7300GT vs. WoW... screenie inside

[mulletman13]

Hey guys,

I've been trying to find a benchmark or framerate figures for WoW running on a 24" stock iMac, but to no avail. Well, after a few hours of setup, install and everything I finally have an answer.

The 7300GT is no slouch of a card... I get BETTER framerates in WoW at 1920x1200 at the same detail as my 17" x1600 got at 1440x900.

I get a steady 64.0 FPS everywhere, which dips into the 50s when fighting, and maybe low 50s when in dungeons with a lot of fighting =)

Overall I am VERY pleased... the specs aren't maxed out at all in WoW, but things look great, and it is very, very playable at native res with a stock video card =)

I assume CS:S will turn in the same performance.

 

[MacProGuy]

Congrats. I think that is really the key to iMac graphics... people want to turn on 4000x FSAA and expect the cards to still pull weight...

It's REALLY hard to get a card to do a ton of pretty things at high resolution, (i.e., 1920x1200), however... in my opinion... typically at that high resolution you don't NEED all the pretty stuff turned on any more.

For example... I think my 1920x1200 with NO FSAA looks better in Quake 4 than my old 1280x1024 with 4x FSAA, and I get the same FPS...

Would I like 1920x1200 with 4x FSAA? Sure.. but I'm plenty happy if I can't run FSAA as long as I can run the native resolution of the monitor!

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Glad to see the 7300GT is a decent performer at such high resolutions.

There's always the optional GeForce 7600GT too...it scores impressive benchmarks on the PC so I expect it to do very well on the Mac.

Plus, hopefully someone with a 24" iMac/7600GT will dump their ROM and give it to the brains at the Strangedogs flashing forums so Mac Pro owners can flash 7600GTs to the Mac Pro...they need a good upper-mid end card

 

[DMPDX]

I assume CS:S will turn in the same performance.

CS:S on my imac pulls ~130 FPS so you should expect AMAZING performance. WAYYYYYY higher than 60.

 

[MisterEd]

CS:S on my imac pulls ~130 FPS so you should expect AMAZING performance. WAYYYYYY higher than 60.

Which video card you using for that?

 

[Platform]

Which video card you using for that?

If it is the machine in the sig...then the GPU is an ATi x1600

 

[MisterEd]

So thats not even the 256MB one? nice!

 

[mulletman13]

Allrighty... installed HL-2 and CS:S and the like, cranked it up to full res (1920x1200) and got 49.97fps in the video stress test.

This doesn't sound too impressive, but I had all the settings on max, except for Anti-Aliasing (at 2x) and Trilinear something or another, and it ran VERY smooth. Very playable, and if you move a couple things down to 'Medium' a solid 60fps can be had.

I have never seen CS:S look so gorgeous before. When I used the x1600 on my 17" iMac, I had to crank down settings a little bit to have a smooth playing game, and I expected to have to do the same (since I hear the 7300gt and x1600 are quite even), but that is completely untrue.

HL-2 and mods run GREAT on the stock iMac :-D

 

[MacProGuy]

Allrighty... installed HL-2 and CS:S and the like, cranked it up to full res (1920x1200) and got 49.97fps in the video stress test.

This doesn't sound too impressive, but I had all the settings on max, except for Anti-Aliasing (at 2x) and Trilinear something or another, and it ran VERY smooth. Very playable, and if you move a couple things down to 'Medium' a solid 60fps can be had.

I have never seen CS:S look so gorgeous before. When I used the x1600 on my 17" iMac, I had to crank down settings a little bit to have a smooth playing game, and I expected to have to do the same (since I hear the 7300gt and x1600 are quite even), but that is completely untrue.

HL-2 and mods run GREAT on the stock iMac :-D

Good to know

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I have never seen CS:S look so gorgeous before. When I used the x1600 on my 17" iMac, I had to crank down settings a little bit to have a smooth playing game, and I expected to have to do the same (since I hear the 7300gt and x1600 are quite even), but that is completely untrue.

I'm an ATI fanboy of sorts, so it's sad to see ATI's midlevel card failing to outperform an entry level Nvidia card.

The X1600 series was supposed to compete with the GeForce 7600 but was never much competition.

 

[Mac-Addict]

When I get my 24" iMac at christmas I am going to BTO And add a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB card so I will be able to take screenies or w.e

 

[PCMacUser]

When I get my 24" iMac at christmas I am going to BTO And add a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB card so I will be able to take screenies or w.e

In New Zealand we don't get the option of BTO So I'm glad to see that the 7300GT performs well enough in HL2.

Does anyone know (this is kind of random) how the performance of a 7300GT compares with a Radeon 9700 Pro?

 

[MacProGuy]

In New Zealand we don't get the option of BTO So I'm glad to see that the 7300GT performs well enough in HL2.

Does anyone know (this is kind of random) how the performance of a 7300GT compares with a Radeon 9700 Pro?

Why don't you just get a buddy stateside to order you one and ship it to you

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Does anyone know (this is kind of random) how the performance of a 7300GT compares with a Radeon 9700 Pro?

Generally speaking a 7300GT should outperform a 9700, which is two generations behind.

 

[zen]

In New Zealand we don't get the option of BTO So I'm glad to see that the 7300GT performs well enough in HL2.

Does anyone know (this is kind of random) how the performance of a 7300GT compares with a Radeon 9700 Pro?

Yes we do, just not through the Apple Store. Configure your iMac here.

 

[PCMacUser]

Yes we do, just not through the Apple Store. Configure your iMac here.

Whoa, thanks Zen! It's amusing though. I went to look at the 24" iMac and it says Stock: 0 Shipping date: Unknown.

As for prices, here's some BTO price comparisons:

2Gb RAM upgrade: US Apple Shop - US$175........TotallyMac NZ - US$440
2.33GHz upgrade: US Apple Shop - US$250........TotallyMac NZ - US$430
7600GT upgrade: US Apple Shop - US$125........TotallyMac NZ - US$250

It's not much incentive, is it? PC hardware prices are comparable in NZ to the US. It's a shame Apple can't do the same.

Does anyone know if the built-in power supplies in the iMacs work on both 110 volts (for the USA) as well as 220 volts (for the rest of the world) ?? I might have to get my relatives in the US to ship one over, but don't want to deal with power issues.

 

[Josias]

I believe the X1600 Pro in the 17"/20" iMac is better than the 7300GT.

That means that the 17" 2.0 GHz iMac is a super gaming machine at $1199.