Gaming on Macs?

[M0RPH]

My sister is buying my teenage nephews Macbooks. I would have advised Windows laptops, since they always wanted to get into PC gaming.

After checking out the latest Macbook Pros, I see that they have discrete AMD graphics that should be pretty decent for gaming. I also see quite a few games for Mac in Steam. At the same time, it appears there are lots of games that are NOT available for Mac.

What's the reason for this? Is there not enough demand to make it worth creating a Mac version of games? Is it really that difficult to convert a PC game to a Mac version?

 

[Red Storm]

The better developers make their games for Macs as well (i.e. Valve and Blizzard).

I used to play Starcraft 2, EVE Online, and Team Fortress 2 on my 2011 MBP which is running integrated Intel graphics. Obviously you have to lower the settings a little, but it ran fine and with a discrete card you should be a-okay.

 

[M0RPH]

I just asked my sister which Macbook she bought them , and she said it's not the Pro, just regular Macbook, for $1199. I'm guessing it's the Macbook Air with the Intel Sandy Bridge integrated graphics? I was gonna buy him Left 4 Dead 2 in Steam but I'm not sure if that laptop can handle it.

Geez, for $1199 you could get a loaded Windows laptop with good discrete graphics.

 

[alent1234]

Install windows via boot camp. Problem solved

 

[bigwave2001]

thats what 1 did

 

[alent1234]

until recently OS X graphics drivers sucked and OS X being Open GL means that it's hard to port games

 

[mmntech]

Install windows via boot camp. Problem solved

This. OSX just isn't good for gaming. Performance is always worse than under Windows. All the games I have in my MacBook are on the Windows 7 partition.

 

[Emulex]

yeah its like gaming on android or ios - sucks donkey compared to say an xbox360.

but then why game on a pc at all if that $199 xbox360 does such a great job? assuming you buy all your games

 

[deanx0r]

Crysis runs on a MBA (320M). The new Intel IGP with the Core i5 is comparable to the 320M. Microcenter always has the 13" MBP on sale at $999. I'd return the MB and get the MBP. Getting the MB doesn't make any sense at this point.

 

[TheStu]

Crysis runs on a MBA (320M). The new Intel IGP with the Core i5 is comparable to the 320M. Microcenter always has the 13" MBP on sale at $999. I'd return the MB and get the MBP. Getting the MB doesn't make any sense at this point.

If it was $1199 they got the 13" MacBook Pro. It is the only price that fits. The MacBook (before it was discontinued) was $999.

 

[Bateluer]

If they wanted a machine for gaming, they would have been far better off getting a decent Windows laptop. For 1200 you could pretty much get anything you wanted, shy of the uber-elite gaming laptops. Now, they'll be jumping through hoops to play ancient games.

The MBP/MBAs are nice laptops, but gaming machines, they are not.

 

[Patranus]

This. OSX just isn't good for gaming. Performance is always worse than under Windows. All the games I have in my MacBook are on the Windows 7 partition.

That is straight up bull shit.
It has nothing to do with OS X.

 

[TheStu]

That is straight up bull shit.
It has nothing to do with OS X.

No, it has to do with OS X. Alright fine, it has to do with game developers not developing games that work on OS X. But you can also say that the problem is with Linux.

There are more games available for Windows, and they run better in Windows. That is just how it is. When I had my hack actually working and dualbooting, i would spend 90% of my time in OS X, it is my preferred OS, but I would turn to Windows for games, even cross platform ones.

 

[Aikouka]

It's not really OSX itself, it's that most developers are writing for DirectX and that's a Windows-only API. There are a few developers that are pretty Mac faithful such as Valve and Blizzard. There are also a decent amount of Steamplay games too.

However, if you really want gaming... I wouldn't buy an OSX-based machine and expect much gaming.