nMP Gaming?

[xcharlesy]

I have been doing a lot of reading in this section lately, and I seem quite a few people mention gaming.

I know for myself it's an obvious decision that I would rather be able to play games on my nMP then have to buy another new computer for gaming..

So I'd like to know just how capable you guys think they will be?

I have used a MSI 770, i7 4770, for a brief while, and I'm curious if it will be so far off of that? or close? or what?

I know at this point its all speculation, and I'm not looking to break records.. just looking to play Blizzard / the new Final Fantasy game on high settings...

I'll be buying a nMP for other work, but can't quite tailor what I think I need in the GPU department..

 

[DanielCoffey]

If you wait a few weeks till they are released, they will be reviewed and benchmarked.

 

[Tanax]

Drivers won't really be optimised for gaming I'd guess so that would be an issue. Nor would Crossfire work in OS X so you'd have to Bootcamp to get that working if I'm not mistaken.

 

[kaellar]

1. For serious gaming, Bootcamp is still the only way to go, and it won't change in near future. So the lack of CF support by OS X is not the case.
2. Workstation cards ARE capable of gaming, there's mostly nothing wrong with their drivers. They might perform a bit worse (up to 10%) than their "Gaming" analogs, but nothing to start crying about.

However, buying the machine with workstation cards for gaming is beyond logical. For 3000$+ I'd rather build the PC which would be at least twice as fast in gaming, and played arround with Hackintosh, if OS X is the necessity.

p.s. As many others said before me, I wish they'd offer the nMP with gaming GPUs as an option, which alone would cut the cost by 1000$ if not more.

 

[Gav Mack]

Wait for anandtech etc to produce detailed benchmarks of the different gpu options. FirePro cards are not optimised for gaming but you will get a clearer idea when the different options are fully tested.

I wager that they'll be teething problems with the bootcamp drivers at first as this is the most a radically different bit of kit hardware wise since they went intel and bootcamp. My first two nMP customers are bootcamp installs - wish me luck

 

[N19h7m4r3]

Wait for anandtech etc to produce detailed benchmarks of the different gpu options. FirePro cards are not optimised for gaming but you will get a clearer idea when the different options are fully tested.

I wager that they'll be teething problems with the bootcamp drivers at first as this is the most a radically different bit of kit hardware wise since they went intel and bootcamp. My first two nMP customers are bootcamp installs - wish me luck

Not to mention teething issues with brand new first gen design. I'm looking forward to the detailed reviews and benchmarks though.

Even then I'll probably end up waiting for the second ten version, or just go for a mackintosh( when we finally get Ivy-EP, or haswell-EP compatibility).

 

[Gav Mack]

Not to mention teething issues with brand new first gen design. I'm looking forward to the detailed reviews and benchmarks though.

Even then I'll probably end up waiting for the second ten version, or just go for a mackintosh( when we finally get Ivy-EP, or haswell-EP compatibility).

There's bound to be a few updates to get it right no doubt. A couple of EFI I bet!


As for me I'll grab a used 5,1 & twin hex it before I get a black can - unless I win the lottery!

 

[N19h7m4r3]

There's bound to be a few updates to get it right no doubt. A couple of EFI I bet!


As for me I'll grab a used 5,1 & twin hex it before I get a black can - unless I win the lottery!

I'm still super happy with single hex. Kinda wish I got the dual hex back when I was getting this MP. Could have upgraded the CPU's, and not have to worry about anything except GPU and storage.

Kinda hoping the AMD R9 series gets some drivers soon, as one of those will be a nice upgrade over my OpenCL weak sauce GTX660.

 

[VirtualRain]

Heres a comparison of the nMP GPUs with relevant shipping parts so you can get a good feel for how each of these GPUs will perform by examining comparable benchmarks and adjusting for the lower clocks.

 

[xcharlesy]

So with that said,

Would it be a better idea for me to customize and do a current gen mac pro? I have no idea the pricing / system options, from what I see you guys talk about here..

But if I could get the desired gaming performance from running a beefy vid card that might be good?

 

[VirtualRain]

So with that said,

Would it be a better idea for me to customize and do a current gen mac pro? I have no idea the pricing / system options, from what I see you guys talk about here..

But if I could get the desired gaming performance from running a beefy vid card that might be good?

If you're buying a nMP for other work anyway, why not see what it can do first? Or are you now questioning buying a nMP in the first place?

You really need to decided what your priorities are. If PC gaming is your top priority (and switching to a console is out of the question), and you want to be able to run future games at top settings (which will require the best GPU of the day) now and into the future, the nMP is a poor choice since you can't upgrade the GPUs. It will still work as a gaming rig, but it's useful lifespan will be shortened... It will get expensive as you'll want or need the latest Mac Pro with the latest GPUs every time Apple refreshes it.

A better choice is a dedicated gaming PC (although a console is 80% as good for a fraction of the price). Sure, the existing Mac Pro with a nice GPU can offer double duty for now, but it's really just delaying the inevitable... in a few years, most existing Mac Pros will be getting long in the tooth and you'll be back here asking the same question.

 

[davidb367]

What he said ^^^^^

I tried to combine a MacPro 1,1 into both a gaming and production machine when they fist were introduced. It did not work well as I thought it would.

1. Mac graphics cards were twice as expensive and not cutting edge.
2. There was not fan support in Windows for the fan controllers. The MacPro would shutdown because of the graphics card overheating.
3. Bootcamp was not optimal and tied to the same drive. Lose the drive, lose everything. I had to get a dedicated drive for Windows. Worked better, but still had issues with overheating.
4. The graphics card would last about 2 to 3 years before needing to be replaced for serious gaming (FPS shooters were bad and then the new Blizzard games really taxed the system.)
5. Windows installations wear out much faster than OS X. I had to reinstall Windows every year or so. Bootcamp can make this much more difficult.

I built a dedicated gaming PC for just under $500.00 with a mid tier cutting edge gaming card and 10 GB of RAM. I did have some of the other parts like PS, case, and drives. The gaming rig is still capable but starting to show the need for a new card.

A nMP may have an effective gaming life of about 3 years before becoming unplayable with bleeding edge games. Do yourself a favor and build a gaming rig.

 

[FrHa]

The big advantage of having the new Mac Pro as a gaming rig is that added money spent on it will contribute to the speed of it on OS X as well as Windows. For example if I had $5000 and decided to spend $3000 on the Mac Pro and $2000 on a gaming rig whilst latter may play games better it wouldn't contribute anything to the Mac Pro. Now say I spent the whole $5000 on a Mac Pro whilst it may not be able to play games quite as well as the $2000 gaming PC it would at least add speed to the OS X setup, making it more efficient financially speaking.

This is coming from someone who has a 27" iMac 2010 at full spec and a gaming PC (using iMac display). It's a good setup but having to maintain both computers and have two keyboards, two mice, etc. is somewhat messy and cumbersome. That's why I'm soon selling both and going for a maxed out Mac Pro. It'll be interesting to see how it goes

Probably best to wait a while and see the feedback. I'll be getting mine in May if all is well

 

[VirtualRain]

The big advantage of having the new Mac Pro as a gaming rig is that added money spent on it will contribute to the speed of it on OS X as well as Windows. For example if I had $5000 and decided to spend $3000 on the Mac Pro and $2000 on a gaming rig whilst latter may play games better it wouldn't contribute anything to the Mac Pro. Now say I spent the whole $5000 on a Mac Pro whilst it may not be able to play games quite as well as the $2000 gaming PC it would at least add speed to the OS X setup, making it more efficient financially speaking.

This is coming from someone who has a 27" iMac 2010 at full spec and a gaming PC (using iMac display). It's a good setup but having to maintain both computers and have two keyboards, two mice, etc. is somewhat messy and cumbersome. That's why I'm soon selling both and going for a maxed out Mac Pro. It'll be interesting to see how it goes

Probably best to wait a while and see the feedback. I'll be getting mine in May if all is well

Yeah, true enough, but another way to look at it, is that you can probably spend more like $1000 on a decent DIY gaming PC and then $500 every two years on the latest GPU to keep it at the top of its game.

vs. $4000-5000 on a well-equipped nMP with GPUs that are going to be out of date in two years. Unless you can afford $4-$5K every two years on a new Mac Pro, it means the gaming for the latter half of a 4-5 year ownership cycle on that Mac Pro is going to suck.

EDIT: In my case, I just got tired of this expensive cycle with gaming and went console. As I said above, it's at least 80% as good as a gaming PC for less than the cost of a GPU and lasts 7 years.

 

[FrHa]

Yeah, true enough, but another way to look at it, is that you can probably spend more like $1000 on a decent DIY gaming PC and then $500 every two years on the latest GPU to keep it at the top of its game.

vs. $4000-5000 on a well-equipped nMP with GPUs that are going to be out of date in two years. Unless you can afford $4-$5K every two years on a new Mac Pro, it means the gaming for the latter half of a 4-5 year ownership cycle on that Mac Pro is going to suck.

EDIT: In my case, I just got tired of this expensive cycle with gaming and went console. As I said above, it's at least 80% as good as a gaming PC for less than the cost of a GPU.

Yes very true indeed! Perhaps the OP could use the new Mac Pro as his gaming rig for the next year or two and then get a gaming PC then when the Mac Pro is out of date

I have a GTX 680 in my gaming PC at the moment. I wonder how two D700s will compare? I read somewhere that under Bootcamp only one D700 maybe enabled. Hopefully that's not the case

Only reason I don't go console is because I have an RC simulator called RealFlight I need to practice on as I'm a professional aerobatic RC pilot Would like to go console if I could however!

 

[VirtualRain]

Yes very true indeed! Perhaps the OP could use the new Mac Pro as his gaming rig for the next year or two and then get a gaming PC then when the Mac Pro is out of date

That's certainly another option.

I have a GTX 680 in my gaming PC at the moment. I wonder how two D700s will compare? I read somewhere that under Bootcamp only one D700 maybe enabled. Hopefully that's not the case

The D700 is comparable to a 7970 so you can probably find benchmarks that help you compare to the 680. And no one knows yet whether the dual GPUs in the nMP will support CrossFire or not in Windows. The reading I've done seems to indicate it should (unless Apple's implementation does something specifically to bork it)... of course the nMP won't have a Xfire bridge but the only reason that was required previously was because the PCIe 2.0 bus didn't have the added bandwidth which shouldn't be an issue thanks to PCIe 3.0 having double the bandwidth.

 

[FrHa]

That's certainly another option.



The D700 is comparable to a 7970 so you can probably find benchmarks that help you compare to the 680. And no one knows yet whether the dual GPUs in the nMP will support CrossFire or not in Windows. The reading I've done seems to indicate it should (unless Apple's implementation does something specifically to bork it)... of course the nMP won't have a Xfire bridge but the only reason that was required previously was because the PCIe 2.0 bus didn't have the added bandwidth which shouldn't be an issue thanks to PCIe 3.0 having double the bandwidth.

Okay many thanks! According to benchmarks the 7970 is a smidgen more powerful than a GTX 680, so I guess having two 7970 (two D700) will make this way more powerful than my current setup!

 

[Hunden]

I think the nMP will do just fine when it comes to gaming. If you got the money, and are willing to pay $3000+, that is.
And if crossfire is supported in bootcamp, that would be great.

 

[Bones13]

NMP for the man cave.

My plan to replace my 3,1. I do light gaming (MMOs), some Photoshop with Lightroom, as well as general stuff.

BTO quad core with D700 upgrade. Leave memory and SSD as is. Without a real 'Pro' app to run multi threaded, clock speed will matter more. $1K will buy either the hex core upgrade with D500s, or D700s.

Upgrade memory if/when needed.
Outboard SSD for bootcamp, add second Inboard SSD when available/ needed.

I already have a NAS and display port Cinema Display.

 

[cirus]

Heres a comparison of the nMP GPUs with relevant shipping parts so you can get a good feel for how each of these GPUs will perform by examining comparable benchmarks and adjusting for the lower clocks.

Image

Clocks for the R9 280X are ~ 1 Ghz.