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KS-Jayhawk · Mar 13, 2004, 04:41 PM

Well I have played about 3 hours worth of UT 2004, and it is awesome...what gives with everybody bagging on the mac for games?

MindFad · Mar 13, 2004, 05:12 PM

Did you play it on a G5?

rhogue islander · Mar 13, 2004, 09:12 PM

My Dual G5 is awesome for Quake3. It's the only multiplayer game I play and I use my mac exclusively for it. Fps is not an issue on this machine.

However most of the time I end up buying games for my PC. There are more titles available, often at lower cost.

Some of the ports of PC games to Mac are poorly optimized. Aliens vs Predator is a good example. Same for Bloodrayne.

KS-Jayhawk · Mar 13, 2004, 09:52 PM

MindFad, yes I play it on a dp 1.8, I just switced to mac from a PC and have no regrets..

MindFad · Mar 13, 2004, 09:56 PM

Well, that's why it's so great, Mr. G5.

I agree, gaming is awesome on the Mac�if you have a G5.

ChasingApple · Mar 13, 2004, 10:34 PM

Originally posted by MindFad:
Well, that's why it's so great, Mr. G5. I agree, gaming is awesome on the Mac�if you have a G5.

And I disagree with you implying that gaming is not awesome if you DONT have a G5

All of my games are running fast and beautiful in 1440x900 res. Exactly what games dont run well for you?

As a matter of fact I remember when I got my first iMac, Bondi blue G3 233Mhz with 32MB ram, and Episode 1 pod racer was FLYING it was so fast and good looking, I was amazed.

Cheers

gururafiki · Mar 14, 2004, 04:13 AM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
And I disagree with you implying that gaming is not awesome if you DONT have a G5 All of my games are running fast and beautiful in 1440x900 res. Exactly what games dont run well for you?

As a matter of fact I remember when I got my first iMac, Bondi blue G3 233Mhz with 32MB ram, and Episode 1 pod racer was FLYING it was so fast and good looking, I was amazed.

Cheers

Can you fit a radeon 9800 pro into your imac?

ChasingApple · 05:48 AM

Originally posted by gururafiki:
Can you fit a radeon 9800 pro into your imac?

The real question is....Is a Radeon 9800 Pro the only card on this earth that can play games on a Mac? I think not. God damn I thought I left the computer challenged people when I switched from PC's....UGH.

Angus_D · Mar 14, 2004, 07:29 AM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
The real question is....Is a Radeon 9800 Pro the only card on this earth that can play games on a Mac? I think not. God damn I thought I left the computer challenged people when I switched from PC's....UGH.

Oh, no, there are just as many if not more computer challenged Mac users. The Mac is so friendly that it almost encourages you not to understand what you're doing

busket68 · Mar 14, 2004, 11:10 AM

Gaming has always been fine on macs...its just that to game at the same level, you need to spend a shitload of cash. Sure, a G5 with the newest greatest card probably runs games great. But that's also well over 2 grand. You can slap together a decent PC gaming rig for under a grand.

And I disagree about the original iMac. It ran quake 3 like ****, and UT was only okay in the small levels.

- Ca$h

gururafiki · Mar 14, 2004, 01:07 PM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
The real question is....Is a Radeon 9800 Pro the only card on this earth that can play games on a Mac? I think not. God damn I thought I left the computer challenged people when I switched from PC's....UGH.

No, the Radeon 9800 is not the only card on earth that can play games on a mac, but it does make games like Unreal 2004, and Doom 3 playable. My powerbook can seem to barely handle 2004. Choppy gameplay means umplayable gaming to me. My first iMac, Bondi blue G3 333Mhz with 32MB ram plays Unreal like crap! It does smooth out a little with all the settings turned down, but who wants to play Unreal when all your shooting are choppy blobs running around on your screen?

I realy don't think that it is all about hardware. A lot of the things that suck about gaming on a mac have to do with how well the software is optimized for a mac. Since most games are built for PC's, the mac coding isn't as fined tuned as the PC coding, and therefore you don't get great gameplay unless you have hardware that can handle it.

ChasingApple · Mar 14, 2004, 05:51 PM

Well my killer little iMac runs UT great. I followed Ryan's (guy porting UT2004) instructions and turned sound off for now, its a bug and will be fixed anyway soon and I get 25-80 FPS depending on whats going on, to me that is a game running AWESOME, I dont need my games hitting 200+ FPS, cant see it anyway. Anything above 30 FPS is nice and smooth and UT2004 stays above 30 FPS 90% of the time so im happy. UT2003 runs even better @ around 50-100 FPS. Quake 3 is so old it has cobwebs on top of cobwebs on it, and that it right well over 100+ FPS so there you have it, boring old game though.

What I find myself playing now though it Ghost Master (killer fun game), Warcraft 3 (there are no words), JK Academy, and Neverwinter Nights...all of which are modern games and play at extremely high framerates at full 1440x900 native res with all the eye candy cranked up, that is gaming my friend and there isnt a single Radeon 9800 Pro or G5 anywhere near my system...point in fact, an iMac is an awesome gaming system for the entire 10% of the time I actually spend playing games.

If your a diehard gamer, you play on a Gamecube, XBOX, or PS2 anyway which I do through my iMac

ChasingApple · Mar 14, 2004, 05:55 PM

Oh, and all said games above run great on the little iBook as well

gururafiki · Mar 15, 2004, 04:14 AM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
Well my killer little iMac runs UT great. I followed Ryan's (guy porting UT2004) instructions and turned sound off for now, its a bug and will be fixed anyway soon and I get 25-80 FPS depending on whats going on, to me that is a game running AWESOME, I dont need my games hitting 200+ FPS, cant see it anyway. Anything above 30 FPS is nice and smooth and UT2004 stays above 30 FPS 90% of the time so im happy. UT2003 runs even better @ around 50-100 FPS. Quake 3 is so old it has cobwebs on top of cobwebs on it, and that it right well over 100+ FPS so there you have it, boring old game though.

Thanks for that info, I didn't realize it was sound that was an issue.

ChasingApple · Mar 15, 2004, 04:30 AM

Originally posted by gururafiki:
Thanks for that info, I didn't realize it was sound that was an issue.

Most welcome, hopefully this week sometime a new Demo will surface giving us 100% power with all the bells and whistles on

KS-Jayhawk · Mar 15, 2004, 09:47 AM

Originally posted by ChasingApple:
Most welcome, hopefully this week sometime a new Demo will surface giving us 100% power with all the bells and whistles on

A new demo? I thought the full version was supposed to be out soon??

Jansar · Mar 15, 2004, 12:21 PM

I'm going to buy a PC just for games (and I freaking hate PCs). Does that say anything? You can't go wrong with Alienware though.

gururafiki · Mar 15, 2004, 01:45 PM

Originally posted by KS-Jayhawk:
A new demo? I thought the full version was supposed to be out soon??

Just went gold today. Should be shipping within the next couple of weeks.

lenox · Mar 15, 2004, 03:42 PM

About a year or so ago, I spent $20 on an ebay auction for an old pentium 2 machine. It came with 384mb ram and I threw one of my MDD's old hard drives into it, as well as a new radeon 9000 for about $50. This thing actually ran enemy-territory just fine in linux.

Anyhow, I decided to upgrade it for other reasons (one being mythtv), so I spent about $70 for an athlon xp cpu/mobo combo, and put it into the P2's old case.

All told, I spent less than a couple hundred dollars and the thing plays games like a champ....but that's all I'd ever really use it for. There's a reason PCs are so much cheaper.

However, if you only want a computer for games, you can build one for about the price of a console system, easily. If you want a computer to actually do work with and enjoy, get a mac. Games are an added bonus. That's just my experience based on the mac/pc gaming issue.

mac freak · 04:27 PM

Originally posted by Jansar:
'm going to buy a PC just for games (and I freaking hate PCs). Does that say anything? You can't go wrong with Alienware though.

I did the same thing about a year and a half ago. 'Twas an excellent idea -- computer gaming has become much more enjoyable AND I don't have to argue with people all the time.

However, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT BUY FROM ALIENWARE! The cases look like utter crap, and you can build the same machine they'll sell you for around half the price, depending on parts, or pay a small premium over building yourself and order a completely customized machine from a small PC company like www.ibuypower.com . But don't buy from the major PC vendors. They are all ripoffs. Apple is no exception, but do you see any OS X-running G5s that Apple doesn't sell? Didn't think so

I bought my PC in November '02 for $1450, and nearly every single brand new game STILL runs disgustingly smoothly. Basically, go for near-max CPU speed (Athlon 64 3000+ or 3400+ is the best deal right now, though the P4EE 3.4 is the fastest gaming CPU), near-max graphics card (a Radeon 9800 Pro is almost as fast as a 9800 XT yet costs significantly less), and skimp on everything else; get a small-ish hard drive (you'll NEVER use 160 GB!), go for 512-768 MB RAM (all you'll ever be running is one game, no?), get one simple DVD drive (who needs a complex burning doohickey on a gaming machine?), get XP Home (what use is Pro?), get a simple sound card (you won't be editing anything), don't order extra ethernet ports or front-mounted USB ports... and if you're like me, you'll have it all on a KVM switch (Keyboard-Video-Mouse [also USB and audio]) with your Mac, so you won't need speakers, a monitor, a mouse or a keyboard.

Boom! Cheap gaming for years for half the price of a G5 that'll give ya same FPS

(I know this since I now have a DP1.8/9800Pro, and it games on about the same level as my P4 3.06/9700Pro that cost over $1000 less AND came out a year prior. Macs are awesome machines -- I use my G5 the vast majority of the time, but when it comes to gaming, the Mac consistently gets poorly-optimized ports a few weeks too late).

Tulkas · Mar 15, 2004, 05:35 PM

My old 333 iMac ran UT just fine.

I have an eMac and it runs all games like a pro. Sure I have to play on med or low settings but it can even run UT2K4 just dandy.

Jansar · Mar 18, 2004, 12:03 AM

Originally posted by mac freak:
I did the same thing about a year and a half ago. 'Twas an excellent idea -- computer gaming has become much more enjoyable AND I don't have to argue with people all the time.

However, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT BUY FROM ALIENWARE! The cases look like utter crap, and you can build the same machine they'll sell you for around half the price, depending on parts, or pay a small premium over building yourself and order a completely customized machine from a small PC company like www.ibuypower.com . But don't buy from the major PC vendors. They are all ripoffs. Apple is no exception, but do you see any OS X-running G5s that Apple doesn't sell? Didn't think so

I bought my PC in November '02 for $1450, and nearly every single brand new game STILL runs disgustingly smoothly. Basically, go for near-max CPU speed (Athlon 64 3000+ or 3400+ is the best deal right now, though the P4EE 3.4 is the fastest gaming CPU), near-max graphics card (a Radeon 9800 Pro is almost as fast as a 9800 XT yet costs significantly less), and skimp on everything else; get a small-ish hard drive (you'll NEVER use 160 GB!), go for 512-768 MB RAM (all you'll ever be running is one game, no?), get one simple DVD drive (who needs a complex burning doohickey on a gaming machine?), get XP Home (what use is Pro?), get a simple sound card (you won't be editing anything), don't order extra ethernet ports or front-mounted USB ports... and if you're like me, you'll have it all on a KVM switch (Keyboard-Video-Mouse [also USB and audio]) with your Mac, so you won't need speakers, a monitor, a mouse or a keyboard.

Boom! Cheap gaming for years for half the price of a G5 that'll give ya same FPS (I know this since I now have a DP1.8/9800Pro, and it games on about the same level as my P4 3.06/9700Pro that cost over $1000 less AND came out a year prior. Macs are awesome machines -- I use my G5 the vast majority of the time, but when it comes to gaming, the Mac consistently gets poorly-optimized ports a few weeks too late).

Thanks man. I'm just so used to Mac prices that I don't know what a PC ripoff is like. I just want something that can run Final Fantasy XI at max.

starman · Mar 20, 2004, 01:30 AM

Gaming on the Mac sucks.

No, it sucks donkey balls.

Seriously...Macs, for some reason, suck at gaming. I played the UT2K4 demo side-by side on a Dual 2.0 GHz G5 and a 2.53 GHz P4. The P4 beats the crap out of the Mac and leaves it on the side of the road for the vultures to pick away at it.

Mike

Kitsune · Mar 21, 2004, 09:20 PM

We had a UT gaming night recently, the machines were
1 800mhz PC with GeForce 3 Card
1 1.25ghz PC with GeForce 3 Card
1 2ghz PC with GeForce 3 Card
1 G3 400mhz Blue & White with Voodoo 5 card

Mine was the G3 and I was picked on a bit when I walked in the door. I looked at the back and announced "It's my Mac's 5th Birthday today" which is was.

Mine was the first machine booted and configured on the network. 2 of the machines were a real problem
Once playing mine was the smoothest and fastest of the 4. My only issue came from my Microsoft optical mouse.
I also copped crap for only using one mouse button, I then pointed out that I won most of the matches with that 1 button, so it's can't be that bad.

mac freak · Mar 21, 2004, 10:12 PM

Is UT super-optimized for Glide, then?

busket68 · Mar 21, 2004, 10:40 PM

Originally posted by mac freak:
Is UT super-optimized for Glide, then?

VERY. The best UT card would be the voodoo5. It would run insane. My old 1st gen imac had an 8 meg voodoo2 and it ran pretty damn well.

- Ca$h

eep · Mar 24, 2004, 03:07 PM

Anyone playing True Combat? It's a mod for Quake 3 and it's very fun. I think it's better than Counter Stike. I'm playing it on a 1ghz TiBook and it runs great.

You can find more info about it here:

http://www.truecombat.net

BTW there are some Mac players but more never hurts.

Jaey · Mar 24, 2004, 06:43 PM

Originally posted by Kitsune:
I also copped crap for only using one mouse button, I then pointed out that I won most of the matches with that 1 button, so it's can't be that bad.

True, but two button mice are better.

wuzup101 · Apr 5, 2004, 06:37 PM

Wow I'm impressed. I didn't know there was going to be a UT2004 for mac. I have it for my pc (AthlonXP @ 2.3ghz, 1gig pc3200, r9800Pro) and it runs great. I am looking forward to buying my first mac (probably a 12" powerbook sometime soon. It's nice to know that I will be able to entertain myself if necessary while on the go. Wish I had money for a 15"... but sometimes a poor student has to do what he can...

FurionStormrage · Apr 5, 2004, 06:55 PM

Originally posted by wuzup101:
Wow I'm impressed. I didn't know there was going to be a UT2004 for mac. I have it for my pc (AthlonXP @ 2.3ghz, 1gig pc3200, r9800Pro) and it runs great. I am looking forward to buying my first mac (probably a 12" powerbook sometime soon. It's nice to know that I will be able to entertain myself if necessary while on the go. Wish I had money for a 15"... but sometimes a poor student has to do what he can...

You might want to look at a refurbished 15" then. My wife and I were resigned to purchasing the 12" until we realized that a refurbished 15" was cheaper than a similarly configured new 12" and came with a full Apple warranty. Our refurbished is going on 6 months now and we have had no mechanical problems with it whatsoever. There have been a few between the seat and keyboard errors...

wuzup101 · Apr 8, 2004, 12:39 AM

Thanks for the info on the refurbished machine. I may indeed decide to go that rout. I am currently leaning towards getting a 12" over the 15" due to both price and portability. This machine will mainly be used for taking notes in class and generally being with me everywhere. I guess it will come down to what I can get for the money in the end though.

FurionStormrage · Apr 8, 2004, 10:36 AM

Originally posted by wuzup101:
Thanks for the info on the refurbished machine. I may indeed decide to go that rout. I am currently leaning towards getting a 12" over the 15" due to both price and portability. This machine will mainly be used for taking notes in class and generally being with me everywhere. I guess it will come down to what I can get for the money in the end though.

The 12" is very nice. It almost got the buy from me. However, when my wife was looking at the difference in screen size between the 15" and the 12", she looked at the 15" and said, "Don't go any lower on the screen size." The portability of the 12" is very nice and if I had a desktop Mac I would've picked up the 12". If you're using it as a primary machine then definately look at the 15".

Good luck on whatever you decide to purchase!

nagromme · Apr 20, 2004, 02:29 PM

I love my AlBook 1.25. Review:
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...postid=1828953

It runs UT2k4 GREAT. For small matches, I even run full detail, full widescreen res, AND enable FSAA sometimes. At other times I lower detail to get better fps, and the game still looks amazing.

For many (most?) Mac is THE ideal gaming platform... for the same reason it's ideal in other areas. It gets out of your hair and "just works" a lot more than Windows does. Games are the finnickiest of apps to begin with, and often push hardware the hardest. I do NOT need to be troubleshooting Windows and Windows drivers on top of that! Gaming in OS X is a pleasure compared to my experiences in OS 8/9 and Windows. Now throw in the fact that I don't have to deal with all the viruses and spyware that Windows gets. No thanks, I'll game on Mac

Now, if you have the training AND the desire to maintain and troubleshoot Windows, then you WILL have some benefits: Mac has more games than you could ever buy or play, including the big-name ones like UT2k4, Halo, etc. But Windows has even more. And although Mac users tend to get a lot of things first (WiFi, Firewire, etc.), many games come out second for Mac--maybe by days, occasionally by months. That situation has improved, but if "bragging rights" is your thing, choosing Mac can make you lose out on the earliest release of some games. (Which tend to be buggier than the later Mac version anyway.) And if you're a do-it-yourselfer who doesn't mind having no support, you can build a nice fast PC cheaper than a Mac off the shelf. So for SOME hard-core gamers, a PC IS the best choice. Or a console.

But for most gamers, I'd recommend a Mac every time.

And my PowerBook is, for me, a better game machine than any console too: huge bright screen much sharper than TV but can also output nicely to TV, PORTABLE, mouse/trackpad aiming, lots of customizable buttons at your fingertips, built-in mic, downloadable demos, downloadable community maps/mods, online play without subscription, etc.!

To me, a laptop is the ultimate gaming system. Why only be able to have fun at home at your desk? And Apple is hard to beat for cramming a lot of laptop in a sleek thin case.

I'll also second the reports that UT2k4 is a great game! Buy it now!