Mac Pro (2013) and Gaming

[TheHozOpp1]

Hi All,

I know this might have been beaten to death, but after searching through the forums, I haven't gotten a definitive answer. In advance, if this thread already exists, please point it out.

I have been able to get a 2013 Mac Pro 6-core, in standard configuration (16GB RAM, 256GB Flash, and two D500 FirePros). The MAIN PURPOSE of this Mac is for video and photo editing, which I plan to do with Aperture, Photoshop, FCPX, etc.

I do like to PC game on the side. So my main question, If I boot camp with Windows 8.1, how good of a gaming machine will this Mac Pro be? the majority of posts I find are on how Mac is not a gaming platform etc... And what I'm really looking for is how the gaming experience will be when Windows is installed on this machine. I want to know the community's experience before I go out and buy a copy of Windows.

Thank you all in advance.

 

[Gav Mack]

I can say that the 6 core D700 is an absolute silent beast with crossfire enabled in Win 8.1 at ACD resolutions. The staff at the office which has HP workstations and Windows everywhere else argue over who's turn it is for lunchtime game time. Pretty novel for Mac haters

By far the fastest gaming Mac new off the shelf and the quietest rig I've have not heard that hasn't needed plumbing or a case the size of a pedestal.

 

[davidb367]

Working Fine For Me.

I usually have a dedicated PC for gaming, but the PS fried the whole computer. I haven't had the time or money to rebuild the box, so I put it on my nMP for the time being.

My std 6 core D500 works well with BC and Windows 8.1. I have all of my PC games stored on an external thunderbolt drive. The 256GB internal drive won't be able to hold many games with OSX and user data.

Also, Getting BC running can be very frustrating and time consuming. It took a few tries before it actually took.

 

[TheHozOpp1]

I usually have a dedicated PC for gaming, but the PS fried the whole computer. I haven't had the time or money to rebuild the box, so I put it on my nMP for the time being.

My std 6 core D500 works well with BC and Windows 8.1. I have all of my PC games stored on an external thunderbolt drive. The 256GB internal drive won't be able to hold many games with OSX and user data.

Also, Getting BC running can be very frustrating and time consuming. It took a few tries before it actually took.

Thank you for your reply. What games do you play? How is performance? Frame rates? How well do they run?

 

[koyoot]

I do have similar question, however, its about OSX and Gaming.

I do play quite a lot, but only in OSX(I want to do Bootcamp partition, however only for Assassin's Creed 3, and Mass Effect 3).

I need a desktop computer for photo editing, and gaming as well. I can buy a 6 Core, 16 GB, 256 GB SSD, D500, AppleCare to 2017 version of this computer at a great deal(under 3k $).

How well it handles with World of Warcraft in 1440p?

I will get Dell P2415Q soon, but I know 4K is for this machine an overkill in gaming in OSX.

 

[fuchsdh]

The Mac Pro is decent under OS X and fairly capable at gaming with D700s and CrossFire enabled under Windows; the obvious caveat is that the price on the Mac Pro means that it only makes sense as a "I do video/music/etc and want to game" machine, rather than vice versa.

Barefeats has a bunch of Benchmarks, as does Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/10 (Barefeats is offline for me at the moment.)

 

[ToroidalZeus]

If you have the base model with only 2GB of ram then not very good; at-least not enough to justify the price.

 

[nox-uk]

The 3d mark scores for the d300 around about 80% of the d700 at default resolution. However, look at the 4k scores, the d300 is noticeable by its absence... I don't know if 2gb is enough to drive a 3d game at 4k. My suspicion is it won't.

Just weighing up whether a base model + a windows machine or one with a d700 equipped is the way to go.

Nox

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Hi All,

I know this might have been beaten to death, but after searching through the forums, I haven't gotten a definitive answer. In advance, if this thread already exists, please point it out.

I have been able to get a 2013 Mac Pro 6-core, in standard configuration (16GB RAM, 256GB Flash, and two D500 FirePros). The MAIN PURPOSE of this Mac is for video and photo editing, which I plan to do with Aperture, Photoshop, FCPX, etc.

I do like to PC game on the side. So my main question, If I boot camp with Windows 8.1, how good of a gaming machine will this Mac Pro be? the majority of posts I find are on how Mac is not a gaming platform etc... And what I'm really looking for is how the gaming experience will be when Windows is installed on this machine. I want to know the community's experience before I go out and buy a copy of Windows.

Thank you all in advance.

Tomb Raider on my CrossFire'd D300 4 core at 1920x1200 is getting over 100fps. That's better than the PlayStation 4 version. But PC gamers seem to constantly move goal posts - "it will suck for 4K gaming!" Who is really doing 4K gaming right now?

Even the single D300 performance is very good - when I buy Steam Play games with Mac and Windows versions, I frequently don't bother rebooting to play because the single GPU performance is good enough... high 40s, 50s, 60s on most games? What's to complain about?

I still think it's funny that people are forced to bracket Mac Pro gaming questions by first explaining the professional justification they have for owning the computer in the first place, lest they incur the wrath of the "It's not a gaming machine you could have build a better gaming PC for $500!!!!!!!!1111" crowd.

To me it's a dream. I could never justify owning a standalone gaming PC before (wife won't let me), but now I have this great workstation (for my job!) that can also play the latest games very competently.

I can only imagine dual D500 gaming is pretty awesome.

 

[davidb367]

I've played Alien Isolation and Civ: Beyond Earth @ 1080P at Max. Both have been smooth as silk with no issues. I have not played any FPS shooters.

 

[xSinghx]

I still think it's funny that people are forced to bracket Mac Pro gaming questions by first explaining the professional justification they have for owning the computer in the first place, lest they incur the wrath of the "It's not a gaming machine you could have build a better gaming PC for $500!!!!!!!!1111" crowd.

To me it's a dream. I could never justify owning a standalone gaming PC before (wife won't let me), but now I have this great workstation (for my job!) that can also play the latest games very competently.

^This

 

[Gav Mack]

Tomb Raider on my CrossFire'd D300 4 core at 1920x1200 is getting over 100fps. That's better than the PlayStation 4 version. But PC gamers seem to constantly move goal posts - "it will suck for 4K gaming!" Who is really doing 4K gaming right now?

Even the single D300 performance is very good - when I buy Steam Play games with Mac and Windows versions, I frequently don't bother rebooting to play because the single GPU performance is good enough... high 40s, 50s, 60s on most games? What's to complain about?

I still think it's funny that people are forced to bracket Mac Pro gaming questions by first explaining the professional justification they have for owning the computer in the first place, lest they incur the wrath of the "It's not a gaming machine you could have build a better gaming PC for $500!!!!!!!!1111" crowd.

To me it's a dream. I could never justify owning a standalone gaming PC before (wife won't let me), but now I have this great workstation (for my job!) that can also play the latest games very competently.

I can only imagine dual D500 gaming is pretty awesome.

I think you will need another adjective to add to awesome with the d700. Really looking forward to setting up bootcamp on my first 7,1 with the newer AMD GPU they launched a few months ago, I will have to put my (sons) steam account on it and have some fun while I delay their deployment for a day. I may have to loan a 4k display in just for the occasion

If I did game (which i dont) that little trash can would be at the top of my list and for pro/gamers like yourself the best of both worlds. Deadly and deadly silent! However I need slots and sleds more and my old cheesegrater is no embarrassment at 1920x1200 with my 680.