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Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
Mac Pro 8 core, to buy or not to buy help
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<blockquote data-quote="cwa107" data-source="post: 580221" data-attributes="member: 24098"><p>That last statement pretty much answers your question. If games are top on the priority list, the Mac is not your best choice. Yes, it can run Windows, but in terms of how these machines are designed, Apple considers this capability to be low on the priority list.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The Mac Pro is designed as a high end graphics workstation more than a consumer friendly gaming rig. You certainly can get a high-end rig built for gaming from companies like Dell (their XPS line), HP (Blackbird line) as well as countless others like Alienware, Voodoo, etc. While the Mac Pro may look very much like a gaming rig in terms of specs, it was designed for other power hungry tasks like Final Cut Pro (video editing) and Photoshop, among other prosumer tasks.</p><p></p><p>Why can't it play games? It certainly can, but that wasn't what it was designed for. Boot Camp driver updates are few and far between - certainly not as quick as what you would see from NVIDIA/ATI (although these can be installed), but more than anything else, this is a very expensive solution for playing games - and for most people that feel strongly about games, a PC is a more cost-effective solution. </p><p></p><p>Not to mention the fact that much of the hardware does not conform to standards, so it's not as easily upgradeable. Most serious games swap their motherboards, CPUs, graphics cards, etc on a regular basis. You just can't do that with a Mac Pro.</p><p></p><p>What about games for OS X? It's been reported in the press time and time again that Apple is not serious about games. They don't have the robust set of gaming APIs that Windows does (like DirectX) and many of the Mac 'ports' are ported using Cider, which is inefficient at best. Again, it's just not high on Apple's priority list. I'm not going to argue what Apple's priorities should be, because I don't set them. Just know that there are different tools for different jobs and if gaming is your thing - the Mac is not the ideal platform.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes, the 8800GT <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce8.html" target="_blank">is a DX10 card</a>.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>No, because it's the same hardware as what you would find in a PC, just different drivers under OS X. In Windows, they're the same drivers.</p><p></p><p>I'd be willing to bet that since SLI is supported in the hardware, it's probably going to work under Windows with an appropriate driver. But I don't believe that the OS X drivers support SLI (yet).</p><p></p><p>Either way, I think we'd be doing you a severe disservice to suggest going with a Mac, because it seems like your priorities would point you toward a PC. The bottom line for me is that if you can tolerate Windows, I don't think it makes a bit of sense to reinvent the wheel and switch over to Mac.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cwa107, post: 580221, member: 24098"] That last statement pretty much answers your question. If games are top on the priority list, the Mac is not your best choice. Yes, it can run Windows, but in terms of how these machines are designed, Apple considers this capability to be low on the priority list. The Mac Pro is designed as a high end graphics workstation more than a consumer friendly gaming rig. You certainly can get a high-end rig built for gaming from companies like Dell (their XPS line), HP (Blackbird line) as well as countless others like Alienware, Voodoo, etc. While the Mac Pro may look very much like a gaming rig in terms of specs, it was designed for other power hungry tasks like Final Cut Pro (video editing) and Photoshop, among other prosumer tasks. Why can't it play games? It certainly can, but that wasn't what it was designed for. Boot Camp driver updates are few and far between - certainly not as quick as what you would see from NVIDIA/ATI (although these can be installed), but more than anything else, this is a very expensive solution for playing games - and for most people that feel strongly about games, a PC is a more cost-effective solution. Not to mention the fact that much of the hardware does not conform to standards, so it's not as easily upgradeable. Most serious games swap their motherboards, CPUs, graphics cards, etc on a regular basis. You just can't do that with a Mac Pro. What about games for OS X? It's been reported in the press time and time again that Apple is not serious about games. They don't have the robust set of gaming APIs that Windows does (like DirectX) and many of the Mac 'ports' are ported using Cider, which is inefficient at best. Again, it's just not high on Apple's priority list. I'm not going to argue what Apple's priorities should be, because I don't set them. Just know that there are different tools for different jobs and if gaming is your thing - the Mac is not the ideal platform. Yes, the 8800GT [URL="http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce8.html"]is a DX10 card[/URL]. No, because it's the same hardware as what you would find in a PC, just different drivers under OS X. In Windows, they're the same drivers. I'd be willing to bet that since SLI is supported in the hardware, it's probably going to work under Windows with an appropriate driver. But I don't believe that the OS X drivers support SLI (yet). Either way, I think we'd be doing you a severe disservice to suggest going with a Mac, because it seems like your priorities would point you toward a PC. The bottom line for me is that if you can tolerate Windows, I don't think it makes a bit of sense to reinvent the wheel and switch over to Mac. [/QUOTE]
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