Poll: Gaming on a Mac, anyone?

[Ezahn]

I used to game on the bootcamp partition of my Macbook Pro and I must say it worked quite well.
Nowadays my pc gaming is on... well... an oldish gaming pc (8800 gt, e8400).
BUT.

I'm thinking about getting a new iMac 27'' i7 (the ATI 5750 one) and going back to my bootcamp days (and native Blizzard / Steam for Mac, btw) until, maybe, someday I'll hook up a new gaming PC to the mini-display port input and use the iMac as a very good and expensive IPS monitor.

What are your experiences, if any?

 

[automatron]

I use bootcamp, although I'm trying to get more and more games on mac 'cause I'm sick of windows.
It works fine though.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

I never can be bothered to play through bootcamp anymore. I'd rather just play native games, between my PS3 & 360 I don't miss out on too many games that I'd like to play anyway.
Besides, the amount of games on mac has seriously increased since Steam decided to grace our OS, I recently completed the lovely Portal again on my mac and I'm becoming more and more tempted by Team Fortress 2.
I suppose it depends on what game you really like to play. I'm quite content with just Valve games, Football Manager and Civilization games for my mac, there's not too many more games that I'd likely be playing if I used Windows more often.

 

[automatron]

I never can be bothered to play through bootcamp anymore. I'd rather just play native games, between my PS3 & 360 I don't miss out on too many games that I'd like to play anyway.
Besides, the amount of games on mac has seriously increased since Steam decided to grace our OS, I recently completed the lovely Portal again on my mac and I'm becoming more and more tempted by Team Fortress 2.
I suppose it depends on what game you really like to play. I'm quite content with just Valve games, Football Manager and Civilization games for my mac, there's not too many more games that I'd likely be playing if I used Windows more often.

Get TF2. I wasn't too sure of it to start and I'm not a huge fan of FPS's, but god I'm loving it. It's great to play if you have a little free time, and the different classes mean you can just switch to another if you're starting to get bored, although I haven't yet, and I've played 25+ hours in like a month. (that's a lot for me, I get bored of games quickly)

 

[Ezahn]

Yeah, TF2 rox.
Even if when I tried it natively on my MBP the performance was waaaaaaaay worse than on Windows/Bootcamp.
But the iMac 27'' stares at me so seductively... ;-) "I can fix your perfoooooooormance probleeeeeeeeeemzzzzzzz!"

 

[Ezahn]

Jokes aside, I really think that Steam support will be the turning point for apple gaming. The hardware is no more the point. The point is the software (and OS infrastructure).

 

[TheMann]

I prefer OSX native, but that doesn't mean I won't fire up bootcamp if I want something I can't otherwise get. After all, bootcamp is just one more thing to do if I wanna game. And yes Steam for OSX is a monumental turn in Mac gaming. It was quoted by one game critic (I can't find the article, but I did read it; I promise) that OSX was the most undervalued platform for games.

 

[The Shade]

Until I can affjord Windows 7 Home Edition, I rely on the native OSX games. Maybe when the price comes down a little I'll start bootcamping on my Mac, though. 'course, Fallout games are the only thing I would play on it. And then I'd have to buy anti-virus software...

Hrm. This is starting to sound expensive.

 

[Ezahn]

Until I can affjord Windows 7 Home Edition, I rely on the native OSX games. Maybe when the price comes down a little I'll start bootcamping on my Mac, though. 'course, Fallout games are the only thing I would play on it. And then I'd have to buy anti-virus software...

Hrm. This is starting to sound expensive.

LOL.

Or, you could backup regularly your save, do NOT buy an antivirus (or use a free one like Avast, that's what I do), and when your windows fries just format C: and restart with a fresh install. ^^

 

[DustyDrB]

I play TF2, Dragon Age: Origins, and KoTOR (over and over and over) on my MB pro. Not so much lately, as I got a new Xbox. I didn't get my computer for gaming, needless to say.

 

[wordsmith]

I used to game on the bootcamp partition of my Macbook Pro and I must say it worked quite well.
Nowadays my pc gaming is on... well... an oldish gaming pc (8800 gt, e8400).
BUT.

I'm thinking about getting a new iMac 27'' i7 (the ATI 5750 one) and going back to my bootcamp days (and native Blizzard / Steam for Mac, btw) until, maybe, someday I'll hook up a new gaming PC to the mini-display port input and use the iMac as a very good and expensive IPS monitor.

What are your experiences, if any?

Out of interest, how much does one of those set you back? I'm not going to launch into a "Get a proper computer lulz" thing, that's not helpful to anyone. On the other hand, I'd be prepared to bet that you could build a rig for about the same price? (if not cheaper).

 

[Ezahn]

I'm sure I could. The fact is I rely on OSX for all my non-gaming computing needs (aperture...) so I'd prefer to invest on a main mac machine.
My actual gaming pc is connected to a shabby 19'' 1400x900 monitor that's starting to annoy me.

 

[Ezahn]

MAC?

Is that some kind of PC?

Yes. Yes it is. Only with a different operating system.
(if the question was sincere)

Just please don't make of this topic another apple vs microsoft borefest.
Please.
Pretty please.
(if the question was something else)

 

[Ezahn]

Well, native is surpassing bootcamp in the poll. Now that's unexpected.

 

[nuqneh1]

I run native for TF2 and Garrys Mod but i use Crossover for when i want to play Audiosurf. That game would sell so many more copies if it ran native on Mac.

 

[Ezahn]

I run native for TF2 and Garrys Mod but i use Crossover for when i want to play Audiosurf. That game would sell so many more copies if it ran native on Mac.

U'r damn right. If supporting natively the iTunes library would practically sell itself.

 

[Ezahn]

Well, native is surpassing bootcamp in the poll.
Bootcamp doesn't take the 96 dpi vs 72 dpi issue into affect very well. It bothers some people, it doesn't bother others.

That's a good point, Burn. Honestly never thought of that. Care to explain it better for the largest public?

 

[psivamp]

Download glView for both Windows and Mac on your Mac machine and check out how out of date the Mac video drivers are. My MacBook's video card is compatible with OpenGL 3.2, but the Mac drivers have only partial support past OpenGL 2.1.

So, needless to say, I game in Windows. Actually, I pretty much don't run Mac OS anymore really.

 

[Wolfram23]

Uh well if you can, go for it I guess. Personally I think it's generally not a good idea to buy Mac since they're extremely limited in what you can do hardware wise, plus they charge double what it should cost and the OS isn't all that it's cracked up to be... So... yeah. Good luck with gaming on a 5750!