Gaming on a Mac

gwc1991 · Sep 7, 2012

I have built my Windows PC to gaming spec, i'm now looking to get a Mac and cut out my current machine, however, I need my mac to do everything my pc can do now to be able to do that:

Music Production (Not an issue)
Gaming (Crysis, GTA, Anything/everything)
Web Development (Not an issue)
Run SQL and Visual Studio (Can install Windows)

What Mac is best for gaming? And will i have any limitations on what games i can run?

On windows, i use a website called canyourunit.com, is there an equivalent for mac?

Thanks

charlieegan3 · Sep 7, 2012

I'm guessing a desktop/tower computer and not a laptop?

To compare it might be useful to know your PC specs.

Wardenski · Sep 7, 2012

gwc1991 said:
I have built my Windows PC to gaming spec, i'm now looking to get a Mac and cut out my current machine, however, I need my mac to do everything my pc can do now to be able to do that:

Music Production (Not an issue)
Gaming (Crysis, GTA, Anything/everything)
Web Development (Not an issue)
Run SQL and Visual Studio (Can install Windows)

What Mac is best for gaming? And will i have any limitations on what games i can run?

On windows, i use a website called canyourunit.com, is there an equivalent for mac?

Thanks

The only Mac that can run Crysis at max. settings is a Mac Pro but it comes with a 2/3 year old GPU and 1 year old processors. Single CPU Mac Pro price is ridiculous for what it is.

Crysis, Crysis 2 and Warhead is not available for OSX so you would need to install bootcamp anyway.

Keep your gaming PC or upgrade that.

Northwestern · Sep 7, 2012

I use the iMac for games like Crysis 1 + 2. For games like adventures or casual/indie I use my MacBook Air.

If you need a notebook, buy the high end MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

Irishman · Sep 7, 2012

gwc1991 said:
I have built my Windows PC to gaming spec, i'm now looking to get a Mac and cut out my current machine, however, I need my mac to do everything my pc can do now to be able to do that:

Music Production (Not an issue)
Gaming (Crysis, GTA, Anything/everything)
Web Development (Not an issue)
Run SQL and Visual Studio (Can install Windows)

What Mac is best for gaming? And will i have any limitations on what games i can run?

On windows, i use a website called canyourunit.com, is there an equivalent for mac?

Thanks

If Clayton Morris' report is accurate, refreshed iMacs are on the way. I would wait and see what hardware comes built into these before buying a Mac of any kind for high-end gaming.

eric/ · Sep 7, 2012

Wait for the new iMac.

Most popular games are either ported, or on the way to being ported to Mac.

Blizzard, Steam, etc...

Whatever new iMac that comes out will be perfectly capable of doing what you want.

HOWEVER

It will be more expensive than a windows desktop computer that you build yourself.

So if you're willing to shell out a little more money for a good looking, pre-builty, machine running OSX than it's worth it.

If not, stick with a windows PC.

cluthz · Sep 7, 2012

Crysis is now a 4 year old game, although fairly heavy still, I suppose that both the new MBPs with 650M and iMacs with 6970M will run it fairly well.

thegreatdivorce · Sep 7, 2012

A Mac Pro is your best bet, simply because you can add hardware (GPU's especially) so easily.

Any recent MP, with a modern GPU, should be fine.

Most Nvidia GTX cards work out of the box under OS X 10.8 on Mac Pros.

So:

buy Mac Pro (used, refurb, new, whatever)
remove mediocre stock GPU
insert GTX570 or 670
profit

DanielCoffey · Sep 8, 2012

The old faithful 5870 may be long in the tooth but it still puts in a damned good show for its age.

You can get a 680 in there if you check it is a 2x 6-pin power requirement.

El Awesome · Sep 13, 2012

I have GTX 570 2.5 in my Mac Pro 4.1
In Bootcamp, I'm playing Battlefield 3 on Ultra with 50-60 fps.
In OS X, every game, including Dirt 2 and Mafia II are running maxed out perfectly fine.

Vespa Alex · Sep 13, 2012

I'd have thought the sensible option here would be to wait for the inevitable new iMac and see what hardware ends up in there. Unless you need to buy a mac *right now* you are likely to get a better gaming machine that way.

flopticalcube · Sep 13, 2012

Vespa Alex said:
I'd have thought the sensible option here would be to wait for the inevitable new iMac and see what hardware ends up in there. Unless you need to buy a mac *right now* you are likely to get a better gaming machine that way.

Not really. An older quad core Mac Pro with a GTX580/670/680 will destroy anything that comes in the new iMac (7970m).

El Awesome · Sep 13, 2012

flopticalcube said:
Not really. An older quad core Mac Pro with a GTX580/670/680 will destroy anything that comes in the new iMac (7970m).

Since the GTX680 is top of line anyway, a Mac Pro with a GTX680 will destroy everything. Including 90% of all gaming PCs.

flopticalcube · Sep 13, 2012

El Awesome said:
Since the GTX680 is top of line anyway, a Mac Pro with a GTX680 will destroy everything. Including 90% of all gaming PCs.

True enough, except for crossfire/sli or dual GPU cards. Given that the 670 is nearly as fast as the 680 but substantially cheaper, that would be my choice but they are all good.

El Awesome · Sep 13, 2012

flopticalcube said:
True enough, except for crossfire/sli or dual GPU cards. Given that the 670 is nearly as fast as the 680 but substantially cheaper, that would be my choice but they are all good.

Snice I'm a GD and the 570 has more power in the pro apps, that was my choice. Strangely, the 670 has limited CUDA power. I also took the flashed version from MVC, which is running full speed and very stable under OS X. The 670 doesen't.

flopticalcube · Sep 13, 2012

El Awesome said:
Snice I'm a GD and the 570 has more power in the pro apps, that was my choice. Strangely, the 670 has limited CUDA power. I also took the flashed version from MVC, which is running full speed and very stable under OS X. The 670 doesen't.

Interesting. I take the 580 doesn't have the issues of the 670 wrt stability.

Vespa Alex · Sep 13, 2012

flopticalcube said:
Not really. An older quad core Mac Pro with a GTX580/670/680 will destroy anything that comes in the new iMac (7970m).

There's no doubt that it could be a better performer, but it's also going to be more pricey. A new iMac has the potential to run new games on high detail at high frame rates for less cash.

You get into diminshed returns for gaming at relatively modest budgets these days.

El Awesome · Sep 13, 2012

flopticalcube said:
Interesting. I take the 580 doesn't have the issues of the 670 wrt stability.

GTX580 consumes more power than the MoBo can deliver. You have to get an external PSU. So if you start pushing it to its limits, you're running under the risk of frying your MoBo.

avemestr · Sep 13, 2012

flopticalcube said:
Interesting. I take the 580 doesn't have the issues of the 670 wrt stability.

The 670/680 doesn't have stability problems. Only "problem" is that you won't get a boot screen, whereas you can flash a 570 and get the usual grey boot screen.

670/680 is faster for gaming, but NVIDIA have artificially limited the CUDA performance on that card, since they would sell a lot less Quadro cards to pros otherwise. The 570 isn't artificially limited, so the 570 beats even the 670/680 in pro apps.

Winni · Sep 14, 2012

gwc1991 said:
What Mac is best for gaming? And will i have any limitations on what games i can run?

Buy an Xbox 360. It will run anything you throw at it. If you want to become a Mac user and still play the latest first person shooters, that is the only feasible option. Been there, done that. And now moved on. To Linux, but I still have the Xbox 360 for playing games.

Huntn · Sep 14, 2012

Winni said:
Buy an Xbox 360. It will run anything you throw at it. If you want to become a Mac user and still play the latest first person shooters, that is the only feasible option. Been there, done that. And now moved on. To Linux, but I still have the Xbox 360 for playing games.

You can't MMO it on any console (I don't think). You'll need a Mac or PC for that.

Miharu · Sep 14, 2012

Do you actually need a Mac for something? I think you should stick to your own built PC, or you could try a cheaper Mac laptop if you want to give OS X a go. If gaming and Visual Studio is what you need, you're gonna have to use Windows anyway.

I hope we see updated iMacs and Mac Pros soon though. They're getting really old.

doh123 · Sep 14, 2012

Miharu said:
f gaming and Visual Studio is what you need, you're gonna have to use Windows anyway.

if you mainly play Windows games and use Visual Studio, I don't see why you'd get a Mac either... your only using Windows software and doing Windows development...

El Awesome · Sep 15, 2012

Miharu said:
Do you actually need a Mac for something? I think you should stick to your own built PC, or you could try a cheaper Mac laptop if you want to give OS X a go. If gaming and Visual Studio is what you need, you're gonna have to use Windows anyway.

I hope we see updated iMacs and Mac Pros soon though. They're getting really old.

Why would you have 2 computers if you can do everything with just one?
I have a Mac Pro set up as a workstation, but with a powerful gaming GPU (GTX 570 - best gamging GPU for Pro apps.) Beats all gaming PCs of my friends under BootCamp.

If you get a Mac Pro with a W3680 Hexcore - it's not old. It's equivalent to the i7 980X - which is one of the fastest available CPUs out there.

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