With the introduction of Apple ’s Boot Camp software , Intel- base Macs can now two-fold - boot Windows XP and Mac oculus sinister X. Many masses are curious about games performance , and while it ’s still a chip early as I compose this to provide you with surd and fast numbers , I can severalize you this much unequivocally : It works . And it work really well .

A few week ago some enterprising Mac expert won a competition when they revealed the first way of getting an Intel - based Mac to campaign Windows . The problem with their root is that it did n’t provide Windows with native graphics drivers that allow the Mac run 3 - D applications as tight as it could . It was also a really complicated process to get Windows put in on the Mac in the first place .

So while Windows could be installed using the hackers ’ method , it was n’t something that anyone could do easily . It was a lot of employment to handle . And it did n’t bring home the bacon fast enough performance for gaming .

All three of those barricade disappear with Boot Camp . Installing the software is as easy as falling off a log ; the performance is great ; and what ’s more , it ’s non - destructive : You do n’t have to reformat your hard disk to make it work .

I ’ve been playing with Windows XP SP2 on a 20 - inch Intel - based iMac . And it really operate quite remarkably . I ’ve befuddle a clustering of game demo and full games at it , and I have n’t found one yet that does n’t work .

Boot Camp does n’t directly turn a Mac into a “ hardcore ” gaming system — as far as PCs are concerned , the iMac is somewhat midway of the route in price of its graphic performance and capabilities . I was n’t able-bodied to run most of the games I tried at the iMac ’s native solving , for illustration , but find just about every biz I ran could function quite successfully at 1,024 - by-768 pixels , with many art options turned on including full - scene anti aliasing and pixel and shader effect .

hoi polloi who keep an eye on the Mac secret plan grocery store are distressed about this turn of events , and from my perspective , rightfully so : I amply expect that this will efficaciously decimate the licensing of some Mac conversions of high - visibility AAA list releases that fall into the “ hard-core ” gaming camp .

Mac users who play those sort of games avidly have long complained of the defect of Mac play — the time to market , the want of conservation of parity in feature article and performance , the cost . All those complaints are perfectly valid , and all of them are answered in one fell swoop by the existence of Boot Camp . Download the software , buy a transcript of Windows XP , and you ’re done .

But all in all , that ’s a pretty pocket-size caboodle of gamers . There are still a lot of games that express a huge amount of mass market appeal that will continue to come from the same Mac publishing firm that we have it away now . Also , more and more publishers are diversifying into original plot development or other recess market section and are support the Mac alongside other platforms .

In the good scenario , the existence of Boot Camp will put away the doors open even wider to a new propagation of Mac user who would n’t have ever thought of buying a Mac before now , but can do it because they can launch the same Windows apps that they postulate or want to use .

A year or two down the road , I hope that Apple ’s market share will look much big than it is today . And if a significant percentage of those emptor are delineate to Macs because they can tend Windows , all for the better — because they ’ll get to know and love Mac OS X as many of us do now .

And when more people own Macs , more people will be appear for Mac software — including Mac game .