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

What hardware are you running?

What is/are you main gaming platform(s)?

  • Mac

    Votes: 30 44.1%

  • PC

    Votes: 28 41.2%

  • Console

    Votes: 30 44.1%

  • Handheld

    Votes: 8 11.8%

  • Other

    Votes: 5 7.4%
  • Total voters
    68
dmccloud

dmccloud

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 7, 2009
3,648
2,387
Anchorage, AK
We have had the "What game you play'n" thread for a while, but not one for the hardware side of things. I thin it would be interesting to see what hardware people are using, whether PC, Mac, console, or handheld (Steam Deck, ROG Ally, etc.)

I just upgraded my gaming PC as an early Christmas gift to myself, so hardware is on my mind right now. While early benchmarks are promising, I still need to do some tweaking and possibly undervolting/overclocking to boost performance a little more.

Current System:

Ryzen 7 9800X3D
MSI X870E Tomahawk motherboard
32 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6400
Gigabyte Radeon 9060 XT OC (16GB)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Howard2k
I have a 5800X3D paired with a 4070.

It's been a great machine, but I think it'll be the last *traditional* build I do. I'm finding that I'm just as happy gaming at 1440p than 4K, so smaller builds focusing on performance/watt are more interesting to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Howard2k
Couple weeks ago I built a new gaming PC (it is used only for gaming and my MacBook Pro 14" for everything else):

1766163950898.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ethan.Albano
ProQuiz said:
Couple weeks ago I built a new gaming PC (it is used only for gaming and my MacBook Pro 14" for everything else):

View attachment 2589307
Click to expand...

I reused everything but my CPU/RAM/Motherboard when I upgraded, so I was able to upgrade for under $1000 despite RAM prices being insane at the moment. When I sell the older components (which work perfectly well), that total price will come down even more.

My current build:

PC PartPicker
 
  • Like
Reactions: ProQuiz
Most of my gaming these days is done on a 2023 GPD Win Mini with a Ryzen 7840U and 32 GB RAM. I love the form factor. It's ridiculous. I also have some consoles and things but I haven't really booted them up in months.
 
R7 5800X
32GB DDR4 @ 3200mhz
RTX 4080 Super
Assortment of random SSDs
Aurora Linux

I don't intend to upgrade this thing for the foreseeable future. By the time I'll feel the need for speed, I'll probably be better served by a whole new build.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Queen6
After Apple Silicon launched, I offloaded most of my gaming time from computer to console and replace the Windows laptop with a MacBook. Now I have PS5 + MacBook Air. Many indie lightweight games can run on Mac, and if it can't handle that, I will just wait to play it on console.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Plutonius
9800x3d
gigabyte aorus b850i
48gb t-create 6400mt ram
founders 5080

(I also have a PS5, Series S, Switch 2, Steam Deck)

I guess I am the only one here on Blackwell?
 
As of June 2025, a M4 Max Studio 36 GB of ram, 512GB of storage, 14 core CPU, 32 core GPU.

Its a beast of a computer and I think for the price, I saved a lot of money over a comparable PC - at least back in June 2025. I'm also done with the Microsoft shenanigans, which was one of my major reason to come back to the Mac fold

I play games mostly through Crossover and the Studio handles everything I can throw at it, but if not, there's always Geforce Now game streaming.

1766229061195.png
 
maflynn said:
As of June 2025, a M4 Max Studio 36 GB of ram, 512GB of storage, 14 core CPU, 32 core GPU.

Its a beast of a computer and I think for the price, I saved a lot of money over a comparable PC - at least back in June 2025. I'm also done with the Microsoft shenanigans, which was one of my major reason to come back to the Mac fold

I play games mostly through Crossover and the Studio handles everything I can throw at it, but if not, there's always Geforce Now game streaming.

View attachment 2589483
Click to expand...
Why is the Steel Nomad Lite score so much higher on the 7800XT? Is it some GPU feature?
 
i7 6700, GTX 1060 6GB, 32GB 2400, 850 Evo SSD’s, Gigabyte board. Water-cooled. Was £400 used.
I bought a Samsung 21/9 curved 3180x1440 monitor. Was £400 used.
Add £250 for peripherals, and two internal 970 Evo plus M2 NVME to replace the SSD’s
Plays and was bought for Far Cry 5 in 2016. 30fps on high settings.
That was a lot of money.
I won’t be replacing it, but enjoy the older games.

I had originally hoped to run Cubase on it, but it was problematic, so finally went over to Mac for music stuff. Now have a Mac Mini M4 setup.
 
PC primarily - 5700X3D with AMD RX 7800 XT
PS5
MacBook Air M4 for cloud gaming (Xbox Cloud)
 
Gave up on Bootcamping the MacPro and switched to PC gaming over a dozen years ago and haven’t looked back. We have a young one so we also have Xbox One and a couple of Switch devices but this past summer, my son and I built him a PC (AMD 7700x, 32GB RAM, 5070, 2x2TB NVME). I built my current machine about 5 years ago (AMD 3950x, 64 GB RAM, 3090, 1TB + 2 TB NVME). Trouble-free since day 1, still going strong.
 
salamanderjuice said:
Why is the Steel Nomad Lite score so much higher on the 7800XT? Is it some GPU feature?
Click to expand...
Uh, cause the 7800xt is faster in that test (and probably in actual games too)? IIRC the M4 Max GPU is somewhere between a 4060 and 5060 in gaming performance. The 7800XT is supposed to be about as fast as a 4070.

The Max GPU's punch up on non gaming stuff. I've not seen a gaming related test thus far that shows otherwise.
 
I've been just using my Mac Mini M4 for XBox Cloud Gaming and some local lower powered stuff via Crossover.

I do my retro emulation with Delta + official Nintendo BT controllers on my iPad 9.

N64 is my favorite of all time and it's a perfect combo with the 4:3 screen and real (new) N64 controller.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: sleeptodream
My main gaming setup is a Logitech G Cloud game streaming handheld while the actual games run on a Minisforum UM773 connected to an RTX 3060 in an Aoostar AG02 USB4/Oculink eGPU dock.
 
  • Love
Reactions: turbineseaplane
Question about gaming via GeForce Now - is a physical connection to my router required to have a good experience? I have pretty solid wireless around the house, but haven't gotten around to having ethernet brought up to the study from the basement. I'll do it someday, but in the meantime can I do some cloud gaming over wireless and not have it suck?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back