Buying an iMac and needing advice

[appleslave777]

Ive owned an iBook G4 for quite some time and it's time for an upgrade. I am planning on purchasing an iMac with these specs.

21.5-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
1TB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics with 256MB memory

Now I looked on the site and it said that updates were coming soon but from what i've seen in the forums and from friends who use this site religiously that could mean multiple months before even the slightest little update. I am wanting to use this computer for gaming purposed on top of my work. I am particularly looking at Lord of the Rings Online. I would like to run the game on high or ultra high if possible. I have a few questions.

1.) Will this computer be able to play LOTRO on high? I am going to use bootcamp.

2.) Should I wait until a new update comes out or will it be important enough for my needs as a gamer?

3.) If I buy it now and they update the graphics can I send my computer in and buy the upgrade from them?

Thanks for any help. Oh and purchasing anything but an apple is out of the question. I understand they are better for gaming but I will be excommunicated from work if I do

 

[Hellhammer]

1. Should play it fine but maybe not at highest settings, hard to say

2. An update will likely update the GPU to better and faster one (ATI 5xxx) so if graphics are important, then it might be wise to wait. If you need it now, buy it now

3. As far as I know, no, you cannot. The firmware is unlikely to support other GPUs and it would cost you a long penny to do that (~500$)

 

[appleslave777]

Thanks for responding so quickly! Everyone says that WoW plays great on the iMac im buying so I figured that through bootcamp LOTRO would be fine. My backup is the new Civ V coming out if not. I made my iBook G4 last me for 4 years so im hoping this new iMac will last even longer

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks for responding so quickly! Everyone says that WoW plays great on the iMac im buying so I figured that through bootcamp LOTRO would be fine. My backup is the new Civ V coming out if not. I made my iBook G4 last me for 4 years so im hoping this new iMac will last even longer

I don't know how demanding game LOTRO is but iMac should be able to run it at least at medium settings, possibly higher. Just read few threads and 2009 MBPs with 9600M GT were able to run LOTRO at high with full res and got ~40FPS so iMac should be able to do the same

 

[appleslave777]

I just bought an iMac with the 9600 graphics card instead so my question is can i upgrade it to the 4670?

 

[Hellhammer]

I just bought an iMac with the 9600 graphics card instead so my question is can i upgrade it to the 4670?

There is no iMac with 9600 graphics... Take a screen shot from  -> About this Mac -> More info

Anyway, it's unlikely that you can upgrade it anyway

 

[appleslave777]

My apologies it's an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics with 256MB memory. I just bought the computer from the refurbished site of Apple. The rest of the stats are the same as above but only a 500G hard drive. So can I upgrade to the ATI Radeon HD 4670 or will the GeForce be able to handle LOTRO just as well?

 

[dexthageek]

My apologies it's an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics with 256MB memory. I just bought the computer from the refurbished site of Apple. The rest of the stats are the same as above but only a 500G hard drive. So can I upgrade to the ATI Radeon HD 4670 or will the GeForce be able to handle LOTRO just as well?

I don't think it is possible. At the least it would not be an easy upgrade. That is if you can find somewhere to order the GPU and make it fit. When buying a mac, unless its the mac pro, there is really no upgrading them, apart from ram and the occasional HDD upgrade.