[MG] so what's been up with the list?

[Adam Bass]

Gaming is definitely getting much better on the Mac. All Macs have 
decent graphics cards now (yes, the iMac's graphics card IS decent). 
Consumer PCs come with lower-end graphics cards too, it's just that you 
can upgrade them. If you need to be able to upgrade it, you can get a 
G5 tower (the single 1.8 isn't that expensive), but the iMac's GeForce 
5200 should be fine for most average gamers for a good while. I have 
heard very few complaints about the performance of recent games for the 
Mac; most Mac game developers, such as Aspyr and Macsoft develop their 
games with Apple's low-end systems in mind. With UT 2004, I didn't get 
as dramatic a performance boost as I thought I would when I upgraded 
from a Radeon 9000 (64 MB VRAM) to a 9800 (128 MB VRAM), and benchmarks 
comparing a dual 2 GHz tower with a GF 5200 with 64 megs of VRAM and a 
dual 2.5 GHz with a 9600 XT with 128 haven't shown that dramatic an 
improvement. I'm guessing this is because Macsoft really optimized UT 
for Apple's low-end systems, so we don't see that much of a performance 
improvement in higher-end systems.

Anyway, much more games are coming out for the Mac than before. We got 
UT 2004, Battlefield 1942 (FINALLY), Homeworld 2, and most other big PC 
games. DOOM 3 has been officially announced by Aspyr, and I'm sure 
Half-Life 2 will come before too long (probably either Aspyr or Macsoft 
will do it). The game situation on the Mac has definitely gotten a lot 
better in the past few years and continues to rapidly improve.

Adam

On Nov 29, 2004, at 7:44 AM, Allan Hise wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, 29 Nov 2004, Marc van Gemert wrote:
>
>> Although it would be cool to see a special iMac Gamer edition w/ 6800
>> Ultra or X800Pro I don't think this will be a success. Because the 
>> real
>> hardcore gamers buy a PC/built a PC themselves and get themselves a
>> fast and expensive video card.
>> Why the PC? Well still a lot of games aren't being released for the
>> Mac, that used to be so in the past, and that will continue, I mean 
>> you
>> wanna play Halflife 2 or Need for Speed Underground 2 right now? Not 
>> on
>> the Mac... Even Bungie went for the big money and released Halo for 
>> the
>> XBox first, the Mac and PC version were released a year later IIRC
>> (which I regret BTW).
>> Don't get me wrong, the first computer I owned was a Mac and I still
>> have several I use such as my G3 (server) and my clamshell iBook, and 
>> a
>> still do pre-press on a daily bases on a Mac, but a few years ago I
>> switched to a PC for gaming. Why? Well I'm a harcore gamer as they say
>> and to play all the latest FPS and race sims I need a PC since I can't
>> play them on the Mac.
>> I think this is why a special iMac Gamer edition won't be a success.
>>
>> Marc
>
> I think it is a vicious circle. Why are there no games for the mac? Cuz
> the hardware is behind the times (that is, there is no decent gaming
> hardware). Why is there no decent gaming hardware? Because there aren't
> any games.
>
> I don't want to see a 'gaming iMac'. I just want an iMac that I can 
> update
> the video card to something top of the line this year. In 2 years, it 
> will
> probably be left in the dust, but I don't care so much about 2 years 
> from
> now.
>
> I realize that there are more PC games. If I wanted to play them, I 
> would
> buy a PC. I want to play the games that exist on my mac at the best
> quality I can. I'd love to play Halo with all the details on full. I 
> can't
> with my GeForce IIMX. But I don't want to go buy a PC just to do it
> either.
>
> I would have bought an iMac G5 by now if the video card was better. Not
> because I want it only for gaming, but because I want it to be capable 
> of
> gaming.
>
> Allan
>
>
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