Gaming iMac

Bonavox

I'm thinking on buying the low end 27" iMac, but I have a question.

If I install a copy of Windows using Bootcamp, will it have enough specs to run a high end game? This is probably a stupid question, but where would we be without stupid people?

Thanks

Rulmeq

Apple kit comes with really sub-standard Graphics cards, and there are few if any options to upgrade. That's going to limit your ability to play high end games.

uncle_sam_ie

The NVIDIA GeForce 9400 is not all that bad. I think it does a pretty good job when it comes to playing games. But if high end gaming is the main reason for buying a computer, then a gaming PC is what you should really be buying.

PeakOutput

love macs but if gaming is your main concern you could get a pretty ****ing sweet gaming pc for the price of one those new imacs

ozt9vdujny3srf

Rulmeq - nice uninformed sweeping statement there.

uncle_sam_ie - The base spec gfx card for the 27inch iMac is an ATI Radeon HD 4670, not a Geforce 9400m

PeakOutput - Fair point! if the primary use of the machine will be gaming, PC is the way to go. Although a screen of that size and quality will set you back a bit no matter who makes it.

I don't know a whole lot about this card, other then its discrete, and has its own dedicated memory, but I would advise the following:

Start by googling imac 27 inch gaming
And also try googleing imac 27 inch <name of a game you are thinking of playing on it> and see what that throws up.

Also go looking for reviews of the HD4670.

Remember in order for stuff to look decent on such a big screen, you will probably need to run your games at 1280x800 at the very least(that res is a guess, someone used to gaming on large screens might be able to give you a better idea of what res you might need for having a graphics on a 27" screen look ok)

Rulmeq

Amelie Crashing Engineer wrote: »

Rulmeq - nice uninformed sweeping statement there.

The guy was asking about high end gaming, the best card that you can buy for a Mac has 512MB of VRAM (and the iMac comes with 256 by default!!!), given that you can buy GCs for the PC that come equipped with 1.5GBs and you can use them in a combined manner using either SLI or Crossfire (depending on the brand you go for) I would suggest that it is you who is uninformed.

If the guy didn't mention "high end" gaming, then my comments would have been out of place, but when someone is looking to play high end games (and no WOW is not a high end game), then they shouldn't be looking at the Mac, they are not up to it.

ozt9vdujny3srf

You didn't say "Not as good as the top graphic cards available for PC", you said "Apple kit comes with really sub-standard Graphics cards". Also, to be pedantic, "VRAM" hasn't been used on graphics cards for quite a while now.

Rulmeq

Amelie Crashing Engineer wrote: »

You didn't say "Not as good as the top graphic cards available for PC", you said "Apple kit comes with really sub-standard Graphics cards".

Granted, but I was responding to a Gaming iMac query, in which he asked for opinions on "high end games"

And trust me, this is coming from a person who owns several Macs, I'm just frustrated by the state of the GPU market on the Mac. I don't want anyone switching, and then finding out that when they try to run Crysis at some low resolution that they can't even get 12 FPS, and then turning that experience into something negative about their Mac using experience.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Fair Cop Guvna!

Red Alert

It's a bit of a shame that they don't offer (and fully utilize in Mac OS X) some of the newer cards.

Dont be at yourself

I hope we'll see new Mac Pros in Jan/Feb with the latest ATI cards inside.

Bonavox

Well here's more info:

Yeah, I'll want to play high end games. I'm a games journalist who loves Mac, but the main priority will be publishing/writing. Gaming will be an important part, but if it won't work, it isn't going to sway my choice of computer.

I'll definitely be getting the Mac in question, but it won't be used primarily for gaming, just as a hobby.

Thanks!

PeakOutput

Bono Vox wrote: »

Well here's more info:

Yeah, I'll want to play high end games. I'm a games journalist who loves Mac, but the main priority will be publishing/writing. Gaming will be an important part, but if it won't work, it isn't going to sway my choice of computer.

I'll definitely be getting the Mac in question, but it won't be used primarily for gaming, just as a hobby.

Thanks!

well then your golden wish i was in your shoes

red_bairn

What games would be stated as "high-end"?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=820887

I think my iMac 7,1 could run MW2...depending on the graphics card...ATI Radeon 2600 XT Pro.

But I think that some half decent games can run on the Mac no problem.

Rulmeq

red_bairn wrote: »

What games would be stated as "high-end"?

Crysis is generally the benchmark used for high-end PC games, with AA turned on. There is currently no Mac GPU that can run it at anything over a few FPS when the settings are turned all the way to 11.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2222416,00.asp

I see that my GeForce8800GT would get 4FPS at 1920x1200 with AA turned on, which is atrocious, admittedly my machine is 18months old now, and there is a newer card available (something akin to the ATI HD 4870) which might fare a bit better.

silvine

I've an iMac and I love games. The iMac is a sweet machine but you can't do much more than stick in some extra RAM. That makes it hard to recommend as a gaming machine as it will struggle eventually with the latest offerings.

Bonavox

Okay, if I'm being honest, I would mostly be playing Oblivion - any ideas if this will work?

Thanks for all the help!

Rulmeq

Bono Vox wrote: »

Okay, if I'm being honest, I would mostly be playing Oblivion - any ideas if this will work?

Thanks for all the help!

Playable at high res with the 4850 (512MB)
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=10

The 4670 (256MB) would be struggling at the higher resolutions
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3405&p=7