Windows You love PC gaming, and Mac. How do you do it?

[xSinghx]

Thanks for the clarifications. It's really great that regular PC cards are also an option.

I wish previous model would keep going strong but it is already discontinued in Europe. Still, the fact that you can use a PC card too (even with a bit of research beforehand for each specific model) makes things a little better and offers a bit of freedom. I've been waiting for the new MP in order to replace my iMac but I don't think the new model is made for me, while I cannot get the previous model either.

I forgot to mention that what reg. cards you can use are tied to which operating system you are using (obviously). I believe most of the people trying them out in the thread I mentioned are using Mountain Lion as it has the drivers needed.

If you're looking for an older mac pro maybe check ebay.

 

[LeandrodaFL]

I have both a Mac and a PC. Bootcamping is not good.

Keeping a gaming PC is insanelly cheap. The case, speakers, monitors,, power supply, keyboard, all this you never have to buy again. All you do every 3 years is get a new videocard. So cheap. I see no point in not having a gaming pc if you like games. Besides you keep your Mac free of all that 1TB of games you are no longer playing and just occupy space.

 

[Huntn]

If you "love" PC gaming, buy a PC.

I disagree. If you are portable, the Mac Book Pro is the best solution, that is if you like doing stuff with Mac but also like to game...

 

[the8thark]

Just as the question states. I am very curious, and in the planning stages of my next desktop setup. So i'm curious?

How do you play PC games, and use OSX?
Do you bootcamp an iMac/Mac Pro?
Do you have a pc and a Macbook?

I'd love some opinions, some predictions, and some advice on how to go about doing this for myself.

Currently thinking of buying a maxed 27" iMac (without the RAM), and bootcamping it with a 13" retina for University.

Thanks!

How do you play PC games, and use OSX?
Bootcamp (for native windows), A crossover bottle (for a nice easy virtualised Windows environment), and Dos Box (for dos games).

Do you bootcamp an iMac/Mac Pro?
Yes.

Do you have a pc and a Macbook?
No. I only have an iMac. (21.5 i7).

For what you want, your iMac option will play most games very well. The iMac is very capable. And if you have windows then you can use that in various ways on the Mac too. For gaming. Or simply game in OS X.

And I'd seriously think if you need the MBP for taking out with you. As an MBA or possibly an iPad could do the job for you and be cheaper. If you get the iMac as well for home. And there are some iPad apps with no OS X/PC equivalent. But it's up to you.

The only issue with bootcamping is the hassle of having to swap the OS over for a newer game where a crossover bottle won't suffice. But if it's like 1-2 games, it's better then spending tons more money on a gaming PC

 

[harveypooka]

I use a three year old PC (Intel Core 2 Quad) with a newish GPU (3GB ATI 7950) for all my gaming. I use an ancient MacBook for everything else.

I used to own a Mac Pro and used Boot Camp for gaming but the lack of new GPUs/prohibitive cost for a Mac version was a killer.

I'd say get a Mac and a PC.

 

[wilds94]

I'd say get a Mac and a PC.

I'm now leaning towards this option. I think that having one machine for each side of my computing needs might be the wiser option. And i'm looking for more graphics power than what the current iMac has to offer. At the moment i'm thinking a $2300aus build with a 27" 1440p monitor, i5 4670k and a GTX 770. And with that i'll get a refreshed 13" rMBP and use the same monitor when i'm not gaming for everything else.

 

[chilly willy]

I just assembled a PC to game on (I also use a console), which relieves my MBP which got insanely hot when bootcamping to play SWTOR or Civ.
I also have a 2007 iMac and a newer Mini, but not even thinking of serious gaming on those.

I will continue to be primarily an Apple and Mac guy, but assembling the PC was fun to do with my kids, and helped us understand guts of any computer better.....

 

[jlmcclellan]

I have had 2 iMacs and neither is any good for the very latest games. I only play WoW anyway but I have bought games like Borderlands 2 and it just runs too slow to be enjoyable. I won't buy another desktop mac anymore, but for a laptop I can't think of any better.

Borderlands 2 runs great on my late 2012 27" iMac.

Anyway I'm going to agree with some of the other posters here, the state of gaming on Apple hardware isn't the best, but at this point IMO it's good enough. I don't need 120 FPS on games... I only need 30+ consistently. That you should have no problem getting on any iMac or MBP.. not sure about the MBAs or Minis.

 

[Irishman]

If you "love" PC gaming, buy a PC.

Apple's computers are absolute crap for gaming. I'm probably going to get lynched for saying that around here, but it's the truth. Apple's GPU offerings are almost always underpowered (iMac, Mac Mini, and laptops) or antiquated (Mac Pro). Yeah, games work, but they don't work exceptionally well. -SC

Bulldust.

 

[EricT43]

I have a rMBP for my OS X fix, and actually doing work. This is plugged in to an Apple 27" LED Cinema Display via MDP, but also via a Kanex two-way MDP switcher that allows me to share the display (and devices plugged in to it, like keyboard and mouse) with the gaming rig.

So, under the desk is my pure gaming computer:
Silverstone FT03 case
Intel i7 3770
ASUS Maximus V Gene mATX motherboard
EVGA GTX 780 3GB Signature Clocked
8GB Corsair Vengence DDR3 1600Mhz
Crucial M4 256GB & 128GB SSDs
Corsair AX750 PSU
Corsair H80 water cooler with Silent Typhoon fans
ASUS Xonar DX soundcard
Windows 8 Pro + Start8

This gives me the best of both worlds. I use OS X for most things, but when I want to play a game I hit a button on the Kanex switcher, and I'm in Windows. The gaming rig plays everything modern, usually at max settings at 2560x1440, and is upgradable in the future. I have a single keyboard and mouse on my desk, and a single set of B&W MM-1 speakers that are again shared via the Kanex.

I've been thinking of doing this, but I have a Thunderbolt Display instead of a Cinema Display. Makes it much more difficult... Apparently there's an ASRock motherboard that will direct GPU output to the TB port with a jumper cable, but I haven't found any reviews of this setup yet. I'll keep looking.

FWIW, I am using my 15" rMBP as my sole computer. I play StarCraft 2 and DOTA 2 almost daily, and I find the performance to be quite acceptable in OSX. They both run a little better in BootCamp, but not enough to deal with the inconvenience. Occasionally I reboot to play SimCity 2013 or other Windows-exclusive game, but it's quite rare.

I would like to build a gaming PC, because I like building them and because I'd like to have a better gaming experience. However, I'll only do it if my desktop footprint doesn't increase, which means it'll have to work with my Thunderbolt Display, keyboard, and mouse.

 

[sonicrobby]

i used to have a Gaming laptop and a mac mini. Im a minimalist and didnt like having 2 devices with 2 different uses when I could get 1 device with the same uses.

My gaming laptop died, and instead of replacing it with another expensive PC, I decided to sell my mini and get a used 15" rMBP. So far I love it! Though I wish they had more mac ports for a lot of steam games. But since I mostly play valve games anyway (CSS and Gmod) I tend to play those in OSX, when I choose to play a non-mac supported game, I use bootcamp to load up windows 7 and play the game (usually stuff like Dead Island and Just Cause 2).

While I can admit gaming performance is not as great as on a windows PC, Im not OCD enough to have to play eveything on high settings like I used to, so Im perfectly happy playing my games on medium settings when needed. I now just hate everything about windows, manually installing drivers, those annoying updates it does that either increases my lags during games, restarts sometimes because of that dumb "postpone restart" popup, and the amount of time it takes to "update" when shutting down/restarting the computer. So far, everytime I go into bootcamp, Ive had an annoying "restart" update I had to do... I used to hate Macs, and Im surprised I changed positions so easily. But back on topic: Although Im unhappy with the windows part of it, but Im glad I can still play my games on my macbook.

 

[peskaa]

I've been thinking of doing this, but I have a Thunderbolt Display instead of a Cinema Display. Makes it much more difficult... Apparently there's an ASRock motherboard that will direct GPU output to the TB port with a jumper cable, but I haven't found any reviews of this setup yet. I'll keep looking.

FWIW, I am using my 15" rMBP as my sole computer. I play StarCraft 2 and DOTA 2 almost daily, and I find the performance to be quite acceptable in OSX. They both run a little better in BootCamp, but not enough to deal with the inconvenience. Occasionally I reboot to play SimCity 2013 or other Windows-exclusive game, but it's quite rare.

I would like to build a gaming PC, because I like building them and because I'd like to have a better gaming experience. However, I'll only do it if my desktop footprint doesn't increase, which means it'll have to work with my Thunderbolt Display, keyboard, and mouse.

ASUS also offer some Thunderbolt motherboards that can apparently output the GPU to the TB port, but we're looking at a mere handful of models, none of which I've seen used with Apple's display.

 

[TedM]

I really try to stick with portable products for apple. Personally I find the power of a custom built desktop to be too amazing to pass up.

 

[Asuriyan]

I really try to stick with portable products for apple. Personally I find the power of a custom built desktop to be too amazing to pass up.

That's pretty much where I am at.

I will probably never buy a non-Apple portable (though Dell business offerings are good, they're not all that portable!) but it's worth it to me from a cost perspective to have a gaming PC on the side. A $3000 MBP will last me 5 years without any issues, but if it's my only gaming PC keeping it past the 3 year mark is impractical. Better to keep that expensive laptop for its full useful lifespan, build an $800 desktop and replace the graphics card (~$250) at the end of those 3 years.

Meanwhile the MBP is perfectly fine for light-duty portable gaming (LoL, WoW, SC2, Civ V, sometimes some Skyrim) and will be for the forseeable future.

 

[jedolley]

How do you play PC games, and use OSX?
Do you bootcamp an iMac/Mac Pro?
Do you have a pc and a Macbook?

Since becoming a Mac user a little over 2 years ago, I game primarily on my Mac. Prior to that I was building/upgrading gaming PCs, but got tired of the upkeep and I wanted to learn OSX.

I have found Macs (well, specifically my iMac) play games just fine... I don't play a lot of FPS, mostly just RPGs and MMOs lately and for those my iMac has been able to run them in "High" or better settings just fine.

I tend to play in OSX if possible... I prefer native, but if a port is stable and does not hinder my experience I will choose that before I bootcamp. I do have bootcamp setup, but use it as a last resort on games I really really want to play and have no adequate OSX option. This has worked out for me fine and I rarely find myself using bootcamp. I've been looking at games I am looking forward to and they are either available for OSX or are console games.

 

[whooshbong]

For me, the late 2012 27" iMac (with the 680MX, of course) is perfect for that very scenario. I do my work/browsing on OS X and fire up Windows 8 in Boot Camp for my gaming. I'm really happy with it!

same here. I got the top spec 2012 27" imac. Made the switch from PC when it came out. I use steam for mac if possible, otherwise i use parallels or codeweavers for a 'quick one'. If i want to crank it up i go boot camp with win 7. aolmost everything I have works fine with settings on high withg no problem

 

[cgk.emu]

For me it's a Mac Pro and bootcamp, I've had great results.

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I have both a Mac and a PC. Bootcamping is not good.

Keeping a gaming PC is insanelly cheap. The case, speakers, monitors,, power supply, keyboard, all this you never have to buy again. All you do every 3 years is get a new videocard. So cheap. I see no point in not having a gaming pc if you like games. Besides you keep your Mac free of all that 1TB of games you are no longer playing and just occupy space.

So, I've found that PC gaming is not insanely cheap. To get a good setup you're looking at at least $600. With a Mac, you're getting a Mac of course with OS X, and then with bootcamp you have a "traditional Windows PC" as well, to me it's two in one. Also, check out "Macvidcards" here on the forums and his huge selection of PC cards that work with OS X and will of course run under bootcamp. You can easily change the video cards every 3 years in a Mac Pro, plus it holds 4 hard drives. Sure the other machines don't have upgradeable video cards, so if you're that concerned go buy a PC. With thunderbolt though, I think that's changing.

Edit: yeah I know, "but the Mac Pro is soooooo expensive!!". Yes, it's not cheap for sure, if you NEED it for what you do, you'll justify the cost. You can also find the previous year pretty heavily discounted. In January of 2011, I bought my 2009 Mac Pro for $1699 from Mac Mall.

Also, I used to have a dedicated PC gaming setup. I loved it for awhile, for sure. I still very much enjoy building machines, but I had to consolidate. I found it hard to justify having a beastly Mac Pro sitting there and not using it for games in addition to video editing. If I can have one machine to do it all, then yes I'll do it. HOWEVER, having said all that...with the direction the new Mac Pro is going, when this machines time is up I'm going to build or buy a machine to replace it for editing and gaming, and probably just have a Mac laptop. Though this is years out. I'm running this Pro until it's little virtual wheels fall off.

 

[antonis]

For me it's a Mac Pro and bootcamp, I've had great results.

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So, I've found that PC gaming is not insanely cheap. To get a good setup you're looking at at least $600. With a Mac, you're getting a Mac of course with OS X, and then with bootcamp you have a "traditional Windows PC" as well, to me it's two in one. Also, check out "Macvidcards" here on the forums and his huge selection of PC cards that work with OS X and will of course run under bootcamp. You can easily change the video cards every 3 years in a Mac Pro, plus it holds 4 hard drives. Sure the other machines don't have upgradeable video cards, so if you're that concerned go buy a PC. With thunderbolt though, I think that's changing.

Edit: yeah I know, "but the Mac Pro is soooooo expensive!!". Yes, it's not cheap for sure, if you NEED it for what you do, you'll justify the cost. You can also find the previous year pretty heavily discounted. In January of 2011, I bought my 2009 Mac Pro for $1699 from Mac Mall.

Also, I used to have a dedicated PC gaming setup. I loved it for awhile, for sure. I still very much enjoy building machines, but I had to consolidate. I found it hard to justify having a beastly Mac Pro sitting there and not using it for games in addition to video editing. If I can have one machine to do it all, then yes I'll do it. HOWEVER, having said all that...with the direction the new Mac Pro is going, when this machines time is up I'm going to build or buy a machine to replace it for editing and gaming, and probably just have a Mac laptop. Though this is years out. I'm running this Pro until it's little virtual wheels fall off.

Let's just hope that all these will be true for the new Mac Pro as well (fingers crossed).

 

[cgk.emu]

Let's just hope that all these will be true for the new Mac Pro as well (fingers crossed).

In its current form it doesn't look like it, and that has me bummed out. It would be cool if they kept the "classic" tower alongside the new one style/concept.

 

[arashb]

MBP 2011 HD6750 + "gpu overclock" to higher-than-normal specs while keeping voltage lower-than-normal + Windows 7 = any game I've tried. And this is a laptop from 2 years ago, that's ancient in computer time.

Yeah a custom built PC would do it better, but I choose my computers based on everything else before gaming.

 

[antonis]

In its current form it doesn't look like it, and that has me bummed out. It would be cool if they kept the "classic" tower alongside the new one style/concept.

Yes, that's what I am afraid. This would be my first Mac Pro, but I'm having second thoughts because of lack of internal upgrades.

 

[cgk.emu]

MBP 2011 HD6750 + "gpu overclock" to higher-than-normal specs while keeping voltage lower-than-normal + Windows 7 = any game I've tried. And this is a laptop from 2 years ago, that's ancient in computer time.

Yeah a custom built PC would do it better, but I choose my computers based on everything else before gaming.

Well, it sounds like you just aren't enough of a hardcore gamer!

 

[arashb]

Well, it sounds like you just aren't enough of a hardcore gamer!

I'm really not. I use to build computers when I was younger but nothing interested me more than counter strike and diablo 2. So I'd have like 500 fps on cs1.6 hahah. Bunny hopping and air strafing all over the place. Good times :]

 

[rockyroad55]

Built a PC and bought a macbook. Best of both worlds and you don't have any limitations on the macbook for gaming.

 

[Sech]

Checking back into this thread. Earlier (six or so months ago) I posted how I went to an iMac, boot-camped and ran some games in parallels. Recently, I've departed with the iMac, purchased an Air and a gaming PC.

Why? I hated bootcamping when I wanted to play something, it felt like a hassle with too many compromises (first world problems).

I don't particularly like having two machines, but I have the best of both worlds now. The PC is used only for games and nothing else, the Mac sees more use overall and more love. I do have a number of native OSX games loaded on theAir, which I go to first, but nothing that requires the power of the GFX in the PC.