Which Power Mac G5 for a gamer?

If you're a 'serious gamer' get a console. AFAIK few games are multithreaded, so the best that they will take advantage of is a dual, whereby the OS can offload the game to the second processor core. But it all seems overkill to just play games.

Hello...

I have a Dual and the games I have played run as smooth as pie. I must admit that the game of choice for me is Call of Duty, Black Hawk Down etc, mainly first person war games.

Just a word of warning though, as a serious gamer, you'll want to communicate with the fellow players in your team, using TeamSpeak or something of the like, which isnt availaible for the Mac as of yet, in fact, there's no half good voice comms yet written for the OS, in terms of gaming online.

Other than that, apart from the singles processor machines, should your games be 'dual' aware, all the G5 family will give a great gaming experience!

Regards.
Jamesy!

In my opinion, if you want to game and save money, wait for the Playstation 3's to come out. $1000 for 2-3 years of use.

If you need the power of a Mac for something else, doing a lot of different things at once and 3D gaming is coming along for the ride, then get a PowerMac Quad for a longterm investment, lowest cost of yearly ownership and less headaches. $3500 for 5-7 years of use. (software will grow to use it over time)

If your a serious 3D competitive online gamer and don't mind blowing cash on a soon to be obsolete system, want the most 3D games and can handle the pain of Windows (viruses, spyware etc), then get a PC. $1500 for 1-1.5 years.

PC gaming is on the decline in favor of gaming boxes like Playstation, they are cheaper and less complicated thus sell more. Also they have been getting much better, keyboards, broadband connections, fast processors etc.

Another thing is these game boxes have been selling at near cost for manufactorers, they make up for it in software sales.

Computers have processors that can do different things with a fancy graphics card with it's own processors to handle the 3D graphics.

The new Playstation 3 will have a Cell processor with 9 (yes NINE) core processors. One to run the game and the other eight to handle the graphics, no hefty graphics card needed. But the Playstation only has one main processor, the others are vector processors. On the PowerMac Quad you have four core processors, so you can run a lot of differnet things at once with a PowerMac Quad vs a Playstation. But to do 3D games you need a hefty graphics card.

The present line of single core PC's are soon to be obsolete, as dual cores are coming out next year, meaning all new games the year after that, and also Windows Vista, which is a unproven and possibly bulky OS.

I 3D game quite fine on my Dual 2 with Nvida 6800GT and cable broadband, can even actively run 2 3D games at once (can only use one at a time of course). Or I can run a game and watch a couple of "free" HDTV stations. I'm sure with a Quad you'll have even more power, but don't expect a 2x amount of a dual processor system, dual cores run hot so they are hobbled and allow future "upgrades" using the same chips.

http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/PhotoAlbum2.html

Kenyan,

You wrote: " I am a serious gamer who want's a computer that gives the best performance."

You want a WIndows PC.

We all love our Macs, but serious gamers use Windows machines.
1. There are more games.
2. You can upgrade your video card every 6 months.
3. You can overclock the CPU.

,dave

Well I have been running game servers on Mac's since the days of Quake 1, so I can tell you that there are far too many variables to your question to give an all inclusive reply. However, here are my 2 cents.....

You say that you are a serious gamer (so all advice will be based on that), but what sort of games do you play? If you play more roll playing type games, you don't need the lightning (twitch) speed required to be competitive in current FPS games. As such, someone suggested you consider consoles which would certainly be sufficient for any type of gaming other than FPS games (now I am sure someone will beg to differ here, but I'm sorry if there was a way to connect a PC/Mac to a console to play the same server, I would OWN the console FPS player all day long, if just for the ability to run a track ball and keyboard...lol).

If you are however an FPS game player, then there are some other things to consider. While the processing juice is there, Mac's are always behind the curve on the latest & greatest video cards, and when they are available they cost a great deal (I run the 6800 ultra which cost as much as a cheep Dell computer....lol). I built a good (mid line) PC for $1200.00 for titles not released on a Mac platform (but I prefer my Mac......a tad biased). Something to think about if cost is an issue.

Another consideration is if you are an online gamer. If you play FPS games and want to be competitive online, PING is an obvious consideration. I have no idea what the online community is like in Kenya, but if it is limited and your playing servers far away from you, you may want to create and run a server so you and your local pals can play with lower ping rates.

This is where console gaming is left behind. Running servers in (my opinion) is half the fun of gaming. A Mac Dual 2.0 can effectively run a dedicated server in the background (in my case with as many as 10-20 player slots in Quake 3 CTF) and allow you to play as a client without a hiccup. Of course your overall experience will be limited by your ISP. You can tweak the heck out your server with all the thousands of mod's, maps, and models on the web for download.

So if you want to be able to play fast paced FPS games, join any of the thousands of custom servers for the various titles (not just ones controlled by Microsoft for Xbox), be able to be a server admin, and of course be able to do all the other wonderful things our Mac's do, BUY THE G5!

If you go that way and start running a dedicated server, post it here! Always fun to see more Mac servers:-)

Kenyan,

I have a Windows 2000 PC.
I don't play games. Not even solitaire.
But, I have spent way too much time on PC-oriented websites where the gamers obsess about performance.
My recommendation Windows' machines is to build your own. That way you get exactly the components you want. Before, I got my Mac, I spent stupid amounts of time reading about heat sinks, thermal grease, motherboards, cases, etc.

,dave

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND AN ALIENWARE PC!

I returned mine within 30 days for full refund due horrific video and mobo issues (darn I forgot to remove that from my sig). I took that cash and used 1/3 to build a little Shuttle PC that ran with 1/2 the noise (those AW cases are loud as ****....easily higher DBA than the much lamented wind tunnel mirror drive G4's), and played the few PC titles I wanted to run almost as well.

In fact, I am about to sell the little Shuttle off and build a new AMD FX55, SLI monster for Qukae 4 (because sadly again I cannot wait for a Mac port), for easily 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of a comparable Alienware.

In fact...go to www.newegg.com and price out some good gaming components to build your own (its not hard....heck if I can do it.....).

This little system below came in about $1500.00, would be nearly as quiet as my G5 and with a beautiful case (the only one I would want sitting next to my G5...hehehe its the one I am using next).

SILVERSTONE TJ-03 SLVR
ABIT KN8 Ultra Socket 939
BFG Tech BFGR78256GTOC Geforce 7800GT
ZALMAN ZM400B-APS ATX 400W Power Supply
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939
Shuttle Silver IDE DVD Burner Model CR40 (Silver)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
ZALMAN CNPS7700-** 120mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan with Copper Heatsink
ZALMAN ZM-NB47J Aluminium NorthBridge Chipset Cooler
Kingston Hyperx
Maxtor 250g HD

So go with the G5 dual, but if cost is an issue, build a PC. However, since you say that the internet is rather sparse in your area, you may want to host the server. As such you should pony up the cash and get the Mac!

Here was my junk in its hayday, and the little Shuttle PC and 20" LCD I built with my AW refund....

http://homepage.mac.com/wayslow2/Menu1.html

Best of luck to you,

Hey ds....
This is not really the thread for this but I clicked your link and had to ask. Are you running the 30"? I am so leary of getting one after reading all the stories of woe in here. Can you tell me your thoughts? I want to sell off all my older 23" ADC units and either get 2-3 new 20" or 2 30" (one for PC and one for my G5). My G5 is a dual 2.0 Rev.b with a 6800 ultra (and no I will not be upgrading it after reading your posts....many thanks for the advice BTW). I am concerned about the 30" quality and if any PC cards can drive it?

Thanks.

I am more of a single player 1st shooter. i cant go online due to slow connections.

Then a PowerMac G5 will do you really well, it's stable, reliable and with a good 3D video card, great at playing games by yourself.

I don't know how your computer service is in your country, but a Mac is a quality machine, requiring little on site repair or assistance.

Take a PowerMac Quad over Windows PC in your case.

I heard doom 3 dosnt play so good on mac, true?

Doom3 doesn't play well on most anything right now, it's a new game engine and a lot of hardware hasn't caught up to use all it's capabilites yet.

On my Dual 2 Ghz, w/30" display with Nvidia 6800 GT it plays very well and I get smooth animation by tweaking the settings down a bit. But you'll have to do this regardless of platform choice.

Doom3 is a game you'll play through like a story and then it's over, you might play it again but not something you'll do all the time like Unreal Tournament 2004 for instance with all the maps and mods you can get for it.

I have some pictures here, Doom3 running with two HDTV channels and iTunes, also a online 3D game called Vendetta with UT2004 at the same time etc. If your net connection is slow (like 56k dial up) you might not want to click on the photo's as it would take forever to download.

http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/PhotoAlbum2.html