Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO Performance? (iMac) [Can it run SC2?]
- Thread starter Messy
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I've got a 4 year old 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with the HD2600. I run Starcraft 2, Left4Dead, and Dragon Age just fine. The settings and resolution are obviously pretty low compared with new cards, but not so far down that it affects my enjoyment of the game. I've also got Borderlands - it runs OK, but the settings are low enough on that one that it does affect the playability a little.
Uh, a 13" has a 320M, and the OP has a 2600 Pro anyways.
To the OP: Yes, it'll work, but it'll be much more pleasant in Bootcamp, if you can stomach that.
Having owned both, they are about the same running SC2. The MBP does have the advantage in that there are less pixels to push.
lol
and I think my 18 month old video card in a machine that was $500 will absolutely destroy yours!
Before I sold it for my Mac Pro last Summer, I had a 24" iMac with the 2600. It ran Starcraft 2 with decent fps at low settings and native resolution (1920x1200). Most important setting to turn to "low" is "shaders", sadly this is also the one that has the most visual effect. "Textures" could be set to medium as far as I remember.
Your replies have absolutely no relevence to this thread at all.
Additionally, does anyone know if theres a minimum age you need to be in order to register/post on this forums?
None that I know of - someone with an integrated gpu is bragging about it, that can only happen on a Mac site.
If you are asking because you are thinking about buying a used iMac, I'd try finding a 2008 model with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS, this will give you much more performance gaming wise.
None that I know of - someone with an integrated gpu is bragging about it, that can only happen on a Mac site.
If you are asking because you are thinking about buying a used iMac, I'd try finding a 2008 model with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS, this will give you much more performance gaming wise.
Yea they seem quite sought after those models, I had a 8800 GS years ago on a PC and it performed really well.
My problem is price to be fair, and being in the UK my choices are further limited. You can pick the 24" iMacs with the HD 2600 up for around £600 but the 8800 GS models jump up a fair bit.
Here is a link to average used iMac prices, it's german but for the relevant informations that shouldn't matter:
http://www.macnews.de/mac/imac/gebrauchtpreise
iMac 24″ 2,4 GHz Core 2 Duo SuperDrive 555 Aug 07 (2600)
iMac 24″ 3,06 GHz Core 2 Duo SuperDrive 690 Apr 08 (8800)
If you are also looking at playing Diablo 3 when it comes out, 100-200 more might be worth it. Since my 2600 iMac ran Starcraft 2 at the bare minimum of what I would personally define as playable I doubt it will handle Diablo 3.
Excellent, thank you for the link. Demand plays a bit part in this too unfortunately, which is bumping the price up a bit.
As for games, SC2 is all i'd play on a Mac to be fair, I have an Xbox 360 which I use for gaming in general.
Have a look at the Read Me we made a list of the settings and which ones effect the frame rate the most. As I recall dynamic shadows is the biggest killer, followed by ambient occlusion and resolution. You should be able to get a smooth experience if you tweak the settings. Having 4 GB of RAM (or more) also helps
Edwin