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Gaming on iMac with 780m?
- Thread starter abluehaze
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Are you guys running any overclocking on your GPU to get decent FPS in battlefield? I'm hoping to get mine tomorrow and it's literally the first thing I'll be doing. Installing Windows 8 and then transfering Origin and BF4 from my PC rig to the iMac.
Cannot. Wait.
Cannot. Wait.
For $1000 you could build a tower with similar performance.
Finally i got a i7 4770 and a GTX660 for around that.
Finally i got a i7 4770 and a GTX660 for around that.
he was using OpenGL for some reason with two different cards.I used DX11.
Now that's what I get with OpenGL
My two results were a Windows 7 PC vs a 2013 iMac running Mavericks 10.9.1 (both running Heaven benchmark using OpenGL). I had to pick 1280 x 720 since that was the only common resolution between the two systems. I had to pick OpenGL since Mac OS X doesn't support Direct3D 11.
IA64 was running *Windows 8.1* on a 2013 iMac with similar hardware. He used OpenGL in his second test. The difference between his iMac and mine are likely the operating system and graphics driver layers.
Regarding the topic "Gaming on iMac with 780m", you must ask "using what OS?" IA64's results show the 2013 iMac *hardware* is superior to my 4Ghz Windows 7 PC with 2GB GTX-660, at least when using OpenGL.
That indicates the top-spec iMac is actually pretty fast from a GPU hardware standpoint. No it doesn't compete with a GTX Titan, but it's not slow.
+1. That is great advice.
You were on a similar boat as me. I also play WoW and GW 2 but I also love OS X stuff (Logic, Garageband, iMovie, iPhoto, Final Cut, plus much more) but I also want the option to be able to play games at the highest settings and upgrade as I go.
If you have the money (and the extra space on your desk for that matter) then I would recommend both an iMac and for you to build a custom gaming PC. I did that and I have no regrets.
I have a large desk with my iMac on the left and the gaming pc right next to it. It is convenient to have 2 computers side by side. I can call my friends on Skype on my iMac while playing on the gaming pc. I can do quick research about something in-game on the iMac without having to minimize my game.
Though many would say this is complete overkill. Maybe it is, but at the end of the day if it makes you happy, then it makes you happy.
Went through the exact same thing and finally made up my mind... Would have liked a mac Pro, but coudn't really justify it, and lack of reasonable cost display and skimpy storage put me over. I just got the top of the line iMac with 3.5 proc, 4gig 780, fusion drive etc.... it feels ZERO faster than my 2009 iMac top of the line (2.8 i7, 4850 512 video) in daily use, however, it faultlessly runs things like Skyrim with every visual mod possible, Cliffs of Dover fight sim at full spec (my 2009 wouldn't run that at all)... so it doesn't feel any different, but it easily handles anything I throw at it... CAD renders in Keyshot are fast and it doesn't break a sweat - about 5 times faster than my 2.8 seems like. Though I don't think the current iMac is worth the cost of replacing a previous iMac generally, but if you want to game its worth it for that. I'd have liked 4K and a different look to the box maybe a 28" 4k borderless display, no "chin"... but I promised the kid if she got straight A's she could have my computer and she did, so I upgraded (should have waited another rev I think)
My late 2013 ( i7-4471/32GB RAM/512 SSD/780M) is at least twice faster in anything than my previous late 2009 ( HD4850/16GB/Core i7 / 1TB HDD )
Not only I get 5 times more FPS in games and the rendering is like 3 times faster, but the heat dissipation, cooling and power consumption is much lower.
I can't believe that under full load, the 2013 is barely audible. Go touch a 2009 under full load but please wear some gloves. The 2013 is almost always cool no matter what's doing. I still can't believe it.
99% of my use, I can't tell ANY difference.
For games my 2009 can play, No noticeable differences with the new machine.. yeah, spec nerds will say its xfps faster etc, but from a real difference, none.
For games my 2009 couldn't play its infinitely better.
For Cad/Rendering, yeah its faster, but not enough that it matters... my 2009 worked just fine for those too.
The new machine runs cold though whereas my 2009 SMOKES when doing cad renders with all cores running.
All I'm sayin' is that for most people, the spec nerd race is a race against nobody.... even my 09' is still a great computer - kid of a weak excuse to spend $3,000 to play a couple games that my old one won't.
Back on December 10th, I "borrowed" the latest 3.5gHz i7 w/780M iMac from my local Apple Store for two weeks after my old Mac Pro died.
I set up Bootcamp with 64-bit Windows 7 Home and tested various games on both platforms, just to see how far I could push it.
WoW played perfectly at the highest settings on both platforms. Rift (Windows) was also at highest settings and played wonderfully. SWTOR (Windows) as well. I had to dial down the settings slightly for FFXIV to avoid going below 30 fps. Bioshock Infinity played very well in Windows at the highest settings with only occasional skipping of frames. This was all at native resolution.
You can always "borrow" one for a couple weeks as well if you don't think you'd wrestle with a guilty conscience over it.
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The new Mac Pro looks to be quite good for gaming, all things considered, especially if you switch over to Windows 8.1 for CrossfireX. It's not a "gaming PC" per se, but that does not mean it will suck at gaming. In fact, the results are in and it's pretty stellar. Having said that, would I advise anyone to go buy one just for gaming? Nope. There are better options for that. But if you need a Mac Pro for whatever it is you need a Mac Pro *and* also want a nice gaming rig on the side, it's very, very good.
I set up Bootcamp with 64-bit Windows 7 Home and tested various games on both platforms, just to see how far I could push it.
WoW played perfectly at the highest settings on both platforms. Rift (Windows) was also at highest settings and played wonderfully. SWTOR (Windows) as well. I had to dial down the settings slightly for FFXIV to avoid going below 30 fps. Bioshock Infinity played very well in Windows at the highest settings with only occasional skipping of frames. This was all at native resolution.
You can always "borrow" one for a couple weeks as well if you don't think you'd wrestle with a guilty conscience over it.
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The new Mac Pro looks to be quite good for gaming, all things considered, especially if you switch over to Windows 8.1 for CrossfireX. It's not a "gaming PC" per se, but that does not mean it will suck at gaming. In fact, the results are in and it's pretty stellar. Having said that, would I advise anyone to go buy one just for gaming? Nope. There are better options for that. But if you need a Mac Pro for whatever it is you need a Mac Pro *and* also want a nice gaming rig on the side, it's very, very good.
How did you do that ? Mine failed to work properly with Windows 7 via EFI and Bios emulation
I got a new late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina with i7, 16GB Ram, 512 GB fast SSD, Nvidia 750Gt
Its a perfect machine for my work and i like it.
I did some gaming tests, just to see how it works.
Playing games like WOW isn't a problem, but i had to realize that my 5 year old middle-class gaming PC with core2duo, 4GB Ram, Harddisk and ATI 7870 doubles the framerate in comparison to the macbook.
So gaming on an iMac with notebook components does not seem to be a good idea for me. For 500 bucks you get a PC that outperforms nearly every mac when it comes to playing games.
Its a perfect machine for my work and i like it.
I did some gaming tests, just to see how it works.
Playing games like WOW isn't a problem, but i had to realize that my 5 year old middle-class gaming PC with core2duo, 4GB Ram, Harddisk and ATI 7870 doubles the framerate in comparison to the macbook.
So gaming on an iMac with notebook components does not seem to be a good idea for me. For 500 bucks you get a PC that outperforms nearly every mac when it comes to playing games.
Dunno, but it just worked. In fact, I've always had issues with the BootCamp Assistant on my old Mac Pro and even on the Mac Mini I am using temporarily right now. It's always about the stupid BootCamp support files for me.
The way I got it to finally work, and what seems to be a somewhat bulletproof method, at least for me is this:
1. Reformat a USB drive as FAT32 with the name WININSTALL.
2. Download the appropriate Windows ISO from http://techverse.net/download-windows-7-iso-x86-x64-microsofts-official-servers/ (I grabbed the Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium X64 English config).
3. Download the latest BootCamp support files at http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1638
4. Mount the Windows disk image and drag all the files to the root level of the USB drive
5. Do the same with the BootCamp disk image
At this point, your WININSTALL disk should have this layout:
$WinPEDriver$
autorun.inf
AutoUnattend.xml
boot
BootCamp
bootmgr
bootmgr.efi
efi
setup.exe
sources
support
upgrade
6. Keep the USB drive mounted but unplug every other disk-based device you have (or Windows *can* become confused after Formatting the drive).
7. Fire up BootCamp Assistant and uncheck "Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk" and "Download the latest Windows support software from Apple."
8. Click Continue and size up your partition size.
9. When your computer reboots, unplug your network connection so that Windows Update cannot begin its work when you eventually reach the desktop.
10. At some point, you should get a prompt to install the BootCamp files. I've never had it *not* come up on its own.
11. Once BootCamp support is installed and you are looking at the desktop, you can plug back in the network cable and let Windows Update do its thing.
Hope that helps.
We need to keep in mind with those benchmarks as well that OSX uses a older version of Open GL than Windows is using for those benchmarks so performance would be even lower in OSX.
Most of my gaming will be done in OSX as I really don't like to use Windows unless I absolutely have to. Even when there is a superior Windows version of a game I'll play the Mac version just to stay inside the apple ecosystem. The only time I ever boot camp to play a game is when I'm dying to play a game that isn't available on Mac.
They did try:
'75 percent less reflection.
Full lamination has a second major benefit: It eliminates the reflection of light off the LCD panel and off the back of the displays cover glass. But we also figured out how to reduce reflection off the front of the glass without compromising color quality. Instead of applying an antireflective coating to the glass in a conventional way, we adapted a process used on smaller surfaces like camera lenses and fighter pilots helmets. Its called plasma deposition, and it involves coating the glass with layers of silicon dioxide and niobium pentoxide so precise and so thin theyre measured in atoms. The result: an astounding 75 percent reduction in reflectivity and vibrant, accurate colors.'
The real benefit of a PC here instead of a Imac is the Desktop class GPU.
Mac's are not for gaming.
Mac's are not for gaming.
if you want to play a game on a Mac, you can.
The 780M is good enough to run most (if not all) games out there @ max settings for OS X.
Many people don't want to buy a PC just for some games. Yes, PC's will always be faster than Macs regarding games. But that doesn't mean that a Mac cannot play a game.
A computer is a general purpose machine, which is capable of playing games. Macs are the same.
It's all about which specific general purpose do you want/need from that computer which specifies your choice, balanced with the budget.
If you love iLife / iWork / Aperture / FCPX / Logic and general want the look&feel of OS X, then getting a PC is not an option, even if you like playing games.
If you're a "hardcore gamer" then getting a Mac is no option, as you need the best new grfx card every few months.
Everyone's "best of all worlds" is different: Some get a gaming PC and a Mac mini. Some get a maxed out iMac. Some get an older Mac Pro and throw in an unsupported high-end gaming card.
Older Mac Pro+GPU is a good idea. But I think that getting the maxed out imac for gaming is a real waste of money. The mac Pro for gaming, is a non sense. (at least in Windows you get the Crossfire).
I play the same games as the OP, and finally bought myself a PC tower with a i5 CPU and a GTX 660 for 850usd. I only use it for gaming, and it works flawlesly. I kept my i7 2011 MBP for work.
Now I really like that I can separate work from gaming, so I can really optimize my computer for WOW and Diablo, and my laptop is for working. That way, I dont have the temptation of opening a game when I am working.
In fact, get the $2199 imac (i5+16gb+256SSD+755M), a very capable computer, and get a PC tower with a descent i5 and a GTX card, and use the imac as screen. It would be cheaper than the maxed out imac.
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Logically your solution does make the most sense. I just hate to buy a windows machine. I buy apple products because I'm very particular about design. I prefer everything about macs aside from the lack of attention to gaming.
I'm really trying my best to avoid buying a win PC but it might end up being the only feasible option in the end.
That's pretty much the only time I switch as well. I tried Guild Wars 2 on the new i7 iMac w/780M, but it was sluggish (an "iffy" port). Retail WoW had a good enough frame rate even at ultra on Mac at 2560x1440, dialing it down one step made it like butter. Sadly, the MMOs I've been playing lately (SWTOR, Rift, FFXIV) are Windows-only concoctions and GW2 is *so* much better in Windows. *ack* I just threw up in my mouth having to admit that.
Even with the iMac gaming capabilities, or lack thereof, I am hard pressed to imagine needing much more horsepower for gaming so that the game is enjoyable. At some point, I have to step back and ask, "Do I really need a GPU (or set of GPUs) that is capable of rendering SuperStereo3D at 4K on 3+ screens on UltraReal Graphics?" (Yes, I made that up, but it's where we're headed).
At some point, good enough is good enough. I'd rather have a fun game with "good enough" graphics than a somewhat forgettable game that had graphics so real that I forgot what reality was "Wow! The way this game sucks is SO REAL!"