MS Xbox 360 demos at E3 powered by G5 Macs

It'd be funny if this caused XBox owners to buy Macs...

The better question would be since they are using Mac G5 development units one would assume that the games play on Macs and the possibility of porting them would be dead easy or retailing them straight-out for Macs would be there.

This could be a great boon for Mac gaming as all the next gen consoles are using IBM's PPC chips. With a proper next gen video card for the Macs, gaming could look extremely rosy for our favorite fruity computer.

It is important to point out that Microsoft used G5 for development only, and it does not mean at all that PowerMac G5 is even appropriate as a high end gaming platform. You should note that the demos "apparently suffered from poor anti-aliasing, due to the PowerMacs' limited video cards (GeForce 6800 Ultra or an ATI Radeon X800 XT)." Benchmark clearly indicates that G5s are very weak compared to anything on the x86 side, and especially with the emerge of true 64 bit chips from AMD the gap is becoming larger and larger everyday of the week.

In general high end 3D gaming is the best real world performance indicator, and the Mac has been traditionally extremely weak in this area. No other benchmarking methods match the abuse and intensity high end 3D gaming puts on a computer. Apple will continue to be virtually ignored by most high end game vendors due to its mediocre hardware performance. Apple must take 3D gaming very seriously and start optimizing their hardware for it (i.e. switch to AMD processor, Windows API, etc.), or they will be a thing of the past.

Right - so Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all chose the Power PC based processors for the next gen consoles because its weaker than x86....

Right.

If you look at actual game houses' comments, the only reason games play more poorly on Macs over PCs is because of the way they are written - in such a way to maximize DirectX and the Windows architecture.

OS X on x86 would suffer the same issues with games as it does on Power PC.

Yawn, old news.

" It'd be funny if this caused XBox owners to buy Macs..."

Yea, like a gamer who's interested in 360 that will be avaialable for $300 in 6 months and is many times more poweful than G5 will consider a Powermac is cost six times as much and not having many games on OS X.

Who built all the bridges? Lotta trolls out there.

What does, MS using Macs for development, have to do with 'apple should switch to AMD Processor'...hmnn.. and 'Windows API'. That's the biggest load of nonsensical bovine excretion I've heard since the last time some windork posted it. XBOX Chip, not in available yet. If they don't have it, and it's a PPC, then it obviously isn't deployed in Macs either. When it's out then you might want to try comparing a personal computer to a gaming console again.

In general, real world usage is the best real world performance indicator. Windows computers have traditionally been extremely weak in this area. No other benchmarking methods match the abuse and intensity that high END USERS put on a computer. Apple will continue to be literally ignored by most high end game vendors because they don't make games for personal computers, nor can they (high end game vendors) possibly hope to leverage the exquisite performance of an Apple computer without learning how to code with straightforward API's. Microsoft, and it's one hit wonder gaming subsidiaries, must take 3D gaming very seriously and start developing their hardware for it (I.E. SWITCH TO PPC PROCESSORS), or they will be the same oversized-controller making loss leading console subsidizing weakling copycats they have always been.

I bet you have an IT job.

Like games, buy a console.

Took this picture at E3 today.....it's the set up for the playable version of Need For Speed Underground: Most Wanted on the xbox 360. The comments about microsoft needing apple computers was endless.

http://img264.echo.cx/img264/44/xbox360g52km.jpg

"leverage the exquisite performance of an Apple computer"

Easy boy. It's time you have a girlfriend.

I heard the number 30% being thrown around by the microsoft people working the booth...meaning that the difference between the final hardware and what we saw today.

If they blame that the some reason is the G5 doen't have a good hardware, I believe that they are not optimized the games for the G5s.

Take a look at those product in Mac OS X now, and you will notice they are not making crappy software. IE, MSN Messenger and WMP. Those apps are crappled or not really stable. I have a hard time to believe what I have seen, but I found there is no way a program will suck up all the processor cycle when they try to play a 320x240 movie (and it's not Anti-aliased!)

I know that they don't use OS X as a base system for develop xbox360 's game. but I can bet that they haven't optimize their develop tools for G5s