Halo on a Mac Mini?

B

bobsaget

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 24, 2004
Messages
4,403
How does Halo run on a mac mini with the 9200 and 512mb RAM?

Would it run any better on an ibook with the 9550 and 512mb RAM?



Thanks.
 
D/L the demo, forget where to get it but you can use google to find it. I have a coworker who ran it on his mini (1.25ghz I think) and he says it ran pretty well.
 
i'm curious what 'pretty well' entails as Halo is pretty much bottlenecked by it's code and inability to optimally handle certain 3d features (don't recall specifics now, back when it came out it was a big deal, benchmarks plateauing while other games continued to excel). during battle scenes on a p4 2.4ghz with radeon 9800pro it would get choppy so i'd wager on an iBook you'll need to be running it at some really low res to get playability in intense scenes.

-esr
 
Thanks guys. I think I'm gonna go with a mac mini mainly for the garageband/recording features. Since this will be my primary system when I get it, I just wanted to know if it ran Halo at all... and it looks like it will.

esr2, yeah, Halo PC's netcode/coding was horrible. I couldn't even max it out on my 9800pro, which is sad. Oh and hey from North Idaho!


So I'm guessing Halo is probably the most taxing game that I would want to run on a mini?

How about Doom3? :p
 
lol hey neighbor. I would say one of the more taxing games given it's not optimized well for pc so i'd wager the same deficiency carries over to OSX, I never gamed on my mini so I can only speculate how a game will act given my experience with said game on a different machine and platform and my experience gaming on macs in general.

-esr
 
Halo works nicely when the graphics are turned down. I have fun with the demo a lot. All the flashy shit wont show up but you honestly don't need it. Still fun.
 
buzzard34 said:
D/L the demo, forget where to get it but you can use google to find it. I have a coworker who ran it on his mini (1.25ghz I think) and he says it ran pretty well.
Click to expand...

I tried that as well, but, sadly, there is no Demo for Mac. :(
 
markt435 said:
yeah there is, i play it every night

macgamefiles.com
Click to expand...

DUDE!

Thanks, I've been wanting to give my new G5 a thorugh gaming test...everything I googled came up empty. Nice site BTW!
 
Yeah i downloaded a bunch of demos to try on the mini. I downloaded Worms 3D yesterday...still have yet to play it. But its nice to see games play decently on the mini. Makes the purchase a little more worth while for me since I gave up gaming when i had to sell all my crap.
 
It'll be a cold day in hell before a Radeon 9200 can run DirectX 9.0 decently. The 9550 should be a slight improvement, but don't expect new games to be playable above 800x600 or even 640x480.
 
waitaminute, DX9 on a mac? i thought that was a windows-only piece of software, am I wrong? and BTW my Radeon 9200 seems to be running DX9c quite well thank you very much.:rolleyes:
 
pr0nasaurus rex said:
It'll be a cold day in hell before a Radeon 9200 can run DirectX 9.0 decently. The 9550 should be a slight improvement, but don't expect new games to be playable above 800x600 or even 640x480.
Click to expand...

Playing at those res' don't bother me though. Everyone is all about fuckin graphics and shit all the time. You know what, if I can play the game I am happy. I know Halo doesn't look good at all to be able to play on the mini but I love the game so its gonna get played. I enjoy the demo as much as I did when I had it on my pc and it was all flashy and shit.
 
markt435 said:
Playing at those res' don't bother me though. Everyone is all about fuckin graphics and shit all the time. You know what, if I can play the game I am happy. I know Halo doesn't look good at all to be able to play on the mini but I love the game so its gonna get played. I enjoy the demo as much as I did when I had it on my pc and it was all flashy and shit.
Click to expand...
Amen, brotha....I'm getting Halo for my Mac Mini...well, first I'm getting the Mac Mini, in about a week....ughhhhh, can't freakin wait! :D
 
pr0nasaurus rex said:
It'll be a cold day in hell before a Radeon 9200 can run DirectX 9.0 decently. The 9550 should be a slight improvement, but don't expect new games to be playable above 800x600 or even 640x480.
Click to expand...

For one, the 9200 is not DX9 compliant. It is DX8.1. The 9550 is basically a underclocked 9600, so that is DX9 compliant.

The 9200 would likely run just as fast as the 9550, but wouldn't have the DX9 features.
 
bobsaget said:
So I'm guessing Halo is probably the most taxing game that I would want to run on a mini?

How about Doom3? :p
Click to expand...

Both of those games ran okay on my mini. Halo at 800x600 with most things on and Doom 3 at minimum with bumps and specular.
 
I find Halo to be sorta choppy after the 1.5.2 update (which is supposed to sync with version 1.07 of the PC code (Build 613)), and I'm running a G5 Dual 2.0 with a 6800 ultra. Many have complained about that update as well so I'm not sure if Halo is your best test for the mini. Don't get me wrong, its playable and fun online, but its not Quake 3 smooth....lol. I played Q3, UT2003, and SOF2 on the mini and all was well.

Get the update here if you have the full CD. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21816
 
What about Warcraft III? I'm thinking of snagging a Mac Mini for audio/video work and some light gaming.
 
pr0nasaurus rex said:
It'll be a cold day in hell before a Radeon 9200 can run DirectX 9.0 decently. The 9550 should be a slight improvement, but don't expect new games to be playable above 800x600 or even 640x480.
Click to expand...
DirectX is a Microsoft technology that is not available on ANY Apple computer except the MacTels /w windows XP installed and even then, it's still not available inside OS X.

I really have no clue why you posted your comment...
 
The Doc said:
What about Warcraft III? I'm thinking of snagging a Mac Mini for audio/video work and some light gaming.
Click to expand...
The demo works pretty well. I think you'll be able to play at 800x600 with everything on and get good fps. Just download the demo when you pick up your mini and you can test it out. I mean, if Halo can run on the mini then WC3 should. lol
 
The Doc said:
What about Warcraft III? I'm thinking of snagging a Mac Mini for audio/video work and some light gaming.
Click to expand...

Hey there,

I was on the beta test game of WOW, but I never got into it. Really sweet graphics. I would think you would be ok, but if you really want to be sure...........

Buy or borrow the Mac version (of any game) and swing by a local Apple store. They will let you upload the software and play it (I did it with Halo while my girlfriend shopped...lol). That way you only invest a few dollars before you drop $400+.

:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top