so what are the latest games? what is the "frame rate" these days

[space-time]

Hi, I never played games, but I remember back in late 90's or early 00's that people were talking about Quake, MYST, Tomb Raider, etc.

What are the latest games, are they available for Mac or only PS, X-BOX and Wii these days?

Also, a lot of discussion about the "frame rate", I still don't understand how some can claim that they get a frame rate of 100+ FPS when the refresh rate of the monitor itself is more like 85 Hz.

thanks.

[TheCaber]

Enough Jolt in your bloodstream, and 85 fps is like watching old-time movies, strobe effects and all. Above 100 fps, and the game is barely able to keep up with rapid twitch muscle fibers tied directly to point-shoot-run-shoot-drop-turn-strafe-point-shoot-changeweapon-fireredeemer-score!

Well, you get the idea.

Ingest more caffeine. Mainlining is faster.

[mikebw]

I haven't kept up with the latest FPS's (first person shooters) but there are some good reviews over at http://www.barefeats.com of the latest video cards running various MacPro's and G5's. Some of the older games that have been optomized well, like Quake 3, can get over 300fps, but pretty much anything over 40 is just fine for me.
The thing about screen refresh rate vs. frames per second is that your refresh rate is constant and the fps from your game can change, A LOT, during a game. Periods of intense special effects like explosions, many players on the screen can drop your fps well below the refresh rate of the screen. The goal is to get the best hardware so that you don't experience these intermittent slow-downs. Sure, you can sit still looking at a wall and get great frame rates, but start jumping and shooting rockets all over the place while a couple dozen of your buddies to the same and things can get ugly. And then there is lag...

[Carm]

Please read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frames_per_second

Carm

[Filliam H. Muffman]

If the minimum frame rate never goes below 60 fps on a LCD, only one person in 20 would be able to tell it was not completely smooth motion.