Valve: Apple, ATI, Nvidia to Improve Mac Gaming

[JMcEntegart]

Valve recently introduced Mac owners to Steam and the company is confident the Apple-made computers will make more than adequate gaming machines, especially now that Apple, ATI and Nvidia are working hard to improve things.

Valve: Apple, ATI, Nvidia to Improve Mac Gaming : Read more

 

[sliem]

"I'm running a Mac Pro..."

STOP! Well there's your problem right there, fella.

 

[dark_lord69]

Perhaps gaming performance will improve but unless prices improve as well... I'll pass.
I was looking at a 4870 for a MAC. A used one on eBay still goes for $220. While a used 4890 for PC I have seen as low as $100.

 

[Tuguz]

It won't be easy and will probably take a while to reach an adequate level.

 

[aznguy0028]

"I'm running a Mac Pro 2.93ghz 8-core machine with 16GB RAM. I have both the GeForce GTX 285"

So let me get this straight, my quad core with 4gb ram and a 4890 which could be built for <900$ now, blows your $3300 Mac out of the water by a FPS factor of 3x? Silly Mac bois...gaming is for Windows

 

[megamanx00]

I'm sure alot of it has to do with moving a primarily D3D game, under DirectX, to OpenGL. Driver optimizations will indeed help, but the source engine is going to need alot of work. Of course, it seems Mac users are deliriously happy to pay more for their hardware, so they probably won't spend too much time improving it

 

[jimmysmitty]

Even if they make improvements, the performance will never be the same. DX has had the gaming spotlight for nearly 20 years while OpenGL has not. That means game devs had the time to leaqrn the tricks, tweaks and optimizations on DX while not the same in GL.

Mac is getting its start, but I doubt it will be on par with or better than WIndows in gaming anytime soon.

 

[rembo666]

I would never own a Mac, but I'm happy that OpenGL drivers will finally get some love. This will benefit Apple, Windows, and Linux. The reason is that there are a bunch of cross-platform applications that use OpenGL and could use a performance boost.

 

[anthropophaginian]

A lot of Macs have underpowered graphics cards as they were not designed with gaming in mind. It's just as well that valve started with the mature source engine games as many of them wouldn't handle any more than that.
The drivers are a good start, but some of those machines need more that drivers!

 

[razercultmember1]

Mac Pro. 'Nuff said.

 

[builderbobftw]

More like mac-unpro.

His multi thousand dollar machine would get kicked in the pants, even if he used windows, by my machine wich costs 1/4 as much for me to build.

 

[scuba dave]

[citation][nom]aznguy0028[/nom]"I'm running a Mac Pro 2.93ghz 8-core machine with 16GB RAM. I have both the GeForce GTX 285"So let me get this straight, my quad core with 4gb ram and a 4890 which could be built for <900$ now, blows your $3300 Mac out of the water by a FPS factor of 3x? Silly Mac bois...gaming is for Windows[/citation]

And try to play something only optimized for a mac, and you'll likely see the same thing, but reversed. Don't blame the rig. Blame the programmers.

 

[tolham]

i'm sure in a couple years they'll have games running fast on macs, but unless apple lowers their prices (which is part of the allure so that's not going to happen), macs still won't be viable gaming rigs.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

That's actually good news for the linux version of steam when it comes out.

First, they're working on the source engine for openGL and that's instantly applicable to linux.

Then there's the fact that they have the graphics people onboard for this on macs, so some of that should also spill over to linux.

 

[drutort]

im confused are there no native openGL games? i would think that with decent drivers they should run on part on osx and linux but im sure windows would still be on top... maybe its just a problem with the games but I agree at the end this will help linux probably more then apple cause those who wish to run linux will get the best of both worlds one day... well we can dream right?

 

[zuke]

I saw the words Mac and Gaming together and lol'd.

Mac folks will never admit the Wintel boxes beat them in anything (for 1/2 the price)...

 

[SneakySnake]

I'm a mac folk and i will admit to you very freely that my homebuild with 5850 rapes my Mac Pro, however my Mac Pro isn't for gaming, it's for video rendering, and it would rape my PC in that.

Mac Pro's aren't meant for gaming, they're meant for number crunching

 

[matt_b]

I welcome the improvements gladly, this could only eventually mean the uprising of OpenGL once again!?! Still waiting on that Linux Steam client now.....

 

[Trueno07]

Mac Users are surprised that their computers can't really do anything... But, I too welcome the Improvements for the sake of PC/Mac gaming as a whole.

 

[nforce4max]

This is also why people who do heavy CAD work as well 3DS Max use windows.

 

[dante01010]

mac was never intended for gaming until now, It will take some time to get Windows gaming peformance, but it isn't just job for Apple to get this it's for the game developers too , to learn more about Mac OS X

 

[ordcestus]

[citation][nom]matt_b[/nom]I welcome the improvements gladly, this could only eventually mean the uprising of OpenGL once again!?! Still waiting on that Linux Steam client now.....[/citation]
Me too thats the only reason i'm cheering this on. i'd rather apple start being reasonable on prices then i'll cheer them on for thier products

 

[SneakySnake]

I'm getting down votes cuz I said my Mac Pro with dual i7's rapes my single i7 in my PC.

Are the PC haters so biased as to not admit the 2 i7's in a Mac Pro will beat a single i7 in a PC in video rendered

PS: I'm expecting the hate in this one, it's quite typical

 

[brendano257]

[citation][nom]builderbobftw[/nom]More like mac-unpro. His multi thousand dollar machine would get kicked in the pants, even if he used windows, by my machine wich costs 1/4 as much for me to build.[/citation]

If he used Windows on 'Mac' hardware it's not different than using Windows on that same hardware in a different case. The only problem is the coding under Mac for the drivers and processes that run the game, get your facts straight. A 3000$ Apple computer running Windows 7 WILL beat your ~750$ computer at just about anything. That's indisputable even though most Apple computers are overpriced.

The problem here isn't the hardware or the price of it, it's the drivers that have mostly been geared at video and photo editing are suddenly being used for gaming, it's going to take time for them to get tuned. These are some of the first nVidia and ATI drivers that are used heavily (if at all) for gaming. Go back 20 or so GeForce driver releases and tell me that doesn't suck to play with.

 

[agnickolov]

Even if they make improvements, the performance will never be the same. DX has had the gaming spotlight for nearly 20 years while OpenGL has not.

DirectX was introduced in 1995, so it's more like close to 15 years. Good luck finding a 3D consumer card in 1990...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directx

By contrast, OpenGL has been with us since 1992 - more than 3 1/2 years earlier than DirectX. Read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL

You are correct though, that OpenGL hasn't been designed for games.