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MortonH

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 8, 2006
17
0
Here in Australia, I can get a brand new run-out Mac Pro 2.66GHz for A$2,695, compared to A$3,999 for the latest version (which I can't afford). It also comes with 2Gb of RAM and half-price Apple-care, so it seems like a good deal.

Although I'm not buying purely for gaming, I haven't played any Windows games for 3 years since we 'went Apple' with a Powerbook G4. I have a number of older PC games that I have never played, including Doom 3, Serious Sam 2 and Half Life 2. I also have even older games like the original Unreal, Serious Sam, Return to Castle Wolfenstein that are always good fun.

I've been reading quite a bit recently about the limited graphics options for the Mac Pros, and I now realise that there can also be issues with modern cards not being fully compatible with older games, regardless of the platform.

So I guess my question is: which, if any, of these games would run OK in Windows XP on the 2.6GHz Mac Pro with the stock 7300GT 256MB? And if the 8800GT is ever 'fixed' to run on the older Mac Pro, what additional compatibility issues might it bring?

On a more general note, are there any websites listing games and their compatible video cards? Or do I need to search for each specific game?

Hope you can help.

Morton
 

chickenninja

macrumors 6502
Feb 13, 2008
356
21
inside my skull
on my 2006 macbook (2ghz 2gb) i can run all the blizzard games, at first it was buggy as hell but since i upgraded to leopard things are flawless. quake three no problem at all, starcraft like a gem. i also have XP on it and play supreme commander using "3dadvantage", but dont worry about old games being playable, graphics cards know all about that old **** and remember how to do it no matter how advanced or screwy the new architecture will get, all you gotta do is make sure your drivers are good to go when in windows. it doesnt hurt to double check boot camps driver install disk to make sure it really is up to date. but i seriously doubt youll have any problems at all and even if you do i bet youll have very simple well known workarounds, and an entire internet that has been searching for similar answers and sharing their solutions. so just keep looking if you get stumped along the way.
 

Matek

macrumors 6502a
Jun 6, 2007
535
1
All of the games you mentioned should run on the machine. Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 will have low framerates, but they should run, Serious sam 2 has the engine of the first part, so it has low requirements and the other three are old enough to run well.

If you get an 8800GT, there shouldn't be too much trouble. Nvidia updates their windows drivers quite regularly and all of the games you mentioned are modern enough not to be problematic.
 

flopticalcube

macrumors G4
If you are running games only on the XP side, any stock 8800GT will work. You just need to retain your 7300GT for OSX (and have a video switch or separate video inputs in your monitor).

PS My daughter's mini plays HL2. I don't think your MP will have any trouble. ;)
 
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