technology Mac sucks at games

[Steel Accord 6,660]

I'm sorry to say it, but for a system that prides itself on being so easily accessible I can't play a Goddamn thing on this!

 

I apologize for my tone, I'm just a bit frustrated. I wanted to try the Secret World because it looked awesome, when I found I couldn't because apparently it can't be downloaded on Mac's. I was a bit upset, but got over it. Then the same thing happened with Star Trek Online, and Champions Online!

 

If there's anypony that can lend me some advice on how to make these games run on Mac, I would appreciate it.

[repsol rave 2,963]

 

 

some advice on how to make these games run on Mac

 

install wondows

sorry man, but macs indeed do suck at gaming...

if anything you could google some mac compatible games?

[Zygen 6,066]

Macs are kinda a tradeoff, they have some nice features and stuff in alot of things, but when it comes to games, the way they run makes things much more complicated to get games to run on them.

 

especially since most games are made for windows, and unless you have windows or something or a game that provides a mac version of a game your gonna have not much of a chance of playing the games.

 

Macs really aren't for gaming though, really nice for alot of other things, but not for gaming.

[Skylar 1,641]

Yeah mac's are really bad for games Imo  

 

Get windows for sure , just alot simpler  

[CMQuickfireTK 751]

Windows if you want to game... and loose your freedoms.

 

Linux if you want something still *nix and that respects your freedoms.

[MLPForums Phanact 1,374]

Macs are alright for gaming once you install Windows on them. My iMac from 2010 runs rEFIt on it and I triple boot Ubuntu, Windows 7 and OS X but Windows 7 has the largest partition. My boot time and gaming experience is so much better on windows than on Mac OS X and it would probably be better on Ubuntu than on windows but I can't be arsed installing steam xD

[Wayzer 1,418]

Well it isn't really that macs suck at games. It is that most games don't come for mac which is kinda a shame. Though macs might be a little bit overpriced for gaming. I buy a mac for the os, so I can work on it. For gaming I could buy a pc that's twice at powerful for the same price

[Tech Pony 64]

Most of the newer portable macs no longer have discrete graphics which zaps their ability to do anything but the lightest gaming right there. I'm not sure if they've followed suit on the iMacs/Mac Mini's yet, but it wouldn't surprise me. Before Intel really started pushing their graphics line, you could do ok on a Mac provided that you installed Windows. 

[MLPForums Phanact 1,374]

iMac's and Mac mini's no longer have discrete graphics unless you pay a premium.

[Tech Pony 64]

iMac's and Mac mini's no longer have discrete graphics unless you pay a premium.

 

Welp... I guess that answers that one there! It's a shame too because when they had discrete graphics it wasn't a bad overall package to buy, sure you were gouged on the price a little bit. It would seem that now you're just getting completely reamed in both price and performance. 

[Steel Accord 6,660]

Can I switch back to OSX after installing Windows?

[Dddrgn 450]

I'm pretty sure that you can use bootcamp to run windows on your mac, and use that - but it would be really hard on your computer. The only reason mac sucks at gaming is that barely any games are made for mac.

[Tech Pony 64]

Depends on how you install Windows, if you bootcamp... then yes. Also there is nothing hard on a Mac by using boot camp. 

Edited December 19, 2013 by Tech Pony

[ShadowFoxz 342]

Before you get windows/Linux try this http://www.playonmac.com/en/

this software can use/play stuff meant for windows and is simillar if not the same as playonlinux

[Tech Pony 64]

I'd highly recommend against using PlayOnMac or PlayOnLinux except as a last ditch effort. Wine performance is really not that good to begin with and application support is dismal at best. 

[Dddrgn 450]

Depends on how you install Windows, if you bootcamp... then yes. Also there is nothing hard on a Mac by using boot camp. 

What I mean is it would be hard on your processor/ram, that's a lot of resources to allocate, first to bootcamp, then to a game. If I run two high-end games at once on my computer, it starts to lag, so I'm sure something like that would be hard as well.

[Tech Pony 64]

You sir, completely misunderstand the concept of bootcamp. Bootcamp allows you to dual boot OS X and another OS which is typically Windows. When you turn on your computer you have a choice to boot either OS X or the other OS but not both at the same time.

 

You're talking about Virtualization, which would be achieved either through VMWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop or Oracle Virtualbox. CPU's have specialized layers that have really improved virtualization performace through a technology called paravirtualization. However it's still not native performance. 

Edited December 19, 2013 by Tech Pony

[Katana 298]

The easiest thing for you might be to try to find some PC games that run natively on mac, without any pretending-I'm-Windows hacking.

 

Steam is currently having a Christmas sale! AND, they clearly identify for you which games run on a mac.

http://store.steampowered.com/about/

http://store.steampowered.com/browse/mac/

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Metascore&sort_order=DESC&category1=998&os=mac

Few random examples: Batman: Arkham City GOTY edition is $7.50. Rayman Origins is $10. Mark of the Ninja (BIG recommendation from me!) is $7.50. Borderlands 2 is $10.20.

 

Also, some F2P games that are available on OS X:

Team Fortress 2 (needs Steam)

League of Legends

DOTA 2 (League and DOTA are very similar games with polarized fanbases)

 

I would at least get a F2P game or two, to see how well your computer performs. One very important thing that's not often highlighted on laptops is the graphics card. If your mac is very new, you'll actually likely be able to play a wide range of games at a good framerate - just not at super-enthusiast all-effects levels (for comparison, most consoles run games at the equivalent of a medium-to-low setting)

 

Sorry that you had that bad experience with Secret World, though! Games do have to be written for the operating system in question, and each of them should list their system requirements before you start the download. Of course, Steam won't even let you download a game if it's not available on your operating system.

[Scootalove 10,689]

I think Macs are good for almost everything except gaming, in my opinion.

[Tech Pony 64]

TBH... OS X doesn't do any single thing better than Windows. Its last stronghold of increased security is slowly slipping away. Security through obscurity just doesn't cut it any longer. 

[ShadowFoxz 342]

TBH...I think Windows is the best at games but i dont really use windows that much because when it comes to work i will use either my school's Macs or Linux for convenience and the fact it does not crash on my laptop like windows does

[A Blithering Div 247]

Macs suck at gaming because their graphics hardware sucks at gaming. Apple only puts "decent" cards in the pro series and I'm not sure if they do that anymore, though I'd guess they'd have to if they're still using Xeons.

 

Back in the day there weren't many games for mac because macs used IBM's PowerPC chips. There were reasons for that and performance was one of them but that's another subject. Cut to today and now Apple has the opportunity to expand their gaming prowess and could have easily taken down Microsoft with the vista fiasco and now the Win8 ballyhoo but that would make sense for a long term strategy and I don't think today's corporate climate knows what that is anymore.

 

In fact, I would argue that one of the major reasons Steam was ported to Linux was because Apple doesn't care about games.