Thinking about switching to a Mac

[Olias]

I was a long time PC user and explored Linux for over a year. I ended up with a Powerbook and bought my Son a iBook. I still keep 1 XP machine around for the rest of the family to abuse but I have no interest in it for now.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Brazen
Mac gaming is da bomb, yo.

LOL

 

[johnnqq]

they suck for gaming....thats about it.

 

[jdiddy]

Chicks dig Powerbooks makes for a good ice breaker. Theres side track if you want to right click, but instead of right clicking the single button you can tap your trackpad. Powerbooks are definately bad for games but fine for everything else. Did I mentions Powerbooks are sexy and chicks dig it???

 

[Xyclone]

PC (can play games) > Mac (...can't)

/thread

 

[MBrown]

As soon as Apple starts using intel processors next year(assuming intel will be much more improved than current intels) then Macs will be competitive in gaming.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: MBrown
As soon as Apple starts using intel processors next year(assuming intel will be much more improved than current intels) then Macs will be competitive in gaming.

Why do you say that? Linux uses the same CPUs as Windows and it isn't competitive in gaming, so it seems like there's just a bit more to it than that.

I suspect unless Apple can port DirectX (all of it) over, the Mac is going to remain uncompetitive in gaming. Of course, typical buyers of the Mac don't really care.

 

[Illusio]

I used to be a hardcore windows user. But after using mac OS at work for the past 5 years, it has really grown on me. Tiger is better than XP hands down. Much more stable and all around i just like it better. I recently bought a powerbook and I love it. I use it for everything. I only keep my windows box around for gaming.

If you are a hardcore gamer, don't get a mac. But for anything else they are great. They are espically good if you are going to do any design or video editing type stuff.

Honestly, if macs could plays games as well as PCs, I'l ditch my PC.

And dont like those MS goofballs get to you. processor speed is not the be all and of of everything.

 

[Illusio]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Pro: They come in pretty colors.

not anymore, their industrial design is better than almost anyone else on the market today.

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: MBrown
As soon as Apple starts using intel processors next year(assuming intel will be much more improved than current intels) then Macs will be competitive in gaming.

Why do you say that? Linux uses the same CPUs as Windows and it isn't competitive in gaming, so it seems like there's just a bit more to it than that.

I suspect unless Apple can port DirectX (all of it) over, the Mac is going to remain uncompetitive in gaming. Of course, typical buyers of the Mac don't really care.

True. Better than they are today then.

 

[MBrown]

In what way do they play games worse? Are they choppier? I never understood.

 

[Illusio]

they dont play games worse, they just have less games available. Most games aren't released on mac and pc at the same time (usually only big blizzard titles). Mac ones come out 6 months or longer (or never) after the PC release.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

I've had my iBook since March and I love it. I still keep a PC for bookkeeping and burning DVD purposes but emails, documents, and web publishing is done on my iBook. I just wish I had a bigger hard drive. I ran FreeBSDs at work so the GUI on top of the BSD kernel on the Mac was a match made in heaven.

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: MBrown
In what way do they play games worse? Are they choppier? I never understood.

Sometimes the small market doesn't allow optimising for the Altivec unit (the G4/G5 counterpart to SSE). Games are more affected by this than other software (say, Photoshop, which is a well performing Altivec user).

And without Altivec, more or less only CPU speed matters and there Apple felt behind in recent years (one of the reasons they change to Intel).

Except for the Powermac productline it's impossible to change the GPU, which is a drawback for 3D gaming, because Apple's built-in GPUs often are mediocre or low-end (never without dedicated RAM though).

Speaking of 3D gaming, as dclive said, DirectX isn't available on any platform other than Windows. If a game isn't available in OpenGL, porting it to the mac is a PITA. I'm glad Carmack/iD Software think of the Mac/Linux-gamer but many companies decide to support only one platform and that's often DirectX.

Network games between Macs and PCs normally aren't a problem but there's a handfull of games (mostly Microsoft titles like the Age Of * series) aren't because freakin' $35 bil. sales company Microsoft isn't able to port a game network protocol to Mac OS and prefer to write a second one for the Mac version...

Mac games hit the shelves later (few exceptions like Blizzard and iD Soft) and seldom drop in price.

In short, some reasons are home made or based on technical/market reasons but Microsoft as a publisher and OS producer certainly isn't a helping hand either.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: MBrown
In what way do they play games worse? Are they choppier? I never understood.

The 'cost per FPS', if you will, on the Mac market is vastly higher than it is in the PC market - when the Mac can deliver the FPS at all. A quick look at www.barefeats.com shows that frequently it cannot.

Then you've got to deal with availability of games (very slow release times usually, coupled with low availability of all but the top 5 or so titles), and the higher pricetag (frequently, but not always) of Mac games.

If you game, getting a Mac makes no sense whatsoever (assuming you'd get it as your primary computer.)

 

macs are cool. Like the midpoint between switching between windows and linux. Kind of like Suse. You have all the GUI you could need, but the console is there if you really want to get inot the thick of things

 

[remagavon]

Intel based powermacs will solve everything. Use OSX for productivity and various content creation apps, and reboot into windows to game. 🙂