Games on a Mac VS PC

Games just run better on a PC. Always have. It's probably down to a myriad of reasons from graphic driver updates to how awesome DirectX is.

raggedjimmi said:

Games just run better on a PC. Always have. It's probably down to a myriad of reasons from graphic driver updates to how awesome DirectX is.

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Sad but true.

If those games you mention are Battlefield 2142 and C&C 3 for Mac, they are both Cider-ported games, meaning they're running through a Windows emulator. That definitely hinders gameplay. Better ported games run nearly the same quality as in Windows, but not as fast anyway.

SHADO said:

Sad but true.

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so very sad and very true. But I still play CoD4 on mac side b/c I like to get in a few matches and quit out and hate rebooting just for this. Glad the keys work on both PC/Mac vers.

hmm i think games should be left to consoles, imo

i got over computer games a while back...fun but hardware is constantly expensive. consoles just seem more price efficient :-/

dmlogs said:

hmm i think games should be left to consoles, imo

i got over computer games a while back...fun but hardware is constantly expensive. consoles just seem more price efficient :-/

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True.. a good PC machine for gaming can be more expensive than a 360 or a PS3.. in the long term I mean.. buy consoles =D haha

Spore ran better on my brother's dell than it did on my MacBook

although that is to be expected... still made me upset that a 600 dollar PC can thrash my 1400$ UMB

Super Slow!

I have a MacBook Pro with similar specs to the OP's (but with 4GB RAM) and it runs ridiculously slowly with BF2142, Titan Mode especially.

The frame rate becomes unbearably low (approx. 5 fps) inside Titans when there's lots of gunfire going on. By the way, this is while running it at minimum graphics settings - all Low, extra effects off. Has anyone else been experiencing such an awful performance?

Not only is the frame rate low, there is a very strong lag in mouse response. In other words I'll turn towards an enemy, for example, and it'll lag for about a second and then overshoot the target, sometimes spinning me round completely! And then I die.

I'm pretty sure it's nothing to do with my Internet connection. Other online games such as Counter-Strike Source (via CrossOver) are absolutely fine and BF2142 running on Windows is super smooth.

MarcBook said:

I have a MacBook Pro with similar specs to the OP's (but with 4GB RAM) and it runs ridiculously slowly with BF2142, Titan Mode especially.

The frame rate becomes unbearably low (approx. 5 fps) inside Titans when there's lots of gunfire going on. By the way, this is while running it at minimum graphics settings - all Low, extra effects off. Has anyone else been experiencing such an awful performance?

Not only is the frame rate low, there is a very strong lag in mouse response. In other words I'll turn towards an enemy, for example, and it'll lag for about a second and then overshoot the target, sometimes spinning me round completely! And then I die.

I'm pretty sure it's nothing to do with my Internet connection. Other online games such as Counter-Strike Source (via CrossOver) are absolutely fine and BF2142 running on Windows is super smooth.

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Yep im in the same boat as you. (Macbook)

raggedjimmi said:

Games just run better on a PC. Always have. It's probably down to a myriad of reasons from graphic driver updates to how awesome DirectX is.

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Indeed, it's due to a number of reasons. That said, I'd just like to point out that it's not because DirectX is inherently superior to OpenGL. The cause is due to the fact that many game developers are more proficient with DirectX and design their games around it.
Developers who prefer OpenGL tend to use it to great effect (Blizzard games always run great on OpenGL, for example).

I think the sad realization is that Mac gaming will probably *never* be as viable as PC gaming. The fact that Macs are now x86 based hasn't helped much at all... it's expanded the list of games that are available for OSX, but it has decreased the quality of the ports and lowered the incentive for developers to make a real Mac version.
Nowadays folks can just easily boot into Windows to play games, so why waste manpower on a Mac version? Especially since games don't often take advantage of any OS specific traits... there really is no incentive to game under OSX.

I agree with what has been said here. Macs used PPCs for forever. Guess what processor is in the Xbox360? ... PPC.

It's not that Windows or it's drivers are superior, its that most game companies write to windows and with one major exception (Blizzard), Mac ports are an after thought using a variety of schemes and emulation to bring a Windows game over to the Mac. I'm not a programmer but my understanding is that because DX is proprietary, emulation of some kind is used to make those games run in Open GL.

And that because the games are optimized for Windows, and since the role of a porting company is to just get the game functional on the Mac, there is no real rewriting of code for optimization purposes, just rewriting enough to get it running. At least that is my impression.

A couple of years ago I ran UT2004 on my 1.8GB G5 tower and on my 3.2 GB P4. At the time those computers were fairly comparable. But UT4 ran all most twice as fast on the Windows machine. Another possible interesting point is that the majority of the UT4 files for both systems were identical. The only real difference was the application itself. Evidence there for no Mac optimization?

It was a breath of fresh air when I started WoW back up after a substantial break and I had an opportunity to run a game Mac native instead of in BootCamp/Winblows.

Huntn said:

I agree with what has been said here. Macs used PPCs for forever. Guess what processor is in the Xbox360? ... PPC.

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IIRC the Gamecube was the first major console to use a PPC chip at a time that MS used a P3/Celeron hybrid and Sony used a RISC. Now they all use them.

I made the mistake of getting almost all of the EA Cider games one night when they came out after hearing EA blabbing about how they were "supporting mac gamers" all of the sudden. What a crock. I'm happy with Spore (performance anyway, wasn't thrilled with the DRM or the game obviously) but that's about it. I'm not surprised they haven't come out with much else. I'm sitting here with a $3,500 Mac Pro that runs Madden like a slug, even with a better graphics card. For that alone I really appreciate Aspyr and sometimes Ubisoft, at least the stuff runs acceptably

Jen.Mikel

jenmikel said:

I made the mistake of getting almost all of the EA Cider games one night when they came out after hearing EA blabbing about how they were "supporting mac gamers" all of the sudden. What a crock. I'm happy with Spore (performance anyway, wasn't thrilled with the DRM or the game obviously) but that's about it. I'm not surprised they haven't come out with much else. I'm sitting here with a $3,500 Mac Pro that runs Madden like a slug, even with a better graphics card. For that alone I really appreciate Aspyr and sometimes Ubisoft, at least the stuff runs acceptably

Jen.Mikel

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Yeah all Aspyr games run better then those cider cover ups. Thats why Im trying to port my mac bf2142 so i can play it on my PC D; Still no luck with that.