, nvidia usually rules the roost is your only option.
If this is the case following the recommendations for unreal spec should generally future proof you for the next couple of years as this is the most demanding game engine out there.

If all that is of irrelevance I would say the macbook pro is your best bet, or mac mini. Yeah the OS is sweet and I'd never switch now.

Oh and forget external GPUs it's daft, the kit costs way too much and there is some other bottleneck preventing optimal performance.
I think for the most part i ll stick to apps and mobile games i can make on my OWN. Therefore a MacBook pro seems like a solid pick!
Well if you don't need a very powerful GPU like the ones I pointed out, you could get a cheaper laptop and save some cash.
As for Windows vs MacOS, all I can say is I tried both, I found OSX to be quite disappointing and even annoying, but at the end of the day it is mostly preference and specific workloads. Some people really like the Dock and Finder, others like me hate it. It's just preference of usability and how much money you're willing to overpay for underspecced hardware. If MacOS is something you really want more than cheaper hardware with the same specs, go for it!
Yes, and Apple touted official support for this sort of thing last year, with High Sierra. The timing was probably down to them pushing the idea that 'the mac can do VR too' and I havent heard much about it since but I presume it works, not as fast as having the same graphics card in a desktop machine but much better than the GPUs that tend to come with Apple machines.
Eric5h5

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13.4, not quite out yet, has official (non-beta) support for eGPUs.
--Eric