What is best option to run Half Life 2 on new iMac?

[antiDesign]

I've tried looking for help on this subject but can't seem to find a straight answer, and most of the articles are outdated from 2006...

Anyway, I'm getting a new intel iMac, 2.4ghz with 1gb ram and wanted to know what the best option is for running Half Life 2.
I think speed and the game running at it's highest capability are my main concerns- and not so much rebooting into Boot Camp. But if Parallels has improved I would consider paying the extra money for not having to reboot. Or are there other programs besides Boot Camp and Parallels that run games better where I won't have to install Windows? This is the only thing I would use it for. Does anyone have insight or experience on this? Thanks

 

[killmoms]

Boot Camp. Neither Parallels nor vmware Fusion support DX9.

 

[The Flashing Fi]

HL2 can be set all the way down to DX7, but with only 1 gig of RAM, boot camp is your best option for the best performance and compatability.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

what the best option is for running Half Life 2.
I think speed and the game running at it's highest capability are my main concerns

Boot Camp is best, running it with Windows XP a bit better than Windows Vista.

Also, it works pretty damn well under CrossOver Mac. Might be worth a shot to give the free trial a spin see how it works for you... just install the "Steam" bottle in CrossOver and let it autodownload and install Steam for you. I find it totally playable natively and seamlessly (and without needing Windows!) on my Mac under OS X without the need to reboot.

 

[antiDesign]

Thanks for the responses. I don't know much about gaming or computers except the general stuff.
Can you explain what is DX7 and DX9?

Will adding 1gb or 2gb more of ram drastically improve the performance or does it have more to do with the network speed and video card at that point?
The graphics specs are ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics processor and 256MB of GDDR3 memory. Will these be acceptable to run the game? Not that I can change it at this point, but just wondering what to expect.

 

[The Flashing Fi]

Thanks for the responses. I don't know much about gaming or computers except the general stuff.
Can you explain what is DX7 and DX9?

Will adding 1gb or 2gb more of ram drastically improve the performance or does it have more to do with the network speed and video card at that point?
The graphics specs are ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics processor and 256MB of GDDR3 memory. Will these be acceptable to run the game? Not that I can change it at this point, but just wondering what to expect.

DX7, DX8, an DX9 are API's. I'm not going to go into detail, but the lower you set them, the less eye candy you'll get, typically.

Adding another gig of RAM will help you if you want to run in a virtual machine to play a game. If you want to run in boot camp, which will allow you to play at full performance, then get XP and install it. I wouldn't recommend Vista with only 1gig of RAM, especially if you want to play games.