Buying Advice: 5670 vs. 5750 upgrade

[hallstein]

Hi !

I am considering an iMac, since they just got updated.
I'm definately buying a 27", because i will be doing loads of image editing (my gf is a photographer), audio (im a guitarist) and video editing (private video) More spesific, the 1699$ model. (3,2ghz i3/4gb/1tb/5670or5750)

But what i am trying to find out, is if i will be able to enjoy games like Crysis, Starcraft 2, Half Life 2, Portal, and future games, AT ALL, on the cheapest 27" iMac without upgrading the graphics. (Both Steam for mac/Bootcamp)

And if yes, how big is the difference in terms of FPS/Graphics settings/etc. in these two graphicscards... If i can run Crysis on the 5670 on 1600x1200 high settings + a little AA, i will be more than satisfied. And if the difference is 4-5 FPS in games, i really dont think its worth the upgrade.

Any advice is appreciated

 

[henrikrox]

Hi !

I am considering an iMac, since they just got updated.
I'm definately buying a 27", because i will be doing loads of image editing (my gf is a photographer), audio (im a guitarist) and video editing (private video) More spesific, the 1699$ model. (3,2ghz i3/4gb/1tb/5670or5750)

But what i am trying to find out, is if i will be able to enjoy games like Crysis, Starcraft 2, Half Life 2, Portal, and future games, AT ALL, on the cheapest 27" iMac without upgrading the graphics. (Both Steam for mac/Bootcamp)

And if yes, how big is the difference in terms of FPS/Graphics settings/etc. in these two graphicscards... If i can run Crysis on the 5670 on 1600x1200 high settings + a little AA, i will be more than satisfied. And if the difference is 4-5 FPS in games, i really dont think its worth the upgrade.

Any advice is appreciated

Dont know why you dont go quad core, i mean the difference between dual core with updated gpu is so small.

There is a crysis video youtube running i3 imac, on high, it lags like hell.

And the difference is much more then 4-5 frames.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYmITxDVkhk

Also when encoding large chunks of video, the quad core is much faster.

 

[Hellhammer]

If you're going to do gaming, the 5750 is definitely worth it. I don't have any fancy graphs yet but it's such little $ for so significant update. It will be more than few frames, more likely something like 50% according to NoteBookCheck.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5850.23069.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5730.23825.0.html

For little more, you should just get the quad core model as it comes with 5750. The CPU is significantly faster

 

[hallstein]

i'm confused...

the i3 = dual core? and i5 and i7 are quad core processors?
So, if i buy the Cheap 27" with the i5 3,6GHZ, and upgrade the GPU, i will be MUCH better off than just upgrading the GPU?

or, of course, just buy the more expensive 27".

 

[Hellhammer]

i'm confused...

the i3 = dual core? and i5 and i7 are quad core processors?
So, if i buy the Cheap 27" with the i5 3,6GHZ, and upgrade the GPU, i will be MUCH better off than just upgrading the GPU?

i3 = dual core
3.6GHz i5 = dual core
2.8GHz i5 and 2.93GHz i7 = quad core

So the high-end iMac with 2.8GHz i5 is IMO the best deal for you as it comes with 5750

 

[hallstein]

oh snap, i guess i'll just drop buying a new apple router then... or just go for the airport express instead of a time machine, and buy myself the hi-end 27".

i got some clarity into the whole situation now, at least

 

[nagromme]

I too like games, and I want future breathing room too, so I’m leaning strongly toward the higher GPU and quad cores. Maybe even the i7 upgrade, which Barefeats tested here: http://www.barefeats.com/imac10g.html (Quake Wars is my favorite game and it performs great.)

i'm confused...

the i3 = dual core? and i5 and i7 are quad core processors?
So, if i buy the Cheap 27" with the i5 3,6GHZ, and upgrade the GPU, i will be MUCH better off than just upgrading the GPU?

Correct (at least among the current iMac choices). The top iMac model (the quad-core) is the only i5 model. All others are i3 and dual-core. (And the quad-core model can be further customized to i7.)

Since that YouTube video says 21.5”, 3.2 GHz, it must be the 5670 GPU (2nd of the 4 iMac configs at store.applw.com).

Take the video with salt since different games perform differently, and often one specific setting with little visual impact makes a huge difference! That game might run twice as fast with some tweaking. The really important measure is “for these certain games I’m interested in, what’s the most optimized set of detail settings, and how good can it look and still be perceived as playing consistently smoothly?” That’s really not easy to judge, though, without sitting down and experimenting. Get reports of specific games from current users, if you can.

I also take benchmarks with salt: they show how a game runs at max detail, but I can easily have fun dropping the detail (and resolution) a bit, which causes a massive speed increase. On my current white iMac, I sometimes game at 1280x800. It’s still great fun and looks good. Eventually, on my next iMac, I’ll have to drop that low to play the latest games. So be it!

oh snap, i guess i'll just drop buying a new apple router then... or just go for the airport express instead of a time machine, and buy myself the hi-end 27".

i got some clarity into the whole situation now, at least

Save up a little longer and get the Time Capsule—it saved my bacon once! I could never live without hourly wireless backups again.