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News Archive for Monday Dec. 14, 2009 Goto Current News Page
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| Dragons Age: Origins for Mac due next Week (Dec. 21st) |
| Eddie sent a note Bioware's Dragon's Age pre-orders page lists a Mac version. (The Direct2Drive page notes available on Dec 21st at 10AM PDT, subject to change w/o notice and that "This version of Dragon Age: Origins is compatible with universal patches and the mod toolset from BioWare".)
"Dragon Age: Origins for Mac
You can now pre-order the VGA "RPG of the Year" award winner for your Mac this holiday season. Both the Standard and Digital Deluxe versions will be available for download from these retailers:
Standard Version includes Stone Prisoner and Blood Dragon Armor in your download. Digital Deluxe Version includes Stone Prisoner, Blood Dragon Armor and Wardens Keep in your download. Both versions are English only"
The Direct2Drive page notes these requirements (intel-based macs only/Snow Leopard):
"Dragon Age: Origins (Mac) Minimum System Requirements
OS: Mac OS X 10.6.2 Leopard or higher
Processor*: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics*: ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 or greater
At least 17 GB of hard drive space for installation
Dragon Age: Origins (Mac) Download File Size: TBD. Publisher Electronic Arts
Known Issues:
* This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5)-based Mac systems, or Intel GMA class of video cards."
The Snow Leopard requirement already ruled out PPC Macs. (I'd hoped they'd be supported but I guess they've stopped coding for PPC Macs. And I wonder how many Intel-based Mac owners have bought the Windows version already.) |
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| More Fusion 3.0.1 update (before/after) Win 7 Experience Scores |
| Friday's news had a note/link about Fusion 3.0.1 update which among the many improvements they listed mentioned improved graphics/3D performance. Here's a couple other reader's Exp. scores with the update. (I'd also be curious about Fusion 3.0.1 user's VM vs OS X Cinebench R10 scores.)
"2008 Mac Pro dual quad core 2.8GHz w/Nvidia 8800GT graphics card.
10GB ram (4GB assigned to Fusion/Windows)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64
Mac OSX 10.6.1 (10.6.2 doesn't like my machine for some reason)
(windows 'experience' scores before/after Fusion 3.0.1 upgrade)
Windows 7 performance stats for VM Fusion 3.0
- Processor: 4.6
- Memory: 7.1
- Graphics: 5.9
- Gaming Graphics: 3.9
- HD: 5.6
Windows 7 performance stats for VM Fusion 3.0.1
- Processor: 4.6
- Memory: 7.1
- Graphics: 6.0
- Gaming Graphics: 6.0
- HD: 5.9
-Tony C.
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"
I ran The Performance Information Tool for Experience (Windows Bar/Control Panel/All Control Panel Items/Performance Information and Tools) and included a screen shot (you were correct about Snipping Tool).
I am running Windows 7 Pro, 1GB RAM and 1Processor for 32Bit version. I only use Windows for testing sites and Quickbooks Pro...no gaming, some Office work.
I did not think of taking image of stats BEFORE 3.0 upgrade but I recall it was 3.5 and nowhere near 4.3.
Computer is a MacPro1,1, Dual 2.0ghz, 8GB RAM, ATI RadeonHD 3870 (Accelero Heatsink), 2 Dell 24" displays (one for mac/one for Windows), Mac OS 10.6.2, VMware running Windows XP Pro and Windows 7 Pro, 500GB HD for the VMs, 1TB for OS X)
Notice at the bottom, WinSAT Disk Assessment tells HD may have slower access time under load...
(he sent a screenshot but here's the scores)
- Processor (1 core reported): 4.3
- Memory: 4.5
- Graphics: 5.9
- Gaming Graphics: 5.9
- HD: 5.9
(and the note on Disk)
Caution: Based on the results of the WinSAT Disk assessment, your system drive may have slower response times under some workloads. Performance results will depend on the specific applications used and the amount of memory available. If your experience is satisfactory, no action is needed.
Sincerely, Ed S."
As a FYI, here's scores from an Early 2009 MacBook Pro 2.66GHz C2D/4GB ram/9600M, Win 7 64bit (Home Prem) with bootcamp (native boot). Running on AC power (power settings at 'balanced' IIRC), Nvidia drivers v195.62 WHQ (set to 'adaptive' pwr setting). Bootcamp 3.0 drivers installed (from 10.6.0 DVD), Aero theme (1920x1200, 32bit) Bootcamp partition on last 40% of 5400rpm Toshiba 640GB HD.
- Processor: 6.3
- Memory 6.3
- Graphics 6.4
- Gaming Graphics 6.4
- Disk 5.9
In the past (earlier drivers) I'd seen 6.5 graphics/gaming scores, but this isn't a very stressful benchmark anyway. (And the disk scores are not very useful in my opinion - I've seen similar 5.9 scores from faster/3.5in HDs.)
And here's the (bootcamp/native boot) Win 7 Pro (64bit) scores from a 2009 Mac Pro (2x2.66GHz CPUs), 12GB RAM, (older) 1TB 7200rpm HD, GTX 285 graphics card w/latest nvidia drivers. (Aero 1920x1200/32bit). IIRC max score is 7.9.
- Processor: 7.8
- Memory: 7.8
- Graphics: 7.4
- Gaming Graphics: 7.4
- Disk: 5.9
Real-world performance with apps that use the extra cores (many don't though) - for example video encoding with Handbrake, the Mac Pro is about 4 times faster than the MBP. (I use OS X for that of course.) |
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