Thoughts on playing on a MAC...

[Dameek]

So my Wife and I are looking to upgrade to a new computer and she has her heart set on getting an IMac... I tend to only buy the top of the line products and was curious if anyone in the gaming community could comment on how PC games play on them if anyone here has experience with gaming on a Mac?
My current rig is starting to show its age after 5 years of use.

[Siegmier]

So my Wife and I are looking to upgrade to a new computer and she has her heart set on getting an IMac... I tend to only buy the top of the line products and was curious if anyone in the gaming community could comment on how PC games play on them if anyone here has experience with gaming on a Mac?
My current rig is starting to show its age after 5 years of use.

The problem I have with macs is that you are paying more for the name than the actual performance, also they are NOT known for their gaming performance, you could consider(if moneys not an issue) getting her a mac and then building a gaming pc for yourself.

-just my two cents

[Blankwindow]

The problem I have with macs is that you are paying more for the name than the actual performance, also they are NOT known for their gaming performance, you could consider(if moneys not an issue) getting her a mac and then building a gaming pc for yourself.

-just my two cents

Ditto.

A large portion of AAA games don't even have an actual mac version, instead you have to play them using the windows emulator software inside of mac. This adds to the issue.

not to mention Apple has gotten a half second from going backrupt both times that Jobs left the company. And unlike the two previous times, Jobs isn't going to be riding in a white horse to save the company. So I firmly believe apple is going to die sometime in the next two decades. Probably closer to within 10 years.

[ModJPB]

Why does she want an imac? Most people get macs because it's trendy. Macs are great at photo/video creation, editing, displaying and serving. They are simple to use because your options are severly limited.

As for gaming, macs do have games but they are mostly the same games that you can play on your phone or tablet. As for more intensive games, very few are converted for mac and when they are it usually happens months even years after the game is no longer popular anymore.

If you are willing to over pay for a $3000 mac why not split it and get a used low priced mac for the wife and get yourself a descent gaming pc.

what will be interesting in a couple of months is will your wife continue to use her mac or will she migrate back to using your pc. My wife did the same thing. She wanted a mac so I got her one, and then she kept using my computer. The only thing she uses mac for is to play music (its a $3000 juke box!)

[Irtar]

There is no reason to get a Mac these days as a personal computer. There's a reason you don't see an Apple add for their computer lines anymore. They focus on mobile computing, because they're basically dead in the water in the personal computing market. The open hardware market can provide everything cheaper than Mac's closed house can.

To put into scale how badly you will be gouged, it costs $1000 for the cheapest model, and it has a dual core 1.4GHz processor. I haven't had a processor that slow in a decade. I am sure your 5 year old computer would crush it.

Want to game? Most games that come to PCs are written for Windows, since it has the larger install base. Valve is making a big push with their SteamOS to bring a lot of premiere games to Linux as well, but we're a long way from premiere Linux gaming yet. Mac will benefit from this peripherally because it is also Unix based. But for now, if you want to play EVERYTHING when it comes out, without praying that one day Saint GabeN will save you, go with Windows.

What you need to do is figure out why your wife is interested in a Mac. Because, seriously, they're expensive.

Want to process video? Grab up a beefier power supply and throw a 290 or a Titan in there, and you will beat processing times of any Mac box. (Except for their $4000 Mac Pro. At which point you buy a second 290 or Titan and still come out cheaper)

Want to develop apps for the Apple App store? You can write the programs on a PC, and buy an iPad or iPhone for testing purposes. Save a lot of money.

Want to browse the Apple App Store? Again, iPhone or iPad. Save money.

Want to be trendy? Buy clothes with the savings.

'What's more important? Me or your little hobby?' Buy whiskey with your savings.

[Siegmier]

QUOTE=AOD_Irtar;776968]'What's more important? Me or your little hobby?' Buy whiskey with your savings.[/QUOTE]

LMAO
Seriously though, Mac's may be trendy, but you are going to suffer personally in terms of performance, and gaming limitations, once more you are paying for the name, not the product. one thing you could do is buy a apple sticker and slap it on the computer, if your lucky she'd never know the difference!

[cronym]

A Mac is entirely impractical for gaming. There are some things Macs are decent at, but that's certainly not one of them. You can't put a better video card in an iMac.

Of the 200+ games in my Steam library, less than half of those are Mac compatible. The majority of that half is small games from Humble Bundles. Most big name games don't support OSX.

Macs are good for graphic design/web dev/video editing. Even then, I wouldn't use one unless the exorbitant price is coming from another person's wallet.

[ModJPB]

A Mac is entirely impractical for gaming. There are some things Macs are decent at, but that's certainly not one of them. You can't put a better video card in an iMac.

Of the 200+ games in my Steam library, less than half of those are Mac compatible. The majority of that half is small games from Humble Bundles. Most big name games don't support OSX.

Macs are good for graphic design/web dev/video editing. Even then, I wouldn't use one unless the exorbitant price is coming from another person's wallet.

Amen

[drummerguy12005]

I bought a Macbook pro (late 2011 model) back in the day when I only played games on a console, and since I was doing photography for a newspaper, and I am a musician, I wanted something with good photo/video/music capablities. I started to see videos of all these PC games and realized that I couldn't even get them on my MBP and it was very upsetting. As an owner of a Mac, they have basically no gaming value AT ALL, minus the occasional LoL game when I am away from my PC. Even then I hate playing LoL on my mac. Just dont do it! haha

[Goodyear420]

Won'r be worth it. The majority of the price you're paying is the name, and for the same price you can buy most Macs at you can get an Alienware that's at least 5x better. The cheapest iMac is almost twice the price of Alienwares equivalent mini tower. For $150 more, they offer an i7 Extreme 4820K, 10M @ 3.9GHz, compared to an i5 boosted to 3.2GHz; and AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB GDDR5 compared to standard Intel Iris Pro Graphics. Your best bet is to build your own, way cheaper and less hassle.

[Romanion]

Alienwares are bad..
Sent from my RM-821_apac_singapore_295 using Tapatalk

[Blankwindow]

alienware is likeing buying tommy hillfigure white t-shirts. it is just a fruit of the loom t-shirt with the logo changed, but the cost is exorbitantly higher, because your only paying for the name not quality.

I can build 2 to 3 machines for the same cost as one alienware and My machines will be equal or more likely stronger.

[Shattered831]

Built>bought anyday, and its cheaper an you will know your machine an its capabilities better putting in the time yourself. Just my .02, mac's are good for certian things but when it comes to gaming an flexability pc will always win.

[Dibola]

Macs are great for video editing, movie watching and music producing and creation though PC has been eating into that over the years as software progressed and advanced.

[Fishwithadeagle]

If you truly feel the need to buy a mac, just build your own computer and make it a dual boot hackintosh. Looks of macs are not too attractive to me, so since I am assuming you are going in for the software, you can install both windows and mac os. That is your best use of money.

[WHOAPONY]

alienware is likeing buying tommy hillfigure white t-shirts. it is just a fruit of the loom t-shirt with the logo changed, but the cost is exorbitantly higher, because your only paying for the name not quality.

I can build 2 to 3 machines for the same cost as one alienware and My machines will be equal or more likely stronger.

When I was building my PC, I compared buying the parts in a few of the alienwares and actually buying the alienware. The alienware was always more expensive, but only by a couple hundred or so. If you want the name, alienware isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Having said that 200$ can be the difference of having a CPU or not.

Like everyone else has said you buy a Mac so that you can say you have a Mac. I really enjoyed building my computer, especially when it turned on and I knew I had done something right. Building takes more time, but you get more out of it.

Instead of buying a $3000 Mac, buy your wife a nice HP or Dell (I recommend Dell, they seem to be more durable than HP based off of personal experience) for $1000, and then build yourself a $1500 PC. With the extra money buy this monitor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-313-_-Product. I have it and I LOVE it.
When it's all said and done you walk away with two very nice machines, both of which outclass a Mac that would have been 2-3 times more expensive.

[Bobthefarmer]

When I was building my PC, I compared buying the parts in a few of the alienwares and actually buying the alienware. The alienware was always more expensive, but only by a couple hundred or so. If you want the name, alienware isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Having said that 200$ can be the difference of having a CPU or not.

Like everyone else has said you buy a Mac so that you can say you have a Mac. I really enjoyed building my computer, especially when it turned on and I knew I had done something right. Building takes more time, but you get more out of it.

Instead of buying a $3000 Mac, buy your wife a nice HP or Dell (I recommend Dell, they seem to be more durable than HP based off of personal experience) for $1000, and then build yourself a $1500 PC. With the extra money buy this monitor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-313-_-Product. I have it and I LOVE it.
When it's all said and done you walk away with two very nice machines, both of which outclass a Mac that would have been 2-3 times more expensive.

HP are more durable than dell, they may get a little hot, but don't BSOD as much.


As for the topic at hand, get her the 2nd macbook pro http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro for 1300 then buy yourself a nice gaming desktop, such as this combo deal from newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...=Combo.1624234 and still end up with around $700 savings, or 500 if you want the additional memory on her mac. Use it to take her out to dinner and a movie. That combination will be the best out of all of them.

[sepulchrave]

Pull up to the Apple store in your Miata, pay too much money for it and slip your manhood and self respect into the nearest trash can on the way out, stop by Starbucks for an orange mocha frappacino. Get it home and then find out that you paid an extra thousand bucks for a pretty typewriter. Spend the rest of your days drinking heavily and gazing forlornly at NewEggs website. Looking at all the cheaper machines with greater performance specs.

Sounds like a good deal to me. Go for it.

All opinions based on being a former Mac snob.

[Mokona512]

With the imac, the main issue that you will notice is the lower price to performance ratio. You can still run windows on it if needed, but don't expect to be able to upgrade (especially when the latest models where you can't even upgrade the RAM), and do not expect to do much gaming.

The only good thing that the imacs have going for them is that they have a decent IPS display (though they do get burn-in's). The IPS display on the imacs is roughly equivalent to the $150-170 1080p IPS panels (but with better quality control and thus a lower chance of getting dead pixels)

While the displays are not high end. they are better than average.


If you are a gamer and are not secretly an oil company CEO, then put the money to better use and build a gaming PC, you will get far better performance across the board for less money, and you will be able to easily upgrade.
Long term ownership of a PC you built your self, is far cheaper because there are many standardized components. ATX standards rarely change so you are likely able to keep the same case, powersupply DVD/bluray drive, storage and a number of other components across many builds. thus after your first decent build, future major upgrades will often involve just a new motherboard, CPU, and GPU (and RAM if a new standard comes out)

[Neotoad]

Don't know what u noobs r talking about. I have mac laptop pro that does 300 fps+ on BF4 ULTRA no problem. And thast in WINDOWED mode for all of the h8rs. Buy MAC get epic 360 no scope yolo swag headhots like me.