Is an iMac good for gaming?

[G51989]

I don't think those games are high graphical games. I'm pretty sure GTX 680 can run high quality games.

I'm asking if the whole iMac can run high graphic games because I don't need the PC for just the games.

-Devon

If you want to play the latest games at the highest settings, at native resolution, your going to need a Gaming PC, straight up.

 

[Fried Chicken]

Here's an alternate question: what do you want OS X for? Video production? Programming? Design?

BF4 will run at 1440p on a 680MX. It won't run in ultra though.

I play on Ultra, and it gets above 30 fps unless there's smoke.
I am considering overclocking the card to get that last fps to keep me in the really good range of fps, even if there's smoke.

 

[ckeck]

I play on Ultra, and it gets above 30 fps unless there's smoke.
I am considering overclocking the card to get that last fps to keep me in the really good range of fps, even if there's smoke.

Running anywhere near 30 fps outside of a firefight is a joke if you're going to be playing some serious BF4.

I've tried to keep a PC out of my home office for years running the highest end iMacs available each year, but without fail I always ended up extremely frustrated.

After having a current-gen loaded iMac with 32GB of RAM I just gave up. Getting decent drivers under Bootcamp is even beyond painful.

I just had to end up building a gaming rig to get things to run right and at the performance levels I wanted/expected/needed for the latest games. I don't want to pay $3k to run a current title at Medium/Average settings to get decent enough FPS not to stutter. Plus you end up being in Windows more than half the time anyways if you aren't playing a native port.

 

[Serban]

I play on Ultra, and it gets above 30 fps unless there's smoke.
I am considering overclocking the card to get that last fps to keep me in the really good range of fps, even if there's smoke.

but if you play on high settings to get over 40 fps what is wrong with that?
BF3 already play very well on ultra settings 1440p but with 780M

 

[elithrar]

After having a current-gen loaded iMac with 32GB of RAM I just gave up. Getting decent drivers under Bootcamp is even beyond painful.

Really? I've never had issues installing the regular nVidia drivers. Use Driver Fusion to clean out the Bootcamp drivers if need be.

 

[leman]

After having a current-gen loaded iMac with 32GB of RAM I just gave up. Getting decent drivers under Bootcamp is even beyond painful.

Nvidia->drivers->download

Very painful

 

[leman]

I'm curious to know what kind of "gaming PC" you have. A true "gaming PC" will out perform a maxed out iMac all day everyday. I own both, a GTX 680 iMac and a Haswell, GTX 780 " gaming PC". The gaming PC out performs the iMac without breaking a sweat.

A GTX 780 also costs $650 alone. Do you really think many gamers can afford that?

 

[RayK]

I like my iMac for some gaming, but I have a nice gaming PC for the latest games. I love Macs, but they aren't built for gaming and are quite expensive.

 

[omenatarhuri]

I like my iMac for some gaming, but I have a nice gaming PC for the latest games. I love Macs, but they aren't built for gaming and are quite expensive.

Not necessarily for what you get, many threads on the topic.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I'm curious to know what kind of "gaming PC" you have. A true "gaming PC" will out perform a maxed out iMac all day everyday. I own both, a GTX 680 iMac and a Haswell, GTX 780 " gaming PC". The gaming PC out performs the iMac without breaking a sweat.

It was back in 2010. It was top end PC at Best Buy. If I upgraded the graphic's card, it would have been really close to what I paid for my iMac. The graphics card was a midrange ATI card. I am sure you can get a PC that is less expensive than a Mac that is faster. It is having the right GPU in there that is better than Apple would use.

 

[Serban]

i think anybody with 680mx or 780M imac can play on high settings/native resolution any game

 

[dumastudetto]

iMac is the best gaming machine money can buy with its incredible performance and stunning display.

 

[Fried Chicken]

Running anywhere near 30 fps outside of a firefight is a joke if you're going to be playing some serious BF4.

I've tried to keep a PC out of my home office for years running the highest end iMacs available each year, but without fail I always ended up extremely frustrated.

After having a current-gen loaded iMac with 32GB of RAM I just gave up. Getting decent drivers under Bootcamp is even beyond painful.

I just had to end up building a gaming rig to get things to run right and at the performance levels I wanted/expected/needed for the latest games. I don't want to pay $3k to run a current title at Medium/Average settings to get decent enough FPS not to stutter. Plus you end up being in Windows more than half the time anyways if you aren't playing a native port.

Meh, I don't want to deal with a gaming pc.

 

[2Turbo]

I think Battlefield 3 looks fine with High settings, no need for ultra. What does the 680MX in 1440p high settings run like? 60 FPS?

BF4 is my only concern. Do you think 780m can be overclocked to get 50 FPS with high settings in 1440p?

 

[Serban]

for battlefield 4 if you go with 775M you can play 1440+medium +50fps and if you go with 780M you go 1440p+high settings at over 50fps

 

[bp1000]

for battlefield 4 if you go with 775M you can play 1440+medium +50fps and if you go with 780M you go 1440p+high settings at over 50fps

As someone who has never "gamed" on a mac, do you play within bootcamp? If so does bootcamp reduce performance say if you compared the FPS on the same hardware in a windows machine?

 

[Confusius]

As someone who has never "gamed" on a mac, do you play within bootcamp? If so does bootcamp reduce performance say if you compared the FPS on the same hardware in a windows machine?

You reboot your Mac into Windows (hence the pun title bootcamp) and since it then runs windows natively there is no performance reduction.

 

[Serban]

battlefield is not and will be not make for MACOS, so you will need bootcamp. if you play a game that is made for both platform until maveriks is on, the most performance you will get under bootcamp

 

[Irishman]

Hey guys,

So I'm kinda new here, and I know there's probably bunch a topic like this, but I want to hear a good answers from you guys cause I have been wanting to buy an iMac 27" 2.9 GHz.

I know I can build a well, cheaper gaming pc but I just want to know about the iMac cause I wanna play mostly high graphics games such as Battlefield 4. I mostly watch movies and play games.

Thanks,
-DevonGaming01

I play the following games very smoothly on the highest settings I am able to set them on:

Rage
Bioshock
Left 4 Dead 2
Counterstrike: Global Offensive
Portal
Portal 2
Team Fortress 2
Borderlands 2
DOTA 2

I run the late 2012 21.5" iMac - stock - 2.9Ghz Ivy Bridge, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512 MB.

I'll be picking up Bioshock Infinite soon when it goes on sale, as well as Witcher 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Not only is an iMac good for gaming, the iMac is awesome for gaming!

From what I've heard, the new Haswell (iMacs ME087LL/A and above) have improved graphics performance by 40% over mine, on otherwise equivalent hardware. The chip is NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics with 1GB memory. That doubles my GPU memory, which won't speed things up, but will allow you to run games with higher textures (more detail).

Just don't get the ME086LL/A. It has no dedicated GPU.

Also, keep in mind that all macs that can upgrade will get a speed and eyecandy boost when Mavericks comes out. (OpenGL 4.1 support - hardware tessellation, etc). It will make enough of a difference that Aspyr (I think) limited the playable settings and resolution of Bioshock: Infinite because it could lessen the experience for the owners of some Macs. They fully have the intention of adding that capability back into the game via a patch once Mavericks hits.

 

[Serban]

you play Borderlands 2 on max settings and you get over 30fps? i guess in bootcamp right?

 

[bp1000]

Ok will set up bootcamp with the utility when I get my 2013 mac - glad to hear no reduction in performance

I also read dice employed an osx engineer head to run a project to concert frostbite to osx so maybe battlefield will come to the mac.

I'd pay console prices to have native support

 

[Irishman]

you play Borderlands 2 on max settings and you get over 30fps? i guess in bootcamp right?

I exclusively game in OSX. I'm not sure how to measure FPS in the game, though.

 

[lpolarityl]

Get an iMac and a Xbox One, problem solved.

 

[luminouslight]

Get an iMac and a Xbox One, problem solved.

I think you mean a iMac and a Playstation 4.

 

[in4fun]

is there any difference in gaming performance between these two configs?

"i7 + 780M 4GB" vs. "i5 + 780M 4GB"

No doubt there are benefits in video editing but I'm just curious if the faster processor also benefits GPU performance in gaming or is it irrelevant?