There are alot of people looking for specifics about how games will run on different systems. I thought it would be a good idea to create a thread for this purpose.
Even though a picture says more than a thousand words, a picture cant say anything about framerate and general performance hiccups. Movies are a good indication for people to decide weather a game is running at a good performance with certain settings.
oIt gets complicated when you take into account the different ways to configure the games graphical settings, aswell as the systems hardware and the OS and/or method it is running on. Thats why I ask that when people post a link to a video, that they will be so kind as to also post information like system specifcations on the system used in the video(or as much info as there are made public on the videosite) aswell as whatever settings or other useful information there are.
I will try to update this thread. Perhaps it could become a mini-bible for what games will run on specific mac systems.
World of Warcraft:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bnSA-1ophR8&feature=related Running on a 2,0 Core 2 Duo Macbook with 2 GB of RAM.
Game settings are not confirmed but it looks quite stable and seem to have at least some settings at medium. Overall performance is more than playable.
Guild Wars:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OYA_cFizzL8 According to the creator of the video, the game runs at 1280x800 (native) on high settings, on his Macbook 2,0 Core 2 Duo with 1 GB of Ram, in Windows XP(Boot camp).
As a GW player since its early beta, I can say that GW has always had impressive scaling and optimization. Used to run this on a Geforce FX 5200(ewww) back then. Still it's hard to believe that it runs so well. Very impressive loading and framerate.
FEAR:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=YGsNO_C-mms Creator says that this runs on a "1th generation Macbook". Video was uploaded in summer 2007.
This is a multiplayer video, which is more intensive than the single player. When FEAR came out in 2005 it was the best looking game at the time of its release, and it had very steep system requirement. My 3 GHz Pentium 4 choked when trying to play this, and it looked about as good as this. Its almost unbeliveable.
Please note that the multiplayer version of FEAR has been made a free public download(you can download the multiplayer and play it for free). Its called FEAR: Combat, and it can be downloaded on fileplanet.com . I dont know if this is the free version, but they should be the same.
Quake 4:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=wcCtomi_Fa8 Video creator says that his machine is a "MacBook 2.0 Core 2 Duo, 1 gig of ram,and Intel GMA 950 graphics processor. Game is not running on high everything. but was running bump maps, shadows and everything" . The performance pretty much speaks for itself. Very impressive.
Quake 4 was not very well optimized, but this is quite impressive performance.
Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DPqiSXge3B8&feature=user Video creator says that his specifications are 2,0 Core 2 Duo, with 1,15 GB Ram, and with a 120GB Harddrive(5200 RPM)
The performance in the video is not very smooth. Compared to Red Alert which was released in 96, I really don't see much difference here.
The creator has also confirmed that this is the PC version. Some of the comments in the video, are saying that the Mac version does not run aswell. But it's quite hard to find any truth when the subject is EA. Many people have a beef with them.
Crysis:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=y4wvsehdyOk From the creator:
"This is a video of me playing Crysis on a 2.80 Intel iMac with 2 gigs of ram. These are the settings I was running this game in...
Video Mode-1440X900 Full Screen
Texture Quality-High
Objects Quality-Medium
Shadow Quality-Medium
Physics Quality-High
Shaders Quality-Medium
Volumetric Effects Quality-High
Game Effects Quality-High
Particles Quality-High
Water Quality-High
Sound Quality-High
Windows XP SP2"
In my mind, this is really really really impressive. Wow. It runs very smooth and looks amazing. The Imac seems more powerful than it is given credit for. I assume this is running in the DX9 interface. Apparently, running in Vista, and in DX10 will put more strain on the performance. Some people have hacked the game, and somehow made DX10 possible in XP, even though MS apparently said it was not. Hmmm...
If you have your own videos, or know of others it would be great if you would share and help your fellow Mac'er. Gaming on a Mac is not a sin! Neither is it stupid. Remember that.
Even though a picture says more than a thousand words, a picture cant say anything about framerate and general performance hiccups. Movies are a good indication for people to decide weather a game is running at a good performance with certain settings.
oIt gets complicated when you take into account the different ways to configure the games graphical settings, aswell as the systems hardware and the OS and/or method it is running on. Thats why I ask that when people post a link to a video, that they will be so kind as to also post information like system specifcations on the system used in the video(or as much info as there are made public on the videosite) aswell as whatever settings or other useful information there are.
I will try to update this thread. Perhaps it could become a mini-bible for what games will run on specific mac systems.
World of Warcraft:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bnSA-1ophR8&feature=related Running on a 2,0 Core 2 Duo Macbook with 2 GB of RAM.
Game settings are not confirmed but it looks quite stable and seem to have at least some settings at medium. Overall performance is more than playable.
Guild Wars:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OYA_cFizzL8 According to the creator of the video, the game runs at 1280x800 (native) on high settings, on his Macbook 2,0 Core 2 Duo with 1 GB of Ram, in Windows XP(Boot camp).
As a GW player since its early beta, I can say that GW has always had impressive scaling and optimization. Used to run this on a Geforce FX 5200(ewww) back then. Still it's hard to believe that it runs so well. Very impressive loading and framerate.
FEAR:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=YGsNO_C-mms Creator says that this runs on a "1th generation Macbook". Video was uploaded in summer 2007.
This is a multiplayer video, which is more intensive than the single player. When FEAR came out in 2005 it was the best looking game at the time of its release, and it had very steep system requirement. My 3 GHz Pentium 4 choked when trying to play this, and it looked about as good as this. Its almost unbeliveable.
Please note that the multiplayer version of FEAR has been made a free public download(you can download the multiplayer and play it for free). Its called FEAR: Combat, and it can be downloaded on fileplanet.com . I dont know if this is the free version, but they should be the same.
Quake 4:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=wcCtomi_Fa8 Video creator says that his machine is a "MacBook 2.0 Core 2 Duo, 1 gig of ram,and Intel GMA 950 graphics processor. Game is not running on high everything. but was running bump maps, shadows and everything" . The performance pretty much speaks for itself. Very impressive.
Quake 4 was not very well optimized, but this is quite impressive performance.
Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DPqiSXge3B8&feature=user Video creator says that his specifications are 2,0 Core 2 Duo, with 1,15 GB Ram, and with a 120GB Harddrive(5200 RPM)
The performance in the video is not very smooth. Compared to Red Alert which was released in 96, I really don't see much difference here.
The creator has also confirmed that this is the PC version. Some of the comments in the video, are saying that the Mac version does not run aswell. But it's quite hard to find any truth when the subject is EA. Many people have a beef with them.
Crysis:
Video 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=y4wvsehdyOk From the creator:
"This is a video of me playing Crysis on a 2.80 Intel iMac with 2 gigs of ram. These are the settings I was running this game in...
Video Mode-1440X900 Full Screen
Texture Quality-High
Objects Quality-Medium
Shadow Quality-Medium
Physics Quality-High
Shaders Quality-Medium
Volumetric Effects Quality-High
Game Effects Quality-High
Particles Quality-High
Water Quality-High
Sound Quality-High
Windows XP SP2"
In my mind, this is really really really impressive. Wow. It runs very smooth and looks amazing. The Imac seems more powerful than it is given credit for. I assume this is running in the DX9 interface. Apparently, running in Vista, and in DX10 will put more strain on the performance. Some people have hacked the game, and somehow made DX10 possible in XP, even though MS apparently said it was not. Hmmm...
If you have your own videos, or know of others it would be great if you would share and help your fellow Mac'er. Gaming on a Mac is not a sin! Neither is it stupid. Remember that.