iMac's

[Halogen]

Hi guys

I'm a pc gamer but my friend has finally convinced me to switch to Macs. I want to buy the iMac but i have doubts. As I'm a current PC gamer something doesn't feel right.

I want this iMac:
Apple iMac 20" 2.4ghz MB323.
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
1GB RAM.
250GB Hard Drive.
SuperDrive.
BlueTooth & Wireless.

It seems like it will be extremely slow. Only 1 GB ram!?!! Now my questions are, is it true the the ram and Ghz works differently than a PC's one and is much faster (this is what my friend said), is this true?

Also will this be able to run CoD4, Crysis: Warhead, TF2, BF2 and not on low settings? I want to know if this will run it decently (mainly according to Crysis)? I know that the top of the range MacBook Pro's can run Crysis on High. Also is this a good gaming Mac or must i save an extra R 6 000??

I know that you must get boot camp and I know Macs don't get any viruses but say i have installed boot camp and it gets a virus, will this destroy/affect the Mac OSX? Also (i'm out of cap) how much does Boot Camp cost?

Lastly isn't OSX the Tiger version the Time Travel? I'm just curious but not the end of the world as i can download a program for free 1mb that can do the almost the same.

If the iMac can run games well (they say it runs XP better than PCs which I do buy as Apple makes both their computers and software) then why have I only found this out recently?

Thank you
Halogen

Btw i want iAnwers

 

[Overmind]

Your friend convinced you to do a dumb thing. Simply put - don't.

Macs are overpriced. The premium you pay for the Apple name can be better spent on beefier PC hardware.

They really become a nightmare when they break and need to be repaired.

 

[d0b33]

Wait for the quadcore imacs with nvidia gpus to arrive rather.

 

[SYNERGY]

Bwahahaha - Your friend deosn't know what he's talking about.
If you're a gamer stick with a PC.
The main reason is that you cannot put a PC graphics card on a Mac, and the 20" comes with a ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT /128MB
Crysis will cry.

Actually most of the Mac's come with crap graphic cards, especially regarding the price to comparsion ratio.

Bootcamp is free, thou you'll need a license for Windows.

Ram & Ghz work the same on a PC. Leopard/Tiger are more stable but actually slower regarding file operations. And no it does not run XP better

If you do have the money to waste- get a 8 core with an Nvidia GPU.

And before some die hard mac idiot tries to bash my post, I own a Mac, as well as Core dealer license.

 

[bwana]

Bwahahaha - Your friend deosn't know what he's talking about.
If you're a gamer stick with a PC.
The main reason is that you cannot put a PC graphics card on a Mac, and the 20" comes with a ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT /128MB
Crysis will cry.

Actually most of the Mac's come with crap graphic cards, especially regarding the price to comparsion ratio.

Bootcamp is free, thou you'll need a license for Windows.

Ram & Ghz work the same on a PC. Leopard/Tiger are more stable but actually slower regarding file operations. And no it does not run XP better

If you do have the money to waste- get a 8 core with an Nvidia GPU.

And before some die hard mac idiot tries to bash my post, I own a Mac, as well as Core dealer license.

Save the name calling for somewhere else please.

 

[syntax]

The actual ram and ghz are the same. Ghz is Ghz, thats why its a measured value. Ur friend is not quite right. On Osx ram is managed very differently to windows, and to some point, ram does operate more "efficiently" even on windows.

To be honest, if ur a gamer, buy a gaming pc, whilst u can run games under bootcamp, and they run pretty well, i feel u will be more satisfied with the standard gaming rig...

Bootcamp comes standard with Osx leopard (which u will get when u buy an imac). It does a little more than create another partition the first time u run it, but essentially thats what it does....If your windows partition gets a virus, ur Mac Osx will still be perfect.

I am not sure what u meant by osx time travel etc? but i reckon u mean time machine? that comes standard with the Leopard Os as well (nice how everything is built in...)

 

[syntax]

Bwahahaha - Your friend deosn't know what he's talking about.
If you're a gamer stick with a PC.
The main reason is that you cannot put a PC graphics card on a Mac, and the 20" comes with a ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT /128MB
Crysis will cry.

Actually most of the Mac's come with crap graphic cards, especially regarding the price to comparsion ratio.

Bootcamp is free, thou you'll need a license for Windows.

Ram & Ghz work the same on a PC. Leopard/Tiger are more stable but actually slower regarding file operations. And no it does not run XP better

If you do have the money to waste- get a 8 core with an Nvidia GPU.

And before some die hard mac idiot tries to bash my post, I own a Mac, as well as Core dealer license.

So by owning a mac and being a reseller makes u an expert? thats like saying i own a phone and sell airtime so i am a telecommunications expert?

 

[kolakidd]

I have a few macs, they don't break.

Although I do have to say, if you're a gamer then you should still stick to pc. Simply because he range of titles and hardware tweaks available on pc don't exist for mac in South Africa.

If you feel you must have one and want to run games in VMware, or Parallels, I would strongly recommend checking out the performance of a game you know in this environment as a test.

 

[SYNERGY]

So by owning a mac and being a reseller makes u an expert? thats like saying i own a phone and sell airtime so i am a telecommunications expert?

Nope. But that I have experience and knowledge of said product.
@Bwana: Forgot you're a mac user lol. I just know how touchy Mac users get

 

[syntax]

Nope. But that I have experience and knowledge of said product.

Selling it, even doing first level support means u probably have enough knowledge to be dangerous...If i am wrong, apologies...but there are actually few mac techs out there who actually know what they are doing.

 

[SYNERGY]

lol Its Fine dude

 

[Ou grote]

I have an iMac as well.

Bought an xbox for gaming.

Your iMac will be able to run crysis, but not with all the bells and whistles.
My almost 2 year old one, runs Far Cry 1 with everything set on high.
Don't think Far Cry 2 will run well on it.
Not sure about the other games, Far Cry is the last PC game I'll buy...

Would be best to check them out at an Apple shop first.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=63202

 

[phiber]

So by owning a mac and being a reseller makes u an expert? thats like saying i own a phone and sell airtime so i am a telecommunications expert?

hahahahahahaahahahahaha........ brilliant, well put!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[StbA]

I would for the middle of the range MB Pro.

 

[Halogen]

Ok so i will stick with PC's. I also heard it cost a lot to upgrade/fix macs. Well i'm waiting for the new cores to come out.

 

[PeterCH]

Ram & Ghz work the same on a PC. Leopard/Tiger are more stable but actually slower regarding file operations.

Citation please. In my view Macs are faster when copying files. What do I know? I use a Mac Pro and numerous PCs to copy large files (video) frequently.

And no it does not run XP better

No, but the Macbook Pro runs Vista better than any PC notebook, at least in 2007 it did.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/136649-3/in_pictures_the_most_notable_notebooks_of_2007.html

If you do have the money to waste- get a 8 core with an Nvidia GPU.

Because having many cores actually speeds up games. Xeons are the fastest platforms for games. (My statements denote sarcasm in case this was missed.)

And before some die hard mac idiot tries to bash my post, I own a Mac, as well as Core dealer license.

Oh really, I don't believe it.

 

[PeterCH]

Hi guys

I'm a pc gamer but my friend has finally convinced me to switch to Macs. I want to buy the iMac but i have doubts. As I'm a current PC gamer something doesn't feel right.

Mac computers are not the best at gaming. If you want to play 3D games for the PC, the best is to get some sort of a Vista box with 2-3GB RAM and the latest or the second latest GPU. Dual Core CPUs should work for games, as multiple core machines are not the best at gaming, they're better at stuff like video or audio encoding but not really at games. More L2 cache and faster clock speed in a Core2Duo is what you want. Maybe an i7 is even better but
more expensive. Macs are great for general purpose work, video, audio and photo editing. They excel there because their OS is usually more stable than Windows, it's also more secure and they have especially designed software written for the Mac OSX platform. This software is often cheaper than PC software so you can actually save if using a Mac vs a PC. This is especially true for high end video and audio editing with a package like FCP 2 being cheaper than Adobe Premiere Pro and AE for the PC (and being actually better than PP). Anyway for gaming you need a PC or a console. Macs can run games but with 3D games needing the latest hw anything from the last 2-3 years which is GPU and CPU intensive will play better on a similarly priced but better spec'ed PC.

 

[SYNERGY]

Yep, newer games are taking advantage of multi core systems. Eg: Crysis,GTA IV,Supreme Commander.

Also, regarding the file disk operations speeds, Windows XP was faster then Tiger. We won't talk about vista lol

Can't find the article, was couple months ago but will look for it.
I do agree that tiger/leopard is more stable, but Mac's are not suited for Gamers end of the day. And the was the OP's original question and point of his post.

 

[PeterCH]

Yep, newer games are taking advantage of multi core systems. Eg: Crysis,GTA IV,Supreme Commander.

Also, regarding the file disk operations speeds, Windows XP was faster then Tiger. We won't talk about vista lol

Can't find the article, was couple months ago but will look for it.
I do agree that tiger/leopard is more stable, but Mac's are not suited for Gamers end of the day. And the was the OP's original question and point of his post.

Hmmm, I'd still rather go with 2 cores, fastest clock speed, most L2 cache and least latency RAM. For video editing 8 Core is great, but games, I still think they suck.

As for the original question, there are OpenGL games made for the Mac, and older games (> 1 year) play well on Macs, as they have fast GPUs,
fast CPUs and very decent displays. So hardcore, update-my-GPU-every-6-months no, but for people who work and play casually or have their older favourites, Macs are fine.

Anyone who bought a MBP last year and a competing laptop from DELL, HP, Sony, Asus, Alienware or Acer would have enjoyed longer gaming longetivity with his MBP than those other machines.