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Informal poll re Steam; system specs.

I play Valve Game on these machines:

Mac Pro 1,1, 4x2.0 GHz Xeon, 8GB RAM, nVidia 8800GT 512MB, 750 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200, 2x160 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200, 500 GB WD Digital Something HDD, 2x external Firewire LaCie 250 GB HDD. 2x 20" Apple Cinema Displays. Snow Leopard and Windows 7 64-Bit.

Xbox 360, 20 GB HDD. 24" HP Display.

Dell XPS M1530, 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, 64-Bit Windows 7 (and, on demand, a hackintoshed Snow Leopard.)
 
3 GHz Core 2 Duo, 8 GB RAM, 512 MB HD4870, OS 10.6.

I ran the HL2 demo under Boot Camp on my 2.33 GHz MBP with Radeon X1600 and it was playable so I don't expect to have any issues with my desktop 🙂
 
If you want a more detailed (and possibly accurate) survey of system specs, why not convince a certain employer to start beta-testing the Mac version of a certain game *hint hint* 🙂
 
2009 Mac Pro Quad Core with GTX 285.
I guess I should be able to run most of the games at 800x600 with AA off and everything set to low 😛
 
The computer I do the most gaming on is a 17" MacBook Pro, 1680x1050 native resolution, 2GB RAM, 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo, Radeon X1600 256MB, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 (that is the current version, right? Or is it 10.6.2?)

While we're at it, I may also be playing on a 21" iMac, same native res, 2GB RAM, a Core 2 Duo of a clock speed which I do not recall, Radeon HD2600 256MB, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3, or whatever the current version is.
 
MacPro 2.8 GHZ Octo core
12GB Ram
5GB HDD's
Radeon 4870HD 1GB
10.6.3


Forgot to add : My laptop is

MacBook Pro 15" 2.93Ghz Core2Duo
4GB Ram
256GB SSD
Nvidia 9600 512mb
10.6.3
 
33mhz Performa 630, 68LC040, 8mb RAM, 1mb VRAM

They say Steam won't be PowerPC compatible, that's ok i don't have PowerPC 😀
 
White 21 inch iMac (The generation right before they went to allumminium)
Mac OS 10.6.3
2,16 Ghz Intel Duo Core
2,5 GB RAM
128 mb ATI Radeon x1600

Is this enough?
I play Valve games on this computer through Bootcamp so it should work fine/better in Macintosh.
 
First Post 🙂

Macbook Pro Unibody 15" 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
4 GB RAM
GeForce 9600GT 256MB
250GB HD
Version 10.6.3

Regarding 10.5.8, and since you appear to be working with Valve, I'd say a safe approach would be to make Steam compatible with that version of OS X; As it stands a lot of people still use it (despite the low price of the update) and there's a reason to. Some people (like myself) still have issues with clean installs of 10.6.x, be it continuous beachballing without any process provoking it, or inability of making the Mac sleep (introduced with the latest update, in my case).

Others are OK with 10.5.8 and see no need to update as it still performs admirably and has the compatibility with apps that haven't been updated yet.

A simple glance at these forums and the official Apple forums show that there are a lot of people with similar and other problems, and although lack of knowledge of the user can't be discarded as a source of some of those issues, a lot of them are still problems to be solved by the OSX team.

Now, I don't know how that should impact the development of Steam if you are thinking of taking advantage of the new API's and the new OpenGL support, but alienating the still most common used version of OS X doesn't seem a very sound idea.

I made a clean install to see if 10.6.3 solved the issues I had with it and it actually introduced a new one; I will go back to 10.5.8 again till I see those issues fixed.

And as an avid gamer and Steam user, I hope you can provide compatibility with 10.5.8.

PS: I've been eagerly awaiting for the Beta since a user (on a gaming forum) who appeared to be in the known said it would come out April 4th. Do you have any ETA you can share with us to cool expectations? The trademarked Valve Time is killing me. 😉
 
MeoAnderson said:
First Post 🙂

Macbook Pro Unibody 15" 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
4 GB RAM
GeForce 9600GT 256MB
250GB HD
Version 10.6.3

Regarding 10.5.8, and since you appear to be working with Valve, I'd say a safe approach would be to make Steam compatible with that version of OS X; As it stands a lot of people still use it (despite the low price of the update) and there's a reason to. Some people (like myself) still have issues with clean installs of 10.6.x, be it continuous beachballing without any process provoking it, or inability of making the Mac sleep (introduced with the latest update, in my case).

Others are OK with 10.5.8 and see no need to update as it still performs admirably and has the compatibility with apps that haven't been updated yet.

A simple glance at these forums and the official Apple forums show that there are a lot of people with similar and other problems, and although lack of knowledge of the user can't be discarded as a source of some of those issues, a lot of them are still problems to be solved by the OSX team.

Now, I don't know how that should impact the development of Steam if you are thinking of taking advantage of the new API's and the new OpenGL support, but alienating the still most common used version of OS X doesn't seem a very sound idea.

I made a clean install to see if 10.6.3 solved the issues I had with it and it actually introduced a new one; I will go back to 10.5.8 again till I see those issues fixed.

And as an avid gamer and Steam user, I hope you can provide compatibility with 10.5.8.

PS: I've been eagerly awaiting for the Beta since a user (on a gaming forum) who appeared to be in the known said it would come out April 4th. Do you have any ETA you can share with us to cool expectations? The trademarked Valve Time is killing me. 😉
Click to expand...

"Most commonly used" OS varies with audience. For example, the ratio of 10.6 to 10.5 in our recent beta signups was very steep in favor of 10.6.

That said, current builds run in 10.5.8 - but the ultimate decider is likely not to be individual desire, but whether the graphics drivers on 10.5.8 can successfully support the Source engine. For example, 10.5.8 OpenGL can't do sRGB render-to-texture, a capability that Source requires. In this case we have done some workarounds to make it work as correctly as possible -but this is just one example.

Since Apple does not provide graphics driver updates for 10.5.8, if we do run into a showstopper issue for performance or correctness on that OS, there might not be anything we could do, even if we wanted to. Just something to keep in mind - not all old OS issues can be worked around.
 
rbarris said:
"Most commonly used" OS varies with audience. For example, the ratio of 10.6 to 10.5 in our recent beta signups was very steep in favor of 10.6.

That said, current builds run in 10.5.8 - but the ultimate decider is likely not to be individual desire, but whether the graphics drivers on 10.5.8 can successfully support the Source engine. For example, 10.5.8 OpenGL can't do sRGB render-to-texture, a capability that Source requires. In this case we have done some workarounds to make it work as correctly as possible -but this is just one example.

Since Apple does not provide graphics driver updates for 10.5.8, if we do run into a showstopper issue for performance or correctness on that OS, there might not be anything we could do, even if we wanted to. Just something to keep in mind - not all old OS issues can be worked around.
Click to expand...

Basically I was just speaking as a costumer who has issues with 10.6; I didn't take into consideration possible technical shortcomings that could hinder the development as I'm completely oblivious to that aspect (besides some GLUT I had to play with for a Uni project long ago, I know almost nothing of OpenGL).

I don't know if you can answer this or not, but is Source already fully ported? And if so, was it a very time consuming task? I remember reading that Source was made to be composed of modules. Back in the old days games used to have two renderers so you could switch between OpenGL and DirectX; was this just a case of writing a new renderer module? Not taking in account the work done with the Steam platform itself, I mean.

Anyways, thanks for being honest in your reply. This kind of openness with the community is what sets apart developers like Valve and Blizzard from all the others (that, and the fact that they won't make me buy again the games I already have 😛).
 
13" Early 2009 Mackbook, 2.0 GHz Core2Duo, 4GB RAM, with Nvidia 9400M.

It's what I use to run Steam/Valve games in Bootcamp, too.

EDIT: I'm running 10.6.3.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I don't know that I'd install Steam on my macbook pro, as i'm planning on buying a Dell for gaming...

However, I will NEVER upgrade 10.5.8 to 10.6.x unless Apple brings back the old exposé. I run a C2D MBP, 2.16ghz CPU, and a 128mb x1600, which I would expect could run the steam games just fine. and by just fine, I mean it would be some really horrid optimization if Portal 2 doesn't work on it.
Click to expand...

Not ideal, but this works to bring the old expose to SL. I love it!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/869611/
 
iMac Specs

System Version: Mac OS X 10.6.3 (10D573

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB


ATI Radeon HD 4670:
Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 4670

Bring us Source!!!!!
 
The first gen unibody MacBook Pro (The one with a removable battery) 2.53 Core 2 Duo, 4 GB DDR3 1600mhz ram, 320GB 7200RPM HDD, 15" Apple screen 1440 by 900.
It has the Nvidia 9400m and the 9600mGT with 512MB ram, Leopard 10.5.8.

But I will be saving hard for the new top end 15" MB Pro core i7, keep 4GB ram but get the high res glossy screen and one of the SSD drives most likely the 512GB one for future proofing size wise. It will be bloody nice to have automatic everything, not have to log out to change graphics.

I have also given up on Crossover games. Too fiddly especially when I have a PS3. So will be looking forward to HL2 and Left4Dead. In fact as I may even get HL1 too as I own that on Steam...
 
I will be using this stock Mac Pro 4,1,
2.93 GHz quad core Xeon
3 GB of memory,
with invidia GT120 graphics card,
OS version 10.5.8
I will be playing as a rank beginner, joining a small group of veteran players to play DoD (original version not Source).
I imagine I will be over-enabled with this machine relative to my abilities to play the game, so I also expect to be overwhelmed for a while anyway - that said, will I see any need to upgrade OSX to version 10.6 any time soon for valve games?
(For the record, I will get to upgrading to 10.6 one of these days regardless.)
 
rbarris said:
I'm curious what Mac hardware specs people are expecting to play Valve / Steam games on as they start to arrive.

If you have a minute, post the specs of the machine you would like to play on?

Good specs include machine model, CPU speed, RAM size, and GPU type. A weakly written spec is something like "I have an iMac." A well written spec is more like "I have a 21" iMac Core 2 Duo 3GHz, 4GB RAM, OSX 10.6.2, with ATI 4670 GPU".

Also, if you are running Leopard (10.5.8), maybe take a moment to indicate how strongly you want to stay on 10.5.8 and avoid the upgrade to improved drivers in 10.6.x.
Click to expand...

I'd say 8600 series GPU and up. C2D and up. 2GB and up (4gb and up pref). Support only Snow Leopard. Backwards compatibility shouldn't have a place in gaming on the Mac side. Mac gamers who never were PC gamers need to learn what it means to be a gamer.. it means system sacrifice and commitment. 😛 (Kidding).
 
So that answers my question about upgrading to OSX 10.6, I will do it right away - buying Snow Leopard from Apple.com site directly. Thanks.
 
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