MUST I get a PC?

[DaKid]

Hi y'all. I've been a PC builder/owner for over 20 years. My current PC is now many years old, thanks to marriage and children, but am intending to finally get an upgrade this year. Here's the thing ... I'm a web developer by trade and use a Mac every day and can't imagine using anything else for programming, certainly not Windows and I'm not overly keen on Linux, not to mention building React Native apps for iOS means I must have macos running. I'm also a gamer historically, so I can't quite let go of that side of me.

Let's assume I'll be able to afford a top-end Macbook Pro and a 4k/5k 27" monitor to go with it. Will that last for a few years in terms of mid-level gaming, or am I utterly shafted in that respect? I'm not after maximum resolutions/frame-rates on the latest games, but I would like to be able to run something released this year at a setting that wouldn't distract from the game, for example.

I realise that, for the same budget, I could get a mind-blowingly good desktop PC and monitors, but then I don't get my macos development experience that I crave.

Would really welcome some subjective, personal opinions from people here, especially if they enjoy using a Mac but are also, at least historically, PC gamers.

[The Hand]

A friend of mine has a 5K iMac with a R9 290 4GB, 8GB and an i7, which he intends to use for Civ 6 and maybe Doom which seems to run pretty well(at least at 1920 by 1200):



He has had it for 18 months though, so there maybe a 5K iMac coming at some point with bumped specs.

[kalniel]

Depends on the type of gaming you do really. There are a huge number of indie developers or even studios these days that are pushing out a number of top ten games which don't require anything like the latest and greatest hardware.

Also if your home computer needs to be justified with a work use-case then I wouldn't compromise it by going away from Mac if that's what you need - and I can understand the use-case - most of the hard core coders where I work are on linux, most of the web devs are on macs and I'm only on windows nominally as most things are done in virtual machines or remote shells.

But then I keep work computers and gaming computers separate, which if you're going to be doing a lot of gaming makes a fair bit of sense.

So yeah I'd recommend if you're going to work on it then get the mac and try non-AAA gaming. If you want AAA then add a games console. If that's not good enough then you are too PC Master Race to even consider asking the thread title

[directhex]

The absolute highest end Mac you can buy today is "meh" for games performance. Mac Pro, dual upgraded graphics cards, 6-core CPU, £4439 to you today, gives performance at a level of... a little bit better than the bare minimum spec for an Occulus Rift or HTC Vive capable PC. http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/1538726/fs/4661335 - the top-of-the-range Mac on the left, my 18 month old gaming PC (at less than half the price) on the right.

The 21.5" iMac doesn't even have a graphics chip these days, relying entirely on Intel onboard. Adding an equivalent-spec system to the compare, and... http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/153...335/fs/9382133

Oh dear

I guess the point is you don't need a PC. But If you give apple less than £4500, you're looking at the performance of a £600 Windows laptop, tops. If you *do* give them £4500, you're looking at the performance of a £1000 Windows desktop.

Gimmie a sec to find the 27" iMac & add to compare... http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/153...33/fs/11267559 for a £2249 iMac 5K.

[UseItNow]

Why not go for both? A Mac and a Windows system, one for work, one for pleasure?

Probably work out cheaper or the same (without speccing the Mac for their best graphics) etc, go for something ITX on the PC side, so as not to take up too much space, well as opposed to one system.

[kompukare]

Not much 'Pro' anymore in either the 'toaster' MacPro or the MacBook Pro.
If you can cope with using a MacBook Air or a plain MacBook, I'd suggest getting one of those and like UseItNow said, get a PC Desktop too. While AFAIK Apple don't make any docks (an other reason I would never consider anything they make as being business-class), with Thunderbolt that's not such a large problem anymore.
Of course all these ultra-thin laptops - even the so-called 'Pro' - have soldered RAM and are not upgradeable, so you have to choose carefully.

[Jowsey]

Presumably using a 'hackintosh' style approach is not an option? If not I'd be inclined to go for a 2 system option but that's from a person who's only use for his computer is gaming (outside standard browsing etc.)

[jim]

If I was in your position, I think I would get the cheapest Mac that would suit for work purposes - presumably including reasonable CPU and no specific graphics upgrades.

Then, using the money I'd saved on that Mac vs the top-end model, I would build a Mini-ITX gaming PC. It can be plugged into the same monitor, but will give you more flexibility with games (because you can run Windows or SteamOS if desired) and depending on the figures may actually give better performance than the Mac.

And, of course, you get to hive off your environments - so you don't have games staring you in the face on your work PC, and vice-versa. Which also means that if you have a problem with one, you have a backup whilst you're trying to figure out the problem.

[cptwhite_uk]

Personally I'd be getting a seperate gaming set-up and a "good-enough" iMac / Macbook Pro for work duties.

Did you see this SFF gaming rig that was showcased at CES?

Something like a Macbook Pro:
http://www.apple.com/uk/macbook-pro/...slid--product-

This monitor (which has been designed specifically for Macbook Pro external connectivity):
Note this is the 4K 21.5" version, there's also a 5K 27" option which isn't currently available to buy.
http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product...ct-HKMY2B/A-UK

Review:
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreak...acbook-monitor (Approx.£471.00)

...and the aforementioned SFF Windows 10 Gaming PC:
http://hexus.net/tech/news/systems/1...-pc-vr-gaming/ (Approx £800?)

Comes to around £3020 all in? or add £600 to upgrade to a 15" Macbook Pro with 2.6Ghz Quad core and beefier mobile gaming capability (still sub-par though)

Based on:

13" Macbook Pro with Core i5 @ 2.9Ghz Dual Core / 256Gb SSD / 8GB 2133MHz memory
21.5" LG Ultrafine 4K monitor
Estimated price of £800 for the Asus Vivo PC X (based on suggested price of $800 dollars)

[shaithis]

Or buy a PC and run OS X in a VM?

[Bluecube]

Or buy a PC and run OS X in a VM?

Is that legal?

[directhex]

Is that legal?

It's certainly not allowed by Apple's licensing terms, but some people do it. See also: running OSX on non-Apple hardware.

[badass]

Or buy a PC and run OS X in a VM?

Running a hackintosh even in a VM is a PITA. If you value your time (rather than just doing it as a hobby) then it's not worth it (or wasn't when I had a go about 3-4 years ago.

[peterb]

You'd be better off running windows in a VM on a Mac (which is what I do on an iMac. The integration is OK, USB peripherals can be a bit problematic, (external thumb drives and so on) but for general purpose stuff it works.

Hackingtoshes do work, but it can be tricky on a basic platform, and not all iCloud applications work well. A VM might be trickier, as badass says

[kalniel]

You'd be better off running windows in a VM on a Mac (which is what I do on an iMac. The integration is OK, USB peripherals can be a bit problematic, (external thumb drives and so on) but for general purpose stuff it works.

But not for gaming.

[shaithis]

Running a hackintosh even in a VM is a PITA. If you value your time (rather than just doing it as a hobby) then it's not worth it (or wasn't when I had a go about 3-4 years ago.

Plenty of pre-built images out there that work fine. I spent a lot of time supporting Apple users and only ever used a VM to recreate what they were doing.

As for legality, it's a grey area. IIRC, the EULA reads in a way that means if you put an apple sticker on your PC, your covered