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Are Macs Good for Gaming?

I have a 2009 (I think) iMac. I cant install bootcamp due to broken cd drive, but my gaming experience hasnt been that bad. I played, Bioshock 1,2, WoW, LoL, Assasins creed 1,2,brotherhood, mafia 2. All GTA except 4. Arkham asylum and city, mine craft, terraria, bunch of lego games with my brother, civ 5, HOMM 1-5, cs, sims and there are a bunch out there. Id personally choose the new mac pro and install bootcamp on it. I love mac as a whole, but whenever I wanted to play games quick-switching to windows is great.
EDIT: But if gaming is your priority, and youre not a hardcore mac fan, a rigged gaming pc would work better for you.
 
BeKure said:
Thanks for your response. Do you know this from personal experience or hearsay? I ask because I have heard different opinions thrown around regarding this issue. There's no way I'm dropping a few grand on a computer that can't run the latest and greatest games at the highest settings.
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This is gaming only.

I have an iMac 27, rmbp 15, Alienware 18 and a gaming PC 2xtitan.

The retina MacBook Pro v Alienware , so competition, mac book pro is crap.

The iMac v PC, huge win to the PC.

If you want to play the latest and greatest on highest setting at adequate FPS, it has to be a PC.

Macs are awesome, just not at gaming. They are good at gaming.
 
arturs229 said:
I have a 2009 (I think) iMac. I cant install bootcamp due to broken cd drive, but my gaming experience hasnt been that bad. I played, Bioshock 1,2, WoW, LoL, Assasins creed 1,2,brotherhood, mafia 2. All GTA except 4. Arkham asylum and city, mine craft, terraria, bunch of lego games with my brother, civ 5, HOMM 1-5, cs, sims and there are a bunch out there. Id personally choose the new mac pro and install bootcamp on it. I love mac as a whole, but whenever I wanted to play games quick-switching to windows is great.
EDIT: But if gaming is your priority, and youre not a hardcore mac fan, a rigged gaming pc would work better for you.
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I can play all my fav games maxed out at more than 60fps so I'd say that is good!
 
BeKure said:
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
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Dollar for dollar value, the PC will always win in relation to gaming .

You can do your own research. Decide how much you wish to spend. For that see what Mac product you can get and see what GPU it has, check how that GPU performs in the game you will most likely play the most. With the same $ see what PC you can buy! and compare that GPU. The PC side will give you a very healthy advantage.

The best apple has is 2x7970. The 7970 is very dated in the gaming circles.

If you have the money, the Mac Pro is a expansive compromise that will game well.

Though be careful asking for advice on MR on gaming, a lot of people here find thier gaming experience on macs to be very good here. It's what u are used to. If these people got behind a proper gaming PC , they would be surprised how fluid and smooth gaming can be with higher "gaming" specs.

Just adding. The Old Mac Pro can be upgraded to our perform the current nMP.
 
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MH01 said:
Dollar for dollar value, the PC will always win in relation to gaming .
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Quite true, if your sole purpose, or certainly primary activity for the machine is gaming a custom windows system is a far far better option.
For the price of a new 6core mac pro you could being gaming comfortably at UHD/4K with windows.

Though be careful asking for advice on MR on gaming, a lot of people here find thier gaming experience on macs to be very good here. It's what u are used to. If these people got behind a proper gaming PC , they would be surprised how fluid and smooth gaming can be with higher "gaming" specs.
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There are also those like myself that have experience both, and went vice versa.
Gaming isn't the past time it use to be, but it's still a fun hobby.
So for me personally my Mac fills both roles rather well, since I haven't been one for the top of the ranged, maxed out gaming experience since around 2011.
 
N19h7m4r3 said:
There are also those like myself that have experience both, and went vice versa.
Gaming isn't the past time it use to be, but it's still a fun hobby.
So for me personally my Mac fills both roles rather well, since I haven't been one for the top of the ranged, maxed out gaming experience since around 2011.
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Its good having people like yourself that has used both and can give a fair comparison. People who only game on macs, I don't want to be rude, but they do not know what they are missing out on. Its a large jump when you run a dedicated gaming PC.

I would never let go of my Macs, on the same side, I will never get rid of my Gaming PC, the gap is too far.
 
MH01 said:
Its good having people like yourself that has used both and can give a fair comparison. People who only game on macs, I don't want to be rude, but they do not know what they are missing out on. Its a large jump when you run a dedicated gaming PC.

I would never let go of my Macs, on the same side, I will never get rid of my Gaming PC, the gap is too far.
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It all depends on what the main purpose of the machine is for really. I also now prefer just having a single computer. Personal preference.
I sometimes miss just going into a game and maxing everything, bar silly QSAA although even now I can have a good experience at decent visuals.
If I had a copy of Windows 8, I'd certainly try some bootcamp gaming, since Crossfire is supported.

Although I think it's rather bizarre to wholeheartedly recommend just a mac spey for gaming purposes.

Although what is nice is that UHD gaming only requires a lot of power if you want to run at max settings.
Over at Overclockes.co.uk people have been running tests with the new Samsung UHD display, and it seems you can comfortably game at medium settings in BF4 on a 7870XT

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=26116587&postcount=370

That entire thread is extremely interesting.
I might get a copy of Windows 8 just to try it out after getting a UHD monitor.
 
The only thing I miss from PC gaming is being able to do Eyefinity style widescreen. I have D700's and 3x27" monitors which would be glorious. Maddening that Apple doesn't enable that.

Otherwise I only play a few games that are available on Mac so that's easy. Namely Lord of the Rings Online, Civ 5 and maybe I'll try SimCity. No time or interest for anything else. But I do keep my old Mac Pro around for widescreen LOTRO gaming.
 
Cubemmal said:
The only thing I miss from PC gaming is being able to do Eyefinity style widescreen. I have D700's and 3x27" monitors which would be glorious. Maddening that Apple doesn't enable that.

Otherwise I only play a few games that are available on Mac so that's easy. Namely Lord of the Rings Online, Civ 5 and maybe I'll try SimCity. No time or interest for anything else. But I do keep my old Mac Pro around for widescreen LOTRO gaming.
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Oh look, a wild Mac Pro has appeared... :D
 
OrangeSVTguy said:
The only macs that are great for gaming are the classic Mac pros.
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What? My 6-core nMP with dual D700s will run circles around any classic Mac Pro for gaming. Why? Because you can run the D700s in Crossfire under Windows. It's not cheap, but a nMP with dual D700s actually makes a hell of a gaming machine under Windows because of Crossfire support -- the D700s are basically slightly lower-clocked R9 280s / HD 7970s.
 
kfscoll said:
What? My 6-core nMP with dual D700s will run circles around any classic Mac Pro for gaming. Why? Because you can run the D700s in Crossfire under Windows. It's not cheap, but a nMP with dual D700s actually makes a hell of a gaming machine under Windows because of Crossfire support -- the D700s are basically slightly lower-clocked R9 280s / HD 7970s.
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Think through what you just wrote.

How many graphic cards can you get into oMP?? And yes under windows you can crossfire/sli.

Let's just say that you can load up a oMP with cards that make you 7970s slow in comparison ;)
 
Crossfire support under Windows is also a big dodgy at the moment. While in some games, and tests crossfire works, and you get great performance; in others it doesn't seem to work right at all.

ibbhSszRgFGIHK.png



Dual FirePro D700s Unigine Heaven Benchmark at Extreme & Basic settings for a 2013 Mac Pro. Although despite Crossfire being enabled, and getting a decent score in 3Dmark, the scores in Unigine are rather lacklustre

Dual D700s Direct X


Attempting to run Unigine benchmarks in OpenGL on windows only resulted in partially loaded objects, blurs, and artefacts. :(

I did play Titanfall with everything on high and textures on Insane, with 4xMSAA, and it was buttery smooth.
 
kfscoll said:
What? My 6-core nMP with dual D700s will run circles around any classic Mac Pro for gaming. Why? Because you can run the D700s in Crossfire under Windows. It's not cheap, but a nMP with dual D700s actually makes a hell of a gaming machine under Windows because of Crossfire support -- the D700s are basically slightly lower-clocked R9 280s / HD 7970s.
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Yeah I ran titans in sli. It was also possible to physically fit 3 dual slot GPUs lol 3 titans. Before that I ran 670 sli. And next it might be possible to run two titan z for quad sli in a classic Mac Pro. How much further will those d700s last for gaming in more demanding future games.
 
MH01 said:
Think through what you just wrote.

How many graphic cards can you get into oMP?? And yes under windows you can crossfire/sli.

Let's just say that you can load up a oMP with cards that make you 7970s slow in comparison ;)
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I've never had an old Mac Pro so I wasn't aware you could could run Crossfire/SLI under Windows -- from the little bit I'd read about it I'd assumed you couldn't. But, between the hacks you need to get Crossfire/SLI to work on the oMP, and the hacks you need to get unsupported video cards to work, and the power supply hacks you might need to get multiple video cards to run correctly in an oMP -- heck, at that point, I'd just build my own PC. I still have a home-built i7-965 PC with quad-SLI GTX 295s in it but needless to say my nMP runs circles around that.

I'll concede that you're right about running SLI/Crossfire on an oMP, but I still think it's a stretch to claim that "The only macs that are great for gaming are the classic Mac pros." My nMP does a damned good job. Oh yeah...and it has PCIe 3.0 graphics cards, USB 3, Thunderbolt 2, 802.11ac, quad-channel DDR3, and other stuff you'll never get on an oMP without a lot more hacking and/or expense!

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OrangeSVTguy said:
Yeah I ran titans in sli. It was also possible to physically fit 3 dual slot GPUs lol 3 titans. Before that I ran 670 sli. And next it might be possible to run two titan z for quad sli in a classic Mac Pro. How much further will those d700s last for gaming in more demanding future games.
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You might have a point, but the flip side to that coin is that in your case you're chucking a lot of video card horsepower into an outdated platform. It's also possible (although, granted, unlikely) that future nMP GPUs might be compatible with the current nMP.

I don't use my nMP primarily for gaming. It just happens to do a good job at it. However, it seems to me that if you're running dual Titans in a oMP, and you're talking about upgrading to Titan Zs, you're using your oMP primarily as a gaming computer. IMHO that's tantamount to throwing good money after bad by investing so much in a dated platform that lacks modern CPU and I/O performance. If that's your use-case, I'd recommend cutting your losses and building a custom gaming PC. That's what I'd do if my primary use case was video games.
 
kfscoll said:
I've never had an old Mac Pro so I wasn't aware you could could run Crossfire/SLI under Windows -- from the little bit I'd read about it I'd assumed you couldn't. But, between the hacks you need to get Crossfire/SLI to work on the oMP, and the hacks you need to get unsupported video cards to work, and the power supply hacks you might need to get multiple video cards to run correctly in an oMP -- heck, at that point, I'd just build my own PC. I still have a home-built i7-965 PC with quad-SLI GTX 295s in it but needless to say my nMP runs circles around that.

I'll concede that you're right about running SLI/Crossfire on an oMP, but I still think it's a stretch to claim that "The only macs that are great for gaming are the classic Mac pros." My nMP does a damned good job. Oh yeah...and it has PCIe 3.0 graphics cards, USB 3, Thunderbolt 2, 802.11ac, quad-channel DDR3, and other stuff you'll never get on an oMP without a lot more hacking and/or expense!
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Your new Mac Pro does a fine job at gaming. And the classic Mac Pro still still has lots left under the bonnet if you wish to take advantage of after market hardware.

You have a great machine. Enjoy it.
 
*sigh*

First off, to clarify the whole dual gpu thing, they are AMD gpus, which means they are in crossfire, or working completely separately. That out of the way, I must say that the new mac pro will not function well in a gaming scenario. The two graphics processors are built for workstations. Workstation GPUs typically function flawlessly in almost every configuration, and are built for consistency, not speed. The cards will also have drivers that are optimized for workstations tasks such as open cl and gl acceleration, as well as CAD work (most likely).
 
BlackBirdTech said:
I must say that the new mac pro will not function well in a gaming scenario.
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Uh I'm a huge detractor of the nMP and their choice of 2 year old video cards, but I must say these things will do about 20% lower FPS than a 7990 which is to say: damn fine.

Yes, they're technically Fire Pro, but these are the Tahiti firepros based on the 7970 line. They basically are underclocked 7970 with a few firepro features strapped on. And yes, they're in Crossfire. The whole "workstation card vs consumer card" thing is total BS. Workstation cards are consumer cards with a few bells and whistles. They're *the same* processor. THE SAME. They do better at certain tasks because of some features they have, but for gaming that's irrelevant.

You can argue they're old (they are) and you may not like Crossfire, but for most games these days they will work great for most people. (I see the stuttering, sorry)
 
The last time I played a game on a Mac was Marathon on a PowerPC 6100. Great game but the PPC 6100 was such a bad computer it drove me to buying an Olivetti Echos P75 laptop and it wasn't until October 2012 when I returned to Apple with the purchase of a Macbook Air. The Macbook Air is so good to use I have dropped my Asus laptop into the bottom drawer and a brand new Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus does not tempt me to use it, even with QHD+ resolution at 3200x1800. Windows 8 is an obstacle course designed prevent people as old as me from being able to use a computer.

I doubt I will dual boot my Mac Pro and play PC games but I imagine it would be more powerful than the average PC gamers box. I thought a Mac is what workers would sometimes play a game on and a PC is what gamers would sometimes do some work on.
 
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BlackBirdTech said:
First off, to clarify the whole dual gpu thing, they are AMD gpus, which means they are in crossfire, or working completely separately. That out of the way, I must say that the new mac pro will not function well in a gaming scenario. The two graphics processors are built for workstations. Workstation GPUs typically function flawlessly in almost every configuration, and are built for consistency, not speed. The cards will also have drivers that are optimized for workstations tasks such as open cl and gl acceleration, as well as CAD work (most likely).
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Hogwash. I have a nMP and I can tell you from personal experience that it does a great job at gaming -- benchmarks bear this out. I'm sure there are dual Titan, dual 780 Ti, and dual R9 290 setups that do even better, but the nMP is still near the top of the heap, especially considering that it's not even billed as a gaming machine.

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slughead said:
(I see the stuttering, sorry)
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The newer beta Catalyst drivers with some frame-pacing optimizations help with this a bit.
 
I've yet to install an AAA game I can't play at very good settings, if not max, on my boot camp partition at 2560x1440 resolution. Mac Pro from 2009, here. I'll admit, I don't play everything, but I don't want to play everything either. It's possible there's some games that won't run well on my machine. I have no earthly idea what those games would be since I buy several AAA titles every year and those run great, but they may be out there. A more modern Mac would take care of that problem if it should exist.

The fact is, for all the bravado of a few PC gamers, game developers know that not everyone has a top of the line PC, so there aren't any games that require top of the line PCs. If game developers made their games only playable with the very latest hardware, they wouldn't be able to sell enough games to offset their development costs, much less marketing budgets. It makes no financial sense to make a game that a few thousand people in the entire world can play at max settings. They look at the average hardware configuration, and then they develop for that. People with higher specs get higher FPS but the exact same game experience since the human eye can't tell the difference. Let's face it, most of the developers are actually developing with consoles in mind, which people definitely don't upgrade every year because they can't. With a new console generation coming out (XBone and PS4), PC games will take another leap in requirements for a while, but then it'll all slow down again and rely more and more on new software features running on the same (roughly) baseline hardware.

I know some very hardcore gamers, who build their own PCs, play competitively, the whole deal. None of them upgrade their hardware every year. They play games just fine, and still brag about their frame rates years after their hardware came out. They upgrade their GPUs when and if it ever becomes necessary, which isn't that often. They tend to care about how fast their hard drive is for loading much more than the CPU. They only upgrade their motherboards (and with it CPU) when a new GPU comes out that requires it, and only if they actually need a new GPU (or two).

There are plenty of hobbyists who enjoy building very powerful gaming rigs, but those are hobbyists, and hardware is their hobby not gaming. Gamers care more about gaming skill and winning than than the specs of their machine. Specs do matter, but when game devs aren't targeting hobbyist systems, they don't matter as much to gamers as some of you are trying to imply. Real gamers know that 80 FPS and 60 FPS are indistinguishable, and they'll save their money to buy more games instead of buying faster hardware to get higher benchmark scores. They care more about their score in the game.

So by all means, build your own super gaming PC. It'll be overkill for just about every game that comes out for several years, but you'll have fantastic benchmarks to measure against other e-peens. If you just want to game, get a mid-to-high end gaming PC and cut corners on the rest of the hardware, it'll do exactly what you want it to for years to come. If you also want to do general computing, get a high end Mac with a windows partition and it will be comparably excellent performance in games under Boot Camp and serve you well the rest of the time in OS X. You won't have as big an e-peen going the latter two routes, but you will have a good gaming experience.
 
You can pretty much kill the thread after that post. Very good breakdown on the state of gaming on a computer.
 
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