Gaming on a Mac discussion thread

[AnthroAndStargate]

So I just got Team Fortress 2 and CS:S to work on my Macbook Pro running the latest version of OS X. Mostly.

I was wondering how people who game and have Macs have gotten along with other games. Any tips or advice for optimizing Steam games? Know any other games that work?

If your just gonna Mac bash please don't post in the thread, but if your a gamer who also happens to use a mac, come on in!


Moved from PC Gaming to All thing Apple-Anandtech Moderator- DAPUNISHER

 

[onlyCOpunk]

WHile I personally don't do this, I know a lot of people who do game via bootcamp and are very happy doing so. notebookreview.com has a good Apple forum in which most of the users are talking about gaming via bootcamp. But I guess just make sure you have the latest Geforce drivers from laptopvideo2go.com and you should be fine.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Ugh why did the mod move this. Apples are PCs too, this belongs under gaming.

 

[Kmax82]

Yes they are, but unfortunately we're still in the minority. Sorry..

I personally have had a great experience under Bootcamp, however, I simply cannot get any games to work in VMWare, Parallels, or Crossover. Maybe it's incompetence on my part, I don't know... either way, every game I've tried in Bootcamp has run very well!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Kmax82
Yes they are, but unfortunately we're still in the minority. Sorry..

Are they? I put Mac v. PC in google and got 35,800,000 hits. Argue semantics all you like, Apple spends a great deal of money on advertising to inform consumers they are not a PC. The very popular series of commercials often begin with "Hi, I'm a Mac." "And I'm a PC." I hope this demonstrates how a non-Apple user like myself could receive the impression it is not a PC.

While you can run windows, the OP states OS X is the OS of choice, and seems to be asking questions particular to games running in that environment? Questions that wouldn't really be relevant running windows on that hardware I presume? Again, not an Apple guy, so quite ignorant on the topic.

And to conclude my musings: I thought given that we have an Apple forum, and this seemed to be an Apple related topic, well, it would get the best responses there.

If I offended any of you, as it appears you feel discriminated against, then please except my apology, as that was not my intention, as I hope has been demonstrated by my explanation.

However, if you are still displeased with the decision, you can e-mail or PM moderator@anandtech.com or post in personal forum issues.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: Kmax82
Yes they are, but unfortunately we're still in the minority. Sorry..

Are they? I put Mac v. PC in google and got 35,800,000 hits. Argue semantics all you like, Apple spends a great deal of money on advertising to inform consumers they are not a PC. The very popular series of commercials often begin with "Hi, I'm a Mac." "And I'm a PC." I hope this demonstrates how a non-Apple user like myself could receive the impression it is not a PC.

While you can run windows, the OP states OS X is the OS of choice, and seems to be asking questions particular to games running in that environment? Questions that wouldn't really be relevant running windows on that hardware I presume? Again, not an Apple guy, so quite ignorant on the topic.

And to conclude my musings: I thought given that we have an Apple forum, and this seemed to be an Apple related topic, well, it would get the best responses there.

If I offended any of you, as it appears you feel discriminated against, then please except my apology, as that was not my intention, as I hope has been demonstrated by my explanation.

However, if you are still displeased with the decision, you can e-mail or PM moderator@anandtech.com or post in personal forum issues.

Hey dapunisher,

i just wanted to let you know i'm by no means offended or angry

I was just curious as to why it was moved, I consider Apples to be PC because they run on Intel hardware, nVidia chipstes, and you can run windows on them - but I totally understand your reasoning.

thanks for commenting!

 

[Illusio]

The only games I played on my mac are Civ, starcraft, diablo 2 and WOW. I wish more games came out for native OS X. But most just don't. I have an old PC desktop I keep for gaming, but now that I bought a new Macbook Pro this week, I'm guessing I'll be doing most of my gaming via bootcamp.

 

[Kmax82]

No offense taken from me either.

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: Kmax82
Yes they are, but unfortunately we're still in the minority. Sorry..

Are they? I put Mac v. PC in google and got 35,800,000 hits. Argue semantics all you like, Apple spends a great deal of money on advertising to inform consumers they are not a PC. The very popular series of commercials often begin with "Hi, I'm a Mac." "And I'm a PC." I hope this demonstrates how a non-Apple user like myself could receive the impression it is not a PC.

While you can run windows, the OP states OS X is the OS of choice, and seems to be asking questions particular to games running in that environment? Questions that wouldn't really be relevant running windows on that hardware I presume? Again, not an Apple guy, so quite ignorant on the topic.

And to conclude my musings: I thought given that we have an Apple forum, and this seemed to be an Apple related topic, well, it would get the best responses there.

If I offended any of you, as it appears you feel discriminated against, then please except my apology, as that was not my intention, as I hope has been demonstrated by my explanation.

However, if you are still displeased with the decision, you can e-mail or PM moderator@anandtech.com or post in personal forum issues.

gaming on a mac means installing bootcamp and running windows xp/vista on it, and then playing your games in windows. which pretty much makes it pc gaming.

it's getting a ~little~ better, but i've heard bad things about the newer ea ports.

 

[bearxor]

Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
So I just got Team Fortress 2 and CS:S to work on my Macbook Pro running the latest version of OS X. Mostly.

I was wondering how people who game and have Macs have gotten along with other games. Any tips or advice for optimizing Steam games? Know any other games that work?

If your just gonna Mac bash please don't post in the thread, but if your a gamer who also happens to use a mac, come on in!


Moved from PC Gaming to All thing Apple-Anandtech Moderator- DAPUNISHER

I'm a gamer who happens to be a Mac user...

Except when I'm gaming... Then I'm a Windows user... Just use Windows for now... Seriously...

 

[Kmax82]

Yea.. it is a hassle to reboot into Windows for games, but they do run tons better in Bootcamp.

 

[RedWolf]

Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
So I just got Team Fortress 2 and CS:S to work on my Macbook Pro running the latest version of OS X. Mostly.

I was wondering how people who game and have Macs have gotten along with other games. Any tips or advice for optimizing Steam games? Know any other games that work?

If your just gonna Mac bash please don't post in the thread, but if your a gamer who also happens to use a mac, come on in!


Moved from PC Gaming to All thing Apple-Anandtech Moderator- DAPUNISHER

How did you get TF2 to run decently? What video card do you have? I have tried getting TF2 to run decently (>30fps) on Crossover, Paralells, and VMware and the best I managed was about 15fps with Crossover. From what I understand, the problem is the video drivers for the 8600 are pretty bad (in the crossover forum). It technically runs but it's unplayable. Runs great in bootcamp but restarting can be a pain.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Originally posted by: RedWolf

Originally posted by: AnthroAndStargate
So I just got Team Fortress 2 and CS:S to work on my Macbook Pro running the latest version of OS X. Mostly.

I was wondering how people who game and have Macs have gotten along with other games. Any tips or advice for optimizing Steam games? Know any other games that work?

If your just gonna Mac bash please don't post in the thread, but if your a gamer who also happens to use a mac, come on in!


Moved from PC Gaming to All thing Apple-Anandtech Moderator- DAPUNISHER

How did you get TF2 to run decently? What video card do you have? I have tried getting TF2 to run decently (>30fps) on Crossover, Paralells, and VMware and the best I managed was about 15fps with Crossover. From what I understand, the problem is the video drivers for the 8600 are pretty bad (in the crossover forum). It technically runs but it's unplayable. Runs great in bootcamp but restarting can be a pain.

I havent yet. I always read about people who have but mine keeps crashing :/

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Is it better to run in Bootcamp or can you run it in VMWare?

 

[bearxor]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
Is it better to run in Bootcamp or can you run it in VMWare?

For games? Bootcamp. 100% no other way to go right now.

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

I wish I could run in boot camp (actually i wish i could run is os x to dual boot) but i cant run in boot camp.

im one of the people having that problem with the new mbp when you try to partition it with the boot camp assistant it kernel panics. there is no easy fix, mac genuises dont know what to do, what a pain! a lot of people are having this problem on the interwebs.

 

[ubercaffeinated]

strange. i've got a penryn mbp, and i've got bootcamp working just fine... did you use bootcamp from the restore disks?

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: bearxor

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
Is it better to run in Bootcamp or can you run it in VMWare?

For games? Bootcamp. 100% no other way to go right now.

that depends on what you want to play. I've played deus ex a little and quake 3 with parallels... q3 faired a little better, but it ran I believe support is up to DX8? It works, but yes, bootcamp is the ideal way.

I need to find an intel native doom 2 port. actually, I should just emulate dos and play the original... haha

 

[AnthroAndStargate]

Originally posted by: makoto00
strange. i've got a penryn mbp, and i've got bootcamp working just fine... did you use bootcamp from the restore disks?

i just used the boot camp assistant that was installed on my hd