I know mac pros are mainly made for workstations, but if i get a mac pro with two 3.2 Ghz quad cores, 4GB of ram and dual graphics card what kind of gaming performance will this give me.
custom,
Windows XP Pro,
i like windows xp, but vista is horrible!!!!!!!
you should see a pretty good gaming performance, the 8800 (single card) will be a great asset to the system and performance.
more memory is definitely helpful, the dual 3.2 CPUs seems a bit overkill, the 2.8 are still pretty top notch.
what kind of rig are you coming from? probably will be quite a speed & performance jump.
I play all sorts of games from Age of Conan to COD on OSX & XP on a 2.66 4 core macpro and it plays really well compared to a dual core custom rig i had, which has similar specs.
i have a 3.4 Ghz hyperthreaded p4 right now which i can run CoD4 pretty well on. The only reason i don'tt want a mac is that the games for them are very limited compared to windows.
See my topic in Expanding Your Mac Pro, you might find alot of helpful stuff there as Im deciding what to configure mine with for excellent music production and gaming.
Processor - two 2.8GHz is around 25% worse than 3.2s and $1600 cheaper. If you want to cut costs somewhere, do it here.
RAM - dont buy it from Apple, just get 2x1GB and buy the rest for whatever amount you want from a good third party.
Graphics - what do you mean by "dual graphics card"? I suggest dual GeForce 8800 GTX with an SLI cable (again, buy one from Apple and the 2nd from somewhere else).
I have an 8-core 3.0GHz with 4MB RAM and the 8800GT card.
I've run Crysis under both XP (32 bit) and Vista64 - sweetly at 1600x1200. The game sets everything at "high" automatically...
I also built a PC recently - ASUS P5E3, E8400 3GHz dual-core, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 9600GT, running Vista32. Performance is a touch choppier sometimes with Crysis with the same settings.
I don't actually have any games running under MacOS...
In other words, yes, the Mac Pro works under Vista exactly like it should with those specs. The mobo doesn't appear to cause any bottlenecks.
I don't know how efficiently Crysis uses the multiple cores - but I'm hoping future games will use multiple cores a lot : )
I've got a Mac Pro with two 2,8GHz Quads and the 8800GT. I use it to 'work' on Mac OS X and to play on Vista64bit. Those are the games I play yet and they run absolute smoothly (in my case on 1280x1024): Bioshock, Supreme Commander, Mass Effect. ==> YES, early 2008 Mac Pro is good for gaming!
Only thing that concerns me, is, that Apple maybe will not update the Graphic-Card for a too long period of time.
SLI does not work on a MP. You can get two of the new ATI 3870s and put them in Crossfire mode with the included cable. Vista 64 is great for gaming in Boot Camp as it uses DX10 whereas XP uses DX9. I run Crysis at 1600x1200 with all settings on VERY HIGH and its very playable. In XP I can only run 1600x1200 with settings on HIGH for a short time as the frame rates drop off. DX10 is much better.
Hey there people! I've had Apple hardware for about 3 years now, and I've been wanting to step it up from my MacBook Pro. I'm a big gamer, and my 1st gen MBP is cutting it anymore running Vista, and games like F.E.A.R., COD 4, and Crysis. So I've been looking at the Mac Pro, because it seems to have a ton of power, and plenty of go for games. Though I have to questions that are pending my decision. My first question is how long will this machine last? By that I mean with the standard processor setup how long will I be able to use this computer, while updating GPUs and other components, before it becomes out paced by game requirments? Also, I know how often Apple updates there line of machines, so can I expect to see any updates to the Mac Pro by September, or will it be a bit longer? Thanks in advance everyone.
Great for gaming and I have a 2.66 GHz - 2 x Dual Core and 8800 GT. Work's great, most everything is set to maximum except games like Crysis and Assassin's Creed but only because I have to push 1680 x 1050, lower res is playable with maximum settings for those. My only regret is not going Vista 64, Vista 32 only allows access to 2 GB of RAM, ok for games, not for design work... 😟
Wow, that sounds pretty good, and its very reassuring to me. Though do you think Apple will update this machine sometime soon. I thought they were going to incorporate the new Intel processor. Can I buy one in September and not have to worry about a new one coming out soon?
I'm wondering the same type of stuff. I'm planning to get a Mac Pro and I can't decide if I want to go with the One 2.8 Quad or Two 2.8 Quad. I'm looking more of on the Boot Camp side to play Supreme Commander and games in that range of intensity.
Also, with this high end machine, would it be wiser to use Win Xp or Vista to utilize the full potential, like DirectX 10, etc?
Well, I will probably get hammered for this suggestion but...
The difference in price between the 2.8 and 3.2 Mac Pro is $1,600. I would get the 2.8 and spend the $1,600 on a gaming system from Dell. It will perform better and you will have a greater selection of games.
Forget Dell. With an extra $1600 lying around you can build a very nice custom gaming rig and have full control over what components go into it.
The Mac Pro can be a powerful gaming machine, but do bear in mind it is not as expandable as a custom rig built from the ground up. For example, while the current video card offerings for the Mac Pro are adequate for most current games, this will not be he case 6-8 months from now. A custom rig will allow you upgrade the necessary components as the time arises.
MaxPayne wrote:
Does Mac OS X (on Mac Pro) support the two ATI 3870s under crossfire? What's their equivalent on NVIDIA cards, and can the mac go higher than that?
And, will that be running games like Gears Of War smoothly on max settings? Thanks.
No, there is no support for ATI or nVIDIA's SLI technologies. Another reason to look into a custom gaming rig if that is the major factor driving your interest.
