Using an Intel iMac

[martinl]

I just wanted to share my experiences running COTA on an 20" Intel iMac using Parallels (virtualization software):
I works flawlessly [:)]. I've only been able to play "Amyntaion: First Clean Break" so far, but this scenario runs very smoothly indeed.

Congratulations to Panther Games on another great game in this series. I had lots of fun getting my a** kicked trying to hold the German advance. Since my first failure I've explored the new and much improved delay command. Just a few minutes ago, I was finally able to get a marginal victory [:)]

/Martin

[Crimguy]

Great to hear!   My next computer will be a Mac (I've been off the Macintosh drug for about 7 years now, except for my wife's ibook), and I've been curious as to how Parallels works.

How'd you run it?  Fullscreen?

[JeF]

Ouch ! I'll change my PC soon. And I ruled out Macs just because gaming is not an option. Now, if wargames work on it, I'll be tempted.

Great news.

JeF.

[martinl]

Yes, I run it in native full screen 1680x1050 using the "resolution" option. (Parallels has worked out great so far; with hardware accelerated virtualization and Boot Camp, getting a Mac is no longer a leap of faith.)

[Arjuna]

Good to hear. My first computer was a fatMac back in '84 with wait for it two floppy drives. It was hard to give up my Mac back in 1998. Now that they have joined the dark side there may be a resurgence. [;)]

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: JeF
Now, if wargames work on it, I'll be tempted.

Mostly they do not.

If you feel they will run under Virtual Windows, make sure you actully try to do so in an Alpple stor before handing over your hard earned.

I tried 2 wargames under Virtual Windows in an Apple shop and both failed.

[Crimguy]

Are you talking Intel Macs?

I just got back from a legal seminar, and coincidentally enough, one of the presenters on computer forensics had a Macbook Pro, and he showed me Windows XP and Suse 10.1 running on it via Parallels. He also loaded up Half-Life 2, and it played flawlessly (he didn't have the widescreen resolution set though). Other than typical WinXP flakiness, he stated it was a very nice experience, and seemed as fast as when he had WinXP running in a dual-boot setup via Boot Camp.

I'd check that out again- the reports on the net are that the new macs are first-rate Windows machines as well.


The old Virtual Windows for the PowerPC was pretty sluggish, to say the least. Not to mention unstable.

[Marc von Martial]

The only thing that holds me from byuing a MacBook pro is that the bad drivers for the video card cripple the performance by 30% (compared to an equally equipped Windows notebook). Unless that is fixed I don't bother.

[henri511]

I play COTA and TOAW3 on my Intel Mac 1.8 GHz Powerbook (edit: that should read Macbook Pro -Windows will not run on a Powerbook) with 1 Gb of memory, and they run flawlessly using the free "Boot Camp" program supplied by Apple (you have to supply your own version of Windows - I use Win XP Pro.)[:D]

I also play Heroes V, strategic Command 2, Swat 4, The First Blitzkrieg, Red Orchestra, Oblivion, Fritz 9 (chess) and many other programs, and all of them run flawlessly. I have yet to try a program that won't run.[8D]

Speed? Fritz 9 analyzes twice as fast on the Intel Mac than my 2 GHz Pentium 4, and is the only program for which I can compare the speed. But it is my impression that TOAW3 runs faxter on the Intel Mac than on my PC. Now I hafta say that I have not reinstalled Windows on the PC for over 3 years, so it may not be running at optimum speed. But the bottom line is that none of the programs have speed problems. Probably Oblivion (which won't even runon my PC due to the graphics card) is the most exacting of these games, and it runs very smoothly. IMHO speed is not an issue for the Intel Mac (but programs probably run a bit slower on Parallels than with Boot Camp - but Boot Camp forces you to reboot when shifting from the Mac to the PC and back).[&o]

henri

[Arjuna]

henri,
 
What is about the Mac OS that allows games like TOAW3 to run faster, or is there some other Mac hardware onboard these intel boxes?

[Crimguy]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

henri,

What is about the Mac OS that allows games like TOAW3 to run faster, or is there some other Mac hardware onboard these intel boxes?

It's not the mac OS. It's the Core Duo processor, which has been shown to be a speed demon. Plenty of notebooks have it now.

Wait for the Conroe/aka Core2 chip, which is slated for release in the next couple months for desktop pc's. It has been benchmarked at 10-30% faster than the current speed demon, the Athlon 64 FX-62. I've been an AMD guy since my Celeron 400 ran out of gas, but this chip has me thoroughly excited.

With Boot Camp, I really see no reason to buy anything but a Mac right now, provided it runs Vista ok (which it should).

Regarding the mac's graphics engine (OpenGL), it has been shown to be generally slower than its' Windows counterpart, even with the new Core Duos. So a game designed to run on OS X will likely be slower than it's windows counterpart when played on a Mac!

[JeF]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
What is about the Mac OS that allows games like TOAW3 to run faster, or is there some other Mac hardware onboard these intel boxes?

It's not Mac OS, as hen5ri is booting it under Windows XP.
There is nothing special hardware wise as far as I know. Except maybe that the MacBooks are all Dual Core Intel Core Duo processors. So if the PC is not and Fritz 9 is multi-threaded, you'll see a difference.
On the other hand, the MacBook 1.8GHz is currently the low end with an Intel GMA 950 graphic chipset. So I'm surprise about performace of high end games like Oblivion. Or do you have an older MacBookPro with an ATI graphic card hen5ri ?

About Parallels (a virtualization environment), I checked the specs and it doesn't support hardware graphic acceleration. So COTA or TOAW will run fine but high end games won't.

Cheers,

JeF.

[Marc von Martial]

With Boot Camp, I really see no reason to buy anything but a Mac right now.

Except for the price [;)]

[martinl]

Crimguy,

I should perhaps have been more clear: yes, I am talking of Intel Macs, specifically an 2GHz Intel Core Duo iMac.

The new Intel Core Duo processors have hardware support for virtualization; using Parallels virtualization software you can run an arbitrary operating system in your Mac OSX session with no speed penalty[1]. See http://parallels.com/en/products/desktop/ for details.

Compared to Boot Camp, Parallels does not give you accelerated 3D graphics. This is typically no big deal unless you're playing 3D games. HttR and COTA runs great using Parallels since they are not 3D titles.

If you want to play a 3D game on your Intel Mac, you need Boot Camp.

/Martin

P.S. I sound like I work at the sales department at Parallels. I'm not. I just wanted to share that running Mac OSX on an Intel Mac, you can play and enjoy COTA as well as any PC user can with the help of some virtualization software. I think it's pretty neat [:)]

[1] Not quite true, you'll get a small speed reduction.

[henri511]

NO,Jef, the graphics card on the Macbook Pro (Oops, I said Powerbook - gotta go change that...[:o]) is Radeon X1600.wINDOWS WILL NOT RUN ON A POWERBOOK [:(]

And yes, when I boot with Boot Camp, the computer is essentially a PC with a few of the drivers added by Apple so that the Intel core duo processor can use the screen, keyboard etc of the Mac.

And as I mentioned, the difference in speed may be due mostly to the fact that my old P4 Pc running Windows XP has a Radeon 8500 LE card and Windows has not been reinstalled for over 3 years.There is a lot of stuff running in the backgrond that I don't dare turn off because I don't know what it does.[&:]

Henri

[Crimguy]

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

With Boot Camp, I really see no reason to buy anything but a Mac right now.

Except for the price [;)]

THAT'S true. Unless you want to get a piddly mac with integrated graphics.

[henri511]

ORIGINAL: Crimguy

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

With Boot Camp, I really see no reason to buy anything but a Mac right now.

Except for the price [;)]

THAT'S true. Unless you want to get a piddly mac with integrated graphics.

That's not true anymore. Check the prices, a Mac with similar capabilities costs about the same as a PC.

Henri

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: hen5ri

ORIGINAL: Crimguy

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck



Except for the price [;)]

THAT'S true. Unless you want to get a piddly mac with integrated graphics.

That's not true anymore. Check the prices, a Mac with similar capabilities costs about the same as a PC.

Henri

Where do you buy your PCs .

I can config like I want , it is allways about 400€ more then a same level PC or Laptop. Except for the smaller iBooks.

[Crimguy]

And we know the Power Mac replacement will go for $2000 for starters.

I do stand corrected with the notebooks though - going feature for feature with Dell and the MacBook Pro, you're spending about the same.  $400 less with integrated graphics/shared memory on the Dell, more with a 17" screen and dedicated graphics.

being an owner of both a Dell 700m and an ibook, the build quality of the Apple is much better too.  There are reports of problems with the new Macbooks though - permanent staining on the white finish, and melting batteries.

Never get a Revision "A" Apple product.

[JaguarUSF]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
two floppy drives.

A 3 1/2 and 5 1/4?