Steam for Mac: First Impressions, Windows Is Faster

[palladin9479]

Ok let me drop the bomb shell on all you guyz.

Intel/AMD x64 + Windows for gaming (PC applies to all small end computers) and SPARC + Solaris for work!

Mwahahaha, sorry had to drop that one.

 

[palladin9479]

Wow just read the OpenGL comments. Guys the reason DX9+ beats OpenGL is because a single company / entity controls DX vs the industrial committee that controls OpenGL. With how fast GPU venders are introducing new features and abilities MS can rapidly update DX to support and implement those new features. OpenGL takes a ~long~ time to get anything updated or added to the official library. Nvidia had to resort to creating propriety extension library's to get its features supported, which goes completely against the idea of a standard API.

OpenGL was originally designed as a SW library for CAD/CAM design work, specifically for the industrial design guys. Later HW acceleration was added to specific feature sets. D3D was designed to provide HW acceleration to games from the beginning. OpenGL originally was implemented better, D3D was a mess to program in. But around DX8 MS got their sh!t together and things started working better, then DX9 was awesome and finally beat out OpenGL. Of course it helps that OpenGL hadn't been officially updated in years... but that goes back to the "design / approve by committee" approach.

 

[mindless728]

There's a lot more to computing than playing games. I got a mac a year ago and I'll never go back to windows. Windows 7 is so annoying to use. Plus anything you can do in linux you can do on your mac. It's such a useful OS for programming and it comes with so many great tools. Most of the people I know with Macs are scientists. For instance almost all the scientists at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics here in Victoria use Macs. Why? Because they work well, have a full programming suite available, and they're secure. No virus's or malware screwing with you on a daily basis.

My wife has had her macbook for 5 years and has never had a single issue with it. It runs perfectly, the same as when she bought it.

yeah, and as a developer, i have my machine with windows installed native then Linux and Mac OSX in VM's for cross platform development. And anyone buying a Mac for scientific work is paying too much, just make your own machine (or if its a college/business buy them from an OEM) and have linux installed

 

[Guest]

Hahaha!
Those two last posts...

First all we're singing in choir how crappy Apple and the Mac is, patting each others back with thumbs up and then two others say something less narrowminded (well, at least theribster500's post) and they get thumbed down.

People – stop drawing conclusions about things you have limited insight in!
That Portal currently runs much better on Windows is no base for drawing conclusions which OS is the most efficient. There are several things that Apple and their Macs do well, things are not just black or white. There's millions of colours out there! (if you see what I mean).

(As a side note I have built a Hackintosh myself (same graphics card as in the test above) and I don't notice that World of Warcraft runs any better in Windows 7 compared to Mac OS X. Same goes for Call of Duty 4 and – it runs just as well in both OS's.

Starcraft II is also supposed to be much smoother in Windows than Mac OS X – I don't see it. Seems pretty equal to me.

 

[Guest]

Problem is the author doesn't apparently know enough about Mac's to accurately analyse his test results.
Both chosen test platforms are very poor choices as:

1. OSX underclocks the GPU on the Macbook Pro to reduce heat - the Windows NVidia driver will run the GPU at full speed (potentially damaging your GPU)
2. Drivers on Hackintosh systems are lucky to work at all, let alone be optimized for the hardware they run on - in most cases a "close enough" driver for a product of the same family is used with DSDT hacks to allow it to run at all.

Please do us all a favour and retest using a BootCamped Nehalem Mac Pro.

Dave

 

[mindless728]

Problem is the author doesn't apparently know enough about Mac's to accurately analyse his test results.
Both chosen test platforms are very poor choices as:

1. OSX underclocks the GPU on the Macbook Pro to reduce heat - the Windows NVidia driver will run the GPU at full speed (potentially damaging your GPU)
2. Drivers on Hackintosh systems are lucky to work at all, let alone be optimized for the hardware they run on - in most cases a "close enough" driver for a product of the same family is used with DSDT hacks to allow it to run at all.

Please do us all a favour and retest using a BootCamped Nehalem Mac Pro.

Dave

1) wrong, the gpu clocks down in idle and then kicks back up when it is under load (even in OSX)
2) actually if you have similar hardware it shouldn't be a problem (ie use cards that are used under macs), and at the same point it doesn't matter since the macs fastest card is the GTX285

 

[Guest]

Somebody gently explain this to me. They're comparing a mac and a mac running win7? and why does the win7 machine have much better hardware compared to the mac w/ osx? why didn't they use a mac w/ a core i-7 and the best gpu available to mac, or at least more comparable systems? it seems like this comparison is irrelevant and highly in windows' favor. wouldn't it make sense to have to as close as possible hardware configs, and run osx on a the mac, and win7 on a regular pc system?

I'm not a mac owner, but I find much of the criticism of mac in these comments to be highly flawed. I thought the appeal of a mac is an os that runs on dedicated hardware, so the possibility of software/hardware conflict is nearly none. Yes, apple charges more for their product, but it's often justified since they are creating a package that is highly functional, and good for them that their brand name garners a higher price tag. microsh%# would likely charge the same if they sold their own complete systems and cultivated a brand name the way apple has.
someone here said you're only paying for the name, like those who buy a designer brand like "gucci or coach..." well actually it's not just a name, those brands have exclusive designs that are highly desirable and are never fully executed in knock-off brands, and usually have a quality in craftsmanship that is unmatched. In most instances this is also the case w/ apple products. Their execution of their exclusive designs are generally unmatched, as is generally the build quality. How can you hate on a good product just because it's popular among people of taste? of course there will always be trend followers who only buy things for image, and lack legitimate appreciation, but that doesn't mean the product is unworthy.
I will admit I own an iphone, and it put my last phone, a high end htc windows mobile device, to shame... it's cool because it works.

 

[Guest]

regarding the benchmarks:
sorry, i'm tired and misread how they were comparing the systems. my bad. however osx is not really designed to run on the hackintosh configuration of hardware, right? that one almost seems useless... at least i was under the impression that mac doesn't have proper drivers for the x58 board, but i'm not a mac user so i very well could be mistaken.

 

[Guest]

What kind of comparison is this? You're comparing integrated graphics to a system with a high end discrete GPU with a 1GB Frame buffer. Like to see you do a more even comparison before you try and draw conclusions.