Want to move to Mac

[Alley Cat]

I will be getting a new computer in the next 12 or so months, so I compiled a list of the most CPU and GPU intensive games.

SUPREME COMMANDER, CRYSIS, GTA 4, etc

I figure my price limit will be $1500. Now, I just visited the Canadian Mac store.

iMac, 20-inch (Part Number: MB417LL/A)

2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x1GB

320GB Serial ATA Drive

Apple Mighty Mouse

$ 1,399

or it's upgraded maxed-out version

iMac, 20-inch, 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Part Number: Z0FN)

8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SD RAM

640GB Serial ATA Drive

Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse

Price: $2,814

The base iMac is identical to my aging HP (Spec's below)

2GB DDR2 ram

300 GB Drive

1 DVD RW + 1 DVD Rom

For rendering in DAZ and Poser, plus playing most of the newest games, is identical Apple spec's enough ?

[AtomSmasher]

Ummm you want to play Crysis on a mac ??? Aren't you just going to have to run boot camp to play that ... so wouldn't you be using windows again ...

[ThehAWKs]

using a iMac for gaming is not the best buy for power to cost ratio use that money to build you a intel i7 system LOL for less then 2,800 for a maxed out iMac you can build a Dual Intel Xeon 5500 system for 2,500 same price as apples quad mac pro just one big Fail to go with apple so early

[Subject Delta]

Seriously, don't buy an iMac for gaming. They have cheap and underpowered graphics cards into them

[Raa]

Agreed, a Mac is not the best choice for gaming unless you have a reason to get a Mac - and a lot of money.

I own 3 macs, none of which game "great" but the last iMac I got isn't a bad contender...

[a1ien]

So you want to play Crysis and GTA IV? Apple may say the imac has "ultrafast graphics" but compared to what we Crysis players run in our rigs, the maxed imac is truly crappy.

The best card, a single ATI 4850, won't play those on high at the native resolution while our SLI/Crossfire rigs do, for about half the price to boot. But the catch is, if you want a monster rig for less, you have to build it yourself.

[PL_ Veteran]

If you're serious about gaming and switching to a Mac...then a Mac Pro would be a better choice.

[Zapadlo]

I can see Apple fanboy in your signature, and nothing against it. However you must realise Mac does not actually support majority of the latest games. So if you want to play latest games you will eventually have to go with Microsoft even if you will be using a Mac computer.

Doesn't seem reasonable to me.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

If you're purely gaming, then a Mac is unfortunately not the best idea. If you want other things, increase in productivity etc, then go mac.

[Snipe]

APPLE FAN BOY, Microsoft hater.

Good luck playing Crysis without Microsoft :laugh:

[ThehAWKs]

If you want build a very good gaming Pc and install mac os x on it best of both worlds more power of less "check the sig"

[Raa]

If you want to do it legally, you'll buy a Mac :p

[Snipe]

If you want build a very good gaming Pc and install mac os x on it best of both worlds more power of less "check the sig"

that's a nice rig :woot:

[Antiprophet]

for all my sins, i love macs but trust me, dont get one for gaming.

i have the base imac there (it was spec'd up a year ago) and it barely copes with the sims for my girlfriend.

i bit the bullet and got a decent phenom x4 and x-fire cards and 2 1080p 42" tvs hooked up via HDMI

only cost me ?2000 all in and its awesome

[dead.cell]

If you're serious about gaming and switching to a Mac...then a Mac Pro would be a better choice.

would be a better choice if you have a lot of money to kick around.

Yeah, I'd suggest a PC for PC gaming. You could easily build an awesome rig for under $1000. Toss yourself a Macbook or Mac Mini and you'd have an Apple computer, all for less than the price of a Mac Pro. You'd probably have a better experience too.

[ThehAWKs]

If you want to do it legally, you'll buy a Mac :p

Or buy a apple retail DVD you pay of it so you get to do what you want with it :)

[the evn show]

Or buy a apple retail DVD you pay of it so you get to do what you want with it :)

When you buy a DVD you're paying for the plastic circle and a license to use the data on it.

The physical media has almost no value at all - if you lose your copy in a fire your license to

use the software on it will remain intact. Likewise, it's possible to purchase a software license

(even for mac os x) without actually receiving physical media. Large organizations like school

boards do this as a matter of course: storing 500+ manuals and CDs for Mac OS X is a huge

waste of space.

When you install Mac OS X on an unsanctioned machines Apple revokes the license to use it.

When you use software that you don't have a license to use then you're not any better off

(legally) than if you had just downloaded the thing from a Bit Torrent community. You avoid

the "unauthorized distribution" charges but your use of the software is still unlicensed. The

best analog I can think of would be using a crack to turn a demo version of Microsoft Office

into a retail release and/or hacking a copy of Windows 2000 Pro into a Server edition.

If you don't like the way that works I encourage you to write your senator, member of

parliament, etc. and argue for copyright reform and sane EULA requirements. The EFF

(Electronic Frontiers Foundation) is a good charity to support if you'd like to donate money.

Though the scope of the EFF is larger than than just license agreements, they're much

more focused on them than groups like national civil liberties unions (ie: ACLU).

We'll never get sane laws if you don't demand them. It only a few minutes to make your

views known - and the world may end up a better place because of it.

[Subject Delta]

So you want to play Crysis and GTA IV? Apple may say the imac has "ultrafast graphics" but compared to what we Crysis players run in our rigs, the maxed imac is truly crappy.

The best card, a single ATI 4850, won't play those on high at the native resolution while our SLI/Crossfire rigs do, for about half the price to boot. But the catch is, if you want a monster rig for less, you have to build it yourself.

That shows how bad a machine killer Crysis is, because I own a single 4850 and it is an awesome card. But yeah, I could only run it in medium at 1280x768 which is pretty bad really seeing as I can max out every other game on this card.

[TEX4S]

12 months or so ???/ and youre wondering about games now ?

Uhh... were you bored and couldnt think of what to post or are you really that excited about something so small so far from now ?

using a iMac for gaming is not the best buy for power to cost ratio use that money to build you a intel i7 system LOL for less then 2,800 for a maxed out iMac you can build a Dual Intel Xeon 5500 system for 2,500 same price as apples quad mac pro just one big Fail to go with apple so early

punctuation ?

or is english not your 1st language ?

[ThehAWKs]

12 months or so ???/ and youre wondering about games now ?

Uhh... were you bored and couldnt think of what to post or are you really that excited about something so small so far from now ?

punctuation ?

or is english not your 1st language ?

punctuation..... for what im doing this on my iphone just imagine were the dots would be :)

[TEX4S]

punctuation..... for what im doing this on my iphone just imagine were the dots would be :)

Oh...well then - yeah I understand ;)

punctuation just slows things down when on the iphone

[Boz]

If you're purely gaming, then a Mac is unfortunately not the best idea. If you want other things, increase in productivity etc, then go mac.

Well to be perfectly honest I use both a maxed out Mac Pro 8-core and super fast PCs and I really didn't see any increase in productivity just by using Mac. But I must be missing something.

[Phantom Helix]

iMac's are based on laptop hardware, ive got a 24' inch iMac and i run run Vista and Win-7 on it and gaming power sucks just as it would on a laptop.

all the "gaming hardware" is meant for PC's even if you did install OS X on a PC your not guaranteed that OS X will run that hardware at a level higher than basic functionality if at all.

There was a post on the forums of someone who just built a wicked i7 system complete with a new glass desk, he got a puppy to for around $2,800

[Macalicious]

Seriously, don't buy an iMac for gaming. They have cheap and underpowered graphics cards into them

Also as a gamer one would assume that to get maximum longevity out of the machine one would want it to also be upgradeable; being able to upgrade the graphics card for instance.

As much as I advocate Mac's, if you're a serious gamer and as a result going to have to use Windows 95% of the time, it doesn't make alot of sense buying a Mac.

[Alley Cat]

Longevity and upgradeable is wanted.

I may transplant some parts from my HP to a new rig. The Mac Pro is hideously expensive, is it overpriced ???!