COD 4 (or WAW) - Native, or Windows?

[nope7308]

I know absolutely nothing about gaming, so please be kind

I'm looking to buy a game (maybe 2) for my new 2.53 MBP. Ideally, I would like to run the game natively in OSX because:
1) I hate Windows (hence the MBP)
2) I would only use windows for 1 or 2 games
3) I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means

I like first-person shooters, and COD 4 is apparently the best. That said, I think I would prefer COD 5 (WAW) because I like the WWII type games. Problem is, COD 5 isn't being released for Mac (or is it?).

I'm really conflicted by this decision because I don't know what the performance difference will be between OSX and XP, and I'm not even sure if I would notice it. I say this because the last game I played was "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" about three years ago. There is also a bunch of talk about tweaking the settings for best performance. If I do this in OSX, how much 'eye candy' will I be sacrificing for a decent FPS? I'm not a huge gamer, but I would like this game to blow my socks off

So, below is my tentative pros/cons list; please let me know if I left anything out. Now, put yourself in my shoes... what would you decide (if you were me)?!?!?!

BootCamp (XP) for COD 4

Pros:
- Better performance (someone please elaborate)
- Compatible with COD 5 (WAW)
- Compatible with RTCW (already own, but could d/l Mac version via torrents)

Cons:
- Installing XP solely to run one or two games
- Having to reboot to play the game(s)
- Losing additional HD space for the XP partition
- Potentially more heat
- Partially undermining one of my reasons for buying a Mac

I have a free (legit) copy of XP, so the money isn't a factor (I assume the game costs the same on both platforms).

THANK YOU!!!

P.S. If you're going to use the following terms, please explain them as if you were talking to a 5 year old:
- Porting
- Cider
- Aspyre (sp?)
- AA (for COD 4)

 

[ChrisN]

Definitely windows, windows is the way to go with gaming always developers will go for windows because there are more PC users out there that game than Mac users. You could use crossover but if you really want to play it good bootcamp all the way.

ok well AA thats antialiasing which is just a feature in games which make it run/look smoother i think.
Porting is the process of bringing a game from one console/platform to another and in the end the port looks/plays worse than the original

Aspyr is just the company that ports the games to mac .

CIder i have no clue actually lol

So in the end go with bootcamp you will not regret it.

ChrisN

 

[nope7308]

Definitely windows, windows is the way to go with gaming always developers will go for windows because there are more PC users out there that game than Mac users. You could use crossover but if you really want to play it good bootcamp all the way.

ok well AA thats antialiasing which is just a feature in games which make it run/look smoother i think.
Porting is the process of bringing a game from one console/platform to another and in the end the port looks/plays worse than the original

Aspyr is just the company that ports the games to mac .

CIder i have no clue actually lol

So in the end go with bootcamp you will not regret it.

ChrisN

Any idea what the specific performance differentials would be? Do you find it annoying when you have to reboot just to play a game?

 

[ChrisN]

Hmm well I would think the difference would be from 10-15 fps but thats just a guess and yes it is annoying to reboot but I'll live.

ChrisN

 

[el.gringo]

Any idea what the specific performance differentials would be? Do you find it annoying when you have to reboot just to play a game?

I have boot camp installed on the same MBP you have (except that it has the 2.8ghz processor). I have played COD 4 on both Windows and Mac, and I have found that you get slightly better performance on the Windows side (maybe 5 extra fps or so).

I have found that rebooting is not a big deal, especially because you have to log out in order to switch video cards anyways, and the new MBPs reboot almost as fast as they log out and log back in.

So, here are the pros/cons as I see it for playing games on the Mac side:

Pros:
Supports mac gaming, so potentially more games will be ported over.
Not having to reboot
Not having to deal with Windows (which can be a real pain sometimes. Think drivers....)

Cons:
Mildly worse performance
Mac games are usually released later and cost more
Many games simply are not available for Mac, including many shooters. Crysis, Far Cry 2, Bioshock, etc. to name a few.

So, if COD 4 is really all you want to play, it will run fine and be easier to deal with on the Mac side. However, if you are going to be gaming beyond that, it is worth setting up boot camp and windows.

Btw, don't worry too much about HDD space: you have almost 300gb, which is plenty, and external storage is cheap. Also, if you do use windows to game, make sure you update your video drivers. go to www.laptopvideo2go.com and look for info there. There is a good "quickstart" guide here:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9243

Hope that helps some. Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[nope7308]

I have boot camp installed on the same MBP you have (except that it has the 2.8ghz processor). I have played COD 4 on both Windows and Mac, and I have found that you get slightly better performance on the Windows side (maybe 5 extra fps or so).

I have found that rebooting is not a big deal, especially because you have to log out in order to switch video cards anyways, and the new MBPs reboot almost as fast as they log out and log back in.

So, here are the pros/cons as I see it for playing games on the Mac side:

Pros:
Supports mac gaming, so potentially more games will be ported over.
Not having to reboot
Not having to deal with Windows (which can be a real pain sometimes. Think drivers....)

Cons:
Mildly worse performance
Mac games are usually released later and cost more
Many games simply are not available for Mac, including many shooters. Crysis, Far Cry 2, Bioshock, etc. to name a few.

So, if COD 4 is really all you want to play, it will run fine and be easier to deal with on the Mac side. However, if you are going to be gaming beyond that, it is worth setting up boot camp and windows.

Btw, don't worry too much about HDD space: you have almost 300gb, which is plenty, and external storage is cheap. Also, if you do use windows to game, make sure you update your video drivers. go to www.laptopvideo2go.com and look for info there. There is a good "quickstart" guide here:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9243

Hope that helps some. Let me know if you have any more questions.

VERY HELPFUL - thank you! Just a few more things to follow up on...

1) I'm not worried about the time required to boot out of OSX, but the time required to boot into Windows XP. From your experience, how long does this usually take? Also, I'm not worried about logging out of OSX to switch video cards; I'm sure this will change in the course of a few software updates (fingers crossed).

2) I doubt I'll have the time to play more than one game, so I'm not too worried about game selection. That said, I've been assuming that COD 4 is the best shooter on the market (haven't played it yet). Do you have any recommendations? My favourite game of all time is RTCW, which makes COD 5 appealing, but not appealing enough to make me want to install Windows (although it comes close). I figure I'll install the Mac version of RTCW as well since it's available via torrents (I own the PC version).

3) Provided that you agree COD 4 is the best, what settings are you using to maximize performance? I've heard everything from 30 FPS difference, to your 5 FPS difference. It's hard to know who to believe I don't know much about FPS, but I *think* I want to aim for 50 while sacrificing as little eye candy as possible.

4) Point taken on the HD space, but I want to use that space efficiently. I know that I can fill up a 300G drive overnight, and my 500G external is close to full (I'm an electronic pack-rat).

5) Sorry for the novel-length reply, and thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

[soLoredd]

Not related specifically to CoD4 but more of the Boot Camp/native issue:

I'm just getting back into computer gaming now that I have my MBP and can be portable. Initially, I wanted to stay away from Boot Camp to stay away from Windows. Obvious, I know. However, I've come to realize that booting up Windows JUST for the gaming portion is fine. It's the day-to-day stuff where Windows gives me the itch. I also find that if I want to game, I'm not doing anything else anyway so having OS X or Windows is a moot point. It takes my MBP about 30 second to fully boot Windows and about the same to boot OS X. Not a big deal at all, really. I do nothing else at all in Windows - as soon as I'm done with a game I go right back into OS X. It's barely enough time to get up and get a glass of water.