Gaming performance on iMac 5k?

[abluehaze]

I'm considering getting a new 5k iMac but the thing that concerns me is how my Blizz games will look and run on the machine.

I won't even attempt to run them in 4k as I'm sure framerates wound be awful. My question for current owners is how do the games look running at 2560x1440 on the 5K iMac? Is there any blurring or visual muddiness due to the up scaling?

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[melllvar]

Games are looking fine. Able to play the new CoD at 1440p with almost everything at max.

 

[Steveatesh]

I'm considering getting a new 5k iMac but the thing that concerns me is how my Blizz games will look and run on the machine.

I won't even attempt to run them in 4k as I'm sure framerates wound be awful. My question for current owners is how do the games look running at 2560x1440 on the 5K iMac? Is there any blurring or visual muddiness due to the up scaling?

Thanks for the help in advance.

I've only tried Tombraider at that res and it was fine.

 

[abluehaze]

Games are looking fine. Able to play the new CoD at 1440p with almost everything at max.

Is it noticeably blurry at that resolution due to being upscaled to the displays native resolution?

 

[vir3l]

framerates are not the issue, fan noise and heat is.

I'll get 60+ fps with wow in 4k resolution under bootcamp with medium/high settings but fan speed is so high the noise is unbearable.

 

[sharon22]

I've always wanted to install Bootcamp, so that I can play games. I might as well ask the 2 questions that I've been wondering about.

1.) Several YouTube videos showed how to install windows without Bootcamp. Any benefit to using Bootcamp or not?

2.) What are some example frame rates of some "simple games" (not using celestial levels of physics algorithms), like Quake, Medal of Honor, etc. ?? Are we talking 60fps? 80fps? 10fps? If y'all tell me you're getting 60+ fps, then I'm installing Windows, like, TODAY!

 

[harrydebest]

I've always wanted to install Bootcamp, so that I can play games. I might as well ask the 2 questions that I've been wondering about.

1.) Several YouTube videos showed how to install windows without Bootcamp. Any benefit to using Bootcamp or not?

2.) What are some example frame rates of some "simple games" (not using celestial levels of physics algorithms), like Quake, Medal of Honor, etc. ?? Are we talking 60fps? 80fps? 10fps? If y'all tell me you're getting 60+ fps, then I'm installing Windows, like, TODAY!

I would be upset if I didn't get at least 220fps in "basic games". Windows is a must for any type of gaming!

 

[sharon22]

I would be upset if I didn't get at least 220fps in "basic games". Windows is a must for any type of gaming!

Are you saying you get 220fps on a bootcampified Mac? If I did the bootcamp thing and ran windows and then installed Quake, I would be happy with 60 frames per second. Not "satisfied," but "happy," because at least the game would be playable. Have you tried games on Windows on a Mac?

I just googled this topic and somebody had WoW on their Windows 7 installed on their late-2012 iMac and have it on the "Good" preset with 1920 x 1080 resolution, and they say they don't drop below 60FPS. I guess it's because iMacs don't have the power or fan/thermal cooling (or the space) for those big dedicated graphics cards you can stick into PC's.

 

[redheeler]

I would be upset if I didn't get at least 220fps in "basic games". Windows is a must for any type of gaming!

Good luck seeing that on a 60 Hz display

Also, you underestimate how many "basic games" there are for OS X.

 

[WilliamG]

framerates are not the issue, fan noise and heat is.

I'll get 60+ fps with wow in 4k resolution under bootcamp with medium/high settings but fan speed is so high the noise is unbearable.

You'll be doing yourself a favor in terms of heat/noise by turning on vsync to limit games to 60fps. Why heat your system up beyond that for no reason?

 

[robotrootbeer]

As long as you stick to 2560 x 1440 - you can run it on ultra on all blizzard games - and I have no problem saying that counts for Overwatch when it comes out.

Blizzard is very intelligent about how they scale their games and they are all very CPU heavy as opposed to most games being GPU heavy.

----------

I've always wanted to install Bootcamp, so that I can play games. I might as well ask the 2 questions that I've been wondering about.

1.) Several YouTube videos showed how to install windows without Bootcamp. Any benefit to using Bootcamp or not?

2.) What are some example frame rates of some "simple games" (not using celestial levels of physics algorithms), like Quake, Medal of Honor, etc. ?? Are we talking 60fps? 80fps? 10fps? If y'all tell me you're getting 60+ fps, then I'm installing Windows, like, TODAY!

Gaming in bootcamp has almost always run much better frame rates - between 15% to I've seen as high as 40%.

The problem is open gl vs direct x, driver issues, and most games MAC clients are pretty awful.

 

[melllvar]

Is it noticeably blurry at that resolution due to being upscaled to the displays native resolution?

I'd say it looks as good or better than on a native 1440p screen.
Of course it's not 5k. But you don't really notice in games. At least I don't

 

[harrydebest]

Are you saying you get 220fps on a bootcampified Mac? If I did the bootcamp thing and ran windows and then installed Quake, I would be happy with 60 frames per second. Not "satisfied," but "happy," because at least the game would be playable. Have you tried games on Windows on a Mac?

I just googled this topic and somebody had WoW on their Windows 7 installed on their late-2012 iMac and have it on the "Good" preset with 1920 x 1080 resolution, and they say they don't drop below 60FPS. I guess it's because iMacs don't have the power or fan/thermal cooling (or the space) for those big dedicated graphics cards you can stick into PC's.

A bootcamped Mac is no different to a normal Windows computer, they all use the same parts except there are mobile graphics cards in the iMacs due to space/cooling limitations. Depending on the settings you use 250+fps is definitely achievable, while at maximum visual fidelity you'd get above 100fps easy.

 

[largefarrva]

As far as Blizzard games (mainly just WoW) go, will the base model iMAC be sufficient to play at 2560 x 1440 with everything set to max? Or will we need to upgrade the GPU to achieve this?

I'm assuming that the standard CPU will be ok seeing as how it looks like WoW doesn't use more than 4 cores anyway. Or would it be a good idea to upgrade this as well? My wife and I don't do any video or photo work that would require an i7.

We've been using our 2012 retina MBP's for playing WoW for the last couple of years and we're looking to possibly upgrade and have been hoping for a retina iMac for a while now. So of course we would like to upgrade, but we also have to keep in mind that it's going to be quite expensive having to pay for two computers at the same time.

 

[vir3l]

You'll be doing yourself a favor in terms of heat/noise by turning on vsync to limit games to 60fps. Why heat your system up beyond that for no reason?

I tried it of course, as well as console maxfps 60 - does not have any effect on fan noise however, both on mac and on pc under win8.1.

I found that for quests the energy saver under win8.1 is the best option to play in 4k - fand is noticeable, but speed not that heavy but fps is between 40-60 with low settings.

since I'm returning my imac 5k, I hope to get some reports about how the m290x with the i5 is doing. as it seems heat/fan noise is no issue there and fps drop is accepable.

 

[abluehaze]

I tried it of course, as well as console maxfps 60 - does not have any effect on fan noise however, both on mac and on pc under win8.1.

I found that for quests the energy saver under win8.1 is the best option to play in 4k - fand is noticeable, but speed not that heavy but fps is between 40-60 with low settings.

since I'm returning my imac 5k, I hope to get some reports about how the m290x with the i5 is doing. as it seems heat/fan noise is no issue there and fps drop is accepable.

So, you're returning your iMac due to fan noise? Is this fan noise only while trying to game at 4K resolutions? I wouldn't even consider trying to game in 4K, it's just really not feasible with todays GPU's especially iMac GPU's.

 

[Mac32]

I tried it of course, as well as console maxfps 60 - does not have any effect on fan noise however, both on mac and on pc under win8.1.

I found that for quests the energy saver under win8.1 is the best option to play in 4k - fand is noticeable, but speed not that heavy but fps is between 40-60 with low settings.

since I'm returning my imac 5k, I hope to get some reports about how the m290x with the i5 is doing. as it seems heat/fan noise is no issue there and fps drop is accepable.

Are you serious? Have you heard about gaming with headphones?

 

[FredT2]

framerates are not the issue, fan noise and heat is.

I'll get 60+ fps with wow in 4k resolution under bootcamp with medium/high settings but fan speed is so high the noise is unbearable.

Really? Unbearable? You must not have used any really noisy PCs. For me it just swoosh of air. I don't play games, but if I run a Handbrake conversion, I put some music on and I can barely hear the fan. It's certainly not silent, but I sure wouldn't characterize it as being loud.

 

[sharon22]

Dumb question (if you don't want to answer, I'll just google it LOL ): On my mid-2007 iMac, should I install Windows, via Bootcamp? Or, should I install it "without bootcamp" (like all those Youtube videos, "How to Install Windows Without Bootcamp")???

Those Youtube videos make it sound like you're "getting away with something special" when you install Windows *without* having to install Bootcamp?!?

Or, maybe Bootcamp is best? What are your thoughts?

 

[abluehaze]

Dumb question (if you don't want to answer, I'll just google it LOL ): On my mid-2007 iMac, should I install Windows, via Bootcamp? Or, should I install it "without bootcamp" (like all those Youtube videos, "How to Install Windows Without Bootcamp")???

Those Youtube videos make it sound like you're "getting away with something special" when you install Windows *without* having to install Bootcamp?!?

Or, maybe Bootcamp is best? What are your thoughts?

There is no advantage to installing Windows without bootcamp, only disadvantages. All Bootcamp really does is partition your hard drive (turn your single hard drive into 2 virtually distinct hard drives one of which will contain your Mac OS and the other which will have your Windows OS) and allow you to choose which partition (OS) you will use when you restart your Mac. Bootcamp also has the drivers and everything needed for Windows to recognize your Mac hardware.

Short answer: Use Bootcamp. Simply follow a YouTube video instructing you how, it's very simple.

 

[vir3l]

So, you're returning your iMac due to fan noise? Is this fan noise only while trying to game at 4K resolutions? I wouldn't even consider trying to game in 4K, it's just really not feasible with todays GPU's especially iMac GPU's.

it's in every resolution, eg. also 1080p - fan speed remains the same.

 

[paelzersebbi]

I guess the only thing we can hope for is either a driver update for OSX and Windows (are there even AMD drivers for 295X for Win8?) or a firmware update...

 

[quickcalibre]

Should be good at the resolution you want, but for me if I have a 5k display, I want it to run beautifully at 5k, which it doesn't and it kinda defeats the purpose of having a 5k screen.

 

[paelzersebbi]

Gaming on 5K is still some years away. Best way to use your 5K display for gaming is on 1440p, same res like the regular iMacs but upscaled to the whole display.

 

[iczster]

Running bootcamp for gaming doesn't fill me with joy, rebooting into another OS Im bored of.

What other options are around:

• Wine
• Crossover
• VMWare Fusion or Parallels

Would be good to get some feedback from someone with a RiMac to confirm if anything other than bootcamp is viable for casual gaming?