The megahertz myth only applies when you compare different architectures. Maybe you should read the wiki page before you post it.
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Steam = Successful
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The megahertz myth only applies when you compare different architectures. Maybe you should read the wiki page before you post it.
Whatever Apple's prior policy to Mac GPUs, it's evident they're being taken a lot more seriously now.
I'm sure Apple know how imperative it is for them to succeed as a gaming platform. They're not idiots, and they know that gaming is a big barrier to people thinking about switching platforms. Now that Steam's on the Mac, and Valve are treating it as a tier-1 platform (with native ports, no Cider rubbish), there is a tangible opportunity to get Mac gaming up to par with Windows.
For Apple, that's a two-part problem (hardware and software). Their OpenGL implementations need to get better, and they should really rethink their relationship with the hardware vendor when it comes to drivers. Apple needs to lower the barrier for swappable GPUs and bring it to the iMac. In the laptop world, it's understandable that you'd want to consider the GPU performance against power efficiency. This all needs to be done while manoeuvring through the NVidia/Intel disputes.
I'm sure Apple know how imperative it is for them to succeed as a gaming platform. They're not idiots, and they know that gaming is a big barrier to people thinking about switching platforms. Now that Steam's on the Mac, and Valve are treating it as a tier-1 platform (with native ports, no Cider rubbish), there is a tangible opportunity to get Mac gaming up to par with Windows.
For Apple, that's a two-part problem (hardware and software). Their OpenGL implementations need to get better, and they should really rethink their relationship with the hardware vendor when it comes to drivers. Apple needs to lower the barrier for swappable GPUs and bring it to the iMac. In the laptop world, it's understandable that you'd want to consider the GPU performance against power efficiency. This all needs to be done while manoeuvring through the NVidia/Intel disputes.
Course I've played it. I waited for it anxiously; only to be completely disappointed when it came out (along with 90% of the people who played it) - it was very obvious it was the D3 engine.
??
my last PC hasn't even been turned on since 2007, and the graphics card in that machine (AGP-slotted 6600 GT) is easily twice as fast as the graphics card that came with my 08 mac pro. Business before pleasure and all of that, but Apple's graphics card options are so far out of date that Valve games and Blizzard games from their 2004-era graphics engines are about all i can get away with on my mac pro.
the 320M is faster than what most mac users have. The vast majority are stuck with junk graphics that are 2 generations behind the rest of the hardware on the machine, or neutered versions of current-generation PC cards.
It should tell you something that the 7300 GT that came standard on a 2007 Mac Pro lacks basic functionality required to play HL2 or CS:Source (both from 2004) in OpenGL mode.
There may be PCs out there with "integrated intel" graphics, but they are probably all either several years old, or in the sub-500 dollar category. The thing is, unless they are a laptop, they can be upgraded for 75-100 bucks to something better than you can get in Mac land short of the high-end iMac or Mac Pro upgraded chipset.
Maybe Steam and the new Blizzard titles will finally wake Apple up wrt graphics cards, but I'm not holding my breath.
I have 3 Macs that are all 3 years old or less, and only one of them will boot Portal in OS X because the OpenGL drivers in OS X are so deficient.
The GPU that came with your Mac Pro(ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT) is complete garbage. Upgrade it to a 4870 or 4890.
Pretty sure he was simply talking about Apple's current line of GPU's. The worst card in their line is a 9400M and that's soon to be phased out by the twice as powerful 320M. Apple's GPU options HAVE been improving.
Apple's drivers are the problem here, can easily be fixed in an update.
Laptops are the majority of the computer industry, and those 500 and below laptops are probably on the top of the charts in terms of user base.
Again, Apple's GPU's aren't the problem. The only thing you could really complain about is 330M in the MBP(which easily plays recent games) or the 9400M(which is currently being phased out). The Mac Pro is more than a year old so that doesn't even warrant a discussion. The Mobility 5000 line was not out when Apple refreshed the iMacs.
Im wondering how much of the 11% of purchases are the Free Portal offer...?
I'd imagine they're counted, which also means they would have counted the number of Portal downloads for Windows too - of which there is a larger marketshare making that 11% still very damn impressive.
Except that everyone who has Windows and cares about Portal already has it.
It will be more interesting to see what the percentages are when Portal 2 comes out.
Even though I freely admit I avoid Steam when I can, having approximately 100 games available that were not there a month ago is too significant to ignore... (I based this statement on the list of Mac Games on Steam). Now I'll go find out which games I've been playing under Steam Windows and see if any of them are available for Mac. Something like KOTOR.
Not entirely true, I know a lot of people who downloaded it for free on Windows during that week but who'd played it previously friends houses or on consoles etc.. Portal is a notoriously short game. A lot of people got HL2 pre-orange box, or got TF in another promo so didn't want to pay full price for portal or the orange box..
I would suspect that curious windows users or previous console portal players would massively outnumber the Mac Steam's userbase.
Half of the people on my Steam friends list (100 or so) got Portal for free during that event and they were all PC users. Lots of my other friends who didn't have Steam opened accounts just for the free game. It's actually been a really good introduction as they've all bought other games on Steam now.
For dollar to performance PC's are are a better value, but for serious work, stability, and security; I prefer a solid platform like OS X. With Mac's you get the best of both worlds, you can boot into Windows for things like 3dmax, and gaming, then boot into OS X for everything else, with the added bonus of Steam. Unfortunately, I still require Windows (bootcamp) to do my main work, but everything else can be done in OS X.
If you have not yet witnessed a newer Mac running the latest Windows games at max/ultra settings, I very much recommend doing so. My girlfriend has a high-end Toshiba Qosmio gaming laptop, and my iMac plays games better at higher settings then her system.
If you have not yet witnessed a newer Mac running the latest Windows games at max/ultra settings, I very much recommend doing so. My girlfriend has a high-end Toshiba Qosmio gaming laptop, and my iMac plays games better at higher settings then her system.
My point was with a new Mac you can run both the MacOS and Windows and have the best of both worlds. In this way, you'll get the best games always.