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COH/Starcraft 2 on 2011 iMac
- Thread starter Blake1
- Start date
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I wish I could help with the iMac, but I have a 2010 MBP and both of these games play great on it. I think SC2 runs better in bootcamp than it does natively on OSX though. At least on my machine. iMac has better components so I would expect even better performance.
Interesting, I haven't herd that before. So you have a windows and OSX version of starcraft and it runs better in bootcamp? Why do you suppose that is?
not sure if you are being sarcastic. But in case you are not, all games including SC2 run alot faster on windows.
I don't think OP is, but I agree with you. SC2 runs pretty crappy on OS X, while under XP/7 in bootcamp, it's a lot tolerable (i have 2008 mbp so it still is choppy, but not as much on windows).
Maybe, mac or gaming software still isn't optimize well enough to work with one another.
The graphics drivers don't include the optimisations that the Windows versions do. Maybe as Mac gaming gets more popular AMD will start including specific game optimisations in their drivers.
I wasn't being sarcastic, so thanks for the answer. I am just new to gaming on macs. Ignorance.... So if I were to buy starcraft and any other game for that matter, it is better to buy windows version and run it under bootcamp, right?
Starcraft is a blizzard game. Is that what you meant? Blizzard run better under OSX?
Interesting to know that. So again, ignorant, but why do people buy iMacs for gaming if they are just going to through windows and bootcamp on it anyway? Wouldn't it be just as smart to get a nice PC? I suppose it is probably benefits of photo and video editing with iMac... Thinking out loud
I'm not exactly sure what the other poster meant, but might be trying to say that Blizzard games don't have separate versions for Mac and Windows; you just buy the game and it works on both.
Oh, that makes sense. That is probably what he was trying to say.
So if i end up buying a new iMac, i will be doing boot camp anyway because I have pc games like Company of Heroes that I want to be able to play. Is there a better version of windows for it? does it matter? All ill be doing with windows and boot camp will be for games. I will use OSX for photo and video editing and all my other stuff.
Starcraft is a blizzard game. Is that what you meant? Blizzard run better under OSX?
Interesting to know that. So again, ignorant, but why do people buy iMacs for gaming if they are just going to through windows and bootcamp on it anyway? Wouldn't it be just as smart to get a nice PC? I suppose it is probably benefits of photo and video editing with iMac... Thinking out loud
Yeah sorry for confusion. And everyone's right. I meant that Blizzard games don't have separate versions.
As for your remark and not ignorant at all, I would love to spend $$$ on a gaming pc, but that means I'm stuck with Windows. Not saying W7 is bad (or anything that'll start a flame war), it's just OSX works for me better and I like my computing under Apple's ecosystem. Plus, I don't play games habitually nor do I need to play them at 1920x1080 with 8x AA etc...
So buying a mac makes more sense to my personal needs. I have both OS basically readily available to me. 90-95% work/home/whatever stuff; 5-10% gaming.
Starcraft is a blizzard game. Is that what you meant? Blizzard run better under OSX?
Interesting to know that. So again, ignorant, but why do people buy iMacs for gaming if they are just going to through windows and bootcamp on it anyway? Wouldn't it be just as smart to get a nice PC? I suppose it is probably benefits of photo and video editing with iMac... Thinking out loud
Most people who only own macs are probably not too serious about gaming. But it is still nice to be able boost performance when playing games every now and them. Spending extra $1000 just to be able play games on higher settings feels.. guilty.
Anyway, new 21 inch imacs with 6770 should be able to run starcraft 2 at constant 60 fps on medium setting(bootcamp). Company of heros, on the hand, will run well on any half decent computers.
Games in Windows will always run better than they do in MacOS as long as Apple keeps using terrible drivers and DirectX stays Windows exclusive.
I'm all for open software like OpenGL, but fact is that DirectX is much, much better.
I'm all for open software like OpenGL, but fact is that DirectX is much, much better.
Thank you all for the help!
I have had a windows based PC for many years, and the last 3 or 4 years I have just been using my black macbook. Great system! I love Macs OS! I plan on doing some photo and video editing. I also just like the over all feel and us of Mac OS. So that is why I am looking at iMac's. But I do enjoy a good RTS game! Starcraft 2, Company of heroes, Rome Total war, etc. So I think that I would be happy with and iMac.. Sounds like I can get the best of both worlds Thanks you all very much for the help.
Let me know if there is anything else that I should be aware of with running windows under bootcamp, or gaming on a iMac in general. thanks again.
I have had a windows based PC for many years, and the last 3 or 4 years I have just been using my black macbook. Great system! I love Macs OS! I plan on doing some photo and video editing. I also just like the over all feel and us of Mac OS. So that is why I am looking at iMac's. But I do enjoy a good RTS game! Starcraft 2, Company of heroes, Rome Total war, etc. So I think that I would be happy with and iMac.. Sounds like I can get the best of both worlds
Thanks you all very much for the help. Let me know if there is anything else that I should be aware of with running windows under bootcamp, or gaming on a iMac in general. thanks again.
I think you are all set, Blake1, but just remember that if you are going to run Windows on your Mac, it will require all the maintenance that a PC would; that is, virus protection, defragging, cleaning the registry, etc. On the other hand, if you keep your installed programs on the Windows partition to a minimum, and only use it for gaming, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
ahh yes, good to keep in mind. Thanks for pointing that out. I remember doing that on my old PC. It will primarily be used for gaming.
If you don't mind the ask. I have one more question. does it recognize my hardware all the same in windows 7 as it would in macs OS? Does that make sense? No problems with installing graphics card, processor etc? I just want to make sure it will utilize the full use of the power of my iMac?
Terribly unsatisfied
I bought a brand new 2011 25" iMac yesterday and was hopping that it can run starcraft 2 without any lags! It was nice and smooth at the begining of the game even on ultra setting however when the battle began it start lagging so bad that it wasn't playable. I reduced the settings to medium and it still wasn't playable at all. So I returned it today and got a 27" 3.1GHz i5 quad-core with 1 GB of 6970M graphic card. But the game is still unplayable even on medium! I reduced resolution to the lowest possible and droped all the settings to low but kept the texture to medium and it laged so bad when the battle began that litteraly I couldn't move any of my units through the whole battle! I can't understand how it runs so smoothly on your machines! Have you guys done any kinda action like killing mdworker process or something geeky like that?
I bought a brand new 2011 25" iMac yesterday and was hopping that it can run starcraft 2 without any lags! It was nice and smooth at the begining of the game even on ultra setting however when the battle began it start lagging so bad that it wasn't playable. I reduced the settings to medium and it still wasn't playable at all. So I returned it today and got a 27" 3.1GHz i5 quad-core with 1 GB of 6970M graphic card. But the game is still unplayable even on medium! I reduced resolution to the lowest possible and droped all the settings to low but kept the texture to medium and it laged so bad when the battle began that litteraly I couldn't move any of my units through the whole battle! I can't understand how it runs so smoothly on your machines! Have you guys done any kinda action like killing mdworker process or something geeky like that?
babakb: Your iMac shouldn't be having so much trouble - the 6970M and i5 are more than sufficient for Starcraft 2. At any rate, mdworker is what's behind Spotlight - it's natural for it to take a an hour or so indexing if you've plugged in a new external drive or haven't had the system indexed in a while.
