Any iMac with a new GPU on the way?

Yixian said:

I've been an exclusive laptop user for many years but the frustration of ever diminishing returns in the GPU department and the reasonable cost of iMacs (in Apple terms) is making me consider buying one for gaming and graphic design purposes.

I am completely out of the loop desktop Mac wise, how are the iMacs in terms of gaming performance these days and are there any upgrades to be expected this year?

I want to play WoW on ultra with >45fps, that's my criteria for "decent" gaming performance.

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Certainly no one here would know, this is a rumors site. Any opinions you get are just that, a rumor. Apple is the only one that knows and they have not announced anything new. Key your eyes on Apple's website if you want the most up-to-date release news.

Yixian said:

I've been an exclusive laptop user for many years but the frustration of ever diminishing returns in the GPU department and the reasonable cost of iMacs (in Apple terms) is making me consider buying one for gaming and graphic design purposes.

I am completely out of the loop desktop Mac wise, how are the iMacs in terms of gaming performance these days and are there any upgrades to be expected this year?

I want to play WoW on ultra with >45fps, that's my criteria for "decent" gaming performance.

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I wouldn't expect an iMac update until early-mid 2015. The 9xx nVidia chipsets are coming out around January, and the Broadwell desktop CPUs will not be released until Q1-Q2 2015. Apple typically updates the CPU and GPU at the same time, so I wouldn't expect a GPU update until Broadwell. WoW will run fine on ultra with current generation 775m-780m GPUs. If you need an iMac now, look on the refurbished store. There is an i5/775m/8GB/1TB Fusion Drive model that sells for $1870. It isn't currently available, but that changes on a day to day basis. It will probably be back tomorrow. If you can't wait, you could pick up the i7/680mx 2012 model for $1950 right now. It has a more powerful processor and equal graphics power. It is exactly the same externally as the 2013 model, but doesn't come with AC wifi and has SATA flash instead of PCIE. Other than that though, exactly the same computers.

Matt

Yixian said:

Thanks, very informative reply.

I had just read an article saying that Maxwell will be ready for holiday season? But I suppose it doesn't matter due to Broadwell.. Looks like all Mac lines, portable and desktop, will be getting very stale before an update.

I'll probably just wait because I really am just buying this for gaming purposes and a bit of design, so I might as well have the latest and greatest... Well, latest anyway.

Reading around it seems like there is even more frustration with the GPUs in the iMacs than there is on the MBP side, and that's saying something. I wonder if Apple will ever release a Mac that satisfies gamers.

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Apple has never tried to sell computers to gamers. Their focus is on professionals and artists, which is why they have always been more focused on CPU performance. Even if they threw in a desktop GPU, game performance would be about 20% worse than on Windows just because of drivers issues. If you really want gaming performance and the usability of OS X at the same time, I would recommend a hackintosh with Windows as your main OS. This assumes it isn't your main machine for any professional work you do though.

If you bootcamp on the 2012 680mx iMac, it still runs AAA titles at high settings and 1440p around 60 fps. That is really solid, but it is not worth $2000 if you are just gaming. I have the 2012 model, and I haven't had any issues with the GPU. I have played Arkham City, Borderlands 2, League, Portal 2, Tomb Raider, Half Life 2, and Crysis 2 all on high settings. It is really solid, but again, if you are just gaming it isn't worth the cost.

Apple have compromised on GPUs even more in recent years using mobile graphics (my model has a Radeon HD 4670. No M at the end of it) and some even using Intel graphics now!!

iMacs will never be great for gaming. You MAY achieve what you're after if you buy the top-end one but not much below it. Macs aren't really for gaming. Graphic design work etc should still be fine as Apple seem to have a way of compromising for their lacking GPU. Gaming though, you will always be better with a custom built Windows PC.

Yixian said:

I just want an educated guess, obviously.

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You won't get one, you will only get guesses...that's the point.

Nvidia said that will release the 9xx in October, in Yosemite there are 2x1440p resolution so everybody that use Yosemite with the speculation of the maxwell 980M and thunderbolt 2, think in October they will announce the next gen iMac