So, I was digging around on Futuremark's website, primarily to see how well the GPUs in the 2012 Mac Mini and iMacs will perform overall, and while the iMac's GT and GTX GPUs are certainly respectable, they're nowhere near the top of the heap in terms of overall performance of GPUs/cards on the market.
I went through their list of top ten performing GPUs/cards, and found that none of them have Mac versions - unless you're prepared to do some hacking, wiring, or giving up extra cores.
Here's the list, with their relative 3DMark scores, and you can take from it what you want:
GTX 690 - 17,410
GTX 580 - 12,020
Radeon HD 6990 - 10,500
GTX 680 - 10,490
GTX 590 - 9,720
GTX 670 - 9,330
Radeon HD 7970 - 8,960
GTX 660 Ti - 8,650
Radeon HD 7950 - 7,920
Radeon HD 5970 - 7,690
By way of comparison, here are the 3D Mark scores for the cards in the 2012 iMacs:
GTX 675M - 3,340
GTX 660M - 2,350
GT 640M - 1,720
GT 650M - 2,170
Now, we know that a large part of the reason for the lower scores is because Apple has always used mobile parts in iMacs, which is true, so this isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison.
A more fair comparison would be with the Mac Pros, with its Radeon HD 5770 card. This GPU/card scores a lowly 2630, being bested by the new GTX 675M available in the 27" iMac! My, times they are a changin'! So, the best Mac compatible card from the only Mac with upgradeable PCI Express graphics, is old and busted.
It's past time for some new hotness!
Check out the numbers I cited here: http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu
What does everyone think of the state of affairs for high-end gaming on OS X and the Mac? Have you heard any news of new GPU/cards for Mac Pros that will bring us into 2012?
I went through their list of top ten performing GPUs/cards, and found that none of them have Mac versions - unless you're prepared to do some hacking, wiring, or giving up extra cores.
Here's the list, with their relative 3DMark scores, and you can take from it what you want:
GTX 690 - 17,410
GTX 580 - 12,020
Radeon HD 6990 - 10,500
GTX 680 - 10,490
GTX 590 - 9,720
GTX 670 - 9,330
Radeon HD 7970 - 8,960
GTX 660 Ti - 8,650
Radeon HD 7950 - 7,920
Radeon HD 5970 - 7,690
By way of comparison, here are the 3D Mark scores for the cards in the 2012 iMacs:
GTX 675M - 3,340
GTX 660M - 2,350
GT 640M - 1,720
GT 650M - 2,170
Now, we know that a large part of the reason for the lower scores is because Apple has always used mobile parts in iMacs, which is true, so this isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison.
A more fair comparison would be with the Mac Pros, with its Radeon HD 5770 card. This GPU/card scores a lowly 2630, being bested by the new GTX 675M available in the 27" iMac! My, times they are a changin'! So, the best Mac compatible card from the only Mac with upgradeable PCI Express graphics, is old and busted.
It's past time for some new hotness!
Check out the numbers I cited here: http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu
What does everyone think of the state of affairs for high-end gaming on OS X and the Mac? Have you heard any news of new GPU/cards for Mac Pros that will bring us into 2012?