No matter which three-legged sentry turret you pick,
Steam games run fine if it houses a decent graphics card. That said, stick this in your breech and shoot it -- the latest edition of Valve's hardware survey shows the glossy white Apple models outgun Windows counterparts in a number of areas. Whereas the majority of Windows PCs have 2GB or 3GB of memory, 53 percent of Macs sport 4GB of RAM -- though that's likely attributable to the popularity of 32-bit OS. While 17 percent of Windows users are also stuck with a single CPU, over 90 percent of Macs running Steam have a dual-core... and internet connectivity's biased towards Mac gamers too, with 65 percent reporting download speeds over 2Mbit compared to under half of PCs. Of course, where it truly counts for games, Macs still sorely lag behind; the top six Windows GPUs reported are all capable performers, but only 32.5 percent of Macs surveyed had anything
but a bottom-barrel graphics card. Get with the times, Apple --
even your mobile guys know gaming's not a niche anymore.
[Thanks, Ryan B.]
posted June 10th 2010 1:31AM
Ahhh yeahhhh!
Engadget, can i get this article back ?,
I want to vote for Sprint EVO 4G now.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/09/iphone-or-evo-which-one-should-you-get/
Kthxbai
@Schmerzlichtod
I don't really see you how you show all the statistics saying how the typical Mac owns the typical PC, and then you tell *them* to "get with the times." Redundancy at it's finest.
Macs come with great, seriously powerful graphics cards, only they're rarely interchangeable (only in Mac Pros).
Pretty interesting stuff to read. I wonder what gaming on a Mac would be like?
@Schmerzlichtod
You F'ing kidding right ?
Macs run 2 to three generations behind in graphics card. The lone exception is when AMD releases one fo their Top cards for the Mac Pro.
MacBook Pro graphics are a joke
@Mike Vick
You can start by imaging a one button mouse and clearing your pee ram.
@Mike Vick
Honestly? Great.
Though I prefer gaming on Windows. I'm not a fanboy, I enjoy the best of both worlds. Mac OS X systems are capable of decent gaming, but Windows systems (even in bootcamp) rock, no doubt about it.
When it comes down to hardware, Macs are the best of the best, when they're first out, but PC's quickly catch up and offer lower price points. Furthermore, Macs (aside from Mac Pros) are hardly upgradeable, which means they're only good for gaming in their time, but PCs can continue to march on. That's why I have both. Though I admittedly only use my Windows machine for gaming anymore... and MS Word. The *real* MS Word can never be trumped, I love it (I'm a nerd).
@redsyrup
Perfect example of someone living in the 1970's still.
@Schmerzlichtod
In other news, 100% of the macs being currently sold have a duel core or higher processor. Congrats. Another piece of statistics that is impressive if taken out of context.
@DefPoet
No, not really, nice try though!
@Mike10010100
Could the same not be said of PCs?
@Schmerzlichtod
so according to this article computers that cost over 1000 seem to have more ram than computer that cost under 500.
I doubt it!
NO soup for you, NEXT!
@Mike Vick
Probably exactly like gaming on a similarly equipped Windows machine. Except more expensive.
@Nimer55
computers*
@Schmerzlichtod
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
@Schmerzlichtod
This is a pretty stupid article. All it proves is the overpriced-only options of a mac comes with some respectable hardware. As it should.
PC hardware, that is.
@Schmerzlichtod
Macs never have the best hardware.
Name a current Mac model that has the best of anything.
There is not one
@Schmerzlichtod
Here's my point. Try to buy a mac right now that doesn't have a duel core processor or better. See what I'm talking about?
@Schmerzlichtod
Judging by the unnecessarily angry comments gathered thus far, PC fanboys are poor, AND jealous...?
I don't get what you guys have to gain from bashing computers you obviously can't afford (hence the consistent complaints about price) and clearly have never used before (hence the seriously outdated information)...
@Mike Vick It's pretty sweet.
And it's gotten a lot better with Steam.
@Mike10010100 Where do you get these "duel" cores? No wonder they're so good for gaming.
@Nimer55 "so according to this article computers that cost over 1000 seem to have more ram than computer that cost under 500."
It is quite probably because of that. So?
@Schmerzlichtod I'm pretty sure it's because you have CHOICE to buy slower, cheaper hardware for PC's...
DUH
@AaronX
It's really rather interesting. It enhances the game by each core dueling each other for dominance. Just another iNnovation by Apple!
Macs are a joke in the hardware department. Only a fool pays more for less.
I have a i7 @ 4Ghz, you don't, and never will.
I have 2 GTX480s, you don't and never will.
I have 14TB of HDD space in a RAID array (with a good RAID card unlike the cheapo cards Mac Pros have), you don't and never will.
I have a high quality HX1000 PSU, you don't and never will.
I have a Rampage II Extreme with more features than the last 5 Macs combined, you don't and never will.
I have X-Fi Fatality with hardware OpenAL, EFX & EAX, you don't and never will.
Despite all your money, you still end up with a box of shit on your desk compared to a custom PC.
@Kurian
You sir pwoned the hell out of the Apple fanboys, bravo
@Schmerzlichtod A typical Mac is 1000 dollars up.
A typical PC is 300 - 500 dollars.
Big diffrence
@Mike Vick Worse than on a PC:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3759/mac-os-x-steam-performance-half-life-2-episode-2-still-slower-than-windows
All that extra muscle these ~1000 mac PCs have compared to the millions of windows PC steam gamers - on average that is - doesnt make steam games run even close as good as on a windows PC.
If Jobs cared about that, I wonder how he would spin that...
On a serious note, OSX is no gaming platform, thats all.
@DefPoet I'm not convinced that you know what your talking about. Many of the Alienware laptops (Which basically pride themselves in being gaming laptops) use the same GPU as the Macbook pros. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any means, but i have a basic late 2009 white macbook, and it runs all of the source games fine, thus far. It runs everything on medium graphics. I'm happy with that. I'm not worried about getting 100 FPS in a game or running the game on the highest settings. Just being able to run the game is good enough for me.
@Schmerzlichtod
im upranking you because you do have a point. but windows PC's is still a better gaming platform (consoles aside)
@Kurian I'm not defending Apple, so don't shit your diaper, but your obviously just an enthusiast because i highly doubt you need all of the power. Settings in a game get to a point where the detail is not really noticeable when changing from 8AA to 16AA, and an 8 core CPU at this point just really isn't beneficial. Most software cannot take advantage of all the cores, although you will still see a speed increase, it won't be what it really should be.
@Technologeee
The last poll I saw had the Iphone about 13% ahead of the EVO
So, the whole point of your comment is pretty much redundant!
Man W.T.!, Mac are no-where near the performance of a PC and cost more. I uses a brand new mac in school (for graphic design) but it's slow and limited. My cheaper PC can out run any new Mac computer any day of the year. Man, the writer must of have a really cr@py 90's PC or something to came up with that statistic.
@Kurian
Yes, and I'm Albert Einstein.
@Schmerzlichtod
All you Apple fans are a bunch of dummy's for even beginning to say that a mac has comparable hardware to current pc's. They won't and never will unless they open their system up to more influence but they don't wanna do that! Macs will not out game pc's and the stats from Steam is junk to begin with. I could go into it but lets just say it has to do with market share and user numbers.... Any how here are some links to get your IQ a bit higher the the tool avg of 70.
PC vs Mac comparison - http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/68/macvspc.jpg
market share link - http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/01/windows-7-growing-faster-than-vista-overtakes-mac-os.ars
@Schmerzlichtod
Yes obviously Macs come with the best hardware.
Oh wait we were being serious? My bad then lets compare.
New Macbook pro vs my laptop, but since you can easily spec the macbook yourself I'll just post my specs.
Cost $1700
Aluminum unibody? No, mine has a magnesium alloy.
Core I7 (you know the one that actually has 4 cores and 8 threads?)
8gb DDR3 ram
ATI RADEON HD5830
IDT high definition audio
500GB 7200 RPM Sata
1080p High Quality screen
Someone let me know when you can get that on a MacBook. Maybe you can get one only slightly worse for about $600 more. But still, as good as the hardware is, not saying its not, its not the BEST. Macs are good machines, they are well built machines, they are reliable. But mine is too, its just not as overpriced.
@Schmerzlichtod
Really? My specs aren't that outlandish except for my 8x2TB RAID 5 array.
@Schmerzlichtod
Really? My specs aren't that outlandish except for my 8x2TB RAID 5 array. And know what the best part is; its just my everyday use desktop PC. It must really sting that my gaming rig wipes the floor even with your uber expensive Mac servers.
@potretr this article is pretty pointless. its only collecting data from systems running steam. Its not saying which os is better, just that most people with macs may have a gb more of ram....who cares. my system kills most macs. and i got it on the way cheap. thats all that really matters.
Lessee....2-3 year old Macs (the only ones that can run Steam) have better hardware than a group of PCs which include some that are up to 10 years old. Whodathunkit?
Breaking news: Water is wet and the sun is hot!
@Mike Vick
The same as gaming on a PC, but in OS X instead of Windows.
@Schmerzlichtod
Cause core i7s were in the mac first! oh wait...... maybe PCs had the better hardware first, then the mac caught up....
@sonicyoof
No. If a PC were equipped *exactly* the same as a given Mac, they would cost the same, or the PC would cost more. That's how it works. People just love to think Macs are "more expensive" because they use more expensive components.
@Kurian I have a Ferrari in my garage and you never will
I have a gorgeous, intelligent wife and you never will
I have a 5,500 sq ft house and you never will
......and my Mac Pro will keep working flawlessly and hold it's value long after your "monster" rig has died and you've started bashing something else of Apple's.
Once again we get stupid statistics to wave in front of the masses like shiny objects. I simply say, "No shit." This article is like saying, "Alienware computers play games better than e-Machines!". No shit.
Now, I'm not directly comparing apple to alienware, its just that buying a mac, you pretty much have a standard: dual core and you pretty much have a core constituency who, if they can afford a $2,000 computer, can probably afford a decent internet connection... This is engadget using their linguistic prowess to fool the generally stupid public into thinking Macs are inherently better than PCs. Engadget: Don't post bullshit headlines in the form "Macs are better than PCs" unless its an equal hardware comparison. You and I both know most people don't understand the finer points beyond that, its why you do it.
(and I own a mac, so don't even think about posting what your thinking about posting)
Now with all that what I really wanted to say was, "I love portal!"
@threedeuce5
Ohh, you know you don't have any of those things. Just keep trying to justify your overpriced Apple hardware. Bye
@threedeuce5
If you're so wonderful, then why are you on engadget arguing with the "little people". Shove it up your ass.
Engadget, you should be ashamed of yourselves posting this garbage article, with that garbage headline. Trying to recover a little profit for Apple after you let that iPhone vs. EVO article slip through the cracks eh?
You have a fast computer we are very impressed. Thanks for sharing
@Kurian
And you run Windows, and we never will. And THAT is what it all boils down to. I'd take an underpowered Mac over a tricked out PC every time, and the sole reason is the OS.
So have a blast with your highly configured machine. One question; how much money does that set up make you? (now here's the part where you reply with an over-inflated amount which is most likely miles from the truth)