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Mac vs PC - 2014
- Thread starter BumRush
- Start date
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Yeah coding on Windows is pretty annoying. But audio/video productivity is fine on Windows. For coding i'd just say use linux and forget about your problems...
tringworldso
Member
Oppo
Member
I could live on either at this point, but I keep buying Macs, because I like the design and I like having the dual boot via Bootcamp.
It's like the choice is really PC, or Mac + PC.
It limits your card options but I have gradually discovered that I rarely give a fuck, so. There's that.
It's like the choice is really PC, or Mac + PC.
It limits your card options but I have gradually discovered that I rarely give a fuck, so. There's that.
There are plenty of Thunderbolt to HDMI adapters out there, so that shouldn't force you to add Thunderbolt to your kit.
freenudemacusers
Member
is there an option d
Choose your destiny
Jill Sandwich
the turds of Optimus Prime
Continuity in Yosemite will make the choice obvious.
gotta make an iOS app for a work side project doe
and i use visual studio at work for other stuff... so annoying
Haha a little harsh, no? I'm 31 and in the 15 or so years of owning a computer 11 were with a PC and 4 (college) were with a Mac. I never had a single instance of malware, a virus, etc. with my macbook (college, keep in mind...way more porn and disregard then now) and at least 20 instances of it with my PCs.
Chance Hale
Member
You don't have a gaming pc if an integrated CPU graphics chip outperforms it. Unless "newish" means a low end pc from 7 years ago.
Install antivirus/antimalware :/ You have to be actively trying to get your computer to get your computer infected if you have that much slipping through your protection.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
I got some malware on my work computer from Reddit a couple of years ago from an ad. Didn't even click the ad. It just did something as soon as I visited the site. It happens.
Virus from an ad, if only there was a way to prevent that....
I'm not talking from a gaming standpoint. Just overall performance.
Junior Mint
Member
I'm a Mac owner as well but god damn this is a stupid post. Reminds me of when coldfoot was trying to convince people that a Mac with a regular hard drive was faster than a Windows 8 machine with an SSD.
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
It's a work computer.
Chance Hale
Member
It shouldn't be faster by any metric, the maximum ram amount in an air is 8gbs which should be the minimum in any desktop. If it is you have a terrible PC. And you called it a gaming PC which implies higher end parts.
I don't understand how people keep getting viruses all the time. Like what in the world are you looking at online that you are constantly dealing with viruses.
Anyway I'd say PC since you can get a much faster and a much nicer machine for less cost. Better more reliable hardware. (IE Pick more reliable SSDs, access to super nice cases, better motherboards that fit what you need whether it's overclocking or stability) Better cooling options. More software. The list honestly goes on and on.
On a laptop I totally understand getting a Mac. In fact I have an air and it's a pretty excellent little machine. But if you can take a couple hours to build a windows desktop your price/performance goes through the roof and you can custom tailor literally every part to your specific needs.
However my air is not faster then my gaming PC. I can't believe people even write stuff like this. "Gaming PC" is not a static thing. I run two M4 SSDs in Raid 0 if you run a mechanical drive obviously I'm going to boot faster then you. It works both ways.
Anyway I'd say PC since you can get a much faster and a much nicer machine for less cost. Better more reliable hardware. (IE Pick more reliable SSDs, access to super nice cases, better motherboards that fit what you need whether it's overclocking or stability) Better cooling options. More software. The list honestly goes on and on.
On a laptop I totally understand getting a Mac. In fact I have an air and it's a pretty excellent little machine. But if you can take a couple hours to build a windows desktop your price/performance goes through the roof and you can custom tailor literally every part to your specific needs.
However my air is not faster then my gaming PC. I can't believe people even write stuff like this. "Gaming PC" is not a static thing. I run two M4 SSDs in Raid 0 if you run a mechanical drive obviously I'm going to boot faster then you. It works both ways.
The Abominable Snowman
Member
Does your work computer run IE7?
IE8 here, but we can't install anything on it.
Macmanus
Member
I wouldn't be shocked if laptops become antiquated before desktops with how the tablet market exploded.
Do it.
I agree. Desktops will always have a place as long as we are tied to silicon. There are simply a lot of functions that require desktop power and that's without even getting into gaming. Perhaps when we are running some other type of CPU/GPU that has the power of todays supercomputers in a smartphone they will die. But I don't see that happening anytime soon.
One only needs to look at enthusiast community to see how strong desktops still are. There are countless watercooling/case/SSD/fan/etc etc companies that are doing really well serving it.
thesoapster
Member
lol...
Mac and PC user here. I quite like both. Honestly it would depend on exactly what software I own and enjoy for your work that would be the determining factor for me (and fuck Office for Mac...ugh). If you cannot avoid malware ("viruses"), though, you might just wanna go Mac...
My gaming PC has a 2GB gtx560 - the 2GB gtx 775mx in my iMac keeps up with it quite nicely, even at 1440p.
Chance Hale
Member
He said an Air which doesn't have a discrete gpu. Your card is 3 years old and is a budget priced model though so one would hope one of the higher end mobile chip would finally start to catch up.
Price aside, both will play newer games at full res, so saying 'mobile GPU = bad' is not a good argument.
Chance Hale
Member
I never said mobile GPUs are bad, the comment you quoted is about integrated chips on a cpu. Mobile GPUs are less powerful than their desktop counterparts for more money though. The 780M is less powerful than a GTX680 for example.
Not to mention graphics cards downclock when they get hot and many laptops have problems with heat management.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=835397&highlight=
PC, heck maybe even a hackintosh.
As for your virus problem...Be more careful?
I don't get viruses, and I use the built in Windows 8.1 stuff.
PC, heck maybe even a hackintosh.
As for your virus problem...Be more careful?
I don't get viruses, and I use the built in Windows 8.1 stuff.
I've been using Mac laptops to contain all of my personal life stuff, do a lot of my studies and work stuff for 10+ years. I've also had a Windows desktop for gaming most of that time. I have done software development on both platforms, customized both OS environments for my needs, etc. Some pointers:
In all that time, I have never once owned an Apple desktop because the performance/value for gaming is absolutely terrible. I have bought minis and low-end iMacs for relatives as websurfing/etc machines, and they are very convenient for that, but I bought them used and paid 70% of new price at most. The low-end Mac desktops are much better deals than the high end; you pay out of the nose if you want some performance in an iMac. And the performance cap is kinda low; the maxed iMac at $2500ish total price has only about $250 worth of desktop GPU performance in it, and a decent $1000 (before display) PC will crush it in performance. Gaming-wise it's also a problem that it has a 1440p resolution display built in, because the GPU performance available doesn't quite match that.
I fundamentally dislike dualbooting / Boot Camp even when it works as it's supposed to. Have dualbooted on my laptop, but am currently planning to wipe the Windows partition because it's just not convenient to have to shut down my work in OS X to play a game. It was easy to set up, and has worked reasonably well, but I have seen a crash or weird lock (that seemed to necessitate a manual boot) a few times. The same laptop doesn't crash like that while in OS X, and my desktop Windows PC doesn't crash like that either. So I would not really recommend buying a Mac while planning to dualboot with it, if possible. Besides, if you have problems with Windows now, it's not going to be any better when that Windows is installed on a Mac - it still needs all the same virus protection, etc. You can crypt the Mac portion of the disk so a Windows security compromise doesn't expose all your data on the Mac side, but that means you won't be able to read that data either while logged into Windows.
If you need Windows, even if it's for casual gaming, I'd recommend having a Windows box for that purpose. Either your existing one (maybe with a wipe and reinstall everything?) or build a new one. The small and low-power components these days are incredible. Something like a Geforce 750 Ti, one of the new cheap unlocked Pentiums, a cheap Crucial MX100 SSD and no mechanical drive in a case like the Silverstone FT03-mini would be very cute and unobtrusive, while having all the performance you are likely to need.
For the Mac side of things, you then don't need GPU performance, so you can grab a Mini (if you want to share the same display with both computers, or otherwise want display flexibility instead of AIO) or the low end 27" iMac. Either way, you'll want to upgrade the drive to SSD and then you're good.
No it's not.
Dreams-Visions
Member
Sigh. Alrightey.
Steam Games that I know run at 1080p/60 on my MBP
Bioshock
Bioshock 2
Dead Space
Defense Grid
DmC
Dota2
Dust
From Dust
Frozen Synapse
FTL
Ghostbusters
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2
MGRising
Papers, Please
Risk of Rain
Skullgirls
The Stanley Parable
Team Fortress 2
AaaaaaAaaaaaAAAAaaaAAAAaaAAAAA!! for the Awesome
AI War: Fleet Command
Aliens vs. Predator
Amnesia
And Yet It Moves
Anomaly Warzone Earth
Atom Zombie Smasher
Audiosurf
Awesomenauts
Bastion
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Black Mesa
Beatbuddy
Beyond Good & Evil
The Binding of Isaac
Blood of the Werewolf
Borderlands
Braid
Broken Age
Brothers
Bully
Bunch of Heroes
Call of Cthulu
Call of Juarez
Cargo!
The Cave
Child of Light
Commander Keen
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
Darksiders
Deadlight
Dear Esther
DEFCON
Demolition, Inc.
Don't Starve
Doom 3
Doom 2
DuckTales Remastered
Dungeon Defenders
Dungeons of Dredmor
E.Y.E: Divine Supremacy
EDGE
The Elder Scrolls 3
F.E.A.R. (and expansions)
Fate of the World
Final Doom
Garry's Mod
Gone Home
Greed Corp
Guacamelee! Gold Edition
Guardians of Graxia
Gunpoint
Half-Life 2
HL2 - E One
HL2 - E Two
Heretic
Hexen II
Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Hotline Miami
Hunted: The Demon's Forge
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Jamestown
Just Cause 2
Killing Floor
King of Fighters XIII
LIMBO
Little Inferno
Long Live The Queen
Mark of the Ninja
Men of War: Assault Squad
Mirror's Edge
Nihilumbra
Orcs Must Die!
Orcs Must Die! 2
Outlast
Payday: The Heist
Path of Exile
PixelJunk Eden
Plain Sight
The Polynomial
Portal
Portal 2
Post Apocalyptic Mayhem
Prey
Proteus
Psychonauts
Quake
Quake 4
Quake 2
Quake 3: arena
Rayman Origins
Remember Me
Red Faction: Armageddon
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Rock of Ages
Sanctum
Sequence
Slender: The Arrival
Solar 2
Space Pirates and Zombies
SpaceChem
Spelunky
Spiral Knights
Super Monday Night Combat
Super Street Fighter 4: AE
The Swapper
Swords and Soldiers HD
Torki Tori
Tower Wars
TRAUMA
Trine
Trine 2
The Ultimate Doom
UT3: Black Edition
Valdis Story: Abyssal City
VVVVVVVV
Wold of Goo
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Xotic
Ys Origin
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Dungeon Defenders
COGS
Worms Golf
Dead Island: Epidemic
Warframe
and non-Steam Games:
League of Legends
SMITE
Dragon Age: Origins
Starcraft 2
Diablo 3
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Plants vs Zombies
SimCity 4
Hearthstone
Games I know that I can't run at 1080p/60 (or assume I can't)
Titanfall
Crysis
Crysis 2
Battlefield 3
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Far Cry 3
RAGE
Dishonored
Witcher 2
Metro: 2033
Metro: Last Light
GTAIV
Fallout New Vegas
Borderlands 2
Elder Scrolls IV
Elder Scrolls V
Untested games:
NFS: Hot Pursuit
NFS: Pro street
Medal of Honor
Dragon Age 2
C&C Red Alert
Bulletstorm
C&C 4
Battlefield 2142
The Saboteur
Alice Returns
Batman: Arkham City
The *overwhelming* majority of my Steam games run at 1080p/60 on my MBP. 157 games that work at 1080p/60, 16 games that work at a lower resolution, and 11 unknowns.
That is 90.751% that work @ 1080p/60 (not including the 11 unknowns).
So yea. 90% of my games work on this laptop. For everything else (or for 1080p and maxed settings at 60+fps), I have my gaming desktop.
I know very little about tech - and I'm sure GAF will find it hilarious that a human in 2014 doesn't know much about solid state drives - but:
a) why would a 256 GB SSD cost $200 more than a 1TB internal, and
b) what is the overall benefit of an SSD?
Thanks for your help
Liu Kang Baking A Pie
Member
It's silent, no moving parts, very small, and many, many times faster.
An SSD is basically a really big flash drive rather than an actual rotating disk that stores your file. The advantage is a massive boost to read and write times, which translates into your computer booting faster and programs loading faster.
Dreams-Visions
Member
a.) Because the technology is still more expensive to manufacture.
b.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LVNG6zBUD8 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FQWEj3oTGk | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j84eEjP-RL4
You have to decide if storage or performance is more important. Your system will be worlds faster and more responsive with an SSD. Apps open near instantaneously and systems start up at a fraction of the time it would take a 5400rpm/7200rpm 1TB HDD to boot or open applications. That speed comes at the cost of space.
Most who own an SSD either (a) have a second HDD installed for storing files and media or (b) an external HDD they can connect for those needs.
This thread. Yeesh.
I own a MBP and a Windows desktop. I am buying a Surface Pro 3 next week.
If I was the OP and buying a desktop, I'd get a Windows machine.
If I was the OP and buying a laptop, I would get a mac. Mac laptop hardware is just better. Well, except for the Surface Pro 3
But that's not for everyone.
I own a MBP and a Windows desktop. I am buying a Surface Pro 3 next week.
If I was the OP and buying a desktop, I'd get a Windows machine.
If I was the OP and buying a laptop, I would get a mac. Mac laptop hardware is just better. Well, except for the Surface Pro 3
But that's not for everyone.But you get 1/4 of the space for $200 more and everyone says it's NECESSARY?
Chance Hale
Member
It's the difference between your computer starting up in 8 seconds and taking a minute. It's by far the biggest moment to moment usability boost.
diggmcbadass
Member
You only listed less than 5% of steam games though.
That being said. If you run windows on mac hardware, you can probably run most things to a satisfactory level. And id OP truly means than money is not an object, he probably should get a Mac, because that is like their official motto.
As for Windows vs Mac OS, which the debate truly is (because PC also includes mac, linux and bsd), Mac hardware is very nice and high quality while Windows is infinitely more compatible than any of the other contenders. If people prefer MacOS, they are free to, but there are really not a single thing you can do with it that is not possible with Windows. And anyone who argues hardware performance are objectively wrong.
All this being said, I wish Linux could do the things Windows does
Thank you and thanks dreams-visions. I think I'll go with the iMac + SSD but I'll wait to see if Macrumors rumors come true next week... http://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/11/updated-imacs-faster-processors-next-week/
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
If it were me, I'd get a PC, mostly because I can get much more performance per dollar out of it, especially in the desktop arena. Even when "price isn't an issue", it usually still is to an extent.
But the OP sounds like a mac would probably suit him better.
But the OP sounds like a mac would probably suit him better.
BIGWORM
Member
Not only that, but applications loading phenomenally faster, also shutting down quicker and restarting quicker. I bought my first SSD last year, and I'll not be looking to install an OS on an HDD ever again.
Dreams-Visions
Member
1.) I didn't say shit about the grand library of all Steam games. I said *my* Steam games.
2.) I'd suggest that the overwhelming majority of Steam games in general are low-power, low-demand games. If you or anyone else is under the impression that most Steam games look more like The Witcher 2 instead of like Half-Life 2 or The Binding of Isaac, you're not really thinking clearly. Most games are not made by devs big enough or talented enough or rich enough to make high-demanding, high-profile games. Those are the *extreme* minority, and my list of games (which I bought for play on my desktop) should make that very, very clear.
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