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Is a Mac better than PC for Heavy High End Gaming?
- Thread starter Firebolt059
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No. PCs can be configured with replaceable high-end video cards. Macs are very limited in that respect.
You got that right! they have like no customization at all for video cards! the cards the "so called best Mac ever" has are very, very outdated and bad compared to PCs
No. Most games are made for Windows or game consoles anyway, and PCs offer better upgradeability when it comes to CPU, RAM, HDD, graphics card.
Pretty much what others have said. Apple does not prioritize GPU performance for gaming and only a certain proportion of games are ported to the Mac.
It's much better now than it was 10 years ago, but if you are an Uber-l33t gamer then you must go with the PC and Windows. And make sure you get the one that comes in a case shaped like a Transformer head.
It's much better now than it was 10 years ago, but if you are an Uber-l33t gamer then you must go with the PC and Windows. And make sure you get the one that comes in a case shaped like a Transformer head.
I wouldn't go that far. They are generally one generation older. For aesthetic reasons, they often use mobile variants of video cards which themselves tend to be a few months behind the desktop PC versions.
you answered your own question. Macs can certainly play games, even new ones but afar superior PC can be made for much less.
I've played both. After custom-building my own PC and using it for games, I have no idea why I put up with games on my Mac for so long.
Don't Do It!
Just buy a Mac and if you want to play games, get a Playstation, Wii, xBox or whatever.
Modern Macs don't do terrible at playing most "reasonable" games. They do as well or better than most "normal" un-modified store bought PCs.
The big issue is finding high-end video games written for Mac OS!
Building a "Custom high-end Gaming PC" isn't going to be a lot less than any Mac I can think of....
Don't those usually have Quad-Core i7 CPUs, OC-inspired motherboards, Kilowatt Power Supplies, multiple real expensive video cards, 10,000rpm or solid-state Hard Drives, gobs of memory and of course a case shaped like a Transformer's head? Oh and blue lights. Lots of blue lights.
Seems to me I could almost buy a nice Octo Mac Pro for the cost of all that junk. A new Mac, even a Mini will probably hold its value better than a PC too.
Have Fun!
Keri
PS. Try Machinarium!
C&C Red Alert 3 works pretty good too. (on a Mac Pro, that is) Well, I think it does. It seems to beat me very smoothly.
(added) PPS. I don't intend to imply that a dedicated Gaming PC is a bad thing. That's the way to go for serious Gamers.... for now.
Just buy a Mac and if you want to play games, get a Playstation, Wii, xBox or whatever.
Modern Macs don't do terrible at playing most "reasonable" games. They do as well or better than most "normal" un-modified store bought PCs.
The big issue is finding high-end video games written for Mac OS!
Building a "Custom high-end Gaming PC" isn't going to be a lot less than any Mac I can think of....
Don't those usually have Quad-Core i7 CPUs, OC-inspired motherboards, Kilowatt Power Supplies, multiple real expensive video cards, 10,000rpm or solid-state Hard Drives, gobs of memory and of course a case shaped like a Transformer's head? Oh and blue lights.
Lots of blue lights.Seems to me I could almost buy a nice Octo Mac Pro for the cost of all that junk. A new Mac, even a Mini will probably hold its value better than a PC too.
Have Fun!
Keri
PS. Try Machinarium!
C&C Red Alert 3 works pretty good too. (on a Mac Pro, that is) Well, I think it does. It seems to beat me very smoothly.
(added) PPS. I don't intend to imply that a dedicated Gaming PC is a bad thing. That's the way to go for serious Gamers.... for now.
It is for me, because I prefer the Mac OS. So I play what games I can and the rest can go rot as far as I'm concerned.
This discussion has been done to death since (I suspect) before you were a teenager...the bottom line is that the Windows platform is the market leader in computer games.
Mac better for gaming? Well.... maybe ......
Honestly, the single biggest reason I might give why a Mac would be better than a Windows PC for gaming is - the games usually run with a little less hassle.
On a Windows box, you're going to run into a lot of little things, like a game having graphics glitches that only get fixed when you get the latest ATI or nVidia video driver, version x.x.x.xxx -- and those drivers seem like they get updated on practically a monthly basis for their newer cards. Or alternately, you may run into sound driver issues. I remember having some integrated audio chipsets on Windows PCs before where the original manufacturer quit offering any newer drivers - yet games needed something a lot newer to do their surround sound audio correctly and everything. It took a LOT of messing around and trial/error to find one that worked right on them.
You also have a lot of issues when you want to play older titles on a newer PC. (EG. Windows XP and Windows 2000 allowed programs to write settings pretty much anywhere they wanted, at least as long as you were running them as a user with "administrator" privileges on the PC -- which 99% of people did. When they came out with Vista, and now Windows 7, they tightened up a lot of things. Applications have some spots that are simply "off limits" to change now, and they can't save their configuration files inside some of the operating system directories anymore. This means you'll have some older titles that crash or refuse to even start up on newer systems.)
But that aside, there's honestly no reason a Mac would make a "better" gaming machine than a comparably equipped Windows PC. They both use the same processors from Intel, typically, and have the same hard drives and basic motherboard chipset designs. As others said too, you can get higher-end video cards for a Windows PC than anything Apple will offer you for a given Mac (though really, the Mac video options aren't nearly as "weak" as some may claim).
Honestly, the single biggest reason I might give why a Mac would be better than a Windows PC for gaming is - the games usually run with a little less hassle.
On a Windows box, you're going to run into a lot of little things, like a game having graphics glitches that only get fixed when you get the latest ATI or nVidia video driver, version x.x.x.xxx -- and those drivers seem like they get updated on practically a monthly basis for their newer cards. Or alternately, you may run into sound driver issues. I remember having some integrated audio chipsets on Windows PCs before where the original manufacturer quit offering any newer drivers - yet games needed something a lot newer to do their surround sound audio correctly and everything. It took a LOT of messing around and trial/error to find one that worked right on them.
You also have a lot of issues when you want to play older titles on a newer PC. (EG. Windows XP and Windows 2000 allowed programs to write settings pretty much anywhere they wanted, at least as long as you were running them as a user with "administrator" privileges on the PC -- which 99% of people did. When they came out with Vista, and now Windows 7, they tightened up a lot of things. Applications have some spots that are simply "off limits" to change now, and they can't save their configuration files inside some of the operating system directories anymore. This means you'll have some older titles that crash or refuse to even start up on newer systems.)
But that aside, there's honestly no reason a Mac would make a "better" gaming machine than a comparably equipped Windows PC. They both use the same processors from Intel, typically, and have the same hard drives and basic motherboard chipset designs. As others said too, you can get higher-end video cards for a Windows PC than anything Apple will offer you for a given Mac (though really, the Mac video options aren't nearly as "weak" as some may claim).
This is a troll thread. This is not an opportunity for you to post your exhaustive knowledge about mac vs pc or games or anything.
I repeat: This is a troll thread.
I repeat: This is a troll thread.
As everyone has already said, Macs aren't built with Gaming in mind, they're used largely for design and movie editing etc.
You must have already known this answer, and just looking for an argument, as you agreed straight away, like you already knew the answer right at the start.
You must have already known this answer, and just looking for an argument, as you agreed straight away, like you already knew the answer right at the start.
Firebolt059 said:
For the best Bluescreen Experience you have to buy a PC. I love these Threads.
![wohlfuehlgewicht_gewichthalten_essen_aus_langeweile_content1.jpg]()
In the words of Harry Hill 'So which is it to be? The Mac or the PC? There's only one way to settle this. FIIIIIIIIIGGGHT!
Think I might write to the producers on that one. :-D
Self Build a gaming PC.
Much, mcuh better value for money than any Mac.
If Steve played games then maybe it would be different, Bill's not a a gamer either - but at least he realised there was big money in gaming.
Much, mcuh better value for money than any Mac.
If Steve played games then maybe it would be different, Bill's not a a gamer either - but at least he realised there was big money in gaming.
Hmmm, both phenomenally influential, phenomenally rich and they don't spend their lives playing games. Sounds like I'll be better off without games.
When the Powermac G5 came out, I got the beefiest graphics card and got Mac versions of some of my games I had played using my PC. The PC had a good graphics card in it's day but it was 3 years older. The PowerMac G5 pwnd my PC. I even loaded my Virtual PC images to a ram disk for Windows 98 and was able to run traditional Windows software fast enough to get rid of the PC.
I realize the Mac gaming scene is pointless after what EA did from the developers conference and promised Mac games and ended up with a few cider ports that were buggy and just died out. A PC could just be thought as another accessory for the Mac dedicated for gaming and you can use your Mac for productivity.
Well actually i am. I just want to see other people's thoughts. i dont know anyone with a Mac so...
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