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dulipishi · Oct 6, 2006, 09:26 AM

Do you guys own a separate PC for gaming or use your MacBook Pro or Mac Pro
for gaming ?

While I am asking, anyone tried playing windows games (e.g. HL2) on the MBP on a 30"
cinema display ? Can it drive games at the full resolution and all its glory ?

I am thinking of getting a 30" cinema display for my MBP. The only problem is that
my custom built gaming PC will be left headless - I don't think there is any KVM
switch that will be able to handle the resolutions required. Any suggestions as to how
to solve this ?

DeathToWindows · Oct 6, 2006, 09:37 AM

I'm a Boot Camp man...

I've seen HL2, run from Boot Camp, sent out to a 24" display... and it looked as good as it ever has.

goMac · Oct 6, 2006, 10:33 AM

I have a pre-Boot Camp PC I still use.

Pentium 4 3.6 ghz, 1.5 gigs of DDR2 RAM, Radeon X700 PCI Express, 120 gig SATA HD, DVD/CD-RW. The board has crossfire support and dual RAID controllers in case I want to upgrade it more later.

Velocity211 · Oct 6, 2006, 02:13 PM

I would use boot camp, but since I don't have an intel Mac, I have to use my Athlon box. I don't really play a lot games on it anymore, I use it as a media/file etc. server.

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
4GB DDR333 RAM
74GB 10000RPM as C Drive (I'm pretty sure it's SCSI)
250, 300, 500, 500 (all 7200RPM SATA) As a Concatenation RAID config
nVidia 7800 AGP
Ageia Physx (No use because there are no drivers for 2003 server)
2 DVD DL burners
Winblows 2003 Server enterprise/Mandrake Linux

olePigeon · Oct 6, 2006, 02:22 PM

I think a MacBook Pro or a Mac Pro would be capable gaming computers. You'd also save money and space by not having an additional PC.

Strupat · Oct 6, 2006, 02:22 PM

Boot Camp doesn't have full graphics support yet, so either play limited games in Boot Camp, or get a PC and then sell it when Boot Camp works properly.

goMac · Oct 6, 2006, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by Strupat

Boot Camp doesn't have full graphics support yet, so either play limited games in Boot Camp, or get a PC and then sell it when Boot Camp works properly.

Um, Boot Camp does have full graphics support. There are some glitches in DirectX games with the ATI drivers, but that's ATI's fault.

Gossamer · Oct 6, 2006, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by Strupat

Boot Camp doesn't have full graphics support yet, so either play limited games in Boot Camp, or get a PC and then sell it when Boot Camp works properly.

Are you sure about that one? People are reporting excellent performance in WoW, CoD, etc. Once you boot into Windows and install the drivers, it's no different from a PC, so you might as well just use one machine.

Strupat · Oct 6, 2006, 04:34 PM

Um, Boot Camp does have full graphics support. There are some glitches in DirectX games with the ATI drivers, but that's ATI's fault.

Ok, so it has full support, but it doesn't have full support.

Rumor · Oct 6, 2006, 04:52 PM

I just recently got a PC box that I'm going to upgrade into a gaming PC. When all is said and done, I'll have a nice geek station of a Mac, PC and Linux boxes.

Chuckit · Oct 6, 2006, 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by Strupat

Ok, so it has full support and I'm not going to say anything more.

Fixed.™

goMac · Oct 6, 2006, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by Strupat

Ok, so it has full support, but it doesn't have full support.

It has full support. So much full support in fact, it even has the glitches in ATI drivers. Only very specific DirectX games don't work.

BootCamp isn't doing any emulation. It's running Windows natively with the official ATI drivers. It is "full support".

ghporter · Oct 6, 2006, 06:26 PM

I have a desktop PC, a laptop PC, and now a MacBook Pro. I don't have time for games (beyond a card game or two just to kill time).

exca1ibur · Oct 8, 2006, 01:19 AM

Gaming PC here. I'll NEVER buy another Mac game.

Athlon X2 3800+ @ 2.6GHz
nVidia 7800GT
Two Dell 24" 2405 I split with my G4 Quicksilver (Upgraded 1.2GHz)

Judge_Fire · Oct 8, 2006, 04:17 AM

I have an aging Shuttle with AMD 3200+ and Radeon 9800 Pro.

With Crysis, UT2K7 and stuff based on those engines coming soon, I'm looking to upgrade. I'd love to buy a Headless Wonder Mac, if one comes out and dual boot that. If not, I'll just go with another Shuttle.

Gamoe · Oct 8, 2006, 05:21 AM

You've ommited some realistic options, mainly Linux using WINE (or Mac OS X using DARWINE) or owning a game console. For me, it's game consoles. I'd ever willingly own or use a Microsoft product whilst there are options.

Cadaver · Oct 8, 2006, 11:11 AM

Mac Pro + XBox 360 here.

Jawbone54 · Oct 8, 2006, 11:19 AM

Don't play PC games. I'm a console guy, myself.

Andy8 · Oct 9, 2006, 08:39 PM

Original XBox in use here.

I never use my computers for playing games, even back in the dark ages when I was using a pee cee

Halo2 and Far Cry anyone?

Chuckit · Oct 9, 2006, 08:44 PM

World of Warcraft anyone?

- - e r i k - - · Oct 9, 2006, 09:12 PM

Yeah. Where's the "I only play Mac OS X native games"-option?

©öñFü$íóÑ · Oct 9, 2006, 11:45 PM

I intend to get a MacPro in the future to play my old PPC games in emulation and then dual-boot via BootCamp to play my old Windows games. Would I ever get a game programed for the Mac? Probably not.......... i don't know..... it depends. The over-all quality of those Mac games would have to be on the level of today's console and PC games for me to even consider it.

climber · Oct 10, 2006, 12:05 AM

Originally Posted by goMac

Um, Boot Camp does have full graphics support. There are some glitches in DirectX games with the ATI drivers, but that's ATI's fault.

So what you are saying is that Apple was so good they were able to emulate all of the "features" that make Windows so enjoyable?

dserv · Oct 10, 2006, 10:19 PM

At the moment, seperate PC (X2 3800+, 2GB RAM, X1900XTX) though I'm probably going to part it out to raise some cash to go towards an iMac purchase soon.

goMac · Oct 10, 2006, 11:10 PM

I was actually thinking about selling my PC for a Mac Pro today, but I think I'm going to wait until they add enough PCI Express lanes to do Crossfire/SLI.