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Unreal Engine 3 Comes to the Mac Platform

I would just like to chime in here... and just state that there are PLENTY of You Tube videos, and users of Mac Rumors forums that play games happily on Macs.
I know because I have read their comments and seen the videos. Macs CAN game, don't anyone dare state otherwise because it's utter BS if you do.

The only problem with Macs is Steve, he doesn't 'do' games. So neither do you as far as Apple's concerned. Hence why it took Newell so long to get Steam on Mac's.
 
Exhale said:
Slower than a GTX 460 - which is generally considered the 'minimum recommended' on the NVIDIA side for gaming builds. Many considers the 6970m too slow for the monitor it needs to drive.

Not a high end card. Only considered an upper midrange gaming card.
Click to expand...

last year the 5870 was ati's fastest card, until the 5970.

now there are many faster cards, but it can still MAX any game on the market...

which makes it an high-extreme card


just remembered: there was a significant period in time when the 5870, was the fastest available GPU on the planet
 
Mattsasa said:
which makes it an high-extreme card
Click to expand...
No, it just makes it an adequate card for most uses. Its inadequate when you push high resolutions or utilize multi-monitor setups - in which case superior cards are required.
 
Mattsasa said:
I called them high-extreme...

and yes the 6970m IS a high-extreme MOBILE gpu
Click to expand...
Given that Apple has to use mobile GPUs due to the heat constraints of the iMac, choosing the Radeon 6970M was noteworthy since it was ATI's highest end mobile GPU at the time of the iMac's refresh. Previously Apple has stuck with the second highest mobile GPU, such as the Radeon 5850M (relabeled as the Radeon 5750) in the previous iMac. It may not be ideal, but at least Apple appears to be trying now.

The Radeon 6990M was released after than iMac was refreshed and probably couldn't work anyways given it's TDP is 33% higher.
 
Exhale said:
No, it just makes it an adequate card for most uses. Its inadequate when you push high resolutions or utilize multi-monitor setups - in which case superior cards are required.
Click to expand...

sure there are times when it can be inadequate, but same with any other card.

however this card can run any modern video game on the market, including the crytek 3 engine, which is more demanding than the unreal engine 3,

at Full HD, and ultra-detailed textures

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commander.data said:
Given that Apple has to use mobile GPUs due to the heat constraints of the iMac, choosing the Radeon 6970M was noteworthy since it was ATI's highest end mobile GPU at the time of the iMac's refresh. Previously Apple has stuck with the second highest mobile GPU, such as the Radeon 5850M (relabeled as the Radeon 5750) in the previous iMac. It may not be ideal, but at least Apple appears to be trying now.

The Radeon 6990M was released after than iMac was refreshed and probably couldn't work anyways given it's TDP is 33% higher.
Click to expand...

ok, I agree...
 
Mattsasa said:
including the crytek engine
Click to expand...
Not at a consistent 60FPS - commonly a requirement in a shooter. And that is at 1920*1200 resolution. Again, multi monitor or higher resolutions will see this card fall to its knees.

Crytek engine games themselves also haven't been used as the most demanding benchmark for quite some time. Earlier title games are not sufficiently demanding, and the second generation has critical consistency problems.
 
Exhale said:
Not at a consistent 60FPS - commonly a requirement in a shooter. And that is at 1920*1200 resolution. Again, multi monitor or higher resolutions will see this card fall to its knees.

Crytek engine games themselves also haven't been used as the most demanding benchmark for quite some time. Earlier title games are not sufficiently demanding, and the second generation has critical consistency problems.
Click to expand...

Your right,

and when you say multi-monitor are you referring to like Ati eyefinity?

of course a mobile GPU can't do that!


so I maintain that this card is a high-extreme mobile GPU, and the unreal engine 3 will not be wasted on it!
 
A few things:

Most iMacs come with low-end six series mobile GPUs from ATI. They're already obsolete and will struggle with the latest and greatest (aka BF3).

Lastly, I keep hearing "Gears of War". Gears of War 1 was a PC game. The last two Gears of War's are Xbox exclusive. It looks like it's a trilogy and this is the end.

The Unreal 3 Engine powers many great games, some of these include:

Mass Effect Series
Batman Arkham Series
Borderlands
Bioshock Series

This news is big, because it may open the door for more Unreal Engine games in the future.
 
Mattsasa said:
and when you say multi-monitor are you referring to like Ati eyefinity?
Click to expand...
Eyefinity or just plain dual-monitor setups.

Mattsasa said:
of course a mobile GPU can't do that!
Click to expand...
I'm talking about the 5870. The 6970M is incapable of upholding 60FPS in a lot of titles, especially when running at 2560*1440 resolution, which not even the 5870 can deliver satisfactory in many cases.

Mattsasa said:
so I maintain that this card is a high-extreme mobile GPU, and the unreal engine 3 will not be wasted on it!
Click to expand...
The 6970 is an extreme-end Mobile GPU yes. I've not argued otherwise. But considering its mounted in a 'desktop' - e.g. the system is not portable, its use in the iMac it really should be compared to other graphical units that are used in similar environments - namely proper desktop GPUs. In which case its only midrange.
 
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Mattsasa said:
sure there are times when it can be inadequate, but same with any other card.

however this card can run any modern video game on the market, including the crytek 3 engine, which is more demanding than the unreal engine 3,

at Full HD, and ultra-detailed textures

----------



ok, I agree...
Click to expand...
So not at native resolution... What is the point of such an awesome iMac if you can't run games at native resolution (honest question)?

Exhale said:
Not at a consistent 60FPS - commonly a requirement in a shooter. And that is at 1920*1200 resolution. Again, multi monitor or higher resolutions will see this card fall to its knees.

Crytek engine games themselves also haven't been used as the most demanding benchmark for quite some time. Earlier title games are not sufficiently demanding, and the second generation has critical consistency problems.
Click to expand...

Metro 2033 seems to be pretty demanding... From the same guys who created the engine for STALKER...
 
Different form of "Halo effect".
This time developers taking advantage of iOS development and making the stuff available to Mac OS :)

Who would have thought a few years back, eh? Steam, Unreal Engine.. all coming to the Mac :cool:
 
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Exhale said:
Eyefinity or just plain dual-monitor setups.


I'm talking about the 5870. The 6970M is incapable of upholding 60FPS in a lot of titles, especially when running at 2560*1440 resolution, which not even the 5870 can deliver satisfactory in many cases.


The 6970 is an extreme-end Mobile GPU yes. I've not argued otherwise. But considering its mounted in a 'desktop' - e.g. the system is not portable, its use in the iMac it really should be compared to other graphical units that are used in similar environments - namely proper desktop GPUs. In which case its only midrange.
Click to expand...

I agree.
I was comparing the iMac to other all-in-ones or laptops.

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Exhale said:
Which means either running in a Windows - or having to employ scaling which is a MASSIVE quality drop.
Click to expand...

doesn't safari, final cut, iLife, all those apps run naively in 2560x1400?
 
bboucher790 said:
A few things:

Most iMacs come with low-end six series mobile GPUs from ATI. They're already obsolete and will struggle with the latest and greatest (aka BF3).

Lastly, I keep hearing "Gears of War". Gears of War 1 was a PC game. The last two Gears of War's are Xbox exclusive. It looks like it's a trilogy and this is the end.

The Unreal 3 Engine powers many great games, some of these include:

Mass Effect Series
Batman Arkham Series
Borderlands
Bioshock Series

This news is big, because it may open the door for more Unreal Engine games in the future.
Click to expand...
The problem is that all these games are established series that were first developed using much older versions of UE3. UE3 is then customized by each developer for their needs. Subsequent sequels are generally developed by improving upon their existing fork rather than starting again from the latest version of UE3. This is true for the Bioshock series in particular where the developers like to ripe out and rewrite large portions of the engine. The latest UE3 engine build being compatible with OS X won't likely be a big help for bringing any existing game or game currently in development to Mac. This will still require old fashioned porting.

The hope is that new games will be built from scratch on this latest UE3 engine build. But that still requires that developers not make big customizations to the engine that break OS X compatibility or that they are familiar enough with consoles, Windows, OS X, and UE3 such that any changes are in sync across platforms, which not many people have that much experience.
 
Exhale said:
The 6970 is an extreme-end Mobile GPU yes. I've not argued otherwise. But considering its mounted in a 'desktop' - e.g. the system is not portable, its use in the iMac it really should be compared to other graphical units that are used in similar environments - namely proper desktop GPUs. In which case its only midrange.
Click to expand...
Seeing that many PC OEMs like HP and Dell offer all-in-ones now, it's best to compare against all-in-ones. I'm haven't checked the newest models from them, but I doubt the 6970M puts the iMac far behind. Comparing an iMac against desktops in general is pretty broad since a full tower with a 1000W+ power supply can obviously handle a more powerful GPU or even multiple GPUs.
 
Mattsasa said:
no! it means that you would run your games in lower resolution, and lower textures!
Click to expand...
Which as I said before. Lower resolution means you either have to run the game in a Window - not taking up the full monitor (Or large black borders - depending on preference), or you have to run it through a rescaler - which is the single biggest quality drop you can pretty much perform.
 
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