Anyone here own a Mac?

[Lyric Zulu]

I was wondering if anyone here uses or has used a mac not only for general use but more specifically for gaming.

This is not intended to start a flame war because I'm actually looking at buying a Mac myself.

 

[Asus]

I do not own a Mac but I know the catalog of Mac games is not as large as on the PC. Mainly the popular games and even then you are missing some. And it isn't uncommon for games to be released on the Mac quite a bit later than on PC.

Although you could just install Windows on the Mac (w/intel CPU) as a second OS. Just reboot the Mac when you want to play and go into windows.

But then again you would really have to watch what kind of video card it comes with. You may be stuck with what is in there. Getting new and more demanding games on the PC isn't a problem since you can swap the video card out for a better one without much thought. Not sure how much Macs have improved with flexibility and upgrading the GPU.

 

[Escaep]

I was wondering if anyone here uses or has used a mac not only for general use but more specifically for gaming.

This is not intended to start a flame war because I'm actually looking at buying a Mac myself.

I'll answer any of your questions.

I currently am using a 24" iMac (Late 2007 edition.) Basic specs are an Intel C2D @ 2.4 GHZ, 1 GB DDR2 667 (I bumped it up to 2GB), 320 GB Mac HD, and a ATI 2600 PRO. For gaming I used Boot Camp. I don't know if you know what this is already but basically it creates a partition on your Macintosh HD on which you directly load Windows onto it. It is not emulated like so people think as in VMWARE Fusion or Parallels. It runs exactly like native Windows. As far as switching back and forth you can hold the option key on startup and choose the OS, or go through System Preferences to Startup Disk then set which operation system you want to load on default. Once in Windows you run the Boot Camp install disk which puts drivers and such on as well as a utility to allow you to boot back into OSX.

Now, I don't know if you are looking into an iMac or a MacBook, but since it sounds like you want to do some gaming you should definitely go with the iMac. There are 4 versions of the iMac (20, and three different 24" models.) I would recommend the 24" just because it is bigger and looks shecksy. Anyway....heres a breakdown:

20
2.66 GHZ C2D
2GB Memory
320 GB HD
8x Double Layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA 9400m

24 (1)
""
4GB Memory
640 GB HD
""
""

24 (2)
2.93 GHZ C2D
""
""
""
NVIDIA GT120

24 (3)
3.06 GHZ C2D
""
1TB HD
""
NVIDIA GT130


Those are whats listed on Apple's Website. Obviously, the last option is the most expensive and yes Mac's are expensive, but they are worth it in my opinion. Now, my model runs games fairly decently. I run COD4 on medium-high settings and usually average 70-90 FPS, same with WAW. Team Fortress 2 also on medium-high with about 50-70 fps, Far Cry 2 on medium-high with about 40 fps.

All in all, I haven't had a single problem with my Mac. OSX is a rock-solid operating system and I prefer it much more over Windows for everyday taks.

If you have any other questions post em or PM me. If you have XFIRE mine is 3sc4p3.

I do not own a Mac but I know the catalog of Mac games is not as large as on the PC. Mainly the popular games and even then you are missing some. And it isn't uncommon for games to be released on the Mac quite a bit later than on PC.

At the moment the only major game on OSX is COD4. But it is not an official game from Activision, it was remade by a company called Aspyr.

But then again you would really have to watch what kind of video card it comes with. You may be stuck with what is in there. Getting new and more demanding games on the PC isn't a problem since you can swap the video card out for a better one without much thought. Not sure how much Macs have improved with flexibility and upgrading the GPU.

That is the down side to having everything built into the monitor. AFAIK, the only stuff you can upgrade is the RAM and the Hard Drive.

 

[Lyric Zulu]

Well, I was looking into getting the 15" Macbook Pro actually, so I don't think the GPu will be a problem cuz it has a 9600M GT with 512MB (I think) of RAM.

Have you ever looked into a program called crossover games? It uses the same technology as programs like WINE to use windows apps on Linux. you can take a look at it here and download a trial.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/

 

[Escaep]

Well, I was looking into getting the 15" Macbook Pro actually, so I don't think the GPu will be a problem cuz it has a 9600M GT with 512MB (I think) of RAM.

Have you ever looked into a program called crossover games? It uses the same technology as programs like WINE to use windows apps on Linux. you can take a look at it here and download a trial.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxgames/

I've never used it but I heard that it can run games fairly well. If you YouTube it look for a video that compares it to Parallels and VMWare on Team Fortress 2.

 

[Lyric Zulu]

If I were to buy a 15" Macbook pro, would it be a good idea to spend $114 to upgrade to 4GB of RAM from 2GB?

 

[Escaep]

If I were to buy a 15" Macbook pro, would it be a good idea to spend $114 to upgrade to 4GB of RAM from 2GB?

You probably don't need to spend that much if you are buying from Apple. Newegg has notebook mac memory for about half that much.

 

[Krynn72]

How well do Mac monitors work for gaming? I know they're pretty high quality, but to they have good response times for fast moving games?

 

[Escaep]

How well do Mac monitors work for gaming? I know they're pretty high quality, but to they have good response times for fast moving games?

The display is excellent. I don't know about response times as they always seem top notch to me. Of course I have never experience a lag in response times via monitors so I don't know what to look for.

 

[Adabiviak]

How well do Mac monitors work for gaming? I know they're pretty high quality, but to they have good response times for fast moving games?

I'm using a 23" HD Cinema, and I think it does - I don't notice any ghosting or other artifacts of that nature.

 

[Rico]

Why you would get a Mac to do mostly gaming, is beyond me.

You'll get far more performance per dollar if you pick a PC instead. Period.

 

[Kadayi]

Why you would get a Mac to do mostly gaming, is beyond me.

You'll get far more performance per dollar if you pick a PC instead. Period.

This.

Unless you're a self employed graphics or media professional with a penchant for gaming on the side I wouldn't bother tbh. You could build a bespoke PC machine with room to breathe in the long term for about the same money. Contrary to popular opinion Macs aren't made of the finest components. Most of the suppliers of Ram, HDs etc are fairly non-descript manufacturers at the end of the day.

Pro Mac user here BTW.

 

[xcellerate]

Most of the suppliers of Ram, HDs etc are fairly non-descript manufacturers at the end of the day.

I don't know about that, the mac pro I'm on now:
intel processor, nvidia graphics card, intel sata controller, western digital HDD, broadcom bluetooth, intel gigabit, and some apple stuff...I mean the most obscure parts are the ram, but i've never had any trouble with ram in our machines.

Although I do agree about macs and gaming; apple doesn't build, or advertise their computers as, gaming machines. If you want to play video games there are better options.

 

[Kadayi]

I don't know about that, the mac pro I'm on now:
intel processor, nvidia graphics card, intel sata controller, western digital HDD, broadcom bluetooth, intel gigabit, and some apple stuff...I mean the most obscure parts are the ram, but i've never had any trouble with ram in our machines.

The components are never that high end though, say Vs the sort of parts you get in an Alienware machine for example. Apple just negotiate decent pricing because they offer suppliers exclusivity.

Generally their Ram is bargain basement in my experience.

 

[Rico]

I would never recommend an Alienware to anyone, but it the other option is a Mac, and this is a gaming machine, I'd say definitely Alienware. I'd take a gander and say that even though Alienware overcharges for any PC they build by a large margin, it would still be a better bang for your buck gaming-wise.

For optimal money : performance ratio, build your own PC. If you can't, find someone who will. It will save you tons of cash in the end.

 

[Lyric Zulu]

While I agree with everything that has been said, mainly that PCs are better gaming rigs, I am not buying a mac for gaming. I plan on getting one and was wondering if anybody had any experience gaming with them because it would be a nice bonus to be able to play Steam games.

 

[Kadayi]

While I agree with everything that has been said, mainly that PCs are better gaming rigs, I am not buying a mac for gaming. I plan on getting one and was wondering if anybody had any experience gaming with them because it would be a nice bonus to be able to play Steam games.

The Imac suggestions are all good, but real futureproofing (you can add more ram, HDs and swap out the Graphics Card) you probably want to look at a Mac Pro Tower, but they aren't remotely cheap.