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  • @itsJoelle
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    21 year ago

    Now you mention running AAA game titles and I’m finding that pretty hard to track down titles getting mentioned unless they are games of some serious age or you are trying to qualify games like baldurs gate 3 and the Sims 4 as AAA titles which is rather disingenuous. As far as I see people talking about with Mac gaming they tend to suggest people use Xbox cloud or other game streaming services… [not going to quote to rest of the paragraph]

    Cloud gaming is an option! But I prefer to run games locally, and it’s been a moving target since Apple switched to ARM processors. I’m not going to go into the gritty details, but it involves combining Microsoft’s(x86->Arm) translation layer, Apple’s Rosetta 2 (x86->Arm) translation layer, a Windows->MacOS translation layer (which I brought up above for software compatibility for the rare case software, or and equivalent, doesn’t have a MacOS build), and converting graphical api calls to Apple’s Metal api (this last one flies over my head a bit on the particulars, I’m a backend developer). Mostly the community, and a company called Codeweavers, finding little optimizations per title. Most DirectX11 titles would ‘run’ tho we’d have graphical bugs from time to time, or stuff straight up crashed. However, Apple recently debuted a ‘Game Porting Toolkit’ during this year’s MacOS beta cycle at WWDC — which was an actual first party translation layer for DirectX11/12->Metal calls. It was intended for developers since you do need to crack open a terminal and go to town, but that didn’t stop users from employing it themselves. Simply put, it’s been rather amazing! Here’s a video, if you’re curious:

    Video

    Though, it is a bit out of date since we’ve had newer versions of the Toolkit. Horizon Zero Dawn no longer slows down and there’s been framerate improvements across the board. I didn’t mention these titles since I haven’t run them locally on my machine, but I play Diablo4 on my MacBook Air using this method. It’s pretty neat, but if someone’s goal was to strictly “game” they’d be better served with a Rog Zephyrus G14 near the same price. However, for those of us who landed on my M-series Mac, for whatever reason, it’s been nice. There’s been projects since then that does the terminal work for you and it’s much more user friendly.

    But, back to our dicussion. Which I might add has been rather civil, usually strangers responding to each other in disagreement on the internet quickly turns into throwing insults back and forth. Cheers for that 🙂

    As for the touch screen/ 2-in-1 stuff: I understand the benefit using that form factor. Infact, I urge users to purchase the correct hardware for what their use case is, nor have I claimed they shouldn’t be during our discussion. I’m not claiming the stronger statement “Chromebook (or 2-in-1) users should be using a MacBook”. I don’t know everyone’s use case and budget, or what form factor best suits them. I’m responding to the stronger, blanket statement (and I know I’m paraphrasing) “Chromebooks have more functionality than a MacBook for alot less” by contradiction by giving usecases where Chromebooks may have issues with. Similarly, I’m pointing out the hardware matters, in particular when the user needs more robust silicon better suited for the job. Say they want to take advantage of a dedicated engine built onto the board that handles rendering video, or the neural engine that handles neural nets, or improved build times since I’m not using an Intel Celeron or whatever i3/i5 they can install under budget. In my case, I use all three. Plus, it’s been a wonderful ‘generalist’ device. But to say “it lacks a touch screen” and laying out sectors where one would be useful not only doesn’t discount users whose work flows call for stronger silicon but it also could apply to any non-touchscreen clamshell intended for Windows, or otherwise, in the same usecase.

    But, this discussion has been rather useful to me. I never actually considered reformatting a Chromebook to run Windows, and will be including them in my recommendations going forward (after I do the easy, but thankless, task of installing Windows for them).

    • @[email protected]
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      01 year ago

      Yeah when I was saying “Chromebooks have more functionality than macbooks for a lot less” I was literally saying “Chromebooks have more functionality than macbooks for a lot less”. I was not saying “Chromebooks can run resource intensive programs faster than macbooks for a lot less” as performance doesn’t mean function and anyone wanting to play games will be better suited with a Windows gaming laptop than a MacBook or Chromebook no matter how you slice it and it the hope is for extended battery life while gaming you are going to be better suited streaming games anyhow. And as I noticed in that guys video he was having to use an SD card so we know that storage limitation is a factor.

      As far as video goes I can’t say as I haven’t tested it but I did do some quick poking around and it appears that the Celeron chip in the Chromebooks I use does support Intels quick sync so that leads me to believe it’s not gonna be too bad, especially in the area of rendering final output. I’m not all that knowledgeable as far as video goes but I do work in the production world and as far as video goes I have only seen macbooks used for video a handful of times and I’ve never actually seen a Mac used on a large scale production. This is coming from a live production and broadcast perspective (think music festivals, concerts, sporting events, political functions, high profile streaming events) so the use of gaming spec laptops and desktops are likely chosen for their higher performance, stability, and support cycle. Which is likely similar logic behind why PC’s are used for professional non-linear video editing as well.

      I did see you slipped back a little bit on the 2in1 situation though. I think there might be a misunderstanding here in that clamshell vs. Convertible is a matter of usage and need, in reality there isn’t actually a situation aside from outliers in not aware of where having touchscreen or convertible would be undesired (you mentioned some people may want matte screens but there are matte screen protectors you can get for very cheap that work great with touch).

      • @itsJoelle
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        21 year ago

        “Chromebooks have more functionality than macbooks for a lot less” I was literally saying “Chromebooks have more functionality than macbooks for a lot less”. I was not saying “Chromebooks can run resource intensive programs faster than macbooks for a lot less”

        Ah, isn’t there a quote about “every discussion should start with establishing definitions.” For me, I suppose, I interpret the “functionality” of a device, be it a phone or w.e., I’m focused on what problems or solutions it provides and often I bound by the specs. Anyhow, that was precisely how I read it and was extremely confused. I understand the take now.

        anyone wanting to play games will be better suited with a Windows gaming laptop than a MacBook or Chromebook no matter how you slice it and it the hope is for extended battery life while gaming you are going to be better suited streaming games anyhow

        Oh for sure, I was just using it as an example use case and demonstration of perfomance. Getting into benchmark comparisons, or rendering runtimes, or L2 cache performance is super boring and boils down to “number go up, big good,” ya know? That being said, when you do come across a game that is Metal based it’s pretty nuts 'cause then you get the full power of the reduced instruction set of the processor without the computation bloat of translation layers, and on general applications ARM vs x86 Intel builds make a huge difference on battery life (Though, Metal games are super rare). While it runs on everything, WoW had a Metal build at the device launch and that puppy ran for 8-9 hours on battery (which, like it’s WoW, come on 🤣). I’m really excited for the Metal release of Baldur’s Gate 3 coming the first week of Sept cause I suspect it will be lovely too.

        And as I noticed in that guys video he was having to use an SD card so we know that storage limitation is a factor.

        Def, I think he runs the AppleGamingWiki (or one of them) so he’s testing tons of stuff constantly. Personally, I keep I a library of 5-6 games plus my various IDEs and various software without external storage.

        I’m not all that knowledgeable as far as video goes but I do work in the production world and as far as video goes…[rest of the paragraph]

        Absolutely. At that performance clip Apple sucks on the high end (like I can at least defend the ‘premium’ hike of the entry level MBA, but what the fuck 🤣). Sure, they have a “MacPro” that’s offensive and obsene in pricing. If you want a good laugh take a look. Play around with a few builds, it’s a wonder to behold. There might exist a rendering studio in the world that has a workflow built around FinalCut or something, but at that point an Applications Analyst should start waving the warning flag about saving tons of money switching to another application. I know MKBHD’s Production Company has a horrifyingly expensive MacPro, but that’s the only one that comes to mind. They’re trying to target speed to the umpteenth degree, but I can’t speak to how much better it does at that clip versus a similarly priced PC (I’d wager it doesn’t, but he swears by it so idk 🤷).

        I did see you slipped back a little bit on the 2in1 situation though…[rest of the paragraph]

        Correct, I suspected there was a definition mismatch of “functionality” and made arguments relative to the language to eek it out. Though, I imagine a consumer wouldn’t be likely exclude a product for having a touch screen or being a 2-n-1 (since these features are optional) and wouldn’t elimate a MacBook — however, if one wanted/expected it they would certainly pass over the device on the snap or consider it a concession. In my personal experience, I do have people poke my Mac screen from time to time since it’s the default on Windows devices. I’m curious if Apple moves to include it going forward, since they are offerring to serve iOS apps on MacOS if the developer opts in.