Razer promises Mac support for all upcoming products

Razer already provides full Mac support for a few of its gaming peripherals -- including the Naga and DeathAdder -- and basic support for others, but it's now taken avantage of GDC to "reaffirm" its commitment to Mac users. That apparently means that "all upcoming" Razer products -- including the company's line of StarCraft II peripherals -- will boast full Mac support out of the box, and that the company will be rolling out updates to some of its existing products "later this year," including the Orochi, Mamba, and Imperator gaming mice. First Steam, now Razer peripherals -- dare we say it's a good time to be a Mac gamer?

[Prevacator Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:39PM]

>dare we say it's a good time to be a Mac gamer?
Not until Apple actually puts more modern GPUs into their computers.

[bolezhinkov Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:44PM]

@Prevacator

or some core i7 love into the MBP line!!!

[SirNoDroin Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:44PM]

@Prevacator done in one.

[N900 Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:48PM]

@bolezhinkov That would be insane! Great ATI chip + Core i + MBP + Steam = WIN

[ashleythehottiest Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:50PM]

Shut up please.

[Prevacator Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:50PM]

@bolezhinkov
Don't expect to see an i7 in the MBP lineup, given how hot it will get, and much lower the battery life will be. Same goes for a vastly improved GPU.

The best you'll probably see in the MBP lineup is an i5, but I doubt you'll see any 5xxx Mobility Radeon Chips.

[MrBeast Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:51PM]

@Prevacator
true but at least these are all steps in the right direction. Plus you can get a 285gtx put in your mac pro if you have the benjamins.

[Prevacator Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:55PM]

@MrBeast
The thing I find the most disconcerting is that you need a special Apple branded GPU, and unless you want to get either a 120, or (I believe) a 47xx? video card built into your Mac Pro, you need to buy from third party sellers, and install it yourself.

Now I have no problem with that, but the whole point of purchasing a pre-built is to have everything already done for you. But the last time I checked; even though there is a 285, and indeed a Quadro that are branded to work in Macs, they aren't options when you order a Mac Pro. Which is kind of sad. As is the fact they're more expensive, despite being the same graphics cards.

[blackdenton Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:58PM]

@Prevacator Or until all this stuff comes out. There is no steam for mac, yet.

[JeremyBenthem Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:05PM]

@N900
"That would be insane! Great ATI chip + Core i + MBP + Steam = WIN"

I saw one the other day!! But it had HP Envy 15 written on it for some reason

[Jack Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:10PM]

@Prevacator

No, you don't need a "special Apple branded" card. You need one that supports EFI. When Microsoft starts pushing EFI in Windows and ATi and nVidia start making cards that support it, those cards will also work in Macs.

As far as the current offerings, it's not like it's hard to find the GTX 285. I have one in my Mac Pro. It should be noted that the GTX 285 is easily powerful enough to run any of the Orange Box games, and also their upcoming games like Portal 2. It's not "necessary" to have the absolute fastest video cards available.

[qlimax Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:35PM]

@Jack
apple=shit

stop.

[Prevacator Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:39PM]

@Jack
You missed my point entirely.

[Sor1 Posted Mar 10th 2010 6:35PM]

@Prevacator

dare we say that you need a proper hardware spec machine to play games (that you can upgrade every component and whenever you want/need) and developers to start writing to OpenGL along with all other platforms??

Also i welcome the MAC users to the dying platform of computer gaming where most developer have done the console jump :-/ Don't worry soon MAC and PC users will have more or less the same very few games per year.

[mfranke Posted Mar 10th 2010 7:27PM]

@MrBeast The problem is that the 285 is whopping $449 from the apple store for the apple certified card. This is more expensive than the ATI 5870 which absolutely TROUNCES the 285.

And this isn't even taking into account the inherent cost of the Mac Pro you need to put the 285 INTO.

$2500 for bare stock Mac Pro.
Core i7 920
3gb ram
500 gb hard drive
Nvidia GT120 or +$200 for an ATI 4870.

Vs

my Dell XPS 730x dual boot hackentosh for $1600
Core i7 920
6gb corsair ram
1x 150gb 10k rpm WD Raptor
2x 500gb 7200 rpm WD caviar drives for storage
ATI 4870 + $400 for an ATI 5870 if i wanted to upgrade.

Sorry, but i'll stick with my dual boot Windows 7 / OSX rig and pocket the extra $500 - $900

[Jack Posted Mar 10th 2010 8:54PM]

@mfranke

Mac Pros don't use Core i7 chips. They use Xeons. Same architecture, different chips, and yes there is a huge price difference. From Intel, not Apple.

And if by "trounces" you mean "barely faster", then sure. See?

http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Graphics-cards/ATI-Radeon-HD-5870-vs-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX285/Page-5.html

Your comparison is worthless because you're comparing a low end gaming PC to a professional workstation. Nobody buys Mac Pros for gaming, they buy them for work. Why else would you need 8 processor cores? Not for gaming.

Also don't even start with hackintoshes. Everybody who has one says they work perfectly, but forget to mention all the things that work poorly or don't work at all. I would rather have an actual Mac on which both OS X and Windows are fully supported and 100% legal, if you want to run both.

[Weezul Posted Mar 10th 2010 9:55PM]

@N900 " That would be insane! Great ATI chip + Core i + MBP + Steam = WINdows PC that isn't overpriced and proprietary."

There.... I corrected it for you...

[mfranke Posted Mar 10th 2010 10:55PM]

@Jack

A) The Mac pro i quoted is a quad core, not the significantly more expensive dual socket workstation board in the 8 core mac pro. The single socket Mac Pro has 4 dimm slots, the dual socket mac Pro has 8 dimm slots. Since apple doesn't reveal what Xeon cpu preceisely that they're using, i would be inclined to believe they're using the 2.66ghz Nehalem Xeon single socket X3450 which is $270, which is roughly the same price as an Intel Core i7 920.

B) This is a discussion about Mac gaming. So my comparison is completely relevant. What else should i be comparing to? The Macbook pro? The iMac? What other platform that Apple sells is capable of at least reasonable gaming performance?

C) I use my machine as a workstation AND gaming machine.

Adobe CS4 collection,

D) How the heck is a Core i7 920, 6gb DDR3 1333mhz, Raptor and a 4850 a "Low end gaming pc"? Not everyone has $4k for an i7 965 extreme, 12gb, raided Intel X25 SSDs and CrossfireX or Tri-SLI.

I can play every game at max or near max settings at 1920x1200 with smooth framerates. Far Cry 2, Mass Effect 2, Borderlands, Star Trek Online.

You're attempting to bait me sir.

[Hobsie Posted Mar 11th 2010 5:20AM]

@Prevacator

My MBP has a Geforce 8600M GT in it...was top dog day it came out.

[Hobsie Posted Mar 11th 2010 5:20AM]

@Prevacator

My MBP has a Geforce 9600M GT in it...was top dog day it came out.

[Hobsie Posted Mar 11th 2010 5:21AM]

@Hobsie

Balls my typo got through...

[sbvikings30 Posted Mar 29th 2010 8:23PM]

@Prevacator they do you can get mutiple gtx 285s in the mac pro and the new imacs can have plenty of gpu power to run these games, maybe not a max settings but a medium settings with good frame rates. and Nvidia or ati will probably make a mac edition card because of the steam thing. who knows we might see a mac 5870 or a mac 480

[techlord Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:51PM]

Does Microsoft approve this?

[Microdot Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:51PM]

finally. i could care less about gaming.. but have loved their moce for a long time. layouts are just perfect. now, if they could make a keyboard worth a crap............

[bweezy21 Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:52PM]

my orochi currently works on my 27 inch imac...

[jamesstringer Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:54PM]

@bweezy21 they all work, as they're plug and play, its just that Razer ships software that you can't use on Mac...

[bweezy21 Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:03PM]

@jamesstringer ahh i see.

[kojo87 Posted Mar 11th 2010 2:09AM]

@bweezy21 so you bought an Orochi and did not realize there were drivers and software to tweak the performance? i think that mouse might be over kill for you.

[bweezy21 Posted Mar 11th 2010 9:12AM]

@kojo87 the software works when the mouse is plugged in with the cable. just cant tweak bluetooth settings. The mouse probably is a little overkill for me but i did know about the software.

[jamesstringer Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:53PM]

WWDC is going to be big for gamers this year hopefully!

[wako Posted Mar 10th 2010 6:06PM]

@jamesstringer


LOL! It would be awesome if WWDC becomes a gaming convention xD

[Uncontrol Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:53PM]

Hopefully the Orochi update stops it from going to sleep and lagging every three to five seconds.

Returned it, got Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX, never looked back.

[Leindurstit Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:54PM]

It's never a good time to be a mac gamer. Not until they throw Optimus in their notebooks coupled to at least GT330m cards and offer desktop graphics cards sooner than 18 months after their regular PC versions were released.

[Jack Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:12PM]

@Leindurstit

The GTX 285 for the Mac was available very shortly after it was released for PCs. Try again?

[Prevacator Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:50PM]

@Jack
And what since?

[EGOvoruhk Posted Mar 10th 2010 6:08PM]

@Jack

I wouldn't exactly call 6 months "very shortly", and the 285 wasn't much more than a 55nm fabbed version of the 280, which PC gamers got a year before

[Jack Posted Mar 10th 2010 8:31PM]

@Prevacator

So I prove somebody wrong and your answer to that is another question? How about you just admit he was wrong?

"And what since" is irrelevant. Does the 285 play every game available right now perfectly well? Yes it does. What was your point again?

[mynameisjay Posted Mar 10th 2010 4:59PM]

I think this has everything to do with Valve + Steam on the Mac. I'm all for it.

[Denus Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:01PM]

Logitech could learn from this regarding the Mac support of the G9 mouse.
I'm using USB Overdrive 3.01 to be able to use it correctly in OS X...

[joshky Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:01PM]

As a side note: the mamba is freaking awesome (mamba owners woot!)

[ECH Posted Mar 10th 2010 9:20PM]

@joshky
Only thing better than looking at my mamba is touching it...

Mamba FTW!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:11PM]

Thank god. I love Razer, but their mac support is seriously lacking at this given moment.

I knew that Steam on a Mac would bring great unintended consequences.

[Jack Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:13PM]

@(Unverified)

Yep, here's to the halo effect. Bring it on.

[rduran Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:51PM]

@(Unverified)

"Prepare for Unforeseen Consequences."

[ThreeDee912 Posted Mar 10th 2010 10:07PM]

@rduran

Upranked for HL2:Ep2 reference?

[Intervention Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:22PM]

My Razer DeathAdder has functionality with my MacBook Pro. Just the two buttons on the side do not work

[Jack Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:26PM]

@Intervention

Yeah, and you can use software like USB Overdrive to get them to work. But it's nice that Razer is making their own software Mac native.

[Intervention Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:28PM]

@Jack

Hope they have it ready by the Steam Launch for Mac

[FlyersPh9 Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:38PM]

I got a MacBook Pro and an Orochi Mouse. :-)

[espentan Posted Mar 10th 2010 5:48PM]

But, but Razor products aren't white, shiny and gay? *confused*