Reasons why not to go MacintoshGo to: Previous reason / Index / Next reason Reason 9 : "There's no games for the Mac"
There are games for the Mac, if you look in the right places. That is, not in the high street games retail stores. But simply put, when the Mac's gaming range is lined up alongside that available for Windows, it is dwarfed! Top titles will always appear on Windows first, whereas if a Mac version appears at all, it will usually be much later. And even then, often just a basic 'port' with little in the way of platform specific optimisation the Windows version will have enjoyed. There just isn't the market to make it worthwhile. Games players don't buy Macs because there's few games for it; and there's few games for it because games developers know games players don't buy Macs. Catch-22. So much for any accusasion of Macs being 'toy' computers and PCs being 'proper' computers, er? [smirk] So anyway... Hard-core gamers The question is though, how important to you is gaming? At the top end of the scale, there's the money-no-object, hard-core gamer. The kind of individual who would think nothing of dropping another $1000 on an upgrade to their gaming rig, just to gain a few extra frames per second. So, how useful is a Mac for someone of that level of gaming obsession? As said earlier, there are some games for Macs, but it has to be said, you'd have to have games quite low down on your priorities list to consider it sufficient. But also, there's the issue of hardware. Hardware limitations Games are the most power hungry of all software, and upgrading a PC to a standard worthy of this, can be an expensive business, particularly with the graphics card. It's a price hard-core gamers are willing to pay to get the pinnacle of games playing hardware. The problem with Macs here is that while the affordable, consumer level Macs do have more than acceptable graphics hardware for most users and uses – including games – unlike most other big box desktop PCs, they do not offer upgradability of their graphics card if you so chose. And while the pro workstation Mac Pro does, drivers (the software to enable the computer to interface to this card) will often not be as optimised for Mac OS. And they're not exactly cheap either. See also reason 2: 'Macs aren't upgradeable' The fact is, for all practical purposes, the PC is the gaming aficionados choice. So Macs, no use if you're into games... right? Casual gamers Okay, so the 'proper' gamer crowd will give the Mac a miss. But what about the rest of us; 'Casual gamers' if you will? Those of us that might like to play the occasional game, and might quite like the latest blockbuster games to be available to us if we choose to indulge? Can a Mac suffice for us, or must we have a Windows PC too? Not necessarily... While the games available for Macs is pretty thin on the ground, that's just while running Mac OS. Install a copy of Windows on your Mac as well, and all the plethora of games only available for Windows, is suddenly available to you too. Mac OS for all the stuff Macs are good at, and Windows as a games bootloader. Best of both worlds! See 'Windows; Macintosh edition' for a look at how this would work. Alternatively... One last thing to consider is perhaps a video games console. They're comparatively cheap, the latest games are plentiful, and unlike PCs, they're simple to use. So perhaps a console under the family TV for games; Mac in the study for Internet and other usual computer related things. It's an option.
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