Is Mac better with Steam and games now? Or is this just all the college students buying macs to type papers on in Starbucks?
Edit: pardon me, I didn’t realize I stepped into an Apple orgy! I’ll see my way out, y’all have fun!
Honestly? Mac laptops are really good right now. The move to ARM based processes has gone… stupidly well. Had you asked me in 2019 if I thought ARM was ready for the main line I would of laughed at you, as would most IT enthusiasts.
But Apple did it, and the battery life savings they’ve managed are killer. Meanwhile Windows laptops can barely get sleep right.
You literally just have to change the setting so it sleeps when you shut the lid. It’s in power options.
I’m a Windows guy, but I just replaced my Surface Laptop with an M2 Air and love it. PC hardware is really stagnating right now. I still have my usual annoyances with macOS, but right now, I feel like they are worth living with for the performance and battery life.
I went from about 3 hours of battery time on a high end windows laptop doing my design workload to about 10 hours with the m2 pro. I still don’t know if I’ll stick with it long term, and I still much prefer to work at my windows desktop, but having a fast, battery sipping browsing/streaming laptop that can turn into my main workhorse when I’m out and about has been great. Plus the Unix environment means I’m not spinning up arch vms when I’m programming anymore.
I really hope windows can launch support for ARM and we can start seeing M1/2 competitors in the PC space.
I love my MacBook and would get an ARM chip in a heartbeatwhen it’s time to upgrade my PC.
I bought a 13" SurfaceBook 2 with the official Microsoft dock when it came out. I figured buying hardware from the company that makes the software would’ve given me the best experience.
After beginning to use the machine, I discovered that Microsoft’s own dock can’t even keep the machine powered under heavy load. The battery was discharging WHILE PLUGGED INTO THE WALL. I had to take breaks so that my computer wouldn’t shut down and could recharge.
I had been on Macs for years but decided to give MS a chance because Windows Subsystem for Linux looked pretty awesome. Needless to say, I’m back on a Mac.
I have a 2019 MBP for work, and honestly, it doesn’t sleep right, either. I’m kinda at the point where I think Intel has a significant problem.
Windows has become a lumbering trash heap, Intel doesn’t seem to be much better on the hardware side of things. Together, Wintel has kind of become something of a shit storm.
Definitely a lumbering trash heap. I just got a laptop with Win 11 Pro on it and Jesus Christ on toast it’s a hot mess of just absolute crap. Definitely makes me appreciate macOS.
Windows has been sleeping and rebooting in a matter of seconds for over a decade now 🤷♂️ there sure is a lot of circle jerking going on because of my comment. I don’t even have anything against iOS I was simply trying to ask about their biggest weakness.
s/iOS/MacOS/ :)
And … yeah TBH things haven’t changed. MacOS still doesn’t support Vulkan or DirectX which immediately puts it in a niche space, and Proton also doesn’t work for MacOS, so MacOS is arguably well behind Linux in gaming (though there are a few good native ports of a few serious games – e.g., No Man’s Sky).
The issue with Windows isn’t that it can’t sleep.
The issue is that you roll a D20 anytime you put it to sleep and if it rolls a prime number, the device actually randomly decides to overheat and drain your battery during “sleep” without any discernible cause.
What an annoying comment. Plenty of people use Macs for professional or personal reasons who don’t find gaming to be a deciding factor in their purchase decisions.
Like any creative ever. Gamers will disagree but I find Macs desktop UI much nicer than Windows. I worked in Hollywood editorial for a while and it’s ALL Macs there until you get into really high end VFX stations.
The Wacom drivers are also MUCH better on Mac. It’s hard to explain, but the stylus just doesn’t feel as smooth on Windows. The response curve/time is just better, even with the same settings.
A bunch of small UX things like native column view in finder turn into annoyances on other systems.
Having a UNIX terminal is nice if you’re a developer but aren’t fond of any of the Linux desktop environments. WSL for windows it’s getting better, but getting IDEs to play nicely with it was still touch and go last time I gave it a whirl.
I game on PC and deploy to Linux servers, but Mac is my daily driver for coding and video editing. It just gets out of my way and let’s me be productive. I have to do way too much fiddling on Windows and PC for a desktop experience I still like less.
Also – disregarding the OS, which I do think Apple should be forced to sell as a standalone – the build quality is leaps and bounds above any other laptop I’ve had. I’ve been using a laptop with the M1 Apple Silicone, and it’s legitimately the happiest I’ve ever been with a work computer.
What an annoying apple fan. Plenty of people use computers for gaming and not professional reasons
What an annoying response. I asked about gaming specifically because I already know it’s the only thing holding back iOS. I’m fully aware iOS is capable of creative software and general use. You don’t need to start a circle jerk.
You’re the one that started off pegging all MacOS users as college kids writing papers in Starbucks. If you’re gonna be snarky then stick to your snark. No need to back peddle now.
Monthly reminder that computers can be used for something different than gaming.
I mean it’s not worse than they were, but if you are buying a laptop just to play games it’s not really the platform for you.
I buy Macs to do work on, I think a lot of people continue to use them to do work on past college. Plenty of people also have consoles, so having a computer that can do both well isn’t even a priority for all gamers none the less the ton of people who don’t play AAA games.
Is Mac better with Steam and games now?
It could be soon. Apple just dropped their Game Porting Toolkit last month.
Hello, this non-gaming, non-student who works in the design field uses a Mac every day, as do many of my colleagues.
Would you blame them for wanting a good machine? I know Chromebooks are fine for papers and browsing but like budget windows computers, they’re built like shit.
Up until recently, and still applies to many, chromebooks had a rather short shelf life before “expiring”. You could buy a new Chrombook with like 2 or less years of support before it became e-waste. Like wouldn’t even support video streaming and no security updates.
Even on previous macOS versions they still receive security updates for a while as does Windows. Plus the lifespan is rather large with a 5-6yo intel Macbook receiving the upcoming OS release later this year.
Its not just a $199 vs $1999 laptop issue, its an ecosystem issue as well.
You’re right, they make premium ones too. I just started seeing these. Do you know if they offer more features other than build quality/screen quality/etc? I would imagine the Chromebooks would have battery life advantages at least over a windows PC equivalent.
Are there more expensive Chromebooks with better build quality?
Genuine questions. My impression was that they pretty much only serve the ultra low end market, but I’ve never really looked into it because I need to do heavier tasks on my computers.
You’re totally right. I was simply trying to make the point for using one over a chrome book considering the low impact work flow. I think there are some Chromebooks that cost as much as the MacBook Air? Who are those for?
Neither.
There’s a reason Apple reports “Shipments” instead of “Sales”.
In order to get the “honour” of selling apple crap, a retailer has to commit to a certain dollar value of inventory-on-hand.
If those units collect dust in that retailers back-room, Apple doesn’t give a shit. And it’s notoriously difficult to RMA unsold product to them.
Source: Previous Tech Sales Manager at Staples.
They sell phones, tablets and watches at basically every electronics place.
