PC games on mac?

Just a quick question here will pc games run on macs? I know its kind of a newbish question....

 

a pc is not a mac...

unless you are running a host OS by using bootcamp, parallels or fusion you won´t be able to play pc ( windows) games.

parallels might not be a good alternative right now also, since it still does not support anything above directx 8.1, which is by the way a several years old...

so to play up to date pc games you would need a license for windows and a software like fusion to let windows run on a virtual machine, or as mentioned earlier bootcamp.

 

Fusion, and any Virtual Machine technology, will not virtualize the GPU and you won't be able to play graphically demanding games.

You'll need bootcamp.

 

Which then begs the question, why bother with Macs when you need Windows for games anyways? Just cut out the middleman.

 

You have several choices for playing games on a Mac. Has previously stated you can use programs like Parallels or VMware, but I'd caution against it as performance is very horrible. In my opinion you have 2 choices(providing you have Mac with an Intel chipset)

1. Use and install Bootcamp, this will allow you to instal Windows XP w/ sp2 or higher on the machine and will allow you to dual boot, this is probable the best options in terms of perforamance, but it will require you to buy a copy of windows if you don't already have one.

2. The other option is to use a program like Crossover or Wine These programs will allow windows based programs to run on Macs or Linux, by converting the windows request made by the program to a Macs or Linux request. However, some games will not perform the best or at all.

 

Okay so you can its just a pain in the neck, i've got a pc to game with its just not as nice as my mac. thanks for the info.

 

Bootcamp and its not a pain in the neck but installing windows on a mac is like selling your soul to the devil. It just doesnt look proper.

 

there are some games that are made for macs and windows. you just have to look. i know diablo 3 is going to be for mac and windows.

 

Because computers can be used for many other things besides gaming and OSX is arguably a much better operating system than Windows .

 

Bootcamp for best performance, otherwise Crossover works the best (esp for steam games)

 

name one way that its better

 

it's better at attracting fanboys

 

There's no BSoD when I bounce my 30GB+ projects. Want another one?

 

My pc never BSOD's unless I have a faulty overclock.

This isn't a debate over OS's, but there really is nothing OSX can do that windows cant do better. Yet there's a near infinite amount of things that windows can do, and run that OSX will never run.

On the topic, a MAC IS A PC, the only difference is it's operating system, It's somewhat like buying a VooDoo notebook and calling it a voodoo and not a pc, it's still the same, you just payed more for it merely for the brand. If the intention was to buy a mac for it's design, then thats fine, but it will still need to run windows to run windows DirectX games.

It's like any other pc, brand aside, to play WINDOWS games, you need to install windows.

 

Obviously you don't know what audio bouncing does to the OS, so I'm just going to stop there.

Sure it's a PC, just like any other PC. But it's way different than calling a Voodoo PC just a Voodoo, because it still runs Windows.

On that note, a Mac can run Windows just as any other PC, and that's just awesome for gaming and such, but any other PC cannot run OS X - even with OSX86 project to its fullest performance and take advantage of the dedicated hardware. Because remember, Apple still does manufacture proprietary hardware for their Macs.

Anyways, we're getting off-topic here.
To answer the OP's question:

Yes there are games coming out for the Mac, read OS X. Starcraft II, Spore and Diablo III are just a few of them. Call of Duty 4 is also out for OS X.

The advantage being that you can also install Windows natively on an Intel Mac and run all the Windows games such as GTA IV and others...

 

The ONLY difference right now between a Mac laptop and a PC laptop is a chip that says "its ok to run MacOS".

If Apple would pull its head out of its bum and simply stop requiring the "its ok" chip, MacOS would become like any other Free-BSD or *nix clone with a fancy GUI.

Remember, MacOS is nothing but a pretty custom GUI over a nerfed version of FreeBSD. (not that this is necessarily bad)

MacOS is a translator for a type of person who needs or prefers certain inputs.

Windows is another kind of translator for a different thought process.


Its time to remove the concept of Mac hardware and PC hardware... because they are the same.

MacOS is just that... an OS.
And yes, you can run windows on a Mac, and yes, you want to run the native OS for the game you want to play for best performance.
yes, there are native games for MacOS... but they are few and far between.

 

It is more than that. Apple has their own custom motherboard chipset, but the biggest difference is that Mac's boot off of EFI while almost all PC's still boot off of BIOS.

 

I will answer this by PM as I don't want to start an OSX vs Windows flamefest

 

It's already begun. Because certain people can't just let it go.

 

PC have multiple motherboard chipsets... this doesn't change much as the apple chipsets are similar (have to be).

Think not?


EFIX... USB EFI for PCs... grats native OSX.


Oh and this is not a flame-fest... There is nothing wrong with MacOSX... I am just pointing out to mac users how close to a PC user they already are.

 

I have a slightly off topic quiestion....I play COD4 all the time on my PC and PS3, and my friend owns Gears of War on his PC and XBox 360. While playing on my PC, I can't play against PS3 players and vice versa. But Gears of War can which I've seen personally.

When COD4 comes out on MAC, will it be able to play against PC players?

 

Yes you will be able to.

The issue is actually if the companies who develop the games WANT you to be able to do that. It's actually a feature which Gears of War has and Call of Duty doesn't.

But I'm sure that only applies to Consoles vs. PC, and will not apply to OS X vs. Windows.

 

So it's cool that Windows can run on virtually any PC, but OSX can only run on a small number of PC's? I'm not a huge fanboi for either OS. But I can say that Mac's limit your hardware and software choices greatly.

Problem is that there's so much legacy PC stuff that if you switched to Mac you'd have a whole new library to create and probably a very huge library to dispose of.

 

I pretty much looked at this title and laughed ... Games on a Mac ... ahahah ... go PC

*Disclamer* - Just joking around a bit please no one yell at me

 

I love this argument no pc can run osx but macs can run windows. That means you need windows where as I have no reason to use such a basic and lame OS because windows does it all.