Anyone run bootcamp for gaming with a Mac?

[tnf]

I've got a quad core i7, 16GB, the 1GB, 1GB ATI 5750 on the Mac. Would I have much luck running current games at medium detail or so with this setup if I ran bootcamp?

And if I did, should I install XP or Windows 7 if I were just going to use the Windows partition for gaming?

Mac discussion hasn't had a post since September, or this would go there.

[SoM]

fuck MAC

[Tsakali]

we don't like yer kind around here

[tnf]

Yea, fuck those Macs. I can't believe I use one for my photography business. WTF am thinking?

[Tsakali]

ey, this guys is alright! welcome to the family.

[GONNAFISTYA]

If the hardware is compatible with Windows, can you install it and create a dual-boot system?

[Big Kahuna Burger]

install win7 via bootcamp

my 2.93ghz i7, 8gb ram, radeon 5750 could run starcraft 2 on ultra settings at 2560x1440 with no problem, even in huge battles. tf2 ran maxed out at the same res at like 120fps for something. you can't run shit like battlefield 3 on max settings but medium would be no problem.

[obsidian]

Installing Windows on a Mac is just like installing Windows on a similar spec PC. You wouldn't hesitate to game on an i7, 5750 and 16GB of RAM PC desktop.

[shaft]

I play Angry Birds on my 27" iMac.

[GONNAFISTYA]

^has a vagina

[SoM]

i just brought a 47" LCD fr4om the trash

only the cable was fucked

thx santa

[zewulf]

Your Mac is no different than any other PC when you use Bootcamp. Looking at your specs, your Mac shouldn't have any problems running games. Just make sure you update to the latest drivers from the HW vendors (don't just stick with the drivers that came with Bootcamp). And don't bother with WinXP, just install Win7. I think most of the newest PC games coming out don't support WinXP anymore anyway (i.e., DX10 minimum).

MW3 runs just fine with medium settings at 1280x800 (native resolution) on my 3-year old 13" MacBook (the original aluminum unibody MacBook). The specs are 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and 256MB Nvidia GF 9400M. I was very surprised really. I guess that comes down to just how optimized MW3 is (it actually runs better than MW1&2 and much, much better than Black Ops).

BF3 is a different story though. Part of that is that it's very buggy and no where nearly as optimized as MW3 The other part is that I don't think my MacBook actually meets the minimum requirements. I think the game requires 512MB VRAM, and mine only has 256MB. In spite of that, I did manage to beat the SP campaign with the lowest settings at good ol' 640x480 resolution.

[obsidian]

Many games also run natively on a Mac (lots of Steam games for example) so you might not even need Boot Camp. However, many games are better optimized for Windows so it's Windows counterpart might run a little faster.

[bitWISE]

I used Bootcamp to setup the dual partitions since it was so easy to use. I think it even auto-loads when it detects a Windows ISO has been mounted. You can use other tools like gparted too (at one point I was triple booting osx, ubuntu, and windows 7 without issue. but getting the mac's efi shell to launch linux directly is nigh impossible so i just chained bootloaders). iPartition is really sexy for partition work if you want a good mac only GUI (bootable of course but only on mac hardware).

I ran Windows 7 64-bit on a Macbook Pro five days a week for almost three years straight and never really had problems. I work in a Microsoft based dev shop so having to work with asp.net forced me to dual boot. Definitely go with Windows 7 64-bit to get the most out of the hardware. Apple has updated Windows 7 drivers for the hardware so you'll be good.

Also, something I recommend would be "picking up" a copy of vmware Fusion for OSX. It has the ability to boot your other partitions as virtual machines from within OSX. Cool as shit and very handy. Performance isn't stellar but I actually worked that way for a few months before slower compiling times drove me insane.