Are Macs Good for Gaming?

[robertosh]

I'm playing Diablo 3 in my 5 year old iMac, at 1920x1200 resolution and medium detail. It runs smooth enough to get a very good experience playing. I think that the OSX drivers had improved a lot in the latest years. Of course, same game will run better in windows with boot camp than in OSX but i think that the things are more close now.

 

[mcnallym]

I am considering getting a Mac Pro or iMac. I was wondering if they would make good gaming machines when compared to a PC. The new Mac Pro which is yet to be released will house two GPU's. Does that make it a true SLI machine? Will it be able to handle games that have intense graphics? Would I just be betting off sticking to PC I regards to gaming? Thoughts?

Personally I would ask what you are looking at the machine for. If just for gaming then I would say, to stick with a PC.

If you are considering a new Mac Pro or iMac for other reasons, and just want to know if you can still do gaming on them, then they are fine. The Graphics card so far mentioned are AMD Firepro Cards which are aimed at the Workstation Market, so the drivers are not optimzed for gaming. Also being AMD they won't do SLI as SLI is an Nvidia. I am not aware that Crossfire which is AMD's equivalent is supported on the FirePro's. They won't be bad at the Games, however they are an expensive way of getting a Gaming GPU.

Please note also that the new Mac Pro isn't taking standard GPU PCI-Express format cards but is a new format style, so unless someone starts launching cards that can pick up at the online-retailer you won't be dropping GTX700/Titan Series Radeon 8000 PC cards in the new Mac Pro.

The iMac will again be be fine, but as with the Mac Pro, it isn't going to be that upgradeable in that the GPU is fixed and not swappable

As such I would look firstly at why you are looking at an iMac / Mac Pro. I am not saying that you cannot game on them, just that if Gaming is the main factor then a PC would be a better option, can be upgraded easily using off the shelf components etc, get new hardware quicker.

For instance you can now get 7950 and 680 cards for the current Mac Pro ( won't go in the new smaller Mac Pro ) within weeks then Nvidia launch the 780/770 series of cards for PC's.

 

[xSinghx]

No one here games in OS X. That would be foolish. How many games can you crank to ultra on a GTX 680 on a PC at 1080p? That is what I get on my Mac. Crysis 3 cranked at 60+ fPS, yes. Far Cry 3 at ultra everything at 45+FPS yes. Look at what a i7-980x and GTX 680 on Windowscan do and you have my Mac. Stop talking nonsense about what setting you can get. If you have a Mac Pro you can slot a freakin Titan if you are so inclined.

sigh...

I never said anything about gaming in OSX. Please do yourself and us a favor and actually read posts before you bother responding to them.

I also didn't realize it was necessary to make my post so specific to prevent [comments] about what settings one can get under what specific BTO options you may or may not have.

Despite that and your flaming overreaction - there's actually nothing controversial in what I said. iMacs are built for general computing which includes games, Mac Pros for professional apps audio, video etc, but both are not built specifically to kick ass at games which is what a custom pc would offer the poster for less than what he would pay for a mac. Obviously you and I own a mac so budget didn't play into it for us - it may for him and he may want to stretch his dollar farther.

BTW last I checked they don't make a mac edition titan - maybe someone has done it in the forums with the pc version using some work arounds because I know there was initially some problems doing it given some lack of drivers and of course it will depend which mac pros we're talking about.

But the person who started this thread as far as I read gave no indication he was interested in doing that - rather he was simply looking to possibly buy a mac. So for the poster of the thread that had a general question I gave a general answer. Sorry that doesn't please you but meh - deal with it.

Learn to articulate your disagreement.

 

[FluJunkie]

A Mac is acceptable for gaming. I wouldn't pay to upgrade from an iMac to a Mac Pro just for gaming - for that you can get a decent PC gaming machine that's dedicated to the purpose, but if you happen to be purchasing a Mac Pro for other uses, it plays games perfectly well. You'll be better served by a PC gaming machine if you want Real Ultimate Gaming, but I've been rather pleased with the performance of my Mac Pro for gaming, enough that I've felt no need to purchase a dedicated box.

I play both natively in OS X (Mostly Blizzard games and Cities in Motion), via Parallels (most Paradox-esq strategy games, World of Tanks, etc.) and Bootcamp (Everything else).

 

[prvt.donut]

I will repeat, if you want to game, build a PC, click over to tonymaxc86.com and choose parts that are fully compatible with mountain lion and dual boot. That way you get the best of both worlds.

 

[mtasquared]

OSX is the thing (and build quality)

The best reason for getting a Mac is OSX, and the boost in your productivity as a result, in my opinion. Not gaming. That said, I have a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 that has a measly Radeon 5770, but it plays the latest games well at 1040p, maxed out, in bootcamp (windows 7). 40 to 60 fps. In Parallels I play more casual/old games like Halflife 2, Train Simulator 2013 on all high settings. Natively in OSX I play F1 2012 on all highest settings.

Getting an iMac or Mac Pro is sweet for anybody if it can be afforded. The fact that you can play games on it is icing on the cake.

 

[BeK]

Thanks for all the advice guys. After considering the opinions on this thread. I have decided to just build a new PC since my primary focus is gaming.
I talked to a friend of mine the other day, who is not a fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. For this reason I feel his opinion holds a little bit more weight. He owns a MacBook Pro which cost him about $3000 and he also has a self built PC which cost him about $1500.
He says that his PC runs games better than his Mac does. This was the deal breaker for me.
He says that he uses his Mac for video editing and his PC for gaming.
Thanks again everyone for sharing your thoughts on this matter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

 

[prvt.donut]

Thanks for all the advice guys. After considering the opinions on this thread. I have decided to just build a new PC since my primary focus is gaming.
I talked to a friend of mine the other day, who is not a fanboy by any stretch of the imagination. For this reason I feel his opinion holds a little bit more weight. He owns a MacBook Pro which cost him about $3000 and he also has a self built PC which cost him about $1500.
He says that his PC runs games better than his Mac does. This was the deal breaker for me.
He says that he uses his Mac for video editing and his PC for gaming.
Thanks again everyone for sharing your thoughts on this matter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Check out the buyers guide on tonymacx86.com. If you only choose parts from their list, then you will have the option to run mountain lion if you ever feel like it in the future. (The buyers guide includes shopping links to make sure you get fully "supported" parts)

 

[BeK]

Check out the buyers guide on tonymacx86.com. If you only choose parts from their list, then you will have the option to run mountain lion if you ever feel like it in the future. (The buyers guide includes shopping links to make sure you get fully "supported" parts)

Thank you for that. I will strongly consider that if I ever desire to run Apple's native OS.

 

[derbothaus]

However, many gamers define 'good' as max image quality at steady 60fps. And Macs won't deliver that.

BS. As noted in all my above posts. Why is it so hard to look up GTX 680 benchmarks when you are absolutely not CPU bound.

 

[leman]

BS. As noted in all my above posts. Why is it so hard to look up GTX 680 benchmarks when you are absolutely not CPU bound.

You are right, of course. But how many Macs can fit a GTX 680, and what price are we looking at?

 

[derbothaus]

You are right, of course. But how many Macs can fit a GTX 680, and what price are we looking at?

I just thought it was appropriate as this is the Mac Pro forum so, in that context, all Mac Pro's 3,1 or higher due to the 10.8 need.

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

You are right, of course. But how many Macs can fit a GTX 680, and what price are we looking at?

Mine can. I've even ran Titans in SLI in mine. I'm running a pair of 670s for now when I want to boot in windows for gaming.

 

[roadbloc]

Compared to PCs? No. But they are capable.

 

[SpyderBite]

I use Macs for everything, but I'll keep my PC just for the games. Trust me it's the better way to go.

Ditto here. I bootcamped for a few months but gave up eventually and just bought a windows gaming notebook.

 

[Serban]

i think the imac is the future for you. A pc you must have a station /cable/monitor...too much trouble..in the imac you have it all wireless etc.So from practicality point is the best. I suppose you can wait since you said mac pro that it isnt released yet..so in this case with the new imac upgrade with 780M or even 780MX...these cards are in top 5 of all the video cards out there, you will can play like any game you want. If you use some productivity applications then go for the next imac.

 

[derbothaus]

Compared to PCs? No. But they are capable.

Sweeping general statement. Some Mac's are faster than some PC's. It depends. A slower PC is not more capable at gaming than a faster Mac booted in Windows is. That is lunacy. Parts are parts. PC's use the same parts as Mac's. A GPU in one is the same GPU in another. If your Mac has a ATI 5870 in it and your PC has a GTX 780 then guess what? The PC is better for gaming. If my gaming PC is a couple years old and has a GTX 470 in it and my Mac has a GTX 680 guess what? The Mac is the better gaming computer. It isn't hard folks. Stop making it that way with team boosterism. At the end of the day staying current with HW is much cheaper on the PC as you have more replacement options and they are usually less expensive than the Mac variants.

 

[roadbloc]

Sweeping general statement. Some Mac's are faster than some PC's. It depends. A slower PC is not more capable at gaming than a faster Mac booted in Windows is. That is lunacy. Parts are parts. PC's use the same parts as Mac's. A GPU in one is the same GPU in another. If your Mac has a ATI 5870 in it and your PC has a GTX 780 then guess what? The PC is better for gaming. If my gaming PC is a couple years old and has a GTX 470 in it and my Mac has a GTX 680 guess what? The Mac is the better gaming computer. It isn't hard folks. Stop making it that way with team boosterism. At the end of the day staying current with HW is much cheaper on the PC as you have more replacement options and they are usually less expensive than the Mac variants.

>Native OS doesn't even use latest OpenGL libraries (yet)
>Native OS doesn't have anywhere near the amount of available games as Windows
>Native OS lacks DirectX
>Overpriced hardware
>Claims it is the better gaming computer

It isn't always about hardware. Sure, you can stick Windows on a Mac, but Apple is never up to date with the bootcamp drivers. By buying Mac for gaming, you'd only be spending more than you need to for hardware you're going to put Windows on.

As I said, they are capable. But not the best. At all.

 

[derbothaus]

>Native OS doesn't even use latest OpenGL libraries (yet)
>Native OS doesn't have anywhere near the amount of available games as Windows
>Native OS lacks DirectX
>Overpriced hardware
>Claims it is the better gaming computer

It isn't always about hardware. Sure, you can stick Windows on a Mac, but Apple is never up to date with the bootcamp drivers. By buying Mac for gaming, you'd only be spending more than you need to for hardware you're going to put Windows on.

As I said, they are capable. But not the best. At all.

Did you notice the context in which I said it is a "better gaming computer"? All you have to do is add that magical "Sure you can stick Windows on a Mac" and all the above points fall into the ether. A GTX 680 and i7-980 IS better than 95% of PC's out there. You can't argue that.
All of my comments are assuming you are gaming in Windows and working in OS X.
Only glutens for punishment game on OS X. That is not a discussion worth even having.
On a Mac Pro you do not ever have to use Bootcamp. I don't. Windows is on it's own HDD and all drivers are native WIndows drivers and/ or from respective vendors. You only need bootcamp to run the partition agent and you don't even need that if you know how to use a shell.
No one also should buy a Mac strictly for gaming. All of your above points assume you are using OS X. I don't think there is much room for any argument if this is the case. Windows is Windows. Hardware is hardware. I work in OS X for my job and game in Windows for fun. 1 Mac can do it all if needed and depending on the amount of cash you throw at it, some faster than the majority of PC's. Because at the end of the day a PC is a PC. I am apologizing ahead of time to the Apple fan-boi's who think anything different.

 

[annk]

Closed temporarily for clean-up.

Edit: Ok, open again. Please stay away from off-topic bickering and insults/name-calling.

 

[donutbagel]

It works well, but you will have to use Bootcamp, a virtual machine, or WINE for a few of the games because some either don't have an OS X version, or the OS X version has problems. I run 2 games in VMWare Fusion (which I know is NOT designed for gaming) with great performance on my 2008 Mac Pro, which has the outdated ATI 2600 GPU. I run a game in WINE, and it has some performance limitation because of that, but it's not bad considering the game's high system requirements and my old GPU.

A new iMac or Mac Pro can play anything well if you use Bootcamp for whatever doesn't have OS X support, but most games seem to work in OS X nowadays. Buying a Mac only for gaming is a waste of money in most cases since almost every game has an equivalent Windows version. If you want a computer just for gaming, get an XBOX 360 or PS3 or Wii U or a gaming PC unless you really want the sleek Mac hardware.

Another problem is that Macs can't use normal GPUs that aren't flashed for EFI. You can flash them yourself, but that's annoying and will make startup keyboard commands not work. As I said, the Mac Pro can handle games, but if you want to put a really high-end GPU in or upgrade it in the future, you might have trouble. Of course, you also cannot upgrade the iMac GPU.

 

[donutbagel]

I'm playing Diablo 3 in my 5 year old iMac, at 1920x1200 resolution and medium detail. It runs smooth enough to get a very good experience playing. I think that the OSX drivers had improved a lot in the latest years. Of course, same game will run better in windows with boot camp than in OSX but i think that the things are more close now.

My friend plays it on his 2010 MacBook Pro on maximum graphical settings, and it runs perfectly. The only problems are that he disabled right-click on his trackpad and that the game kinda stinks after playing for 30 minutes

 

[maflynn]

[MOD NOTE]
The thread is reopened if you wish to discuss the merits of gaming on a Mac then please do so, do not attack, taunt or bicker.

Below are the rules for Rules for Appropriate Debate Please be sure to follow them

Respect

Guidelines: Show respect for your fellow posters. Expect and accept that other users may have strongly held opinions that differ from yours.

Rules:

1. Name-calling. Name-calling falls into the category of insults and will be treated as such according to the forum rules, your own opinion about another member notwithstanding. You can't call a bigot a bigot, a troll a troll, or a fanboy a fanboy, any more than you can call an idiot an idiot. You can disagree with the content of another member's statement or give your evidence or opinion to dispute their claims, but you may not make a negative personal characterization about that member.
2. Insults. Slurs and insults against groups of people based on negative-stereotyping and obvious generalizations fall into the category of trolling and will be treated as such.
3. Taunting. Mocking or taunting another forum member is not acceptable. Posts that ridicule another member or obviously exaggerate or misstate their views may be removed.

 

[MagicThief83]

To be honest, the new Mac Pro is probably going to be an awesome machine, but will also be an over-priced machine when bought for the sole purpose of gaming. I finally took the plunge and built myself an amazing hackintosh/gaming PC and all I can say is how amazed I am with the possibilities of what the machine is capable of. Two 120 GB SSDs, 1 2TB HD, 3.4 GHz i5 CPU with the possibility to over clock, a GTX 770 GPU, and the motherboard comes with several I/Os including USB 3.0 and TB. All of this for little under $2000. I contemplated heavily about the Mac Pro, and I felt the work station graphics and more than likely over priced diminutive SSD storage just wouldn't cut it for me. My build runs like a dream and it's extremely stable. It also blazes through whatever games are out there, and probably whatever's to come for the foreseeable future. Sure there's tinkering with Hackintoshes and Windows, but once properly configured, they're extremely stable. Not to mention, the beautiful chassis that houses all of these components and in a neat and near silent enclosure. I'm sure the Mac Pro will be amazing, but it is geared towards a certain segment and I'm certainly glad I went the other route as I'm actually getting more for my money and not less.

 

[sbarton]

I gave my i7 hackintosh to my wife when her computer died. I was ready to roll up another when I learned about the 4,1 to 5,1 upgrade hack with the 2009 mac pro. So, I've spent the week sourcing parts and it's done.

Ended up finding a mint 2009 mac pro which i upgraded to a 3.3 W3680 xeon, 500gb SSD (OSX), 256gb SSD (windows 8), 24gb of ram, and a GTX680 mac edition. At the end of the day everything cost me around $2500. Yes, I could have put together a monster gaming rig/hackintosh for that money, but I'm glad I went this route.

Games I play in OSX are GW2, Starcraft, Eve Online, Borderlands 2, League of Legends (great mac port btw), and a few others. With the exception of GW2, I can play all of these maxed at 2560x1440 in OSX. GW2 under OSX gets 50-60 at medium settings, under windows it gets 50-60 with everything maxed. Under windows I play World of Tanks, Planetside 2, and MW online right now.

This gives me the best of both worlds for "my" needs. The mac pro has plenty of easy to access storage. I keep my important documents, music, video collection, and other data on a 2TB drive and I have a 3TB drive for TM that backs it up along with the boot drive. I could have done an iMac, but i would have had drives hanging off of it, plus IMO the 680MX is just on the edge of adequate for games at that resolution, plus i already had a really nice 27" led lcd.

I doubt I'll be a customer of the new mac pro as it seems to be designed for "pros" using highly threaded apps for video and music versus the power enthusiast, which is a pity. Also I don't think it will be that great for games either due to the video cards being tuned for video/2d and the cpus will have lots of cores, but lower clock rates compared to consumer offerings (much like it is today).


just my .02