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K007
09-05-08, 10:58 PM
So yea...does mac support any of the Geforce 8 or GTX200 or the ATi4xxx series? I don't see any drivers around for them.

Someone at work thinks that the Mac is as good as a PC computer for gaming...i fail to see this happening anytime soon since i don't see any drivers out there on nvidia or ati site.
Bman212121
09-05-08, 11:06 PM
Yes it can, but I'm not really sure how the driver side works. I think the drivers are part of the kernel if I'm not mistaken.
six_storm
09-05-08, 11:36 PM
The drivers you have installed right now will work with any Mac game. It's not like Windows where you have multiple versions of the driver, Apple takes a version and tweaks it for it's OS and apps.
K007
09-06-08, 01:23 AM
What about games?
crainger
09-06-08, 07:11 AM
Spore works on Mac. PC and Mac come on the same disc.
saturnotaku
09-06-08, 07:17 AM
If a game has a Mac port, it will always run slower than its Windows counterpart, even if the hardware is near top of the line. This is because Apple has a very poor OpenGL implementation. Older and casual games will work OK, but even reasonably recent titles, such as Quake 4 or Tiger Woods are piss poor on OS X. Further, the only way you can tweak any of the settings in OS X is to do it within the game itself. There's no video driver control panel or program such as nHancer or RivaTuner (http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner).

If you want to play games on Mac hardware, use Boot Camp and install Windows. With Boot Camp, everything runs at its full, native speed. It's fully legal and supported by Apple. Heck, the OS X Leopard install DVD includes Windows drivers for whatever Mac system you own. After you install Windows via Boot Camp, you run the driver CD. After that, you can update to more recent drivers for whatever hardware you need. Then you can game to your heart's content at full speed.
K007
09-06-08, 07:36 AM
Buying a Mac then using it to have Windows installed...would the hardware be a lot more expensive? Also restrict your upgrade path a lot as well?
saturnotaku
09-06-08, 07:42 AM
Buying a Mac then using it to have Windows installed...would the hardware be a lot more expensive? Also restrict your upgrade path a lot as well?

Yes it would. It's one thing if you need stuff the Mac offers eg professional graphics and/or audio. Or, if you travel a lot, the MacBook Pro is one of the best all-around notebooks you can buy. If this is purely a desktop PC that you'd be using for office work with some gaming on the side, a Windows-based machine is the way to go.
six_storm
09-06-08, 08:42 AM
Yes it would. It's one thing if you need stuff the Mac offers eg professional graphics and/or audio. Or, if you travel a lot, the MacBook Pro is one of the best all-around notebooks you can buy. If this is purely a desktop PC that you'd be using for office work with some gaming on the side, a Windows-based machine is the way to go.

I hate to say it but saturn is right on both of his post. Gotta love the Macs but they do suck at gaming.
XDanger
09-06-08, 09:34 AM
They have different card versions for Mac right?

Different bios, Can flash normal card to make it work as long as theres a bios or you know how to edit.

Intel based macs only though I suppose
saturnotaku
09-06-08, 09:37 AM
They have different card versions for Mac right?

Different bios, Can flash normal card to make it work as long as theres a bios or you know how to edit.

IIRC, there's also some kind of hook in the Mac's firmware as well. Simply flashing a normal video card won't work.
BashfulTux
09-06-08, 12:29 PM
They have different card versions for Mac right?

Different bios, Can flash normal card to make it work as long as theres a bios or you know how to edit.

Intel based macs only though I suppose

You can flash a 8800GT with the Mac firmware for its version of the card as long as the PC card you have has a 128k rom chip on it. Below is a link to the rather long thread on Mac Rumors about it for the newer version of the Mac Pro, the older version requires a different firmware this is also on the site as well search on "EFI 32 ROM" without quotes if you want to see that.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=434092#post4987082
Zelda_fan
09-06-08, 01:52 PM
So yea...does mac support any of the Geforce 8 or GTX200 or the ATi4xxx series? I don't see any drivers around for them.

Someone at work thinks that the Mac is as good as a PC computer for gaming...i fail to see this happening anytime soon since i don't see any drivers out there on nvidia or ati site.

Yeah, Macs support the latest nVidia and ATI GUPs, but it's better to dual boot into Windows XP for games. Run OSX for productivity and XP for gaming.
bacon12
09-06-08, 03:26 PM
I know they have drivers for the 8800gt as it is an option when you buy. Maybe the newer ones will work.
ViN86
09-06-08, 04:00 PM
So yea...does mac support any of the Geforce 8 or GTX200 or the ATi4xxx series? I don't see any drivers around for them.

Someone at work thinks that the Mac is as good as a PC computer for gaming...i fail to see this happening anytime soon since i don't see any drivers out there on nvidia or ati site.

fwiw, my hackintosh runs on my 8800GT.

read this thread:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=114848

it's technically not legal, but i bought a copy of OSX. at least it helps me sleep at night lol :)
BashfulTux
09-06-08, 04:54 PM
fwiw, my hackintosh runs on my 8800GT.

read this thread:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=114848

it's technically not legal, but i bought a copy of OSX. at least it helps me sleep at night lol :)

Same here but it is against the EULA of Apple not illegal once you have purchased an item you can do what you please with it oh and their EULA tries to restrict my/your use of the GPL software they install by default by tying it to their hardware which IMHO goes against the GPL copyright they have to agree to by their distribution of the software used with OS X.
Misfire
09-06-08, 05:49 PM
I have OS X on my PC as well, its blazing fast. Need more support for newer games though, however my Geforce 8800 works perfect out of the box. OpenGL on OS X is pretty damn fast, some older games do run faster on os x than on windows, for instance quake 3 and those engine games.

However newer games do underperform than their windows counterpart. But yeah, TF2 and basically all source games run well enough to enjoy.

basically all recent nvidia cards OSX will support it, so nothing to worry about there.

and yeah i have legal copy of leopard, my brother owns a G5.