Valve: Apple, ATI, Nvidia to Improve Mac Gaming

[apache_lives]

the solution: use windows

 

[Usersname]

[citation][nom]ninelivesproductions[/nom]Another thing, how much is 8GB of DDR3 ram on a PC? (~$250) how much is 8GB of DDR3 ram on a Mac? (~ $400)[/citation] Actually, you're wrong. There are retards who fit aftermarket cooling to MacPro's and re-clock them. They are a small group, but exist.

Also, you should know that one type of RAM is more stable than the other. It compromises speed for accuracy and stability. PC's crash unexpectedly when using apps requiring shedloads of RAM because they use cheap, unbuffered RAM. MacPro's come fitted with Fully Buffered (FBRAM) because they are used by professionals who cannot afford a science calculation or video project to crash out on them. Ever seen the number of scientists at conventions with Macs on their laps? I have. The Mac OS is used quite predominantly. Musicians also like the Mac because Mac OS audio/sound latency is so low compared to Windows.

Learn a bit more about computing requirements and components and you might be taken a bit more seriously.

 

[brendano257]

[citation][nom]kckrich[/nom]Mac's mouses have one button, lets just leave it at that.[/citation]

I applaud your appalling ignorance. I owned an iMac almost 5 years ago now, possibly 6 years ago and it came with 2 buttons. Your nearly a decade behind on Apple technology. Check your facts, and don't be so ignorant if your even going to post on an article like this.

@usersname - Thank you for putting at least a little bit of thought into your posts, it's much appreciated, and rarely found in comments

 

[tayb]

[citation][nom]jimmysmitty[/nom]Building anything for a specific purpose would rape anything not built for it. Your Mac Pro probably has 2 CPUs and a workstation based GPU. Build the same cost though on a PC and it would probably give better performance since you could buy higher end performance parts.Hell the upgradeability of a PC alone makes it better too. If you bought a dual CPU PC with a quad Nehalem last year, you can just upgrade the CPUs to 6 core Nehalem CPUs now for a 50% +/- boost. Too bad you can't do that on a Mac.[/citation]

LMAO. You people are still under the delusion that you can't upgrade a Mac Pro? It's just like any other computer. You can replace whatever you want.

 

[tayb]

[citation][nom]sliem[/nom]"I'm running a Mac Pro..."STOP! Well there's your problem right there, fella.[/citation]

Really? It's obvious this guy does some serious work. He has an 8-core setup with 16 GB of ram. This isn't your average gaming rig. He is clearly gaming on the side.

 

[brendano257]

[citation][nom]tayb[/nom]LMAO. You people are still under the delusion that you can't upgrade a Mac Pro? It's just like any other computer. You can replace whatever you want.[/citation]

Although I agree that it's different than say, an iMac where only the RAM is really interchangeable. The Mac Pro can't do an upgrade to something like a HD5970 because there isn't a Mac specific version. There is a reason for this, but it slips my mind...I think it needs a specific power connector. This would again come from a greater need for conformity if Apple wishes to really infiltrate the gaming and enthusiast market. It will take time for sure, and of course great driver support.

 

[SneakySnake]

[citation][nom]brendano257[/nom]The Mac Pro can't do an upgrade to something like a HD5970 because there isn't a Mac specific version. There is a reason for this, but it slips my mind...I think it needs a specific power connector.[/citation]

OS X uses EFI's, not BIOS's. In the long term of things everything is moving towards EFI, but it'll be a few years yet.

 

[Ragnar-Kon]

Macs are just flat out not made for gaming. And I doubt this will change until Apple releases a Mac geared toward gaming.

And for those saying that you can build a PC for much cheaper than a Mac Pro, have you seen a Mac Pro? Quad core Xeon processors, 4gb+ ECC memory, large hard drives... its basically a server with a better graphics card. The processor ALONE is $1100 on Newegg. Their case is easily worth $200 just by itself. And that right there is 50% of Apples total price of their Mac Pro. Then you still have to add in the graphics card, memory, cd drive, OS, etc.

Once you price out all of the parts, you'll quickly realize that it has the same price markup that all computer companies have, include Dell, HP, etc. In some cases, the Mac Pro is actually a better deal that the Windows dealers. Definitely does not hold the same Apple tax that many of their other products do.

 

[Guest]

lol
did you guys read the article totally false comparison " mild" settings on the mac "maxed " on windows no wonder the guy got different frame rates

 

[Guest]

now hope that they would address the Linux community too!
Then it's gonna be byebye Windows for many people!

 

[thebeastie]

MS has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the interaction between their kernel design and graphic chipset manufacture driver development.
These are such big and complex projects that take a lot of commitment from the graphics driver development and the kernel side of the OS.

Even just about any tech article that has mention the Valves games performance on the Mac seems to be more clueless then a grandma talking about how a PC works and quite impatient about when they expect things to improve. I have been quite shocked my self, I thought people in the tech industry had clue?

 

[Usersname]

[citation][nom]Ragnar-Kon[/nom]Macs are just flat out not made for gaming. And I doubt this will change until Apple releases a Mac geared toward gaming.[/citation] Why would Apple do that? They could do a better job at optimising what they already have but technologists/marketing depts. and coders know the future of gaming is in Hand-Helds and Consoles. Not even sure how much longer the versatile domestic desktop PC has left...five years? All displays of juvenile partisanship is unbecoming from a readership which prides itself on visiting a computing and telephony hardware website.

 

[techguy378]

Why would any company that's serious about gaming want to develop games for the Mac? Hardly anyone uses a Mac. The only thing keeping Apple in business is the iPhone, otherwise they might as well be some small no name company. Anything a Mac can do a Windows PC can do better. Especially if you're comparing with a PowerPC piece of junk.

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

Ok, this is starting to bother me. Yes the Mac is trailing behind the PC in terms of gaming performance. It really is the simple matter that AMD and nvidia just don't put a lot of effort into their OS X drivers. Apple uses their products, they must supply the drivers, they are ripping Apple off. Delivering under performing software, and getting away with it, because Macs aren't intended for gaming. This needs to change.

Now for the upside. PC laptops are seriously trailing behind the MacBook Pro. It has a durable, ultra-stiff yet light aluminum unibody that is less than 1" thick. A magnetic break-away power cord to prevent a broken power socket or worse. A smart battery with twice the real-world life as the next best PC laptop. Great processor and graphic chips, all in a design that is simply to die for - clean and professional.

PC's are plastic, sticker covered, butt ugly, ancient designs from the 1990's. Intel integrated graphics rule the PC laptop space along with Pentium dual-core processors and worse. The computers are too thick, too heavy, and manufacturers lie about battery life. Sure you can get a blue-ray drive, but that is make you forget that trackpad is tiny, and keyboard is bouncy.

Please forgive me for jumping ship, but I needed a good laptop. After looking at everything the PC world had to offer, I went to Apple store and found exactly what I was looking for. My gaming will just have to suffer.

 

[razercultmember1]

Macbook Pro for work. Gaming PC for gaming. 'Nuff said

 

[darasen]

I am amazed that a site with a reader ship that is typically fairly knowledgeable tech wise is so astoundingly ignorant (in the classic definition of the word)in regards to Apple products. Please take note not all computers are used as glorified x-boxes, gaming is not the end all be all of computing.

I know the following will likely inflame but it's true: I can go to the salvage yard and get an engine, some doors, etc.. I can weld them together and even make myself a functioning vehicle but it will never be a Mercedes.

 

[darasen]

[citation][nom]techguy378[/nom]Why would any company that's serious about gaming want to develop games for the Mac? Hardly anyone uses a Mac. The only thing keeping Apple in business is the iPhone, otherwise they might as well be some small no name company. Anything a Mac can do a Windows PC can do better. Especially if you're comparing with a PowerPC piece of junk.[/citation]

Ever heard of a little company called Blizzard? Perhaps a tiny little project of theirs called World of Warcraft? It is only the largest most profitable game in the entire world (or close to it at the least). One of the, many, reasons is that it is developed simultaneously for both the OS X and Windows platforms. Starcraft 2 will also be for both the Mac and PC. Add in the completely false "anything blah blah..." statement and it is obvious you have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[raised_fist]

@TEAMSWITCHER. please for the same price as the cheapest mac laptop you don't have pentium, you even have i5. i5 come in mac pro around 1800$. At that price you have i7 and real pro video card or better gaming card (nvidia 330 while not that bad, is ooold tech only with a new name).

But sure it's not aluminum but plastic and you don't have a glass screen so who let you see what's going on behind you while working.

Better performance or better look, it's a matter of choice.

 

[techguy378]

[citation][nom]darasen[/nom]Ever heard of a little company called Blizzard? Perhaps a tiny little project of theirs called World of Warcraft? It is only the largest most profitable game in the entire world (or close to it at the least). One of the, many, reasons is that it is developed simultaneously for both the OS X and Windows platforms. Starcraft 2 will also be for both the Mac and PC. Add in the completely false "anything blah blah..." statement and it is obvious you have no idea what you are talking about.[/citation]
There are many reasons that WoW is successful. Being available for the Mac isn't one of them. Serious gamers (the kind that play WoW) don't use Macs, they use Windows PC's that don't have the Apple logo anywhere on them. I suppose you think that Bose speakers provide the best sound too. I wouldn't be surprised since you prefer form over function.

 

[marraco]

[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]
It's even worse than 3X. It says that mac on average settings is 3X lower than Windows on max settings.

 

[marraco]

[citation][nom]usersname[/nom]...
Ever seen the number of scientists at conventions with Macs on their laps? I have. The Mac OS is used quite predominantly
...[/citation]I was on a satellite image processing convention the last week, and I said not even a SINGLE mac.
The only "convention" in which scientists use macs are mac propaganda magazines.

 

[descendency]

[citation][nom]Tuguz[/nom]It won't be easy and will probably take a while to reach an adequate level.[/citation]
And when it does, it will cost a lot.

 

[Trueno07]

[citation]The Mac Pro can't do an upgrade to something like a HD5970 because there isn't a Mac specific version. There is a reason for this, but it slips my mind...I think it needs a specific power connector.[/citation]

It's also about a foot long.

 

[Guest]

This has value because the work on OpenGL will directly benefit Linux users. This brings us that much closer to a truly open PC.

 

[Guest]

usersname: Yes, of course scientists all use teh Mac, I mean, SRSLY, these are definitely people who would benefit from a closed, proprietary OS, who clearly wouldn't be smart enough to operate a mouse that has more than one button...

Not to mention, the countless hoards of scientific and office/database applications for teh Mac...

/sarcasm

Dude, the only scientists I can see using a Mac are the politicized scientists that people like G.W. Bush and Al Gore used to gather "evidence" to back up their crazy theories that back up their crazy political agendas... Any scientist who hasn't sold out to a politician is likely using either Windows or (if they're hardcore)a *REAL* UNIX-like OS such as xBSD or Linux.