While Marv' has a point about the console focus of gaming and the emerging server based gaming ie online services...reducing the need to 'buy' or even have 'ports'... (Well, he's right...here...)
Thanks for the reminder, OnLive is actually up now:
It seems you just sign up to a waiting list and start getting selected from tomorrow onwards. Games list includes:
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square Enix / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
Dirt 2 (Codemasters)
Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Just Cause 2 (Square Enix)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) demo now full version available at official launch 6/29
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
Red Faction Guerrilla (THQ)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)
All playable on a Mac through a browser and if you get the XBox Controller along with the ControllerMate config I posted, it won't be far different from owning an XBox.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon.
ie in terms of overpriced hardware with crap gpus at crap prices with crap vram with crap options. At least where their desktop systems are concerned. Caveat over.
VRAM only really matters when you play at very high resolutions, anything else, it's just extra cost they tack onto the machine:
While Apple's GPU options aren't as good as other desktop manufacturers, they are picking them to maintain certain power levels and also to reach levels of functionality. I don't think any other company can claim that every one of their products (except the Macbook Air and entry iMac) can play Crysis but now Apple can. It may be on medium quality but it's good enough. The Radeon 4850 in the iMac is only half the speed of top end cards so in the very rare case, you'd go from 15FPS to 30FPS but you simply drop the graphics down a bit. Games just aren't made to be run only on the top end cards or there's no market for them.
I like Apple's decisions to go for lower power options because I prefer not to have a large power supply, electricity bill and cooling fan to go along with my already expensive computer. I think rather than change the options, it's the price they need to go after. The entry level sitting at £650 with a Core 2 Duo and 2GB RAM is pretty disappointing but the 320M is a decent GPU.
It seems you just sign up to a waiting list and start getting selected from tomorrow onwards. Games list includes:
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square Enix / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
Dirt 2 (Codemasters)
Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Just Cause 2 (Square Enix)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) demo now full version available at official launch 6/29
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
Red Faction Guerrilla (THQ)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)
All playable on a Mac through a browser and if you get the XBox Controller along with the ControllerMate config I posted, it won't be far different from owning an XBox.
VRAM only really matters when you play at very high resolutions, anything else, it's just extra cost they tack onto the machine:
While Apple's GPU options aren't as good as other desktop manufacturers, they are picking them to maintain certain power levels and also to reach levels of functionality. I don't think any other company can claim that every one of their products (except the Macbook Air and entry iMac) can play Crysis but now Apple can. It may be on medium quality but it's good enough. The Radeon 4850 in the iMac is only half the speed of top end cards so in the very rare case, you'd go from 15FPS to 30FPS but you simply drop the graphics down a bit. Games just aren't made to be run only on the top end cards or there's no market for them.
I like Apple's decisions to go for lower power options because I prefer not to have a large power supply, electricity bill and cooling fan to go along with my already expensive computer. I think rather than change the options, it's the price they need to go after. The entry level sitting at £650 with a Core 2 Duo and 2GB RAM is pretty disappointing but the 320M is a decent GPU.
Your comment about VRAM isn't entirely correct. Having extra VRAM makes loading and unloading textures less common. It also allows larger textures. Most games cache those textures as long as possible on the video card. A lot of the studders you see in games are from loads going on.
Your comment about VRAM isn't entirely correct. Having extra VRAM makes loading and unloading textures less common. It also allows larger textures. Most games cache those textures as long as possible on the video card. A lot of the studders you see in games are from loads going on.
Loads will happen at some point during the game regardless but sure, they will happen less often with more VRam. I don't think it's noticeable though. I've never seen juddering caused by the loading even in driving games where you cover huge distances. Someone here tested Crysis:
It used over their 512MB card VRam but not stuttering noticed during gameplay. Not that more VRam isn't better but you know Apple would jack up the price and if it doesn't have much of an impact, I think it's ok to have 512MB. The integrated chips probably use above their 256MB limit when needed in games just like the dedicated chips do.
Comments
While Marv' has a point about the console focus of gaming and the emerging server based gaming ie online services...reducing the need to 'buy' or even have 'ports'... (Well, he's right...here...)
Thanks for the reminder, OnLive is actually up now:
http://www.onlive.com/
It seems you just sign up to a waiting list and start getting selected from tomorrow onwards. Games list includes:
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square Enix / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
Dirt 2 (Codemasters)
Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Just Cause 2 (Square Enix)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) demo now full version available at official launch 6/29
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
Red Faction Guerrilla (THQ)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)
All playable on a Mac through a browser and if you get the XBox Controller along with the ControllerMate config I posted, it won't be far different from owning an XBox.
ie in terms of overpriced hardware with crap gpus at crap prices with crap vram with crap options. At least where their desktop systems are concerned. Caveat over.
VRAM only really matters when you play at very high resolutions, anything else, it's just extra cost they tack onto the machine:
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...eviews/?page=4
While Apple's GPU options aren't as good as other desktop manufacturers, they are picking them to maintain certain power levels and also to reach levels of functionality. I don't think any other company can claim that every one of their products (except the Macbook Air and entry iMac) can play Crysis but now Apple can. It may be on medium quality but it's good enough. The Radeon 4850 in the iMac is only half the speed of top end cards so in the very rare case, you'd go from 15FPS to 30FPS but you simply drop the graphics down a bit. Games just aren't made to be run only on the top end cards or there's no market for them.
I like Apple's decisions to go for lower power options because I prefer not to have a large power supply, electricity bill and cooling fan to go along with my already expensive computer. I think rather than change the options, it's the price they need to go after. The entry level sitting at £650 with a Core 2 Duo and 2GB RAM is pretty disappointing but the 320M is a decent GPU.
Thanks for the reminder, OnLive is actually up now:
http://www.onlive.com/
It seems you just sign up to a waiting list and start getting selected from tomorrow onwards. Games list includes:
Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square Enix / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
Dirt 2 (Codemasters)
Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Just Cause 2 (Square Enix)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) demo now full version available at official launch 6/29
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
Red Faction Guerrilla (THQ)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)
All playable on a Mac through a browser and if you get the XBox Controller along with the ControllerMate config I posted, it won't be far different from owning an XBox.
VRAM only really matters when you play at very high resolutions, anything else, it's just extra cost they tack onto the machine:
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,6...eviews/?page=4
While Apple's GPU options aren't as good as other desktop manufacturers, they are picking them to maintain certain power levels and also to reach levels of functionality. I don't think any other company can claim that every one of their products (except the Macbook Air and entry iMac) can play Crysis but now Apple can. It may be on medium quality but it's good enough. The Radeon 4850 in the iMac is only half the speed of top end cards so in the very rare case, you'd go from 15FPS to 30FPS but you simply drop the graphics down a bit. Games just aren't made to be run only on the top end cards or there's no market for them.
I like Apple's decisions to go for lower power options because I prefer not to have a large power supply, electricity bill and cooling fan to go along with my already expensive computer. I think rather than change the options, it's the price they need to go after. The entry level sitting at £650 with a Core 2 Duo and 2GB RAM is pretty disappointing but the 320M is a decent GPU.
Your comment about VRAM isn't entirely correct. Having extra VRAM makes loading and unloading textures less common. It also allows larger textures. Most games cache those textures as long as possible on the video card. A lot of the studders you see in games are from loads going on.
Your comment about VRAM isn't entirely correct. Having extra VRAM makes loading and unloading textures less common. It also allows larger textures. Most games cache those textures as long as possible on the video card. A lot of the studders you see in games are from loads going on.
Loads will happen at some point during the game regardless but sure, they will happen less often with more VRam. I don't think it's noticeable though. I've never seen juddering caused by the loading even in driving games where you cover huge distances. Someone here tested Crysis:
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=679808
It used over their 512MB card VRam but not stuttering noticed during gameplay. Not that more VRam isn't better but you know Apple would jack up the price and if it doesn't have much of an impact, I think it's ok to have 512MB. The integrated chips probably use above their 256MB limit when needed in games just like the dedicated chips do.