45 replies to this topic

[henryfakesmile]

dr.zeissler, on 03 September 2019 - 12:37 AM, said:

Yesterday I installed my C2D-MacMini 2009 with 9400m/256MB and all I can say is,
that this is the currently the "ultimate" MacMini for me.
It came with 10.5.8 and I am questioning if 10.6 would give me more advantages
or should I stay with 10.5 ?
The machine is REALLY fast. The integreated nvidia-graphis is so much faster then
the GMA950 and has lot's! of features that the former native cards from ATI did
not have. The water-shaders in AOE3 are corretc (GMA950/9200/x600pro) they are not
supported. Halo has all effects and Doom3/Quake4/Prey are all running great with
high details at 1024x768 (native on 15" Eizo).

BUT!
There is no way to get control over the GPU. (vsync/AF) there is no "nvidia-displays"
and I can't find a driver for 10.5, all I can find are some CUDA-Drivers, but I think
these are not normal drivers that I will get any benefit from.

Therefore mostly all games, especially games with Doom3-engine have lots! of tearing
wich is VERY ugly.

Any chance of getting rid of that?

Some guys told be the intel HD4000 of the 2012+ Mini is even better then my 9400m.
I think I will have a look.

I love those small an reliable machines from apple.

Greetings Doc

god.. i wish apple could have just spend 15 billion to devour EA games and popsnizzle and start publishing games themselves instead mac user are stuck with ancient games like quake 4 and doom 3 which isnt even available anymore from the mac app store  /..................

[jos]

henryfakesmile, on 21 December 2019 - 08:31 PM, said:

god.. i wish apple could have just spend 15 billion to devour EA games and popsnizzle and start publishing games themselves instead mac user are stuck with ancient games like quake 4 and doom 3 which isnt even available anymore from the mac app store  /..................

You might call games like Doom 3 ancient, but in my opinion these kind of games belong to the best games ever made for the Mac. I'd rather play ancient games like Doom 3, Prey, Mafia II, Max Payne than EA games. The problem with Macs are just compatibility that breaks every few years:
Mac OS Classic > Mac OS X
PowerPC > Intel
32-bit > 64-bit
Did I miss one? Maybe in the future: Intel > ARM.
On Windows you can just install almost every game you want and they just work. However, on the Mac games like Doom 3 were released for PowerPC (the original physical copies), then they had to be ported to 32-bit Intel (the digital version on the Mac App Store) and now they're incompatible for the second time, because of the switch to 64-bit.
If Apple were to publish their own games maybe they'd be updated more often, so they'd always work on their newest operating system. Then there'd be no need to depend on third-party publishers keeping their games up-to-date and compatible with the newest version of macOS.

[dr.zeissler]

Is mafia2 a good buy? I am currently checking the capabilities of the HD3000 from intel.
If I get the 1GB mod vRAM working, I will be able to Play Doo,3/Quake4/Prey at ULTRA
Settings, that would be nice. The tearing was never fixed on these games, so I will have
to live with that.

[jos]

I absolutely love it. Of course, it's a completely different game than Doom 3, Quake 4 and Prey. Its pacing is much slower and there's a lot of storytelling in this game. If you want to just run from A to B shooting things Mafia II won't be for you. If you enjoy a very good story and driving to your next mission in cars from the 60s while listening to music from that era on the radio you can't go wrong with Mafia II. I think it's one of the best games ever made, the story is so well-told, the atmosphere is fantastic and there's also quite some humor in it.

[dr.zeissler]

If the machine is faster, then the tearing in D3/Q3/PREY is less visible, but still noticeable.

[dr.zeissler]

tested it yesterday. Mafia2 runs on 9400m, but FPS are 5-15 und it looks ugly.
HD3000 is much better, fps are around 15-30, mostly around 17-22. It's playable.

I ordered a HD4000 i5 Dualcore and I will checkout how this performs with Mafia2.
Would be interesting to check my dvd-version against the later Steam-Version that
probably uses Metal? but requires more then HD4000...this is indeed strange.

btw. was vSync EVER? fixed in IDtech4 on mac?