Games sys req?

cybermonkeycybermonkey
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Ok its been a while since i've posted on here so your just going to have to put up with another brit!!



Right i'll get to the point, Are games geared for dual processors?

I mean i've been browsing aspyr's webby and say for the upcomming game TR Angel of Darkness they state sys req's 1,2gz G4. Which is also the case for most of the new games comming out. So how will they fair on a dual system such as mine which is a dual 867MDD?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    Most games probably can not take advantage of dual processors, mostly because they don't need to. I can't think of many games available for the Mac that would even come close to requiring the use of two processors at once. Dual processor systems are more geared toward photo/video editing. In other words, things that suck up tons of processor time. Games don't do it enough to warrant the use of a dual system. MHz system requirements on programs can pretty much be stretched really far. Just as long as you exceed all the other requirements (OS version, ram, disk space...ect...) you should be fine if you don't meet the MHz.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    staphbabystaphbaby Posts: 353member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cybermonkey

    Right i'll get to the point, Are games geared for dual processors?



    Some are, most aren't. In particular, Quake III and some (not all) games based on the Q3 engine are pretty finely multithreaded, which is why Quake is such an seemingly-positive benchmark for Mac gaming. Unreal Tournament 2003 is slightly multithreaded ? the audio decoding/OpenAL stuff is in a separate thread, but since its only using about 7% (soon to be 4% with the next patch) CPU time, that doesn't make much difference.



    Most games aren't multithreaded, largely because PC programmers don't usually bother to do this (most PCs aren't multi-processor, or even hyperthreaded, so why bother?), and adding threads at port-time is non-trivial.



    Quote:

    So how will they fair on a dual system such as mine which is a dual 867MDD?



    I don't think you've got anything to worry about in the short-term: the only games which will not be as fast as you'd like are on that machine are UT2003 (which is still eminently playable on a MDD867, let me assure you), Simcity 4 (is it fast for anyone?) and probably Doom III and Half-Life 2, when they come out (if HL2 comes out for Mac: hah!)



    Otherwise, just about everything I can think of should be just fine
  • Reply 3 of 7
    cybermonkeycybermonkey Posts: 604member
    cheers for the info guys, Your right about UT2003, its playable but does suffer from slowdown but then i had the same problem on a 1.8gig PC.

    I guëss the real test will be when TRAOD and doom3 appear. Could be a good excuse to buy a G5, maybe a powerbookG5?
  • Reply 4 of 7
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Remember, even if a game isn't multithreaded, that game can run on one CPU while the other processes associated with the OS and anything else can run on the other CPU.



    It's not great, but it still helps.



    Barto
  • Reply 5 of 7
    staphbabystaphbaby Posts: 353member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cybermonkey

    cheers for the info guys, Your right about UT2003, its playable but does suffer from slowdown but then i had the same problem on a 1.8gig PC.

    I guëss the real test will be when TRAOD and doom3 appear. Could be a good excuse to buy a G5, maybe a powerbookG5?



    Possibly the biggest question with TRAOD is going to be "is it worth buying?" from what PC types have been saying. Doom 3 should be pretty cool, 'tho.



    OT and pedantic: what's the deal with the ë in guess? The "ue" in guess is a dipthong in normal English, isn't it?
  • Reply 6 of 7
    cybermonkeycybermonkey Posts: 604member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by staphbaby

    Possibly the biggest question with TRAOD is going to be "is it worth buying?" from what PC types have been saying. Doom 3 should be pretty cool, 'tho.



    OT and pedantic: what's the deal with the ë in guess? The "ue" in guess is a dipthong in normal English, isn't it?



    Dunno how that got in there m8. But what is a dipthong? is it a piece of clothing?



    As for TROAD ive played it slightly on a PS2 and can understand where all the neg comments are comming from, the control system is awfull, but i am a loyal TR fan and as such i am bound to keep those bouncing beauties from comming to any harm
  • Reply 7 of 7
    staphbabystaphbaby Posts: 353member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cybermonkey

    Dunno how that got in there m8. But what is a dipthong? is it a piece of clothing?



    usually it's invoked by opt-U then the letter.



    A diphthong (I spelt it incorrectly the first time!) is a kind-of multiple letter vowel sound, where two vowel sounds combine/slide together to form something slightly different e.g. ae, oe, etc. Foetus would be an example of a real word with a diphthong.



    Why the question? Theoretically, the diaeresis/umlaut in English is meant to indicate that two vowels put next to each other should be enunciated separately, like coöperate, coördinate, naïve. So with that spelling, guess would be pronounced something like goo-ess.



    Yeah.



    Quote:

    As for TROAD ive played it slightly on a PS2 and can understand where all the neg comments are comming from, the control system is awfull, but i am a loyal TR fan and as such i am bound to keep those bouncing beauties from comming to any harm



    I can see how that would be important.
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