Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

tl01

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 20, 2010
2,350
649
My kid wants a gaming computer. He has a two year old air and we have some iMacs in the house. He wants to play Fortnite. Does this mean I have to get a PC? I feel like he is going to want a laptop but won’t a gaming laptop be quite costly?
 

tl01

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 20, 2010
2,350
649
Fortnite appears to have relatively modest system requirements, and there is a Mac version. Sounds like if you have a Mac with a dedicated GPU, you should be able to play it. Gaming on a laptop is always a tougher task, as they just don't have as much thermal headroom as a desktop or even an iMac.

https://www.metabomb.net/fortnite-b...royale-system-requirements-guide-pc-and-mac-5

He has the Mac version on his laptop and it is choppy. He has it on the family iMac too... and it is a bit better.

Would you get a PC for gaming? If we can’t do an iMac...that leaves us with a Pro? That seems quite pricey! He also has it on Xbox but says he wants to start gaming more on a computer. Thanks!
 

Regime2008

Suspended
Oct 3, 2017
720
798
Basshead in ATL
He has the Mac version on his laptop and it is choppy. He has it on the family iMac too... and it is a bit better.

Would you get a PC for gaming? If we can’t do an iMac...that leaves us with a Pro? That seems quite pricey! He also has it on Xbox but says he wants to start gaming more on a computer. Thanks!
For about $1000 or so, you can build a really nice pc, that will run circles around the ps4 pro and Xbox one x.
 

Darmok N Jalad

macrumors 603
Sep 26, 2017
5,243
44,990
Tanagra (not really)
For about $1000 or so, you can build a really nice pc, that will run circles around the ps4 pro and Xbox one x.

Well I'd hope so, considering for $1000, you could buy both the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and still have $100 left to buy a few games.

For me, you'd have to be pretty serious about PC gaming, as some PC components are considerably overpriced due to supply issues right now.
 
Last edited:

Glockworkorange

Suspended
Feb 10, 2015
2,511
4,184
Chicago, Illinois
For about $1000 or so, you can build a really nice pc, that will run circles around the ps4 pro and Xbox one x.
If he wants to game more and wants to do it on a true computer, I agree with Regime2008. Macs are just not great gaming devices, unless you want to install Bootcamp and play titles on Windows, as Darmok said. But that is a pain and at the end of the day, most Mac systems just won't handle high end games as well as a PC, so a dedicated gaming PC is a much better value for your use case.

I say this as a casual Playstation gamer, but I don't think I am wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Regime2008

Mr. Heckles

macrumors 65816
Mar 20, 2018
1,354
1,742
Around
For about $1000 or so, you can build a really nice pc, that will run circles around the ps4 pro and Xbox one x.
I built a nice computer for under $900 for my nephew (I think it was a hair over $800). I like Macs, but for gaming, you use Windows. I used an 8th generation i5, GeForce GTX 1050Ti, and some other bells and whistles. He can upgrade the graphics card whenever he wants, add more RAM, or whatever. Stuff you can’t do with a Mac (unless you get a Mac Pro).
 
Last edited:

Glockworkorange

Suspended
Feb 10, 2015
2,511
4,184
Chicago, Illinois
I built a nice computer for under $900 for my nephew (I think it was a hair over $800). I like Macs, but for gaming, you use Window. I used an 8th generation i5, GeForce GTX 1050Ti, and some other bells and whistles. He can upgrade the graphics card whenever he wants, add more RAM, or whatever. Stuff you can’t do with a Mac (unless you get a Mac Pro).

Just as an aside because I saw someone mention Fortnite on the Mac.

As far as Macs go, I have a higher end configured 2017 iMac. I downloaded Fortnite just now (love that game on mobile) and gave it a whirl. I let the game pick the "best settings" for my machine and the game play was still pretty choppy. Was not a great experience.
 

Mr. Heckles

macrumors 65816
Mar 20, 2018
1,354
1,742
Around
Just as an aside because I saw someone mention Fortnite on the Mac.

As far as Macs go, I have a higher end configured 2017 iMac. I downloaded Fortnite just now (love that game on mobile) and gave it a whirl. I let the game pick the "best settings" for my machine and the game play was still pretty choppy. Was not a great experience.
As much as I like Mac, they are not for games. Someone said use boot camp, at that point, just get a Windows computer.
 

TyWahn

macrumors 6502
Oct 25, 2003
402
40
I have a 2017 iMac with Radeon Pro 555 with 2GB video memory and 16 GBb of RAM and play Fortnite on Windows and I consistently get 35-40 FPS. Thats on the next to highest setting.
 

Regime2008

Suspended
Oct 3, 2017
720
798
Basshead in ATL
I have a 2017 iMac with Radeon Pro 555 with 2GB video memory and 16 GBb of RAM and play Fortnite on Windows and I consistently get 35-40 FPS. Thats on the next to highest setting.
Try lowering your settings, and see if you can get a stable 60fps. The game is much more enjoyable that way, to me at least.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TyWahn

Abrey159

macrumors newbie
Oct 2, 2018
1
0
Most of you have heard about Fortnite a lot and wondering about how much it cost. So let me put your mind at ease because Fortnite Battle Royale is free to download and you can play the game in different platforms like Windows, PlayStation, Xbox, Ios, Nintendo etc.

Now this question is out of the way, are you wondering if your PC or console is powerful enough to run fortnite smoothly?

If yes, then all of your answers are here just keep on reading to know if your pc can run fortnite.
https://fortnitepub.com/guides/fortnite-system-requirements/
 

droog

Suspended
Apr 10, 2018
95
187
Here's the logical increments page for fortnite.

Of course, mining has distorted the economics of the "build your own pc" culture, but logical increments is good at breaking it down systematically.

(very much desktop pc centric though)
pretty outdated. nobody is going "i" at the lower price point. You can get a pentium that will do that trick. Amd is the better value on the high end of that particular scale w/ the ryzen 5 2600. gtx 660? yikes! You'd be better served plopping down an extra hundred and going with a 1050ti (150usd) at the top end or just get a rx550 (80 to 100ish usd) at the low end which will get a couple more years of use. And why would they even bother with the 660 when 5-10 dollars more gets you a 660ti. Yeah, just no. That site isn't very good.

To OP: Don't build your kid a computer just to play fort nite. He's just going to want a better computer to play the next fad game. Then your stuck with a computer that is good for email and fortnite, but nobody is playing fortnite anymore so what's the point. Try and look for something that can be built up over time or has an extended use case beyond fortnite.
 
Last edited:

jerwin

Suspended
Jun 13, 2015
2,895
4,651
pretty outdated. nobody is going intel at that price point. gtx 660? yikes!

that's what's "printed on the box". Those are manufacturer's recommendations, and yes, they are pretty outdated. By way of contrast, the logical increments page was last updated in August, 2018.

Here are those up to the minute recommendations:
If one wanted to play Fortnight at 1920x1080 at 60-90 fps, one would need a "fair" computer. GTX 1050ti, r5 1500x, and 4-8 GB RAM. (about $500)
LI first starts recommending intel cpus at the "Great" tier. GTX 1060 6GB or RX 580, i5 8600K, at 8 to 16 GB of RAM.
 
Last edited:

droog

Suspended
Apr 10, 2018
95
187
that's what's "printed on the box". Those are manufacturer's recommendations, and yes, they are pretty outdated. By way of contrast, the logical increments page was last updated in August, 2018.

Here are those up to the minute recommendations:
If one wanted to play Fortnight at 1920x1080 at 60 fps, one would need a "fair" computer. GTX 1050ti, r5 1500x, and 4-8 GB RAM.
LI first starts recommending intel cpus at the "Great" tier. GTX 1060 6GB or RX 580, i5 8600K, at 8 to 16 GB of RAM.
Yeah I did some more research. People are going intel at the lower price point, they are just using pentiums and some older xeons. I updated the post.
 

jerwin

Suspended
Jun 13, 2015
2,895
4,651
He's just going to want a better computer to play the next fad game.

which might well be raytraced. And remember, with nVidia, if you buy more, you save more. So 2x 2080ti. And whatever CPU is necessary to yoke those beasts into submission.
 

droog

Suspended
Apr 10, 2018
95
187
which might well be raytraced. And remember, with nVidia, if you buy more, you save more. So 2x 2080ti. And whatever CPU is necessary to yoke those beasts into submission.
That's not how it works. You won't see ray tracing till it hits consoles in a major way. You don't seem to know much about this. I only bring up your level of knowledge because you are giving sarcastic and horrible advice in a thread where somebody has asked for advice.
 
Last edited:

jerwin

Suspended
Jun 13, 2015
2,895
4,651
You don't seem to know much about this.

eh. forgot my sarcasm tag. The reviews I've seen of the 20x0 series make note of the fact that benchmarking raytraced graphics is all but impossible. So the advantages of a sli setup over a single card have yet to be calculated. Can one get 60fps using ultra settings at 4k with a single card? no one knows,

the nvidia ceo did use the "buy more save more" salespitch in his keynote, but I think he was talking about render farms.

If you believe that the direction of consoles controls the direction of PC games development, the latest consoles use 8 cores. Fortnight is a 2 core game, meaning that it should run well on a pentium, but games after fortnight? who knows?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.