I've done it !

[Dr. McKay]

Yesterday, I removed my Win7 bootcamp partition.
As to why, well, everything ran smoothly, no probs there, but somehow, it just didn't feel right.
I installed Win7 essentially to be able to play more games but after playing a few demos, I realized that the best games are already on OS X.

Furthermore, the so-called performace gain in Windows is overrated. For example, in Wow, the recommended settings would be higher in Win7, but when actually launching the game, I noticed that these aforementioned recommended settings gave me no more than 25 fps. Disappointing. In fact, turning the settings down to match those in OS X gave me exactly the same performance.
Also, having access to more games doesn't necessarily mean a better game experience. Quantity over quality ? Maybe it's me, but Wow looks a lot nicer in OS X than it does in Win7, same settings. Or am I imagining things ?

 

[Abazigal]

My favourite games don't run on Lion (prototype, baldur's gate series), however, I don't have a windows install disc and no way am I going to spring a few hundred bucks just for that.

 

[doh123]

Wineskin/CXhacks/Cider hobby ports for Prototype and Baldurs Gate all run fine on Lion

 

[0098386]

Furthermore, the so-called performace gain in Windows is overrated.

On my current iMac;
69fps in TF2 on Windows 7,
50fps in TF2 on OSX.

On my old iMac;
50fps in TF2 on Windows XP,
18fps in TF2 on OSX.
40fps in L4D2 on Windows XP,
Won't be allowed to boot on OSX.

It depends on the game, since Portal 2 and WoW have been documented to have equal performance on OSX, but I've found a big gap. Especially since the games I play on Windows (with the latest drivers of course) reach the magical 60fps rate without any problems.

 

[Dr. McKay]

On my current iMac;
69fps in TF2 on Windows 7,
50fps in TF2 on OSX.

On my old iMac;
50fps in TF2 on Windows XP,
18fps in TF2 on OSX.

Performance gaps between XP and OS X are much larger than between Win7 and OS X. In any case, for the games that I play, it really wasn't worth it. Luckily, I payed peanuts for my copy of Win7. I guess it'll come in handy at some point...

 

[schimmel]

Performance gaps between XP and OS X are much larger than between Win7 and OS X.

That would have to mean that Windows 7 has "much worse" gaming performance than XP, for the gap to decrease so significantly, which I don't think is true, as much as I would hope it is

This Barefeats comparison shows Windows as having between 50-0% higher FPS than OS X. MacWorld also show

On a sidenote, I really wish there were more strategy games for OS X, like Company of Heroes, Dawn of War etc.

 

[Dr. McKay]

The fact is that I don't really have time to play anything other than Wow.
Also, the performance gain, if any, for me personally is really negligible.

And let's not forget what a pain in the proverbail *rse it is having to reboot every time just to play a game. Guess I just didn't see that one coming

 

[50548]

The fact is that I don't really have time to play anything other than Wow.
Also, the performance gain, if any, for me personally is really negligible.

And let's not forget what a pain in the proverbail *rse it is having to reboot every time just to play a game. Guess I just didn't see that one coming

WoW is actually BETTER on the Mac, and Portal 2 is as good as on Windows; BareFeats has already shown that the so-called "gap" is closing fast, especially in new iMacs - so it's just a matter of more companies putting a little more effort into driver optimizations for the Mac - after all, I never understood HOW someone in his sane mind would prefer to install Winblows on a Mac to play games - L4D2, SCII, Civ IV, CoD4 et al play FINE on my 3.4 iMac with max settings.

 

[Dr. McKay]

Don't get me wrong, I still acknowledge that performance in Windows 7 is better than in OS X, but as they say, your (and in this case, my) mileage may vary.
For me, in spite of the 'better' performance, I find bootcamp to be more hassle than it's worth...

 

[voyagerd]

I wonder if the GF100 drivers that come with Mac OS 10.7 will work with my GTX 480s. The driver that Nvidia released to go along with 10.6.8 didn't have any display output so I had to revert to the older drivers. The performance with them isn't that great in 10.6.8.

 

[Icaras]

Congrats OP! I too am trying to get on a path to a Windows free life as well, but being a hardcore gamer, I still have too much investment of games there to eliminate my need for it right now. However, I personally agree with you that the increasingly marginal speed gains are simply not worth the hassle of maintaining (and financing) a partition of Windows 7 just for the sake of games alone.

However, the more these games start popping up on OSX, the less my dependence on Windows becomes, so I'm in full support for gaming on OSX. In fact, I've already held my purchase of Deus Ex from Steam as I want to get it on the MAS and support Apple and the game developers choice for putting it on there. I just wish Apple would lower their 30% price cut or introduce special pricing for those with higher cost/revenue apps. I think doing so would help entice bigger developers to bring their titles to the MAS.

 

[0098386]

The fact is that I don't really have time to play anything other than Wow.
Also, the performance gain, if any, for me personally is really negligible.

And let's not forget what a pain in the proverbail *rse it is having to reboot every time just to play a game. Guess I just didn't see that one coming

That's interesting. So performance gains are negligible (I'm taking that as "I have a powerful enough Mac that I'm running at max settings on WoW"), but rebooting is a pain?
On my i5 iMac rebooting into either Windows 7 or OSX takes less than a minute, both support suspension of some sort (Hibernation). I go between the 2 a few times a day and it's never a problem . It takes me longer to pick up the mail downstairs or get a drink!

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Furthermore, the so-called performace gain in Windows is overrated.

Performance gaps between XP and OS X are much larger than between Win7 and OS X.

Half-Life 2, HL2 Ep 1 and 2, and Portal are all so laggy they are unplayable under OS X on my MacBook. However, they run for the most part at 30+ fps under Windows 7 on my MacBook. Not quite a "so-called performance gain", I'd say that gain is very real.

I realize that it does depend on the game, but calling it "so-called" downplays the very real effect on some games.

 

[Dr. McKay]

Well, in my case, HL2, ep1 en ep2 run just as well in OS X as they do in Win7. They're older games, but my Mac (early 2008 iMac 2.8Ghz Core2Duo, Radeon 2600Pro) can't cope with more demanding games anyway.

The thing is, I was expecting to find a treasure trove when in Win7, but I didn't. As I said, your mileage may vary. And yes, even though rebooting only takes 2 minutes, I find it a hassle.
I've got my Win7 license lying around, maybe I'll reinstall it when I get a new Mac. The then newly acquired processing power might persuade me to give bootcamp another go, just to get my hands on that Windows only masterpiece.

For the time being, though, I'll settle for OS X

 

[imacken]

Just thought I'd chip in here.
I have a 2011 iMac 3.4GHz, and am a big gaming fan.
I have a Bootcamp Win7 partition which I also run under Parallels 7.
Let me make a bold statement here and say the only game I have to go to Bootcamp for now - after the impressive Parallels 7 upgrade - is The Witcher 2.
I currently run the superb F1 2011 under PD7 as well as Deus Ex HR. F1 2011 runs perfectly with no frame rate issues texture loading problems, etc. DEHR does have some issues with texture loading times, but when each section is loaded it runs absolutely fine.
Games like, Half Life and Portal 2 run like a dream on Lion for me, as well as Dragon Age 2, etc.
I think that with the improved VM performance in PD7, I have very little cause to re-boot to Bootcamp now.

 

[Shivetya]

WoW for me does run better under OS X, but Lion is a POS that meant some older games I had I have reverted to running the Windows version just to play them. That and the issue where it randomly likes to drop wifi on me where Windows 7 won't.

Civ5 still runs better in Parallels than under OS X for some odd reason

 

[voyagerd]

Hm.. I am getting 196FPS in WoW outside with a bunch of trees with max settings and 4x FSAA on Mac OS 10.6.8.. not bad.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

For me, Windows has always been FAR better.

For example, on my 2GHz Core Duo iMac with Radeon X1600, in OS X, I get stuttering and lag on the lowest settings at 640x480, while in Windows XP I can run it with all settings on maximum (but AF & AA off) and at 1680x1050 with a constant smooth framerate.

 

[Irishman]

WoW is actually BETTER on the Mac, and Portal 2 is as good as on Windows; BareFeats has already shown that the so-called "gap" is closing fast, especially in new iMacs - so it's just a matter of more companies putting a little more effort into driver optimizations for the Mac - after all, I never understood HOW someone in his sane mind would prefer to install Winblows on a Mac to play games - L4D2, SCII, Civ IV, CoD4 et al play FINE on my 3.4 iMac with max settings.

I'm wondering how much of the gap closing can be attributed to the new OpenGL stack in Lion and developers who know how to exploit it?

 

[oklaonion]

Funny, I've been considering tossing my Windows partition too. The only reason it is there is just in case there is a Windows-only game I must play, but all the ones I care about (Blizzard, Valve, Civ, even Bioware now) are Mac native. I'm especially nervous after I recently traded in my Xbox 360. I'm just afraid I'll delete it and then "zomg have to play Skyrim or The Old Republic."

I gots the jitters.

 

[0098386]

I never understood HOW someone in his sane mind would prefer to install Winblows on a Mac to play games - L4D2, SCII, Civ IV, CoD4 et al play FINE on my 3.4 iMac with max settings.

Because of the amount of games on Windows.
Because of the performance increase on Windows.
Because Windows isn't the evil OS Apple fanboys make it out to be.

Those games also run fine on my iMac. But what makes Windows the choice for me is; better mouse control, ability to never dip below 60fps (even my maxed out 27" iMac dips on L4D2 under OSX), runs all my controllers without need for additional (sometimes paid) drivers. The performance boost might be small in some native games but for those that use Cider and the like - that boost is much bigger.