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Do games run better on bootcamp than mac osx??

B

bubbagumpshrimp

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
356
92
Im new to gaming on a mac and was wondering if it would be better for me to buy a game like Age of Empires III for windows (using bootcamp) rather than buying the mac version?
It may be kind of a dumb question but i keep reading about people playing games using bootcamp rather than just buying that game in the mac version. Is their a reason for this other than that particular game not being support for the mac?

2nd question: I see that their are different version of software to run windows on your mac, is one better than another? Before my iMac Hard Drive crashed i was running a program called virtual box that was free and seemed to work okay. Is this program inferior to others?

Thanks in advance.
 
bubbagumpshrimp said:
Im new to gaming on a mac and was wondering if it would be better for me to buy a game like Age of Empires III for windows (using bootcamp) rather than buying the mac version?
It may be kind of a dumb question but i keep reading about people playing games using bootcamp rather than just buying that game in the mac version. Is their a reason for this other than that particular game not being support for the mac?

2nd question: I see that their are different version of software to run windows on your mac, is one better than another? Before my iMac Hard Drive crashed i was running a program called virtual box that was free and seemed to work okay. Is this program inferior to others?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

It varies game by game. In general, games run faster on pcs then Macs. Most Mac games however run very well under OSX and with Windows / bootcamp, you have to worry about viruses / spyware (it also can be a pain restarting your Mac in bootcamp every time you want to run a game).

The best advice I can give is take it on a game by game basis

1) The game is only Windows : Run it under Windows / bootcamp
2) Windows or Mac game and the Mac port got bad reviews (i.e. slow, buggy, etc): Run it under Windows / bootcamp
3) Windows or Mac game and the Mac port showed no issues : Run it under OSX

There are other ways to run Windows on your Mac but it's best to run Windows XP under bootcamp if gaming is your main concern.
 
In my experience games always (blizzard games aside) run MUCH better on windows than on OSX. It's really annoying having to restart into bootcamp whenever want to play, but that's what you really have to do in order to use your computer to it's best potential for gaming.
 
grand central

as apple will demonstrate will grand central, speed is really a lot about software. remember altivec optimization?

our processors and gpu's can do so much more than they do now, bad ports are a good example

superman666 said:
In my experience games always (blizzard games aside) run MUCH better on windows than on OSX. It's really annoying having to restart into bootcamp whenever want to play, but that's what you really have to do in order to use your computer to it's best potential for gaming.
Click to expand...
 
As far as PC gaming goes, Microsoft's DirectX is basically the de facto standard API for hardware-accelerated graphics. They've had this monopoly for years now. The other big software is OpenGL, which is not platform-exclusive. This is the rendering API that the majority of Mac games and ports are built upon; unfortunately many developers choose not to use it.

So, in a nutshell that's why you don't see many games being developed for native release on OSX, because Microsoft doesn't license DirectX out to other systems but their own Windows OS.

Generally, across the board games do run MUCH better in Windows than OSX because they utilize DirectX. I wouldn't be surprised if many modern games perform 30 to 40 frames per second better under max settings and native res on Windows XP/Vista/7 than their counterpart ports on Mac under similar settings.

I love Apple hardware and OSX has some great advantages over Windows, unfortunately gaming is not one of them. Not a big deal though, CrossOver and Boot Camp make it easy as cake.
 
Thank you for the insight guys!
I currently have the 2.4 unibody macbook w/ 2GB of ram (may bump up to 4). should I put windows 7 on my machine or one of the earlier OS? Also, I noticed windows 7 (if this be a good option) has 32 bit or 64 bit to pick from? If applicable, which do you recommend?

Last question. If I where to get a virus using windows, it wouldn't affect leopard would it? just a simple reinstall of windows would clear it?

thanks again!
 
bubbagumpshrimp said:
Thank you for the insight guys!
I currently have the 2.4 unibody macbook w/ 2GB of ram (may bump up to 4). should I put windows 7 on my machine or one of the earlier OS? Also, I noticed windows 7 (if this be a good option) has 32 bit or 64 bit to pick from? If applicable, which do you recommend?

Last question. If I where to get a virus using windows, it wouldn't affect leopard would it? NO just a simple reinstall of windows would clear it? YES

thanks again!
Click to expand...

See this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/705927/

The reason why you would choose Vista / Windows 7 is for DX10.
The problem with that is that most of those games require a good dedicated graphics card.
So since your Macbook has a pretty weak integrated graphics card, you will prolly be better off with XP due to the lower OS overhead.
64-bit is better than 32-bit (can also support more RAM if you implement it) at the price of again…a higher overhead.
You have a pretty fast processor and DDR3 RAM so it’s pretty good in that sense, but it’s really the graphics card that is your bottleneck for most games. And since you’re is shared, you will chew up some RAM with higher graphics (hence why XP would be better).

The good news is…Windows 7 is “free” for a while so you can try and see if it works for you.
 
rasmasyean said:
The reason why you would choose Vista / Windows 7 is for DX10.
The problem with that is that most of those games require a good dedicated graphics card.
So since your Macbook has a pretty weak integrated graphics card, you will prolly be better off with XP due to the lower OS overhead.
64-bit is better than 32-bit (can also support more RAM if you implement it) at the price of again…a higher overhead.
You have a pretty fast processor and DDR3 RAM so it’s pretty good in that sense, but it’s really the graphics card that is your bottleneck for most games. And since you’re is shared, you will chew up some RAM with higher graphics (hence why XP would be better)
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Yes, the Macbook GPU isn't powerful enough to handle the effects of DX10 without a huge performance hit. Vista isn't worth it on a Macbook.
 
Jethryn Freyman said:
Yes, the Macbook GPU isn't powerful enough to handle the effects of DX10 without a huge performance hit. Vista isn't worth it on a Macbook.
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Only the 512 Macbook Pro can really handle most of those games in DX10 with an reliability. You can always turn them way down and it might work however.
 
Depends on the game. A native Mac version vs. native PC version, negligible difference (ie. any game from Blizzard). A poor Mac port vs. native PC version, run in bootcamp.

Unfortunately there were many problems during the development of OpenGL 3, so the Mac has definitely lost the graphics advantage that it had for years. Another problem is drivers, Nvidia's and ATI's (Nvidia's especially) for the Mac are not as good as their Windows counterparts.

Apple really needs to fix these issues if it wants any hope of staying in the professional market.
 
nick9191 said:
Depends on the game. A native Mac version vs. native PC version, negligible difference (ie. any game from Blizzard). A poor Mac port vs. native PC version, run in bootcamp.

Unfortunately there were many problems during the development of OpenGL 3, so the Mac has definitely lost the graphics advantage that it had for years. Another problem is drivers, Nvidia's and ATI's (Nvidia's especially) for the Mac are not as good as their Windows counterparts.

Apple really needs to fix these issues if it wants any hope of staying in the professional market.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and Apple needs to start catching up a bit. 64-bit Adobe is only available in Vista. That’s like the staple product on the Mac.

Here’s some clips that show-off some 3D graphics environment on modern Windows. I think it will only get more sophisticated and more prevalent in Windows 7, especially with the multi-touch interfaces.

power of WPF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tKj_zscwNE

WPF applications
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTfM5pmUrnU

WPF Mashup (Directors Cut)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUBOQFvh6yI
 
bubbagumpshrimp said:
Last question. If I where to get a virus using windows, it wouldn't affect leopard would it? just a simple reinstall of windows would clear it?
Click to expand...

BTW, there are free virus scanners out there that are pretty effective but just don't have the bells and whistles that pay ones have. It's good to install it anyway to be safe. Especially if you are going to be downloading add-ons and such.
 
Ummm So I should install Sims 3 on Windows Xp rather than OSX??
I own an Alum Macbook 2.0 GHz 2GB memory...

I think I will be purchasing the game this week... suggestions :D?
 
Last question. If I where to get a virus using windows, it wouldn't affect leopard would it? just a simple reinstall of windows would clear it?
Click to expand...

No. Not with Boot Camp, at the moment.

With Parallels, I'd say it could be possible, but only if you've got it set up to mount the OS X startup disk in Windows.
 
If you are running your Macbook Pro in clamshell mode and using an external monitor, it won't work with Bootcamp to make it your primary display. This was enough for me to just get Mac versions of the games. The frame rates are still plenty fast.
 
CSilver said:
Ummm So I should install Sims 3 on Windows Xp rather than OSX??
I own an Alum Macbook 2.0 GHz 2GB memory...

I think I will be purchasing the game this week... suggestions :D?
Click to expand...

i would wait and see what reviews say of the game running under OS X and Windows. Although EA is, i believe, doing both versions them selves although i might be wrong saying that. meaning that it should work better than using smaller companies to port over games. also they will have probably had extensive testing, as in my opinion this is the first very big game that EA are releasing to OS X
 
Then you need to get replacement drivers, I'm using up to date nVidia drivers for my Macbook and I can run games off an external monitor in clamshell mode.

Unless the MBP is different? I'd be surprised if the MB did something the MBP couldn't.
 
CSilver said:
Ummm So I should install Sims 3 on Windows Xp rather than OSX??
I own an Alum Macbook 2.0 GHz 2GB memory...

I think I will be purchasing the game this week... suggestions :D?
Click to expand...

Read the Sims 3 Mac review. Windows XP will run it faster but you might not even see the difference. Unless the OSX version has lots of bugs or the XP version is noticeably faster, I would get the OSX version.
 
bigmanathome24 said:
i would wait and see what reviews say of the game running under OS X and Windows. Although EA is, i believe, doing both versions them selves although i might be wrong saying that. meaning that it should work better than using smaller companies to port over games. also they will have probably had extensive testing, as in my opinion this is the first very big game that EA are releasing to OS X
Click to expand...
where can we find reviews that compare games running on both OS's.
 
I installed the Sims 3 on my 2.53 gHz MBP on both OS X and Windows. Windows was much faster. There was no contest. In addition, Windows allows you to set Anti-Aliasing (jagged edge smoothing) and Anisotropic Filtering (making distant textures look more detailed). The Sims 3 desperately needs each of these features to look good.
 
bigmanathome24 said:
reviews such as the one above this post. just what people generally think. but also try sites like IGN, PC Gamer (which by the way has starcraft II review!) and just magazines
Click to expand...

I think there is another consideration when playing some games as well.
If you are going to use like 3rd party add-ons and assistive software, in general they would be better and more available on Windows.
It’s both because there are more gamers (and clubs, etc.) who would be enthusiastic enough to put the effort into this as well as there are more programmers for Windows upping the available hacker pool.
 
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