Avid PC gamer needing help picking out a Mac.

[reluttr]

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I am a avid pc gamer, but usually stick with source based games "gmod, portal, l4d, ect", Nothing really graphically intensive...

But I want to pursue a career in application programming for iOS. As we all know this can only be done on the Mac platform.

After looking over my options I have decided to jus completely replace my current machine with the 27 inch iMac with the i7 processor.

However I need some help picking out what features I need to get a proper upgrade of my old system.

My current specs are...
3.1 Ghz Duel core Wolfdale intel processor
8800 gt 512 Evga Nvidea graphics
8gb ddr2 1333 ram
1tb sata 2 hard drive

If I got the $1999 iMac with the optional i7 upgrade "and optional 2gb video memory upgrade". Could I expect it to perform as well or even better than my current system?

 

[JInx3110]

the new BTO mac that you refer to would be quite a lot more capable for gaming as although the 8800gt is a desktop card the relatively new 6970m (mobile GPU) is a proper high performance card capable of running any game on high details 1080p (except maybe metro 2033 or battlefield 3) bf3 did do 40fps on high detail settings (ultra textures) no AA and AF x8 and 1080p res which some might consider to be "high detail" the extra 1gb of ram is only used in bf3,crisis needing 1.6gb maximum at native resolution so its questionable wether you need the extra for 1920 x 1080p. (might come in handy in the coming years though)

The sandy bridge i7 (BTO only) is more than powerful enough for any games and will handle anything else you can think to throw at it...probably at the same time, multi tasking is vastly improved thanks to hyper threading presenting the quad core to a lot of applications as an 8 core system

An all round step up, worth it for gaming if you need to have a mac as the next step down (6770m is a major step down in graphical performance

 

[DustinT]

Yes, I think you'll find that a nice upgrade from your current system. I recommend you look at Boot Camp for best gaming performance under Windows though. Mac gaming is decent, at best. But, you'll have the right hardware so you'll be able to boot into Windows and enjoy yourself and when your done, get back to work in Mac OS X.

 

[N33t]

A slight tangent, but out of interest...

Yes, I think you'll find that a nice upgrade from your current system. I recommend you look at Boot Camp for best gaming performance under Windows though. Mac gaming is decent, at best. But, you'll have the right hardware so you'll be able to boot into Windows and enjoy yourself and when your done, get back to work in Mac OS X.

Do you run games which can run in both Windows and OSX (e.g. SC2 and WoW) in Windows instead of OSX, or do you run these in OSX?

If the former (i.e. switching to Windows) do you notice a performance increase?

 

[derbothaus]

The 6970m is nothing more than a desktop 6850 so keep that in mind. It is capable but not at the resolution Apple gives you at 27"s. Not for a real gamer who wants all elements on and 60+ FPS for the foreseeable future.

 

[JInx3110]

The 6970m is nothing more than a desktop 6850 so keep that in mind. It is capable but not at the resolution Apple gives you at 27"s. Not for a real gamer who wants all elements on and 60+ FPS for the foreseeable future.

thats a definition of an enthusiast/elitist, there isn't any single GPU card capable of that kind of performance in a game like bf3, your talking 6990/590GTX or CF/SLI set up.... even if I'm slightly off and the 580GTX or 6970 could handle it your still claiming that one must spend upwards of £350 on the graphics card alone to be a real gamer...sorry but that little quote really irritated me its like saying you need a super car to be a REAL DRIVER

If all you want is a gaming machine theres a million reasons not to get the new iMac but I think the OP wants the apple operating system

 

[reluttr]

thats a definition of an enthusiast/elitist, there isn't any single GPU card capable of that kind of performance in a game like bf3, your talking 6990/590GTX or CF/SLI set up.... even if I'm slightly off and the 580GTX or 6970 could handle it your still claiming that one must spend upwards of £350 on the graphics card alone to be a real gamer...sorry but that little quote really irritated me its like saying you need a super car to be a REAL DRIVER

If all you want is a gaming machine theres a million reasons not to get the new iMac but I think the OP wants the apple operating system

That's exactly what I am wanting. Something that is just as good, if not better than my current "gaming" build and can run Mac OS without me having to use several unstable hacks and requiring me to jump through hoops every time there is a update.

I have been doing some research and decided to order the 27 inch iMac with the core i7 3.4ghz quad processor and bumped up the graphic card with 2gb of graphical ram. I left the ram as the standard 4gb option as its better to upgrade that myself later, especially since OWC is considerably cheaper and probably just as good as apples "in house" version.

I'm fairly happy with my choice, it fits into my needs perfectly. Sure I could had used the money I used to build a new gaming pc that outperforms the imac graphic card wise, but having the Mac OS is pretty important to me.

 

[derbothaus]

thats a definition of an enthusiast/elitist, there isn't any single GPU card capable of that kind of performance in a game like bf3, your talking 6990/590GTX or CF/SLI set up.... even if I'm slightly off and the 580GTX or 6970 could handle it your still claiming that one must spend upwards of £350 on the graphics card alone to be a real gamer...sorry but that little quote really irritated me its like saying you need a super car to be a REAL DRIVER

If all you want is a gaming machine theres a million reasons not to get the new iMac but I think the OP wants the apple operating system

It's all about resolution. I play at 1680x1050 native and I can play everything that comes out at max still to this day. I can't stand to play any game scaled in resolution so I buy smaller screens. Not trying to be elitist at all. Just want users to get what they expect and not be bummed that they can't turn everything on. It has nothing to do with being a real gamer who you can be even if your graphics card cost 40.00.