"All PC Games Run On Macs." What?

[Griffolion]

First of all: Please read the whole post before posting. Thanks!

Last night, a friend of mine and my dad's dropped by. Well, we got on the subject of computers and he starting saying that, for the things I do, an iMac would be perfect.

Well, my gaming computer is so old that the latest game I've played is The Sims 3, and it was pretty laggy at that. <:'-( So, for the past few years I've missed out on games. (I don't even have an Xbox360, a PS3 or, God-forbid, a Wii.) So, we mentioned that it would be difficult to spend $1,200 on a work computer and THEN spend at least $3,000 bucks on a new, up-to-date gaming rig.

Well, this friend then said this, pretty much word for word: "All PC games can run on Mac. They were designed on Macs. You put it in and, BOOM, it's loaded. No installing, no waiting, it's in there instantly. On a computer, you have to put it in, wait for it to install, no, not on a Mac. It's installed the moment you put it in."

Well, to be honest, to me, that sounded, and still sounds, like bullshit. VALVe just recently made Steam available for Macs and Skyrim doesn't seem to have OSX support.

However, since my dad and I are not really computer savvy, I wanted to give our friend the benefit of the doubt by asking here: Can an iMac run all PC games? Even old ones that you would get at Good Old Games?

Also, he mentioned when talking about the difference between the $700 and $1,200 iMac, he said the $1,200 iMac has, "... Five more gigs of RAM." Um, that's funny; I always thought RAM cam in 256MB, 512MB, 2Gigs, 4Gigs, 8Gigs and so on. Is it possible to have an odd number of RAM like 5 Gigs?

I've a small feeling your friend is a Mac fanboy and, like all mac fanboys, don't have the slightest clue what they're on about.

Modern Mac PC's run off x86 architecture, so theoretically the same code that would work on Windows will work on a Mac, however there are a lot of compiler differences between Windows and Mac, so no, the same software could not be run save for the intervention of a compiler specifically for the Mac OS. A number of games are now being made to work on Mac because of the same architecture between both OS' making it fairly easy to do so. But it's not as simple as your friend seems to be putting it. The only other way is to get a Mac and load a copy of Windows through Bootcamp, but to be honest, by the time you've done that, just get a PC...

Lastly, it's theoretically possible to have an odd numbered amount of RAM, however it would be unlike Apple to make it asymmetrical like that. They always progress upwards in even numbers.

Conclusion: Your friend is a fanboy, listen to nothing they say, they're just trying to sell you something by lying through their teeth.

PS - The best graphics performance you can expect from a current gen Mac Tower is a 5870. So, even if they did run all PC games, it honestly wouldn't be the best for the job anyway.

PPS - Seriously, if you're looking into getting a new machine for the purpose of gaming among other things, do yourself (and your wallet) a massive favour and stay away from Apple. Windows PC's will do gaming better, any sort of design equally well and any other mundane task equally well. For cheaper, too.

*Sigh*... And breathe...

 

[ckam]

I suppose it could do that. If you have programs like Crossover or something, then I guess it works.

 

[Charey Wolf]

No .EXE files cannot run on macOSX. Even with WINE which is designed to "emulate" windows only ~%50 of windows programs will run. You can install windows on a mac but then you are running windows.

 

[Cronq]

You've encountered the typical Apple user. Doesn't know shit about his hardware. Steve Jobs was the greatest brain washer of our time.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Yeah, I'm with everyone else here in saying that everything your friend said is complete and utter bullshit. It's just a Mac fanboy trying to get you to buy into the Mac, even if he has to do so by coercion.

Macs are nice and all, but they're pretty much useless to a gamer, unless you dual-boot windows (and even then you'll still have problems with hardware drivers). You're much better off buying a decent PC, and then dual-boot OSX onto it if you really want a Mac operating system, and the ability to game.

 

[Overlord93]

That guy is one of those ppl that talk about stuff they have no idea about to look smart
A.K.A. Bullshiters, i know some those types of ppl, do not listen to them, DO NOT!
Its just hard for me to understand how can someone speak about something he doesn't/vaguely knows about confidently as he is an expert on the issue.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Unless you're going to be doing some heavy editing and stuff I wouldn't recommend a MAC. In fact, I'd recommend staying away from Apple products.

 

[Bluntknife]

You're doing something majorly wrong if a gaming rig would cost you 3000.
These days you shouldn't spend more than 1500.
Anything more and you're just chasing benchmarks.

 

[Atmos Duality]

So?

Macs have been using PC-environment emulators for years now.
Of course, this brings the problems of instability and a higher requirement for hardware.
And that's ignoring how horribly cost-ineffective Mac hardware is. You pay the Fad-Tax.

Hell, my old Linux distro had WINE for the same thing years ago.

 

[Viral_Lola]

Yes, there are games for the Mac but there are some other stuff that you need to do. With anything there is still installing. Also, 1.2k for a gaming laptop, I get but an additional 3K on a gaming rig? Are you crazy? You can do it for much cheaper and with 3k you could buy a decent LCD TV, a 360, a PS3, and some games.

BTW, I am a Mac user and I don't recommend gaming on a Mac. You can do it but you're going to be limited.

 

[Tyro The Fox]

I'm pretty sure it's been said but no. OSX or what-have-you cannot run all Windows software. To run Windows games on a Mac you can do one of three things:

- Use a Program called 'Parallel' to run a version of Windows in. It's a Virtual Machine program that will allow you to run both OS's at the same time. Run whatever you like in the Windows Virtual Machine. However, this may not be the most efficient due to that fact that two OS are running on one set of components.

- Duel-boot Windows or replace OSX entirely. This should allow you to play games using Windows with all the computers resources rather than having to share.

- Forget the Mac and get a PC with the same amount of money. I've heard this little rule for computers: Macs are good for artwork and creativity, PC's are best for games and coding.

On your question about odd amounts of memory: My Laptop has 3GB but it isn't possible to find a 3GB RAM chip. It's made up of a 2GB chip and a 1GB chip. To my knowledge, no-ones bothered to.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Well, this friend then said this, pretty much word for word: "All PC games can run on Mac. They were designed on Macs.

He's wrong and he's right (kinda), but he's still a moron.

Games are mostly made with Macs, in fact the whole creative industry more or less run on Macs, specifically, Mac Workstations.
Just for reference my 'old' work Mac has two quad core Xeon processors, 24GBRAM, a built in RAID controller, two 256GB SSdrives and a pair of Tesla GPPUs in it. It's hysterically fast, nothing I could buy with my own money comes anywhere near the amount of data that thing can crunch. It also cost ten grand and no, I don't get to keep it at home, or play games on it (can but dream).

These things have about as much relation to the iMac you can buy on the street as a Formula 1 car does to a Fiat 500.

As far as store bought PCs go, you can indeed play any PC game on a Mac if you install Windows on it. They run on pretty normal Intel and Nvidia hardware so it's actually very simple. But you could just go out and buy normal PC with the ame hardware for less than half price.

 

[drosalion]

Your friend is an idiot, dont listen to him.

As for what computer to get, a mac will always be incredibly more expensive for significantly less power, but they'll generally be relatively user friendly. But if you know how to use windows and are comfortable with it then dont get a mac as theres 0 reason to.

As to the things your friend said specifically
- the games being instantlly installed is rubbish.
- most, if not all games are NOT designed FOR macs (whether or not they're designed ON macs is irrelevant).
- not all games run on macs, although all macs can install windows so u can do it by that but its a hassle.
- $1,200 for a pc (windows) will buy you a perfectly suitable mid-high end gaming machine that can run all new games on high settings, for which you'd be paying ~$2,500 or more for equivalent specs on a Mac.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

if it has Mac written on the box/steam page, it'll run.
until you need to upgrade it, in which case you have to... fuck it, it'll be cheaper to use your gaming rig for as much work as possible, and not get a Mac (unless you're a graphic designer/film editor).

 

[Sectan]

Buying the parts individually online and putting them together yourself is a pretty easy thing to do if you want a desktop. Make sure you know what you're doing or you could be stuck with incompatible pieces. Alienware is pretty good. You can get a prebuilt gaming laptop for about 1500 or even 2000 USD if you want to go that route.

 

[Flac00]

Snip

This is what you call an asshole. He doesn't know anything about computers. However, macs can run games through bootcamp, that he did get right. However everything else.....not so much.

 

[thahat]

First of all: Please read the whole post before posting. Thanks!

Last night, a friend of mine and my dad's dropped by. Well, we got on the subject of computers and he starting saying that, for the things I do, an iMac would be perfect.

Well, my gaming computer is so old that the latest game I've played is The Sims 3, and it was pretty laggy at that. <:'-( So, for the past few years I've missed out on games. (I don't even have an Xbox360, a PS3 or, God-forbid, a Wii.) So, we mentioned that it would be difficult to spend $1,200 on a work computer and THEN spend at least $3,000 bucks on a new, up-to-date gaming rig.

Well, this friend then said this, pretty much word for word: "All PC games can run on Mac. They were designed on Macs. You put it in and, BOOM, it's loaded. No installing, no waiting, it's in there instantly. On a computer, you have to put it in, wait for it to install, no, not on a Mac. It's installed the moment you put it in."

Well, to be honest, to me, that sounded, and still sounds, like bullshit. VALVe just recently made Steam available for Macs and Skyrim doesn't seem to have OSX support.

However, since my dad and I are not really computer savvy, I wanted to give our friend the benefit of the doubt by asking here: Can an iMac run all PC games? Even old ones that you would get at Good Old Games?

Also, he mentioned when talking about the difference between the $700 and $1,200 iMac, he said the $1,200 iMac has, "... Five more gigs of RAM." Um, that's funny; I always thought RAM cam in 256MB, 512MB, 2Gigs, 4Gigs, 8Gigs and so on. Is it possible to have an odd number of RAM like 5 Gigs?

step 1: do NOT. GET A MAC.
mac's have 40% profit margin. they are ALWAYS. overpriced. also those advising you to get a mac are mac zombies. and are talking out of their ass as many a poster has said.

also i have recently ( 3 weeks ago ) built the very computer i am now typing this with. its so good the games that it cant run havent even been made yet. and i have only spent 850 euros.
so thats about 298734923492 dollars. ( just kidding ) more like 1100? so 3000 my bum.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Your friend is an idiot.

There are be about 15% of PC games that also run on a Macintosh OS, but with some hassle you can install Windows on your Mac to play all of them, then the question is why not just get a normal PC and save some money...

Yes RAM can be in odd numbers as it comes also as 1024MB -> 1GB.

 

[thahat]

Macs are good for artwork and creativity

This statement baffles me. I see it being made all the time with no qualification and I'm genuinely curious as to why people think this is, can you enlighten me at all?

there are programs for the operating system on macs. you can also run them on windows. but the mactards never figure this out ( it might take some fenageling, but still )

 

[Woodsey]

"THEN spend at least $3,000 bucks on a new, up-to-date gaming rig."

A great gaming rig wouldn't cost anywhere near that much. As for Macs, you'd need to dual boot with Windows, and it can be somewhat of a pain.