Pc Gaming

cloud493 wrote: »

I'd like to start PC gaming, maybe, but I have a few questions to ask

1. I have a mac, wondering what I can run. I'd like starcraft, and civilization ideally.
2. Whats good to play?
3. Is steam any good?
4. Could I play minecraft?

1: You can run many games, including starcraft (& SC2) and civilisation.
2:....
3: Yes and no.
4: Yes.

cloud493 wrote: »

Would that be starcraft 2? I've never played PC gaming before, only flash games on the net, so I haven't a clue.

:eek::eek: Have you played any console games? Xbox, playstation?...SNES, Wii?

Indeed Starcraft 2.

Portal & Portal 2 are also available on mac which you might enjoy (comedic puzzle game of sorts).

cloud493 wrote: »

Says it 10.5.8 version, processor 2.8 GHz intel core 2 duo
I had portal 2 on my PS3(I just made a steam account) and I tried to link my PSN to my steam, but it said I couldn't

and yes ive played games PC gaming is something ive never touched before, looks interesting.

What GPU do you have and how much RAM

cloud493 wrote: »

I'd like to start PC gaming...

Good for you! PC gaming opens up a whole new world to the gaming experience, with millions of mods and user made addons for many, many games!

cloud493 wrote: »

1. I have a mac...

Oh...

Crosáidí wrote: »

Step 1 of gaming on a MAC, create a Windows partition

This is the most important thing in this thread so far. I run Windows 7 on my iMac and its great for gaming. Don't play games in OSX, it's not designed for it, experience is usually sub-par.

cloud493 wrote: »

So macs can't play nothing?

Well they can, STEAM can give you a detailed list of available mac games.
Here is a detailed list of MAC games on STEAM sorted by MetaScore

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Metascore&sort_order=DESC&category1=998&os=mac

You could also set up a Windows boot, to play games for Windows (assuming your Gfx /Cpu /Ram meet the required Specs)

What's your gpu m8?

Well it's dual core CPU, so no much advantage there. Still no info on ram or gpu m8.

If you google the model number you'll get a result with what should be inside your machine.
Here, let me google that for you.

The second link down in the search results says it should have ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics acceleration with 128 MB of GDDR3 memory. Not great but it'll run some games.

That mac is just a no go for pc gaming. ( it's mac in the first place! )

I am afraid that trying to play on it will just put you off pc gaming.

Pc gaming became alot cheaper these days. Jump in to " building computers " forum on boards.ie, there are a lot of us who will help you and explain you everything you need to built your own gaming pc. We have built good few budget pcs, alot of gamers are. Happy

It will be more expencive then console, but keep in mind it won't by just a yoke for playing games. It is a powerfull multimedia machine. These days most of TVs got hdmi connections so you can use it as monitor, if you not fancy buying monitor just now.

./finish converting to the dark side.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

That mac is just a no go for pc gaming. ( it's mac in the first place! )

You haven't a clue what you're talking about. Windows doesn't care what machine it is on, it doesn't know that the Intel processor and Radeon/nVidia card it is using are inside a mac box. I played Skyrim on a Windows 7 boot on my iMac with no problems.

Obviously cost-wise a PC is a better choice for gaming, but if you already have a mac a windows boot is a perfectly valid option.

m8

ShadowHearth wrote: »

right, before luring a fan boy in you. :rolleyes:

I use both Windows and OS X for different things on different machines. I take no part in the factional warfare people seem insistent on waging over them, and trying to dismiss me as a fanboy is both ad hominem and a strawman.

you play games on WINDOWS, not MAC OS. MACs are not for gaming, if you want to be picky about this statement i will leave you the rest of this thread, have fun!

Earlier you said "The can, but that's about it. If you will do that separate partition with windows, you might play few older games on lowish settings" - implying that even on a Windows boot a Mac was somehow inherently inferior for gaming, which just isn't true. You've either got the hardware or you don't, Windows doesn't care who assembled it.

Zillah wrote: »

I use both Windows and OS X for different things on different machines. I take no part in the factional warfare people seem insistent on waging over them, and trying to dismiss me as a fanboy is both ad hominem and a strawman.



Earlier you said "The can, but that's about it. If you will do that separate partition with windows, you might play few older games on lowish settings" - implying that even on a Windows boot a Mac was somehow inherently inferior for gaming, which just isn't true. You've either got the hardware or you don't, Windows doesn't care who assembled it.

He ment the gpu in this MAC is not really designed for high end gaming, I thought it was obvious what he ment

Crosáidí wrote: »

He ment the gpu in this MAC is not really designed for high end gaming, I thought it was obvious what he ment

He posted that before he even knew which model we were talking about so that obviously doesn't make sense. He also said "macs", plural.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

thread is yours, have fun.

You said that already. Post again if you want the last word.

Zillah wrote: »

He posted that before he even knew which model we were talking about so that obviously doesn't make sense. He also said "macs", plural.

Yeah but i've never seen a custom build MAC, they 99% of the time dont have high-end GPUs

Whereas you can build a top PC rig for €650-750 easily

Using the Model Identifier and Serial Number it seems to be this machine. So an Intel E8235, 2GB RAM and a 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 card. Performance, unfortunately, won't be particularly good with new games cloud493.

That doesn't mean there aren't loads of other games to choose from however. If I were you I'd browse through Steam and keep an eye out for highly rated games which happen to be a bit older or don't look overly demanding visually, there's plenty of great deals to be had on some fantastic games. As for Starcraft, well the first one should run fine, the sequel not so much. You can get a demo of it via Battle.net though and give it a try.

Bottom line Cloud, if you want to play PC games, then get yourself a decent PC.

Limericks wrote: »

You can build mac's they are called hackintosh's, also 650-750 isn't really a top end pc, I would say it is a mid range one, top end would be around 1000-1500 and enthusiast would be 1500 - infinity.

Sooooooooooooo lol at this.

Come to "building pc" forum on boards.ie, then post something taken out of the arse.

If we build pc for 1k eu then it is high end monster gamer ultra "you have too much money son" machine. Anything above 1k eu - you are mad bro.

600-800eu gets you a high end pc, which will play any game on 1080p.

As mentioned before, OPs machine is very old. No matter what brand it is.. Is it apple, pear, orange or rat box. Hardware is old, but you might try get some older games indeed.

If op really wants to start pc gaming, then he can build a new pc ( not mac ) , which is not that stupidly expencive these days.

Limericks wrote: »

You can build mac's they are called hackintosh's, also 650-750 isn't really a top end pc, I would say it is a mid range one, top end would be around 1000-1500 and enthusiast would be 1500 - infinity.

Once you go above a grand your into the realm of uber PCs with 8gb plus of ram. Although that's just for the box and not including peripherals.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Ram is cheap as chips these days, so it's not an indicator of uber pc m8. 8gb ram is like 36eu. We put 8gb ram even in to med spec pcs.

I suppose there is another factor too which is the quality of the parts. As this was a work PC I wanted to put quality parts in it and was willing to spend more based on previous experience with cheaper parts. It wasn't so much that cheaper parts are completely unreliable or anything but even from the point of view of upgrading in the future having a good well made case makes a world of difference.

I have been left with an uber PC though, 16gb of ram, SSD OS drive, raid storage drives, i7 2600K. Compared to the PC I upgraded from (which was no slouch) the speed increase is incredible. But I've really been building this rig for years, nearly everything outside the case is years old and I've had the most of the hard drives for a while. I think once you get a good base IE: Decent case and motherboard, you can stay well ahead of the upgrade curve at fairly minimal cost and get 8 - 10 years or more out of a PC.