[xe0]

hey all

Seeing as Im both new to the Mac platform, and a casual gamer, Im quite hazy on a few aspects of Mac gaming- so Im hoping some of you MacNN gamers can help me
Ive done a few forum / web searches, but I cant find what Im looking for.

Before I start, I should mention my Mac is a dual 1.8GHz G5, 512ram, nVidia 5200 Ultra gfx card.
Im aware that the gfx card will let this config down, but the stock standard dual G5 is all my budget will allow for. That being the case, I could use some opinions and solutions!

First off, noting the system above, will Halo (yes another f*king Halo question) run adequately? adequately being, playable, and half decent looking? Ive never played Halo on any platform, and seeing as I am only a casual gamer, do you guys think it is worth a purchase?

Second question is for those of you who own Unreal 2003; Is this a game worth spending money on? I love Quake 3, but haven't played the Unreal series much at all.. and again, is my system beefy enough to play this adequately?

Also what do you all think of Medal Of honor:AA? This is indeed an old game, but I remember it was quite good back when I played it on my old Pentium III. Do you guys think it would be worth purchasing?

Lastly, I cant seem to find driver updates for this nVidia 5200 card? surely nvidia update their macintosh gfx cards? I have read somewhere that the OS X updates contain the latest drivers for supported mac gfx cards, however I cant confirm this.. is this true?

I was into gaming once upon a time, but it was on the PC platform. Nowadays I just don't care for gaming that much. Every now and then I'll rip up some Quake 3, but thats about it... However, since I have bought this new G5 I would like to stretch its legs on a decent game- and at the same time have game I can veg out to after work.

Thanks guys, I appreciate your comments!

[SOLIDAge]

i have an iMac 800 G4 with 1 gig of ram but i can help you...i am able to play Halo but ihave to turn down the settings, but it shouldn't be a huge issue for you...just don't expect it to run with everythin on Max! (not even PC gamers can do that hehe)

Medal of Honor is also very much so playable and should be fun as I have it as well.

can't answer the unreal 2003 as i havn't played it, but i have Quake 3 and it runs smooth as glass !

as for the drivers, driver updates for video cards are usually released in OSX updates. SO when software update tells you that there is a new update for OSX, there just might be video card updates there.

good luck with everything, enjoy your mac!

[MindFad]

Especially since you won't be able to run pixel shaders on your G5 (not possible on nVidia cards yet), Halo will run superbly! It's plenty playable on my dual 800 with GF3, in multiplyaer and single player. It will scream on your machine.

All of the games you mentioned will run great on your machine—and there's no need for th latest drivers; you already have them. And if there are new ones, they will be listed in Apple's Software Update.

Welcome to the Mac and happy gaming!

[Arkham_c]

UT2003 is a great game, and at $20 or less, it's a bargain to boot. I really like it, and I suspect it will be fine on your machine for casual gaming.

I'm especially looking forward to UT2004, which should be out within a month.

I played MOH:AA, and it's a fine game. Not outstanding, but a welcome change from the "I can run 30 miles an hour and take 6 rockets to the head before I die" games like Q3 and UT.

[i am yujin]

fx 5200

[a2daj]

Apparently, with the release of 10.3.2, you can get Pixel Shaders working with the FX 5200, however, there are still issues so it isn't very stable to use PS. But once those issues are fixed it should be possible to play Halo with the graphics turned up a bit.

Many UT purists have complained that UT2K3 is too much like Quake 3, so you should like it. Some people are having issues with the latest Mac patch but there are some ways around the issues.

MoH:AA is a great game, but the expansion pack Spearhead has some performance issues. The upcoming Call of Duty will be excellent.

[xe0]

thanks for the responses guys.

I made my decision and went ahead and bought Halo today and I must say.. it ranks up there with the worst games Ive played

that is of course, only my personal opinion..
I will elabortate: there are two main reasons as to why I say such a thing.

1) The game play is dull, and unoriginal. Certainly not the blockbuster it was hyped to be. The game play is far too slow, and not properly augmented for the fast action that surrounds you. He walks around in fire fights like he is out on a sunday stroll.

2) The actual game runs like shy*te!
I must say it is only just playable but hardly enjoyable. I turned most things to low or off, and still it was frustrating to play. I was playing at around 25-15fps most of the time, sometimes diving to 1-5fps

I have a theory as to why this is; Because this is not just a Mac problem. This is the same case on high-end PC's. A mate of mine has a nice 2500+ Athlon system running an ATI Radeon 9800, 1Gb DDR RAM - and Halo also runs like dog!? Yet the Xbox version looks and play's very nicely..?

This problem can hardly be one of raw system power.. if that were the case any G5 fsb is faster than an XboX.. well.. you know what I mean

My point is this- I believe Microsoft have made sure that all ports of Halo are un-optimized so as not to cannibalize XboX sales. Makes good business sense wouldn't it?


edit: my mate corrected me on the speed of his system. It is in fact a 2500+ Barton core Athlon, not a 2000+

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by xe0:

Because this is not just a Mac problem. This is the same case on high-end PC's. A mate of mine has a nice 2500+ Athlon system running an ATI Radeon 9800, 1Gb DDR RAM - and Halo also runs like dog!? Yet the Xbox version looks and play's very nicely..?

This problem can hardly be one of raw system power.. if that were the case any G5 fsb is faster than an XboX.. well.. you know what I mean

My point is this- I believe Microsoft have made sure that all ports of Halo are un-optimized so as not to cannibalize XboX sales. Makes good business sense wouldn't it?

Well, Microsoft did not do the port, so I don't think that's the issue. The PC port was done by Gearbox, and I'm sure they did the best they could. However, because of the pixel shaders used in the game, somehow the cards available now cannot render the frames in a single pass. I'm not sure why the XBox could though.

I will say that typically when people play on the XBox they are playing at ~600x400 resolution, since that is what a TV is capable of (excluding HDTV of course).

Second, the game is not SMP-aware at all. On my dual G5, one CPU is pegged, and the other is essentially idle. I get decent performance out of it, but it's not stellar like other games (see the other thread where we posted benchmarks).

[MindFad]

If you keep your resolution low, it runs fine.

The Xbox version is running at 640x480 at a capped 30FPS. Your G5 will do that with no problem (actually, it won't, since the nVidia cards don't allow fir pixel shaders). Higher resolutions with pixel shaders on are Halo's bane.

[xe0]

thx for your reply Arkham_c.

While the issue of the resolution and smp is correct, and I am aware of this; you raised a point I would like to comment on.

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
because of the pixel shaders used in the game, somehow the cards available now cannot render the frames in a single pass. I'm not sure why the XBox could though.

If the PC/Mac cards of today cant render in a single pass- how could the xbox which uses the dated 233 MHz custom-designed X-Chip which is a few years old achieve this? And its not just the render passes; The poly count in Halo is quite low for todays standards, yet modern games with vast amounts of polygons run crisp on todays hardware..?

clearly is is not so much of a hardware issue, but rather a coding / compiling issue. and if this is indeed the reason, then it begs a few questions as to why the coding / compiling has not been properly written to take advantage of the powerful hardware of today?

what goes on behind MS business goals are not what they seem, as Im sure we are all aware of

Back to the topic: I returned Halo, and grabbed a copy of UT 2k3 today, and its a deep contrast to Halo. UT 2k3 hammers on this system! At last a native OS X game which looks and plays great