For those of you thinking Mac or PC

I've been a dedicated Mac user since since the early days of the old Apples. I've had about every kind of Mac you can buy, and for the most part, Macs have been great for the primary function I need them..writing music. Back in the 1980s and through the early 1990s, Mac was the only game in town and I've just never had the nerve to switch systems completely. However, be advised that in order to obtain what I would consider to be acceptable use in SL, you will have to buy AND maintain a much more expensive and sophisticated Mac than the comparable PC it would take to get roughly the same performance. I've downloaded Second Life on my both of my sons PC's (homemade, much lower specs than my Mac) and it's always been wonderful.

Running SL is a disaster on most MacIntosh products. Frankly, I use a lot of elaborate and sophisticated software on my Mac, and SL is the only thing that consistently locks up my machine to the point it has to be manually turned off (which as a side note is TERRIBLE PRACTICE!)

My first Mac kept locking up, and I finally bought a new imac G5. I spent the next year and a half with lots of crashing (and when I didn't crash-"texture thrashing-remember that?", but I was able to get some business things rolling (Sad to say now because I can rarely access them). After the advent of "Windlight" I spent several days-and nights-babying my settings until I could stay on for a couple of hours without crashing (I could never ever solve the Texture Thrashing). Finally, I received notice from Linden Labs via email that said they had detected serious "compatibility" issues with OS X.4 (Tiger) and that if all possible I should upgrade to X.5 which was more compatible. I switched to Leopard and everything was sort of fine for a couple of months. Now, however, after various upgrades of SL..I have started crashing so much that I'm debating about getting another computer or leaving SL altogether. I realize my hardware and software are dated (1 GB MHS DDR SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT video cards ith 128mb VRAM) but buying a new Mac every couple of years just to play SL is just not practical and my current hardware is just two and a half years old.

Bottom line, you could buy a brand new imac (assuming every aspect was great maxed out 512 VRAM, 4-8 GB of RAM )everything will probably look great and run well, and maybe at long last, all the bugs have been worked out. HOWEVER, I wouldn't count on it. Based on my experience, (admittedly anecdotal) and the two years of combing this forum (Not so anecdotal, lots of us have had the same issues over the years, thus the need for this forum), I have regretfully concluded that SL is primarily designed for Windows, and trying to reconcile the Mac with SL is just not worth the headache and heartache. Of course there are side issues at well-if you need to put in a newer video card in a PC..just run out and pop it in. With Mac, there are only THREE certified dealers in my entire state! Make no mistake, it's the same card, but in their ever expanding schemes to exploit their customers (YES, it costs $50 to speak to someone in tech support if your warranty has expired, whether they help you or not) they make the upgrading of these machines as difficult and expensive as possible, with the expectation that you'll finally give up and just go buy a new one.

If I sound like I'm venting, I guess I am. The lost hours and frustration, the expense of paying $125 a month on land I can't ever visit, losing friendships because you don't go online are more than worth this little rant. I wouldn't wish the issues and problems I've had with SL on my worst enemy and hopefully soon, LL will acknowledge that (at least up until now) their product is just not suited to any but the newest and highest performing Mac equipment.

Dunno.. I been in SL 3.5 years and its always been buggy and have problems... but it doesn't matter for me if its OSX or Windows. I've primarily used Macs for SL, and rarely a problem... I don't really think there has been any more problems on the Mac side than the Windows side, its just with Macs having less options and total computer types, it seems really major when a machine or two has a problem.

I cannot wait until I can afford a Mac again. I miss them. A Mac was my first computer when I was 11 in 1985, and the last Mac i had was a G3 PowerBook in 1998.

However...PCs are so super cheap these days, and for me, a Mac is a luxury item more than an item of utility - so I have only purchased PCs and have for now have given up on Apples until I can comfortably afford one to sit besides a PC that i can keep updated with new hardware every 1-2 years.

Go to http://www.tigerdirect.com and look as the great prices.

Don't quit SL. Just buy a very inexpensive 2008 model PC for $600-700 and be happy, if you can afford it.

I dreamed of having a Quad Core Mac...but instead, yesterday i upgraded my Dell to a Quad Core and I think I am just as happy, for now.

I run Second Life on a dual G4 867mhz computer with 1 GB of RAM. 1-5 FPS, impossible to move with 10+ avatars.

SL works great for me.... if I run the text client.

surprised it runs at all... you need a new computer....

if you can get by with a $600 - $700 PC, the you have no need of what a 4 or 8 core Mac Pro has to offer... Dell doesn't even sell workstations with the parts of a Mac Pro for that cheap of a price. There are many types of quad core processors and Apple only uses the high end Workstation/Server ones in the Mac Pro and the Xserve... they use Mobile versions of processors in the Macbooks, iMacs, and minis.... you pay extra for those because of the compact design more than the performance. They do not use ANY standard desktop processors in any of their computers.... They could save some money if they did in the Mini and the iMac, but then they'd have to make it less sleek to take care of larger power and cooling requirements.

I have a four year old Mac Mini that I use for real work, where I store files and run programs I care about. I also have a KVM switch and a machine I call my "Wintendo" that I use for Second Life.

The Mac mini replaced my 1997 Powermac G3, when maintaining the hardware became a chore.

See, most of the software I run really doesn't NEED much CPU power. Today's computers... yes, even my old G3... are more than powerful enough to run any software I can imagine actually needing to run other than games.

It's like having a reliable old car that's paid off with an engine I can work on myself, and a hot motorbike that's a bit flakey but if it doesn't run one day, that's OK, I can drive my old VW.

I got a Macbook Pro from a job, but it's been a garage queen too.

*reaches in his pocket and pulls out lint*

Hmm, maybe lint will one day be considered legal tender.

Geez, sounds like that macbook pro needs a new home (wink wink nudge nudge).

didn't say you need to buy it....

Don't laugh but ...


No, really, don't laugh but ...

I'm still running OS 8.6 on a a G3 tower from 1997. Thing is it hardly ever, ever, ever crashes. Maybe every couple of years Adobe Illustrator 8.0 (who's sniggering at the back?) will just fall off the screen or once in a blue moon Photoshop 6.0 (come on now, cut it out!) will stall on loading but I have not had a single corrupted file since I bought it all those years ago.

Still, PCs are incredibly cheap to fit up. I've had two built for me since I left Europe and they are fine for SL and working the internet in general - and it's much easier to get reliable maintenance for them in my neck of the woods. I even have have Photoshop CS12 on one of the PCs but I keep hitting the Windows button and collapsing the screen when I forget it isn't the 'Alt' button on my Mac keyboard so I just can't get used to it at all.

I run a Dell with Vista and a Mac with OSX side by side. Both computers have similiar specs. The PC does some things better than the Mac, but overall the Mac performs most functions better than the PC. But... I did pay almost twice as much for my Mac.

My G3 is now running OS 9.2 because it's got the only version of a driver for my HP Scanjet II (how old is THAT? I don't care... it's built like a tank and it WORKS!) that doesn't suck. It's much more stable now I've removed the G4 add-on.

I run the latest version of SL on a G5 mac and seem to have far less crashes than my friends who use Windows. Only once has SL locked up completely and then Force Quit sorted it out. Never had to reboot or shut down.

Running a 3GHz dual core with 4gb ram at full SL slider settings everything maxed out and I absolutely love this machine for SL. It never crashes. Never any problems (except once had to delete SL library with a new sl client). I think any working professional in SL who spends serious time developing graphic oriented products here should consider the mac platform as an outstanding tool.

I'm running a dual 2-ghz G5 with 7gigs of RAM and the ATI x800xt graphics card. It's old at this point (june 2004), but still a workhorse, and still handles SL pretty well, even when I've got Blender, PS and Firefox open (all that RAM sure is dandy XD).

Come September, tho, when Apple rolls out Snow Leopard, us G5 users are out on our ass, I'm afraid. Once Apple stops writing code for the PowerPC chipset, I can't believe it would be too long before Adobe, Autodesk, and yes, even Linden Lab follow suit :/

Anyone got 4 grand I can just have, 'cause the whole 'paying back' part of getting a loan is just too complicated...

Unfortunately I don't quite grasp the specs posted in this thread but I will say this....

I use a PC for SL and rarely have problems... I also have a not-so-new G5 and I use that for my music...and it's so beautifully simple to use and understand. I have them side by side and the jungle of wires and cables coming from my PC is overwhelming.. Then when I look at the mac it's just so...well.....uncluttered. I'm sure there are many more important things a mac has over a PC but I can safely say that design is one of them.

I was just looking at the online Apple store yesterday and I was almost drooling.. I'm seriously considering getting a macbook and am currently trying to justify the expense.. Telling myself that it's just so darn shiny won't really cut it with my wallet

I've used several different recording programs with the PC..pro-tools, sonic, logic audio etc but none of them have been as simple to use as Garageband...and I've gotten some really nice results with that particular program..

So would all the expert Mac users please tell me to get a macbook...then I can blame all of you for making me spend..

My problem isn't which computer to use. I mostly use a Mac Pro I bought a couple of years ago. My problem is which viewer to use. I've played with the Cool Viewer and I'm currently test driving the Emerald viewer, which I'm so far pleased with. The only viewer I'm typically unhappy with are the ones that come directly from LL.

I guess my point is, there are alternatives out there. If you're unhappy with your SL performance, you might want to try the much less expensive route of using another viewer rather than switching machines.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Here's a good place to find some alternate viewers: http://hyangreflections.blogspot.com/

a timely thread for me ... I currently have a quad core PC with 4GB RAM and 2 Nvidia GTX 8800, bought 3 years ago for more money than I care to think about! (I also have a Creative Soundblaster X-fi Fatality sound card which I've not been able to use for the last 2½ years because of driver conflicts with the Nvidia drivers which left me with a BSOD on bootup).

In the last few weeks my PC has become almost unusable because of an Nvidia graphics driver problem widely reported across the net for several years, which neither Nvidia or Microsoft seem able to fix. I've researched literally '00s of threads, followed the advice and all for nowt - every time I think the problem's been solved as shown by a normal boot (and I've only had a couple of those), the next start brings the problem back.

So I've been contemplating moving to a Mac, and I had a couple of questions along the lines of iMac or Mac Pro (I'm currently favouring the latter because of my photoshop useage) ... but if I can't get a clean SL experience on a Mac, I'd have to rethink that and I really don't want to, I am so hacked off with constant Windows issues.

Does anyone use SL in Windows running under Bootcamp and if so how does that fare?

Grateful for any insights

Inc

SL is smooth on my Macbook Pro when I use it. I don't use it much because of overheating problems (see previous comments about garage queens) that were particularly problematic on the early Macbook Pro, and which wouldn't be a problem on a desktop or tower.

i had the same problems with sl on macs - and i finally did what Briana suggested - i broke down and bought a cheap pc at walmart and the difference was amazing - much better performance with no effort on my part - i have not regretted it

and yes, i still use my mac for almost everything else

I've got an iMac 8,1 --3.06 GHz with 4 GB memory running the latest version of Leopard on an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS memory chipset.

I have had to hard crash my computer when force quit doesn't respond, and have not been able to figure out why this is happening. This is a newer model Mac with a decent amount of power. I run CS4 full throttle for my business without incident. I run SL--doesn't matter which viewer, they all foul up eventually, if they load at all--and it hard freezes my entire computer, even with nothing else running at all. This hasn't been happening for the entire year that I've had this computer and been on SL, so I have no idea what's changed. All I know is that I can't risk my computer's life on SL any more.

If it was running fine, and now isn't and nothing has changed, I'd break out the Applecare Tech Tools CD and check the iMac for problems.

Thanks, Milla. I ran several diagnostics with no issues reported. I have to keep a pretty tight system since I run so much graphics software on it (all of which runs flawlessly).

A quick update - I am now the proud possessor of a Mac Pro, quad core, 8Gb Ram, 2 Tb storage, ATI Radeon card blah blah.

Apart from the problems one might unlearning Wind'ohs and learning Mac fu, I have to say I wish I had made the jump years ago! Everything runs far more smoothly. I heart Apple! .. or whatever is the street slang of the moment!

Inc