video games on Mac OS X or BootCamp (Windows 7)

[Maxi86]

I know this might be a bit silly, but I was wondering the following...
what's better: Mac version of a Windows game or using BootCamp with (original) Windows game?

are the 2 versions always the same? is the Mac version an exact copy/port? does it have the same content? or perhaps even more, since it's released later on?
and if both games are exactly the same... would the Mac version run smoother than using BootCamp for Windows version?

I'm console gamer guy, that's why all these questions are new to me...

the games I'm most interested regarding this thread are:
- Civilization V (will there be a Mac version?)
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2
- Plants vz. Zombies
- Osmos
- Braid
- Portal

 

[InfoSecmgr]

I know this might be a bit silly, but I was wondering the following...
what's better: Mac version of a Windows game or using BootCamp with (original) Windows game?

are the 2 versions always the same? is the Mac version an exact copy/port? does it have the same content? or perhaps even more, since it's released later on?
and if both games are exactly the same... would the Mac version run smoother than using BootCamp for Windows version?

I'm console gamer guy, that's why all these questions are new to me...

the games I'm most interested regarding this thread are:
- Civilization V (will there be a Mac version?)
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2
- Plants vz. Zombies
- Osmos
- Braid
- Portal

1) If you a console gamer, stick to it

2) If you are bound and determined to play those games on a computer, build a PC for it

3) If you are bound and determined to play them on a Mac, use Bootcamp

4) I speak from experience

 

[vistadude]

Gaming will be better through windows but you imac is light years behind PC's from several years ago. Consoles will be far better than your mac. If you want a good gaming computer, you need a pc and a good graphics card, not a low power/efficient computer.

 

[Maxi86]

@InfoSecmgr
I've been playing video games on console for more than a decade... but some genres like strategy are better fitted for PC, hence Civ V.
and I think first person shooters are more accurate and therefore wanna try Modern Warfare on Mac/PC.

about the other smaller games, I used to play them a lot on my iPad for pick up & play... so wanted them just for now and then.

btw I know on Windows it's possible to use your Xbox controller right? does the same go for Windows on BootCamp? what about using it on a Mac?

 

[Maxi86]

@vistadude
light years in terms of what? of course there are less consumers using a Mac, so therefore all the games come to Windows first. but the best ones get ported right? the question how long does that process take? a few months I suppose...

and is the graphics card on my iMac (please see my signature) not good enough for playing the abovementioned games?

 

[InfoSecmgr]

@InfoSecmgr
I've been playing video games on console for more than a decade... but some genres like strategy are better fitted for PC, hence Civ V.
and I think first person shooters are more accurate and therefore wanna try Modern Warfare on Mac/PC.

about the other smaller games, I used to play them a lot on my iPad for pick up & play... so wanted them just for now and then.

btw I know on Windows it's possible to use your Xbox controller right? does the same go for Windows on BootCamp? what about using it on a Mac?

I completely agree, however my response was more in the context of "if it ain't broke..".

 

[Maxi86]

"if it ain't broke..".

I'm not trying to fix it
I just wanna experience video games on PC/Mac... especially Civ V...
and I just bought my new iMac, not in the least for this purpose, but I suppose it's a nice little extra...

btw I'm getting a Kanex HD (HDMI to mini-displayport adapter) to connect my PS3/Xbox 360 to my iMac. I guess I'm so used to playing on consoles, I still can't let it go

 

[InfoSecmgr]

I'm not trying to fix it
I just wanna experience video games on PC/Mac... especially Civ V...
and I just bought my new iMac, not in the least for this purpose, but I suppose it's a nice little extra...

btw I'm getting a Kanex HD (HDMI to mini-displayport adapter) to connect my PS3/Xbox 360 to my iMac. I guess I'm so used to playing on consoles, I still can't let it go

I understand. Here is my condensed story with Mac games...

I started with a Macintosh IIci running A-10 Attack! (yes, the ! is part of the title ).

I moved on to a 6100/60AV to run the same game and other dinky shareware games

I then had a Performa something or other

Then a beige G3 desktop, it ran everything great

Then a graphite G4 tower, awesome machine

Then...a dark period of PC's. My father would bring home older computers from his workplace for us to use at home, that is why I had to take what I could get.

After that I was fed up and bought my "first" Mac (that I owned). It was a G5/1.6Ghz. I played UT2004 on it and GL-Quake. Awesome! But I hungered for MORE performance...

I then bought a 2007 20 inch iMac 2.4GHz machine. WOW did UT2004 ever run FAST! Then...UT3 came out...

The iMac ran UT3 okay at medium settings, but as usual I wanted more performance...

I built a PC ...upgrade.....upgrade....upgrade....lots of money spent....


In retrospect I wish I would have just stuck with the darned G5. I'm now heading into a Ph.D program and do not really have the time for games.

I now have a 17 inch MBP (2010). It is NOT good at running modern games (330m GPU), but I still have my PC I suppose.

 

[Maxi86]

@InfoSecmgr
interesting story, but like I said I played on console for the last decade...
so all the tech stuff is almost abracadabra to me...
but could you please your experience in the field of gaming on a Mac vs a PC to answer some of my questions in the first post?

 

[InfoSecmgr]

@InfoSecmgr
interesting story, but like I said I played on console for the last decade...
so all the tech stuff is not almost abracadabra to me...
but could you please your experience in the field of gaming on a Mac vs a PC to answer some of my questions in the first post?

Sure! In my experience, higher end games run better on Windows than on Mac. List all the reasons anyone wants, but this is what I have found. If you can spare ~$500 for PC hardware, you'll get a much better gaming experience.

 

[Maxi86]

what's better: Mac version of a Windows game or using BootCamp with (original) Windows game?

and what about running the same game on an iMac?
would it really matter whether for example you play Modern Warfare 2 for Mac... or Modern Warfare 2 for Windows on BootCamp?

PS: I already spent $2.500 of my hard earned cash to get my iMac, so won't be wasting any more for a PC just for gaming...

 

[InfoSecmgr]

and what about running the same game on an iMac?
would it really matter whether for example you play Modern Warfare 2 for Mac... or Modern Warfare 2 for Windows on BootCamp?

PS: I already spent $2.500 of my hard earned cash to get my iMac, so won't be wasting any more for a PC just for gaming...

The problem is these games aren't really the same. Generally they are ports, not written just for OS X. I'm not a game expert, and I don't know the ins and outs, but I've read other posts out there regarding this and supposedly a lot of these windows games are "cider" ports. They don't run as fast and lots of people report bugginess (BF2142 for Mac style, wow that was a shoddy piece of code).

I would stick with using bootcamp. That is what I did on my iMac (when I had it) and things worked out quite well.

 

[aki]

Depends on the game (how new, how demanding), the port (native, cider), and your hardware (hiend iMac/Mac pro, MBP, Macbook/mini).

As a general rule, games run better under Windows. (Although, now that iMacs have passable video cards, and we have Graphics Update 1.1 (I think it was), the gap is closing a little.)

Some of the games you mention though are either old or not at all demanding eg. Plants v Zombies and Portal will run the same on anything.

You really only need to think about bootcamp options for newer more demanding software. At that point it's a tradeoff between performance (are you a sucker for the frame rates and the graphical flash?) and convenience (how much do you dislike reboots/Windows-wrestling?).

There's not a general answer.

If you are a "gamer", though, you should have bootcamp set up. My 2c.

 

[dalurkersteve]

"btw I know on Windows it's possible to use your Xbox controller right? does the same go for Windows on BootCamp? what about using it on a Mac?"

yep, you need to buy a wireless transmitter though for windows and that works through bootcamp as well. Rule of thumb is boot camp is identical to running windows on pc in almost every way. Of course there are differences in hardware among various computers but boot camp is running pc on mac hardware. As far as gaming goes almost every game I've ever played on the pc runs anywhere from slightly to drastically better on the pc side due to more up to date graphics card drivers and directx etc... If you want to game on your mac bootcamp is the way to go. And to those that look down on imacs for gaming I can run any game I want to on maxed out settings so pc gamers may have better hardware but macs (even imacs and laptops) can run games.

 

[InfoSecmgr]

"btw I know on Windows it's possible to use your Xbox controller right? does the same go for Windows on BootCamp? what about using it on a Mac?"

yep, you need to buy a wireless transmitter though for windows and that works through bootcamp as well. Rule of thumb is boot camp is identical to running windows on pc in almost every way. Of course there are differences in hardware among various computers but boot camp is running pc on mac hardware. As far as gaming goes almost every game I've ever played on the pc runs anywhere from slightly to drastically better on the pc side due to more up to date graphics card drivers and directx etc... If you want to game on your mac bootcamp is the way to go. And to those that look down on imacs for gaming I can run any game I want to on maxed out settings so pc gamers may have better hardware but macs (even imacs and laptops) can run games.

Yeah, this pretty much sums it up. I have to say though, I am quite disappointed with the gaming performance of my MBP (330m) under Windows 7, but hey it's a laptop. I shouldn't expect much gaming performance out of it.

My old iMac with the 2600HD in it ran games far better.

 

[vistadude]

Maxi,

That graphics chip was released about 1 year ago, and it was quite slow back then, only obtaining about 40 frames per second on GTA IV, which itself is 2 years ago.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446-13.html

CoD modern warfare 2 is much newer and needs a much better graphics card for good performance. And I assume you're going to want to buy new games too. Additionally, the imac's have poor sound cards, a poor mouse, and a poor keyboard for gaming. You're going to require a large investment in order to play games with a good experience. A gaming pc, unlike a console, pretty much requires 8 gb ram or greater, and dual graphics cards, ughh, ugly as heck, but necessary for good performance. Check out the recent graphics cards on newegg, they all require dual slots or dual cards.

@vistadude
light years in terms of what? of course there are less consumers using a Mac, so therefore all the games come to Windows first. but the best ones get ported right? the question how long does that process take? a few months I suppose...

and is the graphics card on my iMac (please see my signature) not good enough for playing the abovementioned games?

 

[InfoSecmgr]

Maxi,

That graphics chip was released about 1 year ago, and it was quite slow back then, only obtaining about 40 frames per second on GTA IV, which itself is 2 years ago.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446-13.html

CoD modern warfare 2 is much newer and needs a much better graphics card for good performance. And I assume you're going to want to buy new games too. Additionally, the imac's have poor sound cards, a poor mouse, and a poor keyboard for gaming. You're going to require a large investment in order to play games with a good experience. A gaming pc, unlike a console, pretty much requires 8 gb ram or greater, and dual graphics cards, ughh, ugly as heck, but necessary for good performance. Check out the recent graphics cards on newegg, they all require dual slots or dual cards.

Well, a graphics card never REQUIRES dual cards (double height yes for the higher end cards that is true, but that has nothing to do with dual PCI-E slots). Most new cards support two or three card configurations if you have a motherboard that can handle it. A gaming machine doesn't require dual cards (or more) as well. It simply increases performance, but the cost for the additional cards negates the performance in most cases. Unless you have lots of cash to throw away that is. As far as poor sound cards...eh, not sure about that one. Maybe get a good set of external speakers, but the sound has never been an issue. Integrated sound is just as good as most dedicated sound cards these days (is 5.1 surround not enough??). Plus most gamers use headphone/mic combos anyway.

Edit: I agree with the 8GB of RAM part, though.

And as far as a "large investment" goes, not sure about that either. If you want to get a new keyboard and mouse that is maybe $100 for a good set.

 

[vistadude]

I meant speakers, not sound card. He needs to hear where he's being sniped from! I also think the imac screen is not very good because the height is not very convenient for gaming. It'll work, but just isn't very comfortable.

Well, a graphics card never REQUIRES dual cards (double height yes for the higher end cards that is true, but that has nothing to do with dual PCI-E slots). Most new cards support two or three card configurations if you have a motherboard that can handle it. A gaming machine doesn't require dual cards (or more) as well. It simply increases performance, but the cost for the additional cards negates the performance in most cases. Unless you have lots of cash to throw away that is. As far as poor sound cards...eh, not sure about that one. Maybe get a good set of external speakers, but the sound has never been an issue. Integrated sound is just as good as most dedicated sound cards these days (is 5.1 surround not enough??). Plus most gamers use headphone/mic combos anyway.

Edit: I agree with the 8GB of RAM part, though.

And as far as a "large investment" goes, not sure about that either. If you want to get a new keyboard and mouse that is maybe $100 for a good set.

 

[InfoSecmgr]

I meant speakers, not sound card. He needs to hear where he's being sniped from! I also think the imac screen is not very good because the height is not very convenient for gaming. It'll work, but just isn't very comfortable.

Heh, darn those snipers! . As far as the screen goes, meh, well I think that is a matter of opinion.

 

[Maxi86]

wow! thanks for all the posts guys, I appreciate that.

I'm planning on getting a 27" Dell UltraSharp U2711 monitor (I prefer it above the 27" Apple Cinema Display monitor)... I need it to play more table for online poker. That aside... could I combine two screen for gaming? Or only choose 1? If so, would it be possible to use the Dell as my first/primary monitor?

I might get a Wireless Controller for Windows package (Wireless Controller + Wireless Gaming Receiver), but I'm not sure for what type of games to use it for...

regarding sound/speakers, I wanna get the Harmon/Kardon SoundSticks II. I think that will be enough for watching movies/playing games/listening music. but indeed, I use my headphones most of the time.