I'm new and thinking of the switch.

First i will say Hello and i have hardly any Mac Experience but i hope to find the courage to make the switch.

So i have been a PC for 14 years and i never had too many problems with it, well now i do, i am not a fan of how windows 8 came out and i am a survivor of the Vista cataclysm, now i have been getting interested in macs, i really want to make the switch, however....i am a Big Gamer and i want a desktop Replacement Mac, the best thing atm is the 15 inch macbook pro with Retina, only comes with a nvidia geforce GT 650m and 16 gigs of ram, not gonna cut it, BUT i see that the current model is nearing the end of its life cycle, if i am incorrect please correct me, so i am going to wait and hope for a 17 inch macbook pro with atleast 32 gigs of ram and possibly (i will be lenient because i know macs don't offer top graphics cards) a geforce gtx 660m or even a gtx 670mx, maybe that could be pushing it a bit but still, anyway lets say i dont get the GPU to be near what i asked for, can anyone give me some words of inspiration to boost my confidence on making the switch or re-assurance?

TehPostman said:

First i will say Hello and i have hardly any Mac Experience but i hope to find the courage to make the switch.

So i have been a PC for 14 years and i never had too many problems with it, well now i do, i am not a fan of how windows 8 came out and i am a survivor of the Vista cataclysm, now i have been getting interested in macs, i really want to make the switch, however....i am a Big Gamer and i want a desktop Replacement Mac, the best thing atm is the 15 inch macbook pro with Retina, only comes with a nvidia geforce GT 650m and 16 gigs of ram, not gonna cut it, BUT i see that the current model is nearing the end of its life cycle, if i am incorrect please correct me, so i am going to wait and hope for a 17 inch macbook pro with atleast 32 gigs of ram and possibly (i will be lenient because i know macs don't offer top graphics cards) a geforce gtx 660m or even a gtx 670mx, maybe that could be pushing it a bit but still, anyway lets say i dont get the GPU to be near what i asked for, can anyone give me some words of inspiration to boost my confidence on making the switch or re-assurance?

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If you are a gamer then you need to build your own gaming rig. Stick with windows 7 and call it a day.

The hardware for a hardcore gamer on a Mac is very limited and pretty much nonexistent. You won't be happy with the gaming performance that's for sure.

32GB of RAM seems outlandish especially on a Notebook, but hey it could happen. I'm pretty sure they dropped the 17" MBP and it won't be back anytime soon. I still wouldn't game on a Notebook. Let a lone a Mac.

Don't get me wrong I love my Mac but I know its limitations. Gaming just happens to be one of them.

CrimsonRequiem said:

If you are a gamer then you need to build your own gaming rig. Stick with windows 7 and call it a day.

The hardware for a hardcore gamer on a Mac is very limited and pretty much nonexistent. You won't be happy with the gaming performance that's for sure.

32GB of RAM seems outlandish especially on a Notebook, but hey it could happen. I'm pretty sure they dropped the 17" MBP and it won't be back anytime soon. I still wouldn't game on a Notebook. Let a lone a Mac.

Don't get me wrong I love my Mac but I know its limitations. Gaming just happens to be one of them.

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Well i have a Gaming rig that i do most of my Gaming on, the thing is i need a portable Computer on the side and Mac has other things to offer then games, but when i do go somewhere i want to feel that i would be able to still play certain things comfortably, im not talking about Crysis 3 on ultra, just the ability to play some newer tittles with a normal setting, i think i put too much emphasis on the gaming part, what i ment was i would like to hear some other good things about macs that may even take my mind of gaming and perhaps just a little reassurance that i can play games well enough nothing too crazy.

TehPostman said:

Well i have a Gaming rig that i do most of my Gaming on, the thing is i need a portable Computer on the side and Mac has other things to offer then games, but when i do go somewhere i want to feel that i would be able to still play certain things comfortably, im not talking about Crysis 3 on ultra, just the ability to play some newer tittles with a normal setting, i think i put too much emphasis on the gaming part, what i ment was i would like to hear some other good things about macs that may even take my mind of gaming and perhaps just a little reassurance that i can play games well enough nothing too crazy.

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I'm against gaming on a notebook regardless. I think it's a waste of money for the performance that you get. coughalienwarecough.

If you insist on gaming on a notebook anyways just get the 15" MBP with a dedicated graphics card. Apple has a habit of downclocking their GPUs just so you know. >_>"

I agree with CrimsonRequiem - gaming on a notebook sucks in general - and a home-built gaming rig is unbeatable with Windows 7.

That said, OS X makes for a great notebook experience. Very little maintenance is needed, no need to run battery and CPU consuming anti-virus, and Apple has had the market cornered on a reliable "sleep" mode for more than a decade.

What I like about my MacBook Pro best is that I never need to reboot it - I open the lid when I want to use it and close it when I'm done - and the battery life is phenomenal. Those are just a few of the highlights as to why I believe OS X is the best notebook OS on the planet.

Yes, you can do some decent gaming on a MacBook Pro with a discrete GPU - and now that Steam has been ported to the Mac, along with a fair number of games, there's less need to run Windows. So, from that perspective, I'd say a 15" (non-Retina) MacBook Pro is a good bet for your particular situation.

As i was saying, i have a rig, i know they are the best for gaming, but i also want something portable on the side, also said this, also considering the fact that the new iMac has great parts to it coming out and that thing is paper thin, i would not doubt the new mbp's should have near similar specs, i also want to make some small movies and music, which is another reason why i was considering mac, i was hoping to find some encouraging words here, but alright thanks anyway.

TehPostman said:

i was hoping to find some encouraging words here, but alright thanks anyway.

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Not sure if you saw my post above... It was my intention to offer you encouragement, perhaps it didn't come off that way.

Dunno what everyone else above is talking about. Plenty of modern games for the Mac that run fine. Sure, compared to the PC you're no longer on the cutting edge, but modern Macs are no slouches on gaming and can play most of the popular titles with no trouble.

Just read that Borderlands 2 is coming soon, in fact ...

I infact saw on youtube someone playing Skyrim on Ultra on a macbook pro 15" retina, now i believe we are expecting a new macbook pro around February, i could be incorrect, but considering how the new iMac has good hardware, i don't see why they would not make the new mbp be a competitor, i play a lot of games but i don't expect to play Crysis 3 on ultra, i wouldn't even try that on my Rig, another thing is i have a band i am starting up and i keep hearing how good Mac's are for this as well as i plan to make some videos which is another thing mac is good for, i basically am just here to get reassured that on top of the great things mac has to offer i will be able to continue my normal habits while also being mobile, i could probably get most of the programs i need for my PC but, i am too lazy too look through them, spend money and i don't want to pirate, i have to buy a laptop regardless but with mac i have everything im going to need it seems, i just want to run things i normally do decently when i'm not at home or perhaps even multitask, so come the new models if i feel they suffice i am going to make my purchase, i guess i just want some reassurance that i am making a good choice here since i have not worked with a mac before, also macs are known to be a bit pricey for the hardware they do offer, but in the end after everything i have said and if you have red it thank you, is it worth it for me?

Dont get too hung up on specs, the real beauty of the Mac is OSX

Rock solid security

Regular OS updates with new features always coming

Great software that is well written and well crafted (even the open source stuff)

Garage band, get your music production going from the start, and you can always upgrade to CuBase later on, most musicians I know use Macs

iMovie, easy to use movie making that can produce slick results without a huge learning curve

You'll either love OSX or just not get on with it, you'll find that out

If you have regrets, then you can run Windows 7 on it, or just sell it, Macs have a much better resell value.

Solid build, you'll find after 5 years you still have a machine you should still just love using

heh, well said, however i do have to get hung up on specs when it costs thousands, mac OSX you can buy your self, its not that expensive, i could build a tower using the same parts the mac pro has atm for very cheap, my uncle did this as well, but the MBP has a great sized SSD, even the current model is pushing 768 gigs, while even alienware does not have a SSD option higher then 512, unless i completely missed it, but macs are put together well and i cannot put together my own laptop, i don't have the tools, i have faith that Apple will deliver next update.

TehPostman said:

heh, well said, however i do have to get hung up on specs when it costs thousands, mac OSX you can buy your self, its not that expensive, i could build a tower using the same parts the mac pro has atm for very cheap, my uncle did this as well, but the MBP has a great sized SSD, even the current model is pushing 768 gigs, while even alienware does not have a SSD option higher then 512, unless i completely missed it, but macs are put together well and i cannot put together my own laptop, i don't have the tools, i have faith that Apple will deliver next update.

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Which hardware update in particular are you looking for - and are you looking at the Retina model in particular?

yes the Retina is very nice, that is something i would like, i am kind of looking just for a more powerful GPU, the current model only gets a Geforce GT 650M which is just not very good, the new iMac is getting a GTX 680MX which is also a mobile GPU, but the difference in power between these 2 is HUGE, you can google a performance chart between these 2 GPU's and you will see how big the difference is, that with a Retina display and if at all possible a 17"screen and i am sold.