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iMac gaming - Bootcamp or Mac OS?

L

LuvD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 18, 2010
18
0
Hey guys,

As I ordered the 5k iMac I just wanted to ask you something about gaming experiences on iMacs in general.
I've googled a bit about bootcamp and gaming performance.

Have you experienced an gaming performance/fps increase when you installed a game on Windows via bootcamp than on Mac OS?
Many people say that for example WoW or Diablo runs better on Windows on their Macs.

I just want to know that because then I'd just install all my games on Windows than installing them on Mac OS.


Thank you in advance for help.
 
As I explain in other threads in this forum, gaming on the 5K is sensational-looking… but comes with a huge price. I ran World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2 in fullscreen/windowed max resolution and achieved about 40-50 FPS with good to very good settings. No issues. It looks absolutely brilliant and I could spend years gaming in that environment. The tradeoff: running iStat, my GPU temperatures were over 100º C. While there is a report that someone from AMD has said the m290 can run "in the 90s C", I ran on an m295X and had these temperature issues on the GPU. I wasn't able to get those temps down, either, running at current (2560x1440) resolutions.
 
I dont have my iMac yet but from previous experiences games do tend to run better in windows than OS X. Most games seem to be fine on OS X but if you're trying to get every little bit of power out it may be worth it to install windows.
 
I know playing in 5k resolution is kinda overkill, I'm fine with 1080p/1440p.

Thank you forg0t; has anyone else experiences with that?
 
Games like diablo/hearthstone/wow and others that are updated for Yosemite will be played on OS X like on windows because the gap between is even closer.
 
if a game is on OS X, I'll play it on OS X. I hadn't noticed in the past any difference in performance between games on OS X vs games on Windows.
 
leenak said:
if a game is on OS X, I'll play it on OS X. I hadn't noticed in the past any difference in performance between games on OS X vs games on Windows.
Click to expand...
With Civ V, at least in the early versions, there was a rather huge difference. For the past year or so it has run quite well on OS X as well though.
 
omenatarhuri said:
With Civ V, at least in the early versions, there was a rather huge difference. For the past year or so it has run quite well on OS X as well though.
Click to expand...

Oh I don't think I noticed with Civ V but Civ IV was my preferred version :)
 
LuvD said:
I know playing in 5k resolution is kinda overkill, I'm fine with 1080p/1440p.
Click to expand...

I would be too if 1440p looked like it did on the last iMac. It doesn't; it's strikingly more blurry and less effective.
 
It's all about the drivers. Windows has better drivers for gaming at this moment, so you should have better gaming performance in bootcamp.
 
I would imagine the drivers would be due improvements, the device and chipset being so new.
 
I've only had time to play Diablo 3 so far, but it was a very smooth experience at 2K with all the eye candy turned on. And I'm running four man torment level 6 rifts with a paragon 305 toon... ridiculous mobs and effects going on, and the iMac chewed it up and spit it out. I'm impressed.

downloading more games now.
 
LuvD said:
Hey guys,

As I ordered the 5k iMac I just wanted to ask you something about gaming experiences on iMacs in general.
I've googled a bit about bootcamp and gaming performance.

Have you experienced an gaming performance/fps increase when you installed a game on Windows via bootcamp than on Mac OS?
Many people say that for example WoW or Diablo runs better on Windows on their Macs.

I just want to know that because then I'd just install all my games on Windows than installing them on Mac OS.


Thank you in advance for help.
Click to expand...

I think the m295X is pretty decent for gaming. Yes, the GeForce 980M is better... by some accounts almost 50% better. The m295X's performance seems to be between the 970M and the 980M. I don't remember where I read this... will try to find the site which tested them.

But I would suggest installing Windows under bootcamp if you wanted any gaming done on a Mac. IMHO, it runs faster, smoother, better, quieter than in OSX.
 
That's just what I was thinking - installing on Windows should be the better solution. Working on Mac OS, gaming on Windows.

Thank you all for your help! :)


P.S. Cameron, maybe you should return your Mac, I've been chatting with a YouTuber who has been posting some gaming videos with the M295X lately and he told me that he could not see noticeable blurryness - and that, even on 1440p, gaming of course looks better than on his old iMac 27. No matter what, I'll be seeing and judging that for myself. :)
 
LuvD said:
That's just what I was thinking - installing on Windows should be the better solution. Working on Mac OS, gaming on Windows.

Thank you all for your help! :)


P.S. Cameron, maybe you should return your Mac, I've been chatting with a YouTuber who has been posting some gaming videos with the M295X lately and he told me that he could not see noticeable blurryness - and that, even on 1440p, gaming of course looks better than on his old iMac 27. No matter what, I'll be seeing and judging that for myself. :)
Click to expand...

Can you share the link for the gaming videos?
 
I was also concerned about this.
So when gaming I don't HAVE to play in 5k resolution?
I mean, can I play full screen at a lower resolution and the graphics and everything still run fine?
My buddy was saying on his retina MBP that his games are blurry or something...
I really only play Blizzard games on my Mac.
 
LuvD said:
Hey guys,

As I ordered the 5k iMac I just wanted to ask you something about gaming experiences on iMacs in general.
I've googled a bit about bootcamp and gaming performance.

Have you experienced an gaming performance/fps increase when you installed a game on Windows via bootcamp than on Mac OS?
Many people say that for example WoW or Diablo runs better on Windows on their Macs.

I just want to know that because then I'd just install all my games on Windows than installing them on Mac OS.


Thank you in advance for help.
Click to expand...

D3 runs perfect on my hackintosh and looks no different then when played on a windows box.
 
Kritzmire said:
I was also concerned about this.
So when gaming I don't HAVE to play in 5k resolution?
I mean, can I play full screen at a lower resolution and the graphics and everything still run fine?
My buddy was saying on his retina MBP that his games are blurry or something...
I really only play Blizzard games on my Mac.
Click to expand...

I have a 15" Retina MBP and played WoW on it in a power Resolution (für example 1080p) and it looked nice and crisp to me. :)


One Video is here: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ys2Yx032wUk
Look at his channel, he has uploaded some more.
 
LuvD said:
P.S. Cameron, maybe you should return your Mac, I've been chatting with a YouTuber who has been posting some gaming videos with the M295X lately and he told me that he could not see noticeable blurryness - and that, even on 1440p, gaming of course looks better than on his old iMac 27. No matter what, I'll be seeing and judging that for myself. :)
Click to expand...

I did. Gaming most certainly does not look better in World of Warcraft at 1440p; they just switched to a new graphics system (CMAA?) and at 1440p on the Retina it looks incredibly blurry. A friend of mine who just got his retina iMac yesterday says the very same thing.

(It looks *perfect* at 5K resolution, though, and was surprisingly responsive. Except for the GPU heat issues I was describing, it was amazing.)
 
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