Dual Macs+Radeon9700=Great gaming!?

Macs would certainly be good for gaming. Problem is: It's mostly the highend Macs that would qualify for new games. And the market of owners of the latest highend dual processor Macs with highend graphics cards that actually play computer games (and also buy them) is rather small. Thus: Not many games available.
 
If you make enough money to afford a new high-end mac, it means you don't lose your time playing game on a computer !
 
Originally posted by chevy
If you make enough money to afford a new high-end mac, it means you don't lose your time playing game on a computer !
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...you have someone who earns big money in order to afford a high-end Mac for you ;)

:D
 
Yeah, but if money's no problem, I'd have a GameCube for playing games (oops, I got one all the same), a PC for playing games (hmm, got one for testing and server purposes) and a Mac for everything creative (oh, I _got_ one). I don't really see a purpose in playing games on a Mac, as there are enough good and cheap alternatives (Playstation 2, GameCube...). The expensive thing? The games...
 
...likes to play games should buy a Mac! Of course NOT! I was just trying to show with this "news" post that Dual Macs finally almost catch up with the best Wintels out there...

However, I think that for some games consoles cannot hold a candle compared to computers: Online games AND network games! No matter what Sony, Nintendo, M$ try to tell people out there, for network gaming they still have a LOOONG way to go!

Oh and my gaming thing when free time appears: Sega Saturn & DreamCast but above all, for now and forever, MacMAME ;) :D

Finally, I think slowly but steady the Mac gaming scene becomes bigger and if I'm not mistaken is bigger than ever before with better titles than ever before... Enough writing, time for action: Go and buy that Dual hottie ;) :D
 
Originally posted by hulkaros
... No matter what Sony, Nintendo, M$ try to tell people out there, for network gaming they still have a LOOONG way to go!
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This comment means you have obviously not played anything on xbox live.

1) The service requires broadband, so unless someone with a very bad dsl connection tries to host 16 people in a game, there is no lag.

2) All xbox live games support voice chat, which is 100 times better than typing in chat on ghost recon, or some similar game. Voice chat is easy to use and comes in clear, again no lag involved so it comes in handy in team games.

3) Though there aren't really any mods or upgrades created by an online community, it keeps the games extremly cheat free. There are no cheat codes that one player may have that the others don't so the gameplay is fair.

4) Most of the xbox live games have good filtering capabilities so you can find the game type you want quickly, just like any good PC/mac game.

The only thing really lacking is a mod community, but as I said I think this is a good thing for now.
 
Dual Macs+Radeon9700=$2300!

bwahahahhaha!

you could build a PC for less than $700 with a Radeon9700 that would smear any Mac when it comes to video games.

kiss network games goodbye on a Mac as well. Mac game updates are so slow in coming that you can't play online with the 95% of gamers who are using PCs anyway because with a Mac, you'll always be 1 or 2 updates behind them.
 
Originally posted by dave17lax
This comment means you have obviously not played anything on xbox live.

1) The service requires broadband, so unless someone with a very bad dsl connection tries to host 16 people in a game, there is no lag.

2) All xbox live games support voice chat, which is 100 times better than typing in chat on ghost recon, or some similar game. Voice chat is easy to use and comes in clear, again no lag involved so it comes in handy in team games.

3) Though there aren't really any mods or upgrades created by an online community, it keeps the games extremly cheat free. There are no cheat codes that one player may have that the others don't so the gameplay is fair.

4) Most of the xbox live games have good filtering capabilities so you can find the game type you want quickly, just like any good PC/mac game.

The only thing really lacking is a mod community, but as I said I think this is a good thing for now.
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How many games of that quality exactly does the XBOX Live sports? :rolleyes: Enlighten me because as you already guessed I don't know that many about consoles... :D
 
Originally posted by kendall
Dual Macs+Radeon9700=$2300!

bwahahahhaha!

you could build a PC for less than $700 with a Radeon9700 that would smear any Mac when it comes to video games.

kiss network games goodbye on a Mac as well. Mac game updates are so slow in coming that you can't play online with the 95% of gamers who are using PCs anyway because with a Mac, you'll always be 1 or 2 updates behind them.
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Can you direct me to that $700 with RADEON 9700 in order to check if that beats the Dual 1.42? Just to check it out and not because I'm not Mr. el cheapo in general. I will choose anyway the Dual G4 because it kicks behinds in any area, ANY $700 Wintel box both in performance and quality!

As for networking gaming I was refering to "computers VS consoles" in general and not Macs... Read then laugh...

[edit: no play ground insults please :) - Jason]
 
after using online services for both the Xbox and the PS2 I must say that they are sadly lacking in many areas. They have made great strides within the past year but they are still not on par with most computer based games.

Of course there are many badly implemented network features in many games as well. YMMV..
 
Originally posted by Steve Bosell
700$ pc that will kick a 1.4 macs a$$ at gaming
http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/custom/thunderbird.htm
just add the 9700 pro, you can even upgrade the cpu to a 2200+

I think the xbox blows big time, I wish i would have got an ipod:mad:
pcs are the best gaming platform by far
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Wrong answer about $700 PC... In order to kick Dual's behind it needs Radeon 9700 which when you add the price it goes more than $1000... So, no $700 PC can kick Dual Mac's behind until next time... :D

But YES, PCs are better by a long shot when it is game time! :(
 
I dunno man, I am a big mac fan, but I do not know of one game that supports dual processors, on top of that macs can not even use ddr ram ( i realize new macs have ddr, but their fsb is only 166 ) plus macs can not even use all the cool features of the 9700 like anti aliasing, atmospheric filtering and trueform. It is sad but that 700$ (just add the radeon and upgrade the processor to 2200+ it comes out to 700$) pc will play unreal tournament 2003 a lot faster and it will look way better than a 3500$ mac.
 
Originally posted by Steve Bosell
I dunno man, I am a big mac fan, but I do not know of one game that supports dual processors,

Quake 3 ring any bell? I'm sure that you knew it but it just escaped you ;)

on top of that macs can not even use ddr ram ( i realize new macs have ddr, but their fsb is only 166 ) plus macs can not even use all the cool features of the 9700 like anti aliasing, atmospheric filtering and trueform. It is sad but that 700$ (just add the radeon and upgrade the processor to 2200+ it comes out to 700$) pc will play unreal tournament 2003 a lot faster and it will look way better than a 3500$ mac.

Look I NEVER said that Macs are better for games than Wintels and I think I've said it 2 or 3 times in this thread alone! :D

However, I went at the page you mentioned and if you add the XP 3000+ (this according to http://anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1783&p=15 is actually the CPU which the Dual Mac loses just by less than 10fps in Quake 3 and not XP 2200+), 512RAM, Radeon, NIC, XP Home, 120GB HD cause that's what actually a Dual Mac 1.42 has (minus the DVD-R it costs $2800 and NOT $3500), the cost goes up to $1430 and still you do not get FireWire400 and FireWire800 with the PC nor the total quality that the PowerMac has...

And yes, for the games you are almost correct: The "finished" games for Mac do not have the same features with the PC ones but with an update/patch they become the same... And yes, companies JUST convert the PC game instead of making it a full conversion for Macs... But when a game at the level of Quake 3 which is customized for Macs too, the Wintels performance lead isn't that big anymore and as I said in my first post of this thread G970 is around this summer's corner ;)

But in the end after all said and done, Wintels are much better in gaming than Macs but this will never change as long as Mac users keep the stereotype alive: Macs are only for Artists, Musicians, et al and NOT for games... Wrong! So, wrong! Macs can be for everything! Games included :p
 
Time for some hard facts. PC is cheaper, for a LOT less you get the same and sometimes better machine. But I love mac so why bother. Then again, some numbers for those who want to. These prices are from Apple Belgium (Dutch) and Exell (a computer store where I worked this summer). Both prices are full retail prices as I would buy them in the store. I could've gotten both machine a lot cheaper but let's just look at it from a normal users point of view ....

The Powermac. I didn't go with the fastest G4 but why would I, the PC isn't the fastest model around either, and I don't need 2x 150Mhz extra just for games.

Twp 1,25-GHz Power PC G4
1GB DDR333 SDRAM - 2 DIMMs
80 GB Ultra ATA-schijf
Dvd/cd-rw
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 128 MB, ADC/DVI
Apple Pro Keyboard
Mac OS X
Gigabit Ethernet
Twee FireWire 400-poorten
Eén FireWire 800-poort
Vier USB-poorten
Apple Pro Mouse

Price: 3 283,94 EUROS


CPU: AMD ATHLON XP 2600+ [290.40 EUR]
MOTHERBOARD: SOLTEK 75FRV AMD KT400 AGP8X DDR400 [112.53 EUR]
FAN: AKASA COOLER WITH 4 BLUE LEDS UP TO XP3000 [25.99 EUR]
MEMORY: 512MB DDR M.TEC 400FSB ONLY FOR 400/533 MOTHERBOARD [129.47 EUR]
MEMORY: 512MB DDR M.TEC 400FSB ONLY FOR 400/533 MOTHERBOARD [129.47 EUR]
HARD DISK: HD 80GB WD 80GB 8MB CACHE 7200 RPM [142.78 EUR]
GCARD: GAINWARD GF4 TI4800 128MB DDR TV VIVO DVI 8X AGP [279.51 EUR]
SOUNDCARD: CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER CT 4750 [21.78 EUR]
NETWORK: BELKIN NIC PCI 10/100 LIFE TIME WARRANTY [14.52 EUR]
FIREWIRE: ASUS PCI IEEE1394 + Ulead Videostudio 4 [68.97 EUR]
CD-RW: AOPEN CD-RW 52X/24X/52X [73.81 EUR]
CASE: AOPEN Midi Tower HQ48 BLUE 300W [81.07 EUR]
OS: WINDOWS XP HOME UK OEM [118.58 EUR]
KEYBOARD: Clavier - Deluxe Access? Keyboard [24.99 EUR]
MOUSE: Souris - Optical Mouse Blue [49.99 EUR]
ASSEMBLY TIME & WORK HOURS: 75.00 EUR

RECUPEL (Environement Tax): 3.00 EUR

Total Price: 1 641,86 EUROS

Ok, some minor notes:
1) I could've gotten a better processor for both machines
2) I could've gotten a lot better Gcard for the PC

The differences between the machines:
1) The PC has faster DDR (PC: +1)
2) The PC has a faster Gcard -> AGP8x (PC: +1)
3) The PC has a faster HD -> 8 Mb Cache (PC: +1)
4) The PC is cheaper, about half the price of the Mac (PC: +1)
5) The PC has a faster CD-RW (PC: +1)
6) The PC has a better mouse with 2 buttons and a scroller (PC: +1)
7) The PC has USB 2.0 (PC: +1)
8) The Mac has OS X (MAC: +1)
9) The Mac has Gigabit Ethernet (MAC: +1)
10) The Mac has a DVD-ROM (MAC: +1)

Like it or not, the Mac has only 3 +points for games, from which one doesn?t matter at all except to run as a server! The PC has 7, from which 5 are important for games (I counted the point 1-2-3-4-6 as important for games).

Face it, the PC IS a better machine for games. Then again, who buys a Mac solely for games, I've been using the mac since the old Apple II. I know why I use an Apple Macintosh, I'm not going to switch to PC :)

Bottomline stays, if you want to play games on your computer, get an Xbox or a PS2!

Some other minor notes, the price of the Mac should be cheaper, the price still dates from the times when the dollar was worth more than the euro but that changed some months ago ? The reasons why Mac is so expensive are those bloody taxes ?

Grtz,
.anerki
 
Originally posted by anerki
Face it, the PC IS a better machine for games. Then again, who buys a Mac solely for games, I've been using the mac since the old Apple II. I know why I use an Apple Macintosh, I'm not going to switch to PC :)

Bottomline stays, if you want to play games on your computer, get an Xbox or a PS2!

Some other minor notes, the price of the Mac should be cheaper, the price still dates from the times when the dollar was worth more than the euro but that changed some months ago ? The reasons why Mac is so expensive are those bloody taxes ?

Grtz,
.anerki

Price for basic configuration of Dual 1.25 is 3.183 euros!!! This is by NOT having 1GB RAM (512 instead) and the GeForce4600 (RADEON9000 instead)... :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I don't know if you replied to my previous postings but I repeat one more time that throught this thread I said time and time again that Wintels are MUCH better than Macs for games... :rolleyes: :p ;)

:D
 
My xbox live example draws mainly from ghost recon, though all xbox live games are equipped with filtering tools to find games. This differs greatly from most PC games, which have a different interface across each. Xbox live games have consistant search features so for the most part you don't have to learn a new funtion everytime you get a new game, you just have to learn the game. That's not such a big deal, but when you combine it with the other online features like your friends list, it gets better. Let's say bobo69 is playing a hockey game online and his buddy monkeyzballz wants to play him in mechwarrrior. He can invite bobo69 to either leave the game he's in, or he can try to join the game that is already underway. This feature carries over to single player mode as well. I can be playing a level of ghost recon by myself and people that have me on their friends list can still invite me even though I am not totally connected to the service (yes i am, but it is transparent). It is very much like what would happen if game ranger could bust in and let you know that someone is trying to play a game with you, only the alert is generally parked up in the corner so that it does not detract from the game you're in - only enough to get your attention.

Anyway this is totally off topic so I'll stop.::sleepy::
 
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