iMac vs desktop PC

Serban · Jan 24, 2013

Here are the specs:
PC- Monitor Samsung 940N 19" -Geforce 250GTS 1GB, 4 GB RAM, 500GB HDD, i5(661) dual core 3.3GHZ

iMAC- 21.5" 2.9GHZ i5, Geforce 650M 512RAM, 8 GB RAM, 1T Fusion Drive

With my PC im glad enough how work/games are going but i want to give this to a friend if i decide to buy the above imac.

My question for you, if i buy this imac will be at least same performance like my PC regarding my work and games. It will be some differences ?
Thank you all -who will post

jmpage2 · Jan 24, 2013

Serban said:
Here are the specs:
PC- Monitor Samsung 940N 19" -Geforce 250GTS 1GB, 4 GB RAM, 500GB HDD, i5(661) dual core 3.3GHZ

iMAC- 21.5" 2.9GHZ i5, Geforce 650M 512RAM, 8 GB RAM, 1T Fusion Drive

With my PC im glad enough how work/games are going but i want to give this to a friend if i decide to buy the above imac.

My question for you, if i buy this imac will be at least same performance like my PC regarding my work and games. It will be some differences ?
Thank you all -who will post

You're really opening a can of worms here, and there is actually an entire forum for PC vs Mac discussion, so your query might be moved there.

With the Fusion drive and speedy CPU and video card you should be pretty set speed wise, it will feel noticeably faster than your old PC.

The Mac will be virtually silent compared to your PC.

The IPS panel with anti glare coating on the iMac will make your typical (even mid to high end) PC monitor look terrible.

So yes, get the Mac. Make sure you check into whether boot camp for PC gaming will work with Fusion drive, it might not.

Serban · Jan 24, 2013

Yes but i am wondering if my 650m with half of what gts 250 have (vRAM) will not be a pretty big drawback ?

forty2j · Jan 24, 2013

There's about 4 generations of difference there, which more than makes up for the lower VRAM.

JoshMKB24 · Jan 24, 2013

Serban said:
Here are the specs:
PC- Monitor Samsung 940N 19" -Geforce 250GTS 1GB, 4 GB RAM, 500GB HDD, i5(661) dual core 3.3GHZ

iMAC- 21.5" 2.9GHZ i5, Geforce 650M 512RAM, 8 GB RAM, 1T Fusion Drive

With my PC im glad enough how work/games are going but i want to give this to a friend if i decide to buy the above imac.

My question for you, if i buy this imac will be at least same performance like my PC regarding my work and games. It will be some differences ?
Thank you all -who will post

I'd do it just based on getting larger than a 19" screen

My screen at work is 19" and my old home set up was dual 22" monitors and there is a huge difference as far as size. I would say you won't notice a ton of performance difference unless you try to do a lot of activities at once, but seems like you just want to make sure your games run smoothly, and they should.

jmpage2 · Jan 24, 2013

Serban said:
Yes but i am wondering if my 650m with half of what gts 250 have (vRAM) will not be a pretty big drawback ?

You don't mention what games you play. The 21.5" does not have any amazing GPUs available, so it certainly won't run all of the latest games at native resolution with good performance.

Serban · Jan 24, 2013

Hmm let me think..from time to time i like to play Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, League of Legends and...thats all i think and very rare i try new things like now Far Cry 3 on 1280x1024 with medium+high settings and is around 40fps average

jmpage2 · Jan 24, 2013

Serban said:
Hmm let me think..from time to time i like to play Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, League of Legends and...thats all i think

There should be plenty of threads that will give you an idea of what OS X native versions of Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 are like with that GPU so you might try to do a search.

I think that you will find that for many (most?) Mac users, the operating system is the primary reason they would choose it over a PC. All of the other nice stuff (super design, great parts, etc) are just the icing on the cake.

Serban · Jan 24, 2013

I was thinking..yes the 27" has a better graphic card but also native resolution is higher.

jmpage2 · Jan 24, 2013

Serban said:
I was thinking..yes the 27" has a better graphic card but also native resolution is higher.

GTS250 - 3DMark 1530;

http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA+GeForce+GTS+250/review

650M - 3DMark 2180

http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA+GeForce+GT+650M/review

So yes, if you're happy with the performance of your current card you should be fine with the new one, it is quite a bit quicker and will get less of a workout at the 21.5" resolution.

forty2j · Jan 24, 2013

Serban said:
I was thinking..yes the 27" has a better graphic card but also native resolution is higher.

The 27" 660M is a poor choice for gaming - the limited VRAM is very much in play due to the higher resolution. If you can't stretch to at least the 675MX model, stay on the top 21".

jmpage2 · Jan 24, 2013

forty2j said:
The 27" 660M is a poor choice for gaming - the limited VRAM is very much in play due to the higher resolution. If you can't stretch to at least the 675MX model, stay on the top 21".

It's too bad the 675MX is not offered on the 21, it would solve his issues.

The Robot Cow · Jan 24, 2013

Based on specs alone the iMac is better. The newer nvidia should be better than the older 250gts. Don't forget about the fusion drive either!

Serban · Jan 26, 2013

Do you think/know if there will be a imac range upgrade from apple this year with the new intel processors or something? i can wait until July-august if it so

oililymad · Jan 26, 2013

Serban said:
Do you think/know if there will be a imac range upgrade from apple this year with the new intel processors or something? i can wait until July-august if it so

Nobody knows. Anything said would be a guess.

my own guess is not before the July/August time frame More like Oct earliest if at all next year.

forty2j · Jan 26, 2013

Serban said:
Do you think/know if there will be a imac range upgrade from apple this year with the new intel processors or something? i can wait until July-august if it so

Typical iMac refresh time is about 9 months. Think September. Haswell processors (yawn), "gigabit" wifi, and incremental graphics improvements are likely.

jmpage2 · Jan 26, 2013

I agree. It will be a spec bump with the 802.3ac wifi the most substantial improvement in the next year. I am on wired Ethernet so that doesn't interest me at all.

Tri-stan · Jan 26, 2013

jmpage2 said:
I agree. It will be a spec bump with the 802.3ac wifi the most substantial improvement in the next year. I am on wired Ethernet so that doesn't interest me at all.

People thinking 802.3ac is going to give a boost to their internet speed can think again. A decent wireless N connection at 300mbps at max transfer speed would be 37.5MB/s that is a crazy speed. No domestic isp I know is putting out that sort of connection. Wirless N is going to be round for a good while yet + I have no range problems.

JoshMKB24 · Jan 26, 2013

forty2j said:
Typical iMac refresh time is about 9 months. Think September. Haswell processors (yawn), "gigabit" wifi, and incremental graphics improvements are likely.

Seems to be the way of Apple these days.....small improvements but nothing ground breaking

leman · Jan 26, 2013

JoshMKB24 said:
Seems to be the way of Apple these days.....small improvements but nothing ground breaking

What do you expect? Magical ming reading controllers or something? They can't put something inside if it does not exist!

----------

Tri-stan said:
People thinking 802.3ac is going to give a boost to their internet speed can think again. A decent wireless N connection at 300mbps at max transfer speed would be 37.5MB/s that is a crazy speed. No domestic isp I know is putting out that sort of connection. Wirless N is going to be round for a good while yet + I have no range problems.

Well, internet is not the only thing - faster WIFI would definitively help the NAS speeds. For instance, my internet connection at work is actually over a 1000mbps and I have to move lots of data to and from university servers all the time. Faster WiFi would be a big help.

JoshMKB24 · Jan 26, 2013

leman said:
What do you expect? Magical ming reading controllers or something? They can't put something inside if it does not exist!

Mind control would be pretty cool, but yeah I'd settle for mind readers!!!

I guess my original comment wasn't direct at the iMac directly, more just Apple in general the last few years on their product line.

WilliamG · Jan 26, 2013

Tri-stan said:
People thinking 802.3ac is going to give a boost to their internet speed can think again. A decent wireless N connection at 300mbps at max transfer speed would be 37.5MB/s that is a crazy speed. No domestic isp I know is putting out that sort of connection. Wirless N is going to be round for a good while yet + I have no range problems.

802.3ac?

I assume you mean 802.11ac.

Anyway, some of us can't wait because it means faster local network speeds. e.g. Transferring files between systems in my house. Very excited about that.

leman · Jan 26, 2013

JoshMKB24 said:
leman said:

What do you expect? Magical ming reading controllers or something? They can't put something inside if it does not exist!

Click to expand...

Mind control would be pretty cool, but yeah I'd settle for mind readers!!!

I guess my original comment wasn't direct at the iMac directly, more just Apple in general the last few years on their product line.

In general, in the last few years Apple introduced to the PC market: ultrabooks, Thunderbolt, OpenCL, HiDPI laptop displays (and a working resolution-independece software layer), consumer-grade tiered storage (Fusion Drive), unibody computer designs, long-duty compact laptop batteries (1000 load-cycles compared to 300-400 of manufacturers like HP) and industry-best touchpads. As far as iMacs go - nobody else can build a machine so thin with such a good thermal solution that it is able to fit a top-of-the-line Intel quad core and a fastest mobile GPU currently available. Some Windows gaming laptops with high-end GPUs are actually thicker than the iMac - and the 27" model with everything inside weights only a few kilograms more than your average 24" display!

These are things which come to my mind spontaneously. Can you name me a single other PC manufacturer with more innovations over the past few years?

I am fully aware of the fact that Apple products are more expensive than other products in the market and that they limited in many ways. You can criticise Apple for many things - but technological progress is really the last one which comes to my mind.

jmpage2 · Jan 26, 2013

WilliamG said:
802.3ac?

I assume you mean 802.11ac.

Anyway, some of us can't wait because it means faster local network speeds. e.g. Transferring files between systems in my house. Very excited about that.

I was the one who typed 802.3ac, was a typo.

You are correct, it's not about internet speed. Many people transfer files between machines in their home or have a NAS... if they are on wireless then it's a big bump. For me, on wired ethernet throughout the home it's a non-event.

kennyap · Jan 26, 2013

leman said:
In general, in the last few years Apple introduced to the PC market: ultrabooks, Thunderbolt, OpenCL, HiDPI laptop displays (and a working resolution-independece software layer), consumer-grade tiered storage (Fusion Drive), unibody computer designs, long-duty compact laptop batteries (1000 load-cycles compared to 300-400 of manufacturers like HP) and industry-best touchpads. As far as iMacs go - nobody else can build a machine so thin with such a good thermal solution that it is able to fit a top-of-the-line Intel quad core and a fastest mobile GPU currently available. Some Windows gaming laptops with high-end GPUs are actually thicker than the iMac - and the 27" model with everything inside weights only a few kilograms more than your average 24" display!

These are things which come to my mind spontaneously. Can you name me a single other PC manufacturer with more innovations over the past few years?

I am fully aware of the fact that Apple products are more expensive than other products in the market and that they limited in many ways. You can criticise Apple for many things - but technological progress is really the last one which comes to my mind.

I think you're spot on here. Apple has provided top-notch innovation over the past years. I only have to think about the kind of computer I'd be typing on right now if apple had not been in the picture to realize this.

iMac vs desktop PC

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