Keep in mind that I am talking about cutting edge gaming here. There are other games designed with the casual gamer in mind (see for example http://www.ambrosiasw.com).
Originally posted by guest
Cutting edge gaming is a harsh reality, especially for Macs. If you want to play state-of-the-art games, you need a state-of-the-art machine. There is absolutely no point in testing a game like Q3A on the machine you describe above. Absolutely none.
Keeping up is somewhat easier with a PC, since you can build a machine yourself with readily available cheap hardware. Frankly I think it is a good thing that game software houses keep pushing the edge...it means we all get cooler games and cheaper hardware faster, even though it is hard for us Mac users. With Macs you need to wait until the next Mac is released by Apple, and of course it is difficult to spend $3K US on the latest Mac every six months.
Fortunately you don't have to do this every six months to maintain a reasonable gaming machine; 1 year usually suffices.
As a Mac gamer, I learned my lesson two and a half years ago when I dumped a ton of money on a top-of-the-line B&W G3/400. Two years (and two vid cards) later, it is *way* below the bar for any serious game. I can't even get an nVidia board for it (no AGP), which might have gone a long way to rehabilitate it. So from now on, I'm buying only midrange Macs (such as the 867 tower on its way...woohoo!). That way I can better afford more frequent upgrades.
BTW, anyone know if you can get Mac nVidia boards separately? I've looked around, and so far I've only found them as BTO options for new Macs. Would be a shame if no one else could upgrade with these excellent cards.
This time I am going to try for a 1.5 year upgrade cycle.
And, yeah, I do play on a mac, and I do suffer the consequences..... Howvere, for real world benchmarking, games are actually a far better indicator than many other apps - including photoshop. They are also one of teh very few applications that really push a home users computer. You think you really need a dual 800 or a p4 1.8 to run word?
You can go to CompUSA and salivate at the rows upon rows of box covers, but in the end many of the good ones get ported to the Mac, and I'm fine with that situation. Of course I would like to see more ports, done faster. For example, remember the original X-COM UFO? What an incredibly well-executed game--great strategy and action, and *exceptional* atmosphere supported by eerie graphics and dark music.
