Boot Camp and Gaming

Question

Boot Camp and Gaming

The biggest reason why I have stuck with IBM clones and PC Compatibles is gaming, but I have become Mac Curious recently and have done research in getting Windows software (notably games) to run in an OSX environment. I learned about boot camp, and I saw Wine is available for Mac...which I got aquanited with for a good while when I was running linux during the vista years.

I don't care about getting full 1080p 60fps on my PC games, I just want them to be playable. I doubt it can be done on a Mac Mini, so how well does it work on the iMac, and the Mac Pro...and is it even worth it to try?

Posted on Mar 1, 2014 8:54 PM

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Answer 1

Rudegar

Level 10

180,642 points

Mar 2, 2014 3:36 AM in response to samuelfromcamden

wine is running windows programs on other platforms (would not advice for gaming at all)

bootcamp is dualboot you have to restart the computer to go to windows and it's 100% the same as a normal windows pc as macs today use the same type of cpu's and video chips

so in bootcamp then your gaming performance is 100% that of a windows computer with the same hardware specs

(best for gaming)

then there is virtual machine you have a sandbox where one run a whole operating system as as a program know versions are wmware, ms hyberV / old ms virtual machine and virtualbox (this is not as bad as wine but it can't access low level hardware such as 3d video card features and cpu and memory will be shared with osx at the same time)

I run win8.1 on my imac 21" from 2011 with amd video card and intel i7 cpu

played skyrim, bioshock infinite, fallout3, rage, batman arkham city and many more works great

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Answer 2

dalstott

Level 4

2,639 points

Mar 2, 2014 9:10 AM in response to samuelfromcamden

As Rudegar has pointed out you can have a very satisfactory Windows gaming experience on a Mac. I have used Boot Camp since 2008 on 2 MacBook Pros and a MacBook mainly for the Win games not available on the Mac platform.

Another plus is the ability to run the older Win games that are being updated for the more recent Microsoft Systems. For example; Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, System Shock 2, Rise Of the Triad and many others. These can be seen on the GOG (Good Old Games) site at the link below. Also PC trainers are available which I have never seen for the Mac.

http://www.gog.com/frontpage

For Gaming I would not recommend any of the software emulators.

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Answer 3

Mar 2, 2014 9:24 AM in response to dalstott

Alright. I use Steam for alot of my gaming, and if you buy a game on steam, if it has a mac, linux or Windows version, you get access to all three.

is boot camp free (Other than the Windows install disc)?

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Answer 4

Mar 2, 2014 10:31 AM in response to samuelfromcamden

Boot Camp Assistant is in your utilities folder.

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Answer 5

dalstott

Level 4

2,639 points

Mar 2, 2014 10:38 AM in response to samuelfromcamden

I also use Steam principally for newer games but they also have a number of older games revised to run on modern hardware. One of the best things about Steam is having the latest version and not needing to search for patches.

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Answer 6

Mar 2, 2014 10:46 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

Alright, I have decided to get a mac mini, but I'll wait for it to support haswell. Now they have external GPU enclosures which connect through thunderbolt...so the mac mini could be made into a compeditive computer.

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