okay, I've decided to take the plunge and run Windows games on my Mac Pro. I've heard a few things about VMWare Fusion/Parallels, maybe Crossover or Boot Camp. Willing to pay a reasonable amount of money to get this going. So any advice/experience welcomed

thanks

John B

Cheapest way to accomplish this is to buy a copy of Windows 7 (which you have to do anyway with whatever method you choose) and then install it with Bootcamp, already on your Mac, then download the free Mac drivers and you're done. Any other method adds cost to buy the virtual program. Then don't forget to download AVG free edition or similar to protect your Bootcamp partition against viruses and malware. It should also give you maximum speed with Windows running natively through Bootcamp.

Parallels is apparently faster than Fusion for gaming, but it still lags behind Boot Camp. You can try both and see how it works.

Cheapest way to accomplish this is to buy a copy of Windows 7 (which you have to do anyway with whatever method you choose) and then install it with Bootcamp, already on your Mac, then download the free Mac drivers and you're done. Any other method adds cost to buy the virtual program. Then don't forget to download AVG free edition or similar to protect your Bootcamp partition against viruses and malware. It should also give you maximum speed with Windows running natively through Bootcamp.

Parallels is apparently faster than Fusion for gaming, but it still lags behind Boot Camp. You can try both and see how it works.

This is the most important point. Gaming via virtualization is still sub par by comparison to BootCamp. Personally if you are only going to be using Windows for gaming I wouldn't spend the extra money on Parallels or Fusion as you will be disappointed with the results.

Which games are you looking to play anyway?

good question , dona83-system shock 2, Hitman Blood money, maybe even Painkiller....well, Boot Camp it'll have to be, I guess..
now...I'll have to go out and buy a copy of Windows 7-dunno about the difference between 32 and 64 bit, so I guess I'll stick with 64 bit. Thanks for your help, SINC-- free Mac drivers? well, I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it. Here I was thinkin' that I didn't have to buy a copy of Windows xp or 7, that I could just buy X and run Windows and that'd be it.
Hmmmm.....well, better start savin' my sheckels
John b

OS X doesn't come with Windows, so of course you have to buy it.

Bootcamp gives you the most "native" windows experience, speed, graphics etc. I have tried gaming over parallels and fusion (parallels experience was better), but it was still sup par. Alot will depend on your memory and processor.

My vote is Bootcamp. or get Mac verions of game if possible. Oh yeah, you will still need to get Win7 which ever way.

Cheers.

good question , dona83-system shock 2, Hitman Blood money, maybe even Painkiller....well, Boot Camp it'll have to be, I guess..
now...I'll have to go out and buy a copy of Windows 7-dunno about the difference between 32 and 64 bit, so I guess I'll stick with 64 bit. Thanks for your help, SINC-- free Mac drivers? well, I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it. Here I was thinkin' that I didn't have to buy a copy of Windows xp or 7, that I could just buy X and run Windows and that'd be it.
Hmmmm.....well, better start savin' my sheckels
John b

My version of Windows 7 came with two disks, one 64-bit and one 32-bit. As I recall, you are prompted by Apple to download those free drivers during the Bootcamp installation process. The drivers control wireless connectivity and mouse/keyboard controls, etc., etc.

If you're willing to give it a try, using Wineskin or CrossOver might work for you, depending on the games you're trying to play. I myself use it for many of the games on GOG.com, and I even have a list of games I've gotten to work well (http://www.gog.com/en/mix/mac_friendly_gog_games_4) using CrossOver and WINE, too. GOG's version of Painkiller runs great (as long as you're on anything about GMA 950 graphics), as do many other games. I haven't gotten SS2 to work yet, but GOG's copies of Thief 2 runs surprisingly well (Thief 1 is highly unstable).