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Install WoW on Mac or bootcamped Windows 7?
- Thread starter Kuski
- Start date
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I know, it's almost too good to be true 
There are some issues with mac wow, though. For example, my expose keybindings had a 50% chance of being gone after playing wow, and you can't use the CMD-key in keybindings in wow.
Of course, this was a year or two ago when I played.
There are some issues with mac wow, though. For example, my expose keybindings had a 50% chance of being gone after playing wow, and you can't use the CMD-key in keybindings in wow.
Of course, this was a year or two ago when I played.
The Mac installation has some extra nice feature of in-game video recording as well.
It's a good install. I quit playing a while back and even then it was good. They really take good care of their Mac community.
It's a good install. I quit playing a while back and even then it was good. They really take good care of their Mac community.
Yup, Blizzard is the single best dual-platform developer, and has been for years. Combine that with their hybrid installation media, and they've got a big fan from me, and I don't even play WoW anymore!
Go with the OSX install.
+1
Another thing to remember, is WoW or any of the "Warcraft" games that have Apple OS installs are not 'wrapped' their data code is sorta platform independent but the exe's/apps are specific. They literally do write separate apps for Windows and Apple OS's.
So there's no fear of CIDER lag issues or any other 'wrapper' created issues.
In terms of FPS, if you are using an ATI card, go with the mac install since ATI drivers are good enough on mac os to compete with Win7. I on the other hand have a GTX285 and the fps of WOW on Win7 is much better than on OS X. So if you care a lot about fps go with Win. Then again, it looks like the next WOW patch will speed fps a lot on the mac side since they are updating the opengl backend.
Well it's not that simple. Wow's graphics engine went through tons of changes since the launch so it's much more demanding nowadays which actually cripple the fastest pc's.
Yeah, it's so demanding that tens of millions of people have the fastest PC's to play it on. Blizzard made sure that it's highly scalable, and even at the highest settings it's relatively easy on the GPU. Some guy posted a video on his 27" C2D iMac, at max settings at native resolution and runs at 60 fps in most areas.
I know, it's almost too good to be true
There are some issues with mac wow, though. For example, my expose keybindings had a 50% chance of being gone after playing wow, and you can't use the CMD-key in keybindings in wow.
Of course, this was a year or two ago when I played.
Concerning cmd keys and the like.
Like with the mouse, the first thing you do with any mac is get a real keyboard.
I quit playing about a month ago. My mac is a MBP with an x1600, obviously your video card is much faster, but this is what I noticed:
On Windows, WoW runs much smoother, and starts up faster. My mbp also runs cooler when playing WoW in Windows. But also, the Windows mouse drivers weren't as refined as they are in OS X, so Apple, by way of crappy Windows drivers, forced me to play in OS X whenever I didn't have an external mouse lying around. It runs OK in OS X, but it was definitely optimized for Windows.
On Windows, WoW runs much smoother, and starts up faster. My mbp also runs cooler when playing WoW in Windows. But also, the Windows mouse drivers weren't as refined as they are in OS X, so Apple, by way of crappy Windows drivers, forced me to play in OS X whenever I didn't have an external mouse lying around. It runs OK in OS X, but it was definitely optimized for Windows.
Most areas is the key there. I run a octo 3.2 with GTX 285, and under massive action I get a steady "15" fps in wow. It's easy on GPU all right, but the game becomes CPU bound under action. And gets quite slow.
Again, depends on your video card. I have a 4870 and a 285. With 4870 the performance on OS X is actually slightly better than windows. With GTX, windows wins by a long shot.
