Mac Pro Playing games with Bootcamp vs High End PC

[Neonguy]

Hello,

I bought the Mac Pro with the default config 2.6Ghz Dual Xeon 7900XT NVidia. Somehow when playing PC game with Bootcamp on my 23 ACD the graphic isn't very good compare to the actual High End PC one. I saw the exact game my friend play on his Alienware PC and the graphic was top notch! It's very smooth and crisp. However on my Mac it isn't the same. The graphic isn't as nice as his. I notice this on all the Games I play with Bootcamp.

Is this Mac Pro not built for gaming? Am I wrong to buy the Mac Pro thinking it play game like the PC? I like Mac a lot and OS X but I play games a lot too. Well, I was thinking return or sell my Mac Pro off eBay and buy the Alienware or get the ATI x1900. Will this card make any different?

Please help me.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Hello,

I bought the Mac Pro with the default config 2.6Ghz Dual Xeon 7900XT NVidia. Somehow when playing PC game with Bootcamp on my 23 ACD the graphic isn't very good compare to the actual High End PC one. I saw the exact game my friend play on his Alienware PC and the graphic was top notch! It's very smooth and crisp. However on my Mac it isn't the same. The graphic isn't as nice as his. I notice this on all the Games I play with Bootcamp.

Is this Mac Pro not built for gaming? Am I wrong to buy the Mac Pro thinking it play game like the PC? I like Mac a lot and OS X but I play games a lot too. Well, I was thinking return or sell my Mac Pro off eBay and buy the Alienware or get the ATI x1900. Will this card make any different?

Please help me.

To avoid any confusion, I'd bet my shoelaces that you didn't buy the mac pro with a 7900Xt Nvidia. You must have gotten the 7300, since that is what is the stock config.
Second of all, what do you mean with your friend's "High end PC one"??? Does he have the same graphics card? Does he have an 7900xt? If you know he has the 7900xt and you think you have it, there is the misunderstanding, since you actually have the 7300. You have a 23" ACD which means that you should play the games in the monitor's native resolution also, which is 1920 x 1200. If you try to run it with 1280 x 900'ish, it's gonna look crappy, and that could also be the reason why you dislike it compared to your friend's machine. If he has a CRT or a 19" LCD that runs in 1280 x 900'ish native, then of course his machine's graphics look better.
No, it is not built for gaming if you only buy a machine with a mediocre graphics card. It's like complaining about a machine built for gaming with 2 GB RAM, an Athlon 64 processor with integrated graphics (I know they don't exist but you get my point). It's just not going to cut it.
That was the long version of 'yes, you should have played it smart and upgraded to the real graphics card built for games, the ATI X1900. And yes you should probably investigate just a tiny wee little bit more into computer hardware than you already seem to know, before whining. And yes you should sell your Mac Pro to me, since it's obviously not gonne make you happy!'

 

[Neonguy]

Ok my bad it's a 7300XT NVidia. He have a NVIDIA SLI GeForce 7900 GTX. He have very nice Anti Alias while mine doesn't seam to have any. I guess my question is if I get the ATI x1900XT will it make my game graphic look better and faster? People who use the ATI X1900XT, does it feel like the real High End PC while playing Games on it? Game are somewhat slow on my Mac Pro with the defualt NVidia if I switch everything to High.

I don't know if Built to order machine are returnable . Let me know before I order the ATI because it very expensive. If it doesn't do that, I rather just get the Alienware.

Thanks

 

[crazzyeddie]

Ok my bad it's a 7300XT NVidia. He have a NVIDIA SLI GeForce 7900 GTX. He have very nice Anti Alias while mine doesn't seam to have any. I guess my question is if I get the ATI x1900XT will it make my game graphic look better and faster? People who use the ATI X1900XT, does it feel like the real High End PC while playing Games on it? Game are somewhat slow on my Mac Pro with the defualt NVidia if I switch everything to High.

I don't know if Built to order machine are returnable . Let me know before I order the ATI because it very expensive. If it doesn't do that, I rather just get the Alienware.

Thanks

The 7900GTX SLI is actually 2 7900GTX cards working together... there is no way you can match that performance with a Mac Pro. However, the ATI X1900XT will be MUCH better than the 7300GT you have now... at least twice as fast. I can't imagine that his Alienware was the same cost as your machine, either. By my estimates his machine would cost at least $4000, while yours would only cost around $3000...

EDIT: I just configured one on AlienWare's site and it looks like you can get a machine similar to the Mac Pro 2.66ghz (but the Alienware only has two processors, not four) for about $3000 with Dual Nvidia graphics.

 

[Neonguy]

Everytime I turn my Graphic to max, it choke and slow down. Can't believe the 3K machine do this. If I install the ATI X1900 XT, will I be able to play game on Max setting without slowing down? Alienware is nice, but having 2 computer in one is also nice. Want to know if it worth investing in it first.

 

[nutman]

a mac pro isnt going to be gaming class the way an alienware is. no matter what you do, the graphic system in a mac pro isnt going to be as good as an alienware. of course its a three thousand dollar machine. but it was built for things like video editing and more "professional" things. so yea. do your research.

 

[hollerz]

What game are you trying to play? I can run Half Life 2, Fear, CS:S etc. with everything on max on my 20" ACD + X1900XT at a good enough frame rate.

 

[hotboiled]

Everytime I turn my Graphic to max, it choke and slow down. Can't believe the 3K machine do this.

its the GRAPHIC CARD
its the GRAPHIC CARD
its the GRAPHIC CARD

so get the X1900XT

 

[knome]

the 7300 can barely even handle osx what do you think its going to do playing games?

 

[GFLPraxis]

a mac pro isnt going to be gaming class the way an alienware is. no matter what you do, the graphic system in a mac pro isnt going to be as good as an alienware. of course its a three thousand dollar machine. but it was built for things like video editing and more "professional" things. so yea. do your research.

What are you talking about? They both get the same chips from Intel, and you can buy the same graphics cards from ATi. From that point the difference is in the branding.

In fact, since the Alienwares use Core 2 Duo's and the Mac Pro's use Xeons (higher bus speed), the Mac Pro's are actually faster; although the Alienware's support SLI, the Mac Pro doesn't, yet.

Everytime I turn my Graphic to max, it choke and slow down. Can't believe the 3K machine do this. If I install the ATI X1900 XT, will I be able to play game on Max setting without slowing down? Alienware is nice, but having 2 computer in one is also nice. Want to know if it worth investing in it first.

A Geforce 7900 GTX or Radeon X1900 XT is well over 10x as powerful as a Geforce 7300GT. That's why it's so much slower.

 

[Neonguy]

What are you talking about? They both get the same chips from Intel, and you can buy the same graphics cards from ATi. From that point the difference is in the branding.

In fact, since the Alienwares use Core 2 Duo's and the Mac Pro's use Xeons (higher bus speed), the Mac Pro's are actually faster; although the Alienware's support SLI, the Mac Pro doesn't, yet.



A Geforce 7900 GTX or Radeon X1900 XT is well over 10x as powerful as a Geforce 7300GT. That's why it's so much slower.

I'm so glad to hear this. I have place my order for the ATI X1900 XT! Hopefully it run game a lot smoother now. Playing game with medium graphic on 23 ACD is very gross.

 

[MRU]

Everytime I turn my Graphic to max, it choke and slow down. Can't believe the 3K machine do this. If I install the ATI X1900 XT, will I be able to play game on Max setting without slowing down? Alienware is nice, but having 2 computer in one is also nice. Want to know if it worth investing in it first.

Short answer Yes.

And if you bought a mac pro for gaming then you bought unwisely.

Most people buy mac's for OS X not windows gaming.

 

[livingfortoday]

I'd just like to mention that you should probably check out the Gaming forums here, as well as the Windows on Mac one (I think that's what it's called). There's a lot of threads about clock speeds and optimizing your video cards under Windows, as Apple tends to send them out underclocked. You might be able to squeeze some more juice out of what you have, with minimal effort!

 

[^squirrel^]

I have the Macpro 2.66ghz with the X1900 512mb card. It rips apart battlefield 2142 and Half Life 2.

You need the X1900 card if your gaming. Seriously when you get this it'll blow most gaming pc's outta the water!

 

[Chone]

Why do people like this end up with Mac Pros?

You see, you really need to have more or less the same components as your friend to have comparable graphics, if you get an extra 2x512mb of RAM and a X1900XT, you'll probably get "high end pc" graphics as you describe them.

 

[MRU]

Why do people like this end up with Mac Pros?

 

[kumbaya]

Why do people like this end up with Mac Pros?

The man said it himself:

Alienware is nice, but having 2 computer in one is also nice.

I like this!

 

[Sesshi]

Depends on what you want to do with it.

I started off by considering the Mac Pro as a do it all machine like you. I thought about trouble-free Mac configurations without lots of hacks, etc and in the end I've ended up ordering the Mac Pro, a Dell Precision 490 and an XPS 700. The 700 is (depending on which channels you order it through and what spec you go for) cheaper than the Mac Pro and will blow the Apple out of the water for gaming.

After considering the Mac Pro only and deciding that it would hamstring me, I first decided to buy two computers, a 3D/gaming machine for Windows and the Mac Pro and I ordered them. But then I thought a bit more and realised even the PC I chose, a Precision 490 (which has a very similar spec to the Mac Pro) wouldn't actually be all that amazing a gaming machine and furthermore putting in a gaming card (X1950XTX) inside it would make it less suitable for 3D work - so I was crippling myself still.

So my justification for ending up with three PC's when I was going to only buy one is thus:

The Mac Pro will replace the 'so stationary it might as well be a desktop' 17" MBP as the main home OS X machine. It's just going to be a powerful OS X machine - no gaming. And I now don't have any plans to Boot Camp it.

The Precision 490 was what I wanted for 3D stuff as it's certified with many pieces of professional CAD software. I'm now going to run 3D design software on this machine and it will be my main home 3D PC. I changed the planned spec on this machine to include a Quadro card instead of the X1950XTX and so it's no longer a gaming machine.

The XPS 700 will be my new general purpose and gaming PC.

The Mac Pro will result in some tradeoffs. it'll make a fairly decent gaming PC but ultimately not as good as even a considerably cheaper PC for many titles. If you're heavily into games then it would make a lot of sense to sell that Mac and either roll your own games PC or buy a high-performance PC.

Oh, and don't bother with the X1900XT on a PC - go straight for the X1950XTX.

 

[waremaster]

Depends on what you want to do with it.

I started off by considering the Mac Pro as a do it all machine like you. I thought about trouble-free Mac configurations without lots of hacks, etc and in the end I've ended up ordering the Mac Pro, a Dell Precision 490 and an XPS 700. The 700 is (depending on which channels you order it through and what spec you go for) cheaper than the Mac Pro and will blow the Apple out of the water for gaming.

After considering the Mac Pro only and deciding that it would hamstring me, I first decided to buy two computers, a 3D/gaming machine for Windows and the Mac Pro and I ordered them. But then I thought a bit more and realised even the PC I chose, a Precision 490 (which has a very similar spec to the Mac Pro) wouldn't actually be all that amazing a gaming machine and furthermore putting in a gaming card (X1950XTX) inside it would make it less suitable for 3D work - so I was crippling myself still.

So my justification for ending up with three PC's when I was going to only buy one is thus:

The Mac Pro will replace the 'so stationary it might as well be a desktop' 17" MBP as the main home OS X machine. It's just going to be a powerful OS X machine - no gaming. And I now don't have any plans to Boot Camp it.

The Precision 490 was what I wanted for 3D stuff as it's certified with many pieces of professional CAD software. I'm now going to run 3D design software on this machine and it will be my main home 3D PC. I changed the planned spec on this machine to include a Quadro card instead of the X1950XTX and so it's no longer a gaming machine.

The XPS 700 will be my new general purpose and gaming PC.

The Mac Pro will result in some tradeoffs. it'll make a fairly decent gaming PC but ultimately not as good as even a considerably cheaper PC for many titles. If you're heavily into games then it would make a lot of sense to sell that Mac and either roll your own games PC or buy a high-performance PC.

Oh, and don't bother with the X1900XT on a PC - go straight for the X1950XTX.

WOW. That has to be one of the most insanely wild solutions to the Mac vs PC for gaming that I have heard. I would love to know the difference in FPS in even games like FSX BF2142 and F.E.A.R. that you get with your XPS 700 vs the Mac Pro or even the 490 for that matter can the difference of 10 - 20 fps justify nearly $3000.00 in expense as well as the space it takes in the home/office. I am not criticizing your decision. Hell I actually love it but I who own 3 high-end machines myself couldn’t rationalize that decision. Even having a QUADRO 4500 in the Mac Pro would have performed very descent in Games as well as 3D apps maybe not the best for gaming but certainly would get respectable scores.

Tom

 

[Sesshi]

It's actually not as insane as it seems - or at least I've all sorts of ways to justify the outlay

 

[waremaster]

It's actually not as insane as it seems - or at least I've all sorts of ways to justify the outlay

LMAO true at that you have somehow justified it to yourself.

All in good fun my friend

Tom

 

[steelfist]

remember, bootcamp is still beta, so windows isn't going to completly run at full speed or without problems.

if you want some good comparason, you can look up some benchmarks. the results are staggering, seeing the high-end graphics handle the latest games, while seeing the budget-card 7300 start to cripple.

it's a better investment to buy a gaming console, IMO.

 

[waremaster]

remember, bootcamp is still beta, so windows isn't going to completly run at full speed or without problems.

if you want some good comparason, you can look up some benchmarks. the results are staggering, seeing the high-end graphics handle the latest games, while seeing the budget-card 7300 start to cripple.

it's a better investment to buy a gaming console, IMO.

Bootcamps issues are currently minimal there are some sound issues that need to be worked out as well as a recurring Bluetooth keyboard pairing issue in XP but that may just be my keyboard. But when using an x1900xt video card the performance when using 3dmark05/06 as the benchmark is exactly comparable to the PC equivalent. Also using apps like sisoft sandra to test CPU performance and HD performance the Mac Pro is again right inline where it should be for such high end hardware.

I fully expect that by the time Leopard is released the few remaining issues will be worked out but lets be honest the ones that do exist are not impeding the performance they are just nuisances. Right now my ONLY complaint with bootcamp that hurts my needs is the lack of ability to install Linux as well.

Tom

 

[Sesshi]

WOW. That has to be one of the most insanely wild solutions to the Mac vs PC for gaming that I have heard. I would love to know the difference in FPS in even games like FSX BF2142 and F.E.A.R. that you get with your XPS 700 vs the Mac Pro or even the 490 for that matter can the difference of 10 - 20 fps justify nearly $3000.00 in expense as well as the space it takes in the home/office. I am not criticizing your decision. Hell I actually love it but I who own 3 high-end machines myself couldn’t rationalize that decision. Even having a QUADRO 4500 in the Mac Pro would have performed very descent in Games as well as 3D apps maybe not the best for gaming but certainly would get respectable scores.

Tom

The Quadro 4500 is what I've had put in the Precision, but from the point of view of the OP it doesn't make sense - unless your reason for buying the machine is for 3D work, you're pissing away performance/$ with the Quadro for gaming. And this applies just as much to a Boot Camped Mac Pro as well as the Precision. Maybe the new kexts in a separate thread gives you more options - a 7950GX2 might work. But even then you've got stuff like sound problems and the FB-DIMM issue. A C2D Extreme or an overclocked C2D SLI/Crossfire machine (and apparently these are dream OCing processors) would quite easily best the stock Mac Pro for gaming.

 

[xli_ne]

why not spend a little bit more for a NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB?