vista on a mac?

is this true? windows vista can be run on, say, a macbook pro? and can games be played on a mac? i.e. crysis, halo, etc..

 

Yes. It's 100% doable by Apple's dual-booting program, called Bootcamp. It comes with every new Mac.

 

You can run it, but the games run like crap. MAC doesn't handle direct X or open GL very well.

 

Vista has higher hardware requirements for smooth operation.

This is pretty much the same as how Mac OSX requires better and newer hardware than Mac OS9 and below.

People should simply start separating hardware and software.
The only difference between a mac and a PC at this point is an additional chip which says "its ok to run mac software".

An OS (like MacOSX) is just a piece of software that allows a computer (who only speaks in 1's and 0's) to speak to a human. (who doesn't know or doesn't want to speak in 1's and 0's)

Macs tend to be higher end pieces of hardware to start with and tend to adopt technologies faster than PCs (firewire, EFI), but are really just higher-end PCs with a few extra components.

MacOSX is just a nerfed version of a previous PC OS (FreeBSD) with a pretty GUI tacked on. (this isn't a bad thing, its just not reinventing the wheel, and pretty much makes Apple just like Microsoft)

Games can be played on either set of hardware because they are basically the same. WINDOWS games require Windows.
Some games have native Mac versions, but any recent mac has bootcamp which allows you to choose to boot up to run a Windows OS on your computer.

Macs and PCs are not really different... only their OS's are different... and only in the way they relate to their human.

 

To add to what KernalPanic said, my XPS M1530 has near identical specs to the MacBook Pro.

 

But there is one fundamental difference, Macs don't have a BIOS

 

man has no clue what he is talking about.

its true that mac's don't have a bios. they boot with efi instead. and it doesn't matter at all. still runs windows natively and all windows games (crysis, half life 2, call of duty 4, etc) as long as you are in windows.

 

Yes, but it is done with BIOS emulation i believe, so its always gonna be a little bit slower and slightly more unstable.

 

Macs can run Windows natively in that they don't need virtualization (though that's still useful sometimes). You don't need to install Windows inside VMware or anything like that. Bootcamp allows you to run Windows, but as others have noted, the lack of a BIOS will slow things down. It's not significant by any measure, but certainly noticable. If you put install windows vista on a Mac and PC with identical spec, the PC computer will run faster. It's simply really, Macs are not designed to run Windows. They can, but just not as well as PC computers.

 

Vista has support for EFI and does not require BIOS to boot. Windows XP however does NOT support EFI (except for possibly the x64 version, not too sure about that as i've never used it.).

This isn't true. If you are running the game in Mac OS X you MIGHT see worse performance due to the fact that most games are ported over to Mac OS X and therefor run slower. (But if you use Bootcamp to run Windows, it will run just as good as on a PC)

So don't post lies. You should NEVER post things you are not sure about.


Edit: I see someone else responded already;

Are you too spreading lies? Do you have anything to back that statement up with?

I thought the Macbook Pro was fastest laptop running Vista about a year ago?
The only thing that might make it slower is if the GPU is downclocked (which Apple might have done, i'm not too sure), or if the drivers are bad (since you are relying on Apple to release drivers for certain devices, like Touchpad).

If they have the EXACT same hardware it will run Vista just as fast. I also severly doubt that the BIOS emulation would slow the computer down for Windows XP, as far as i know it's only really used for booting the operating system.


So don't say that a Mac will run slower than a PC because it's not "built" for it. It's the exact same hardware.


Edit 2:
Sorry if i came off a bit harsh, i just don't like people spreading misinformation. Even if it might be a bad idea to get Mac just to run Windows on it (price, etc.), I feel it should be the user's choice. And to make a choice you need accurate information.

I realize people are probably just trying to help, and i usually don't post anything, i guess i just "snapped" this once...

 

How is this relevant?
Hmmm, Mac happen to run Windows as an option, and Windows is good in most games...conclusion? It is possible to run games decently on a Mac.

 

The fastest laptop chipset Apple provides is the 8600M GT in the Macbook Pros. While it's probably OK for a good number of people, a lot of us Sager/etc. people with 8800M's and higher might consider them to be "mediocre".

That said, the MBP's 8600M GT is no different spec-wise to the ones in other laptops so it should perform identically.

 

That's partially correct... and just what is BIOS?

BIOS is a non-volatile base-level instruction set for when the computer first turns on. One of the most important of which is "where do I find my REAL software".

BIOS is SLLOOWWWW... this is why relevant portions are copied to RAM.


EFI is just another way to handle the whole "basic software" and "where do I find my OS" component. The biggest difference is the ability to load device drivers BEFORE the OS. That's right, you load ONE driver (into EFI) and can run two or more OS's (compatible with EFI) and the OS talks to EFI instead of having to deal with a driver.

I am not positive of this, but odds are relevant portions of EFI are also loaded into RAM. (Non-volatile storage tends to be slower than RAM)


Guess what... Vista 64 supports EFI.
That's right... you can have a windows box with EFI.


Macs just integrated a newer technology (developed by Intel BTW) faster than the PC market. EFI is intended to replace BIOS even for PCs.
Will it actually do so? Who knows...


Just an FYI, that "fastest Vista machine" article was horribly slanted. Pretty sure anyone with half a brain could have found a better-performing PC (for Vista) for less money.

That isn't to say the BIOS vs EFI arguement of which was better for performance was off... Since odds are BOTH are copied into RAM, the performance difference is probably not worth writing home about.

 

So if BIOS doesn't load drivers, then how do i navigate through my BIOS settings with my keyboard?

Anyway, the point i was trying to make is that a bootcamp install on a Mac will never be as good as on pc hardware due to the need for a BIOS since I believe Bootcamp only supports 32 bit, thus needing BIOS emulation.

 

I think you misunderstand... the BIOS routine allows basic video adapter support as well... but its has nowhere near the complexity of a full-blown graphics driver.

Note you can press some specific Function keys, and ENTER, and arrow keys but other ones do nothing.

http://www.applegazette.com/software/boot-camp-now-supports-64bit-vista-more-vistamac-news/

According to this you are wrong about the 32-bit-only restrictions.


Emulating BIOS is not about massive performance as quite frankly even a 32-bit OS takes nearly everything out of BIOS's hands with more complex device drivers which access the devices directly.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS)

Emulating BIOS is about compatibilty and making Windows happy as it looks for BIOS. (and for those odd legacy calls which DO still require BIOS)