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Graphics card

S

sachman

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 30, 2010
38
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So I do a lot of pic gaming via boot camp. Getting pretty fed up of mac graphics cards being so average and can't even play new games 3yrs after buying as the graphics card is too low on RAM.

I have an 2011 iMac and have no chance of playing any new games out.

This is probably a stupid question but does the Mac Pro have a graphics card or are they within the monitor. I like the idea of a pro being able to upgrade but not sure if that's possible.
Upgrading a graphics card in iMac doesn't seem easy / possible
 
The Mac Pro has two graphics cards that are slow by modern standards and cannot be upgraded. No monitor comes with a graphics card.
Do not by a Mac Pro for gaming.
All Macs equipped with Thunderbolt 3 will support external GPUs (they already do on Windows, the next macOS will also work).
 
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Yeah, do not buy a 2013 mac pro for gaming. They're...limited. I'd either make do with the imac, and wait for the new, modular, mac pro coming sometime in the future. Or, if you're on a budget, pick up a cMP and chuck a decent graphics card in it. The gtx 680 is the go to card, I believe (price-wise, anyhow).
 
Thanks for the advice guys.
What is a cMP?
Any idea when the Mac Pro is out?
Anything in particular make it better for gaming - i know technology always gets outdated but will the new Pro have anything to reduce that effect - gaming wise
 
"cMP" means the older-style Mac Pro that looks more like a conventional tower PC, with a large aluminum chassis, and multiple easily user-accessible PCI Express slots, so you can upgrade the graphics card.

The teased next-gen Mac Pro is rumored to come out sometime next year. No better timeframe than that. Claimed that it will be more "pro friendly", so rumors are that it will have user-upgradeable graphics again.
 
I expect the next Mac Pro to be prohibitively expensive, given the announced price of the iMac Pro. It's not even certain that it will accommodate standard graphics cards.
If you absolutely want to game on a Mac, the budget option would be a Mac Mini that can use and external GPU (eGPU) down the road. Currently, the mini doesn't have Thunderbolt 3 ports, but hopefully it will at some point. Thunderbolt 2 could work, but eGPU support is not "native" and the bandwidth isn't as good. Also, the current mini only has a dual-core CPU, which is a shame.
Apple will drop support of the cMP soon, so I won't get one now. I expect the next macOS (in 2018) to require a Mac with a Metal-ready GPU, which excludes all "classical" Mac Pros (and your 2011 iMac).

Anyhow, I'd wait until next spring. Apple said they would ship an eGPU solution by then. I suspect at next WWDC, we'll see the next Mac Pro (and hopfully next Mini) and and something more concrete about eGPU.
 
I think it's a given that the next Mac Pro will be very pricey. Hopefully, they'll have learned their lesson and not try and use proprietary cards again. Mac Mini's with an eGPU could make nice little gaming rigs, but they are gimped by that dual core only option. Plus they start getting expensive when you consider that the ram isn't user upgradeable.

Another option for the OP is to get a cheapish gaming PC and use the 2011 imac as a very nice monitor for it. You can connect the iMac via mini display port to the pc (make sure it has a mini display port adapter on the graphics card).
 
Thanks for your replies and suggestions.
I will probably post next spring when the new mini and pro are out.

The problem is there is no cheap gaming pc as the spec required goes up +£1k minimum.
I may as well put that towards a new pro but if the new pro isn't GPU upgradeabke then I think a gaming PC will be the solution. I'm not sure how upgradeable PCs are but probably more so than macs lol
 
I have a 2010 Mac Pro that I have used for gaming and it works fairly well. You can find them on Craig's list or eBay for a reasonable price. Probably about the same as a new comparably powerful PC.

One choice would be to buy a classic Mac Pro, get a decent video card and install Boot Camp. But you would probably also need a USB 3 card and to replace the HD with an SSD, etc.

Or instead, you could do what I did; just buy a dedicated game machine.

Getting a Mac Pro and making it decent for gaming is half way to building a new machine. You would be better off to buy a reasonably priced pre-configured computer and adding a good video card.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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Nunyabinez said:
Or instead, you could do what I did; just buy a dedicated game machine.

Getting a Mac Pro and making it decent for gaming is half way to building a new machine. You would be better off to buy a reasonably priced pre-configured computer and adding a good video card.

Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

Yeh I did want have just 1 machine. I think I will wait for the Mac Pro in case that offers me flexibility.

What sort of machine did you get can you point me in the right direction. Surely buying a dedicated gaming laptop will already have a good graphics card?
 
I really wound't get a classical Mac Pro now. They're about to be deprecated and may not be supported by the next macOS (2018).
And their CPUs are old.
 
If I were the OP, and was waiting for an unknown length of time for the new mac pro, I might consider getting one of these old bangers as a stop gap, and the cMP will still have some value a year from now.

I'm running Elite Dangerous: Horizons on my 2009 Mac Pro, with a 2gb 750ti. No comaplints* here.

*Apart from losing the ability to type ;)
 
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sachman said:
Yeh I did want have just 1 machine. I think I will wait for the Mac Pro in case that offers me flexibility.

What sort of machine did you get can you point me in the right direction. Surely buying a dedicated gaming laptop will already have a good graphics card?
Click to expand...

I'm probably not a good example. I built this from scratch.

I game at 4K so a laptop is not enough power for me, but you are right that a gaming laptop can have a more than acceptable video card and is a turn key solution.
 

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jeanlain said:
I wouldn't recommend it for someone using an iMac, unless that persons feels confident about building a PC, working with the terminal and fixing issues on a monthly basis.
Click to expand...

ok then the maxed out 2017 27" iMac with Pro 580 should do the trick :)
or check out the iMac Pro if there's more cash waiting to be spent..
 
Then you can forget about a next Mac Pro. Maybe a next Mac Mini (if it ever gets updated) or a low-end iMac/Laptop that you equip with an eGPU. But with that budget, you're indeed better off with a PC.
 
I just ordered a Macbook Pro 13 -
  • (065-C5WK) - 2.3GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
  • (065-C5WM) - Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640
  • (065-C5WP) - 16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
  • (065-C5X2) - 512GB PCIe-based SSD
Would buying/setting up a eGPU work well on it? Is it most dependent on the cpu? Ram? Is it best to boot it as a Windows machine or run it as a Bootcamp drive? Can I use it with Mac OS games as well?

Thanks for any information.
 
NateEssex said:
I just ordered a Macbook Pro 13 -
  • (065-C5WK) - 2.3GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
  • (065-C5WM) - Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640
  • (065-C5WP) - 16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
  • (065-C5X2) - 512GB PCIe-based SSD
Would buying/setting up a eGPU work well on it? Is it most dependent on the cpu? Ram? Is it best to boot it as a Windows machine or run it as a Bootcamp drive? Can I use it with Mac OS games as well?

Thanks for any information.
Click to expand...

Do your homework when buying a GPU - I did and am happy (not to mention getting one before the Mining craze).

I first bought a "budget" one and didn't like the framerate upgrade for what I put into it. Buying something a lot more powerful is well worth it.

GPU's can get pricey, but there's no need to overbuy as well.

If you are gaming, it helps to know what KIND of games you will be using it with as it determines how powerful a card you need.

I like to use this to figure out relative performance.

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

as far as Mac, the Sonnet eGPU chassis is the one to get:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/egfx-breakaway-box.html

I may go this route when I have the money to upgrade to a new Mini with Thunderbolt 3...
 
jeanlain said:
I really wound't get a classical Mac Pro now. They're about to be deprecated and may not be supported by the next macOS (2018).
And their CPUs are old.
Click to expand...

For some reason I think the MacPro5,1 (i.e. Mac Pro ”Mid 2010”) which is the oldest Mac Pro officially supported by Apple, will still make it a few more years (perhaps witas long as you have a different graphics card than the one that shipped at the time the computer was released. The CPUs are old, but still do pretty good job I think. I'm attaching the Geekbench scores (from Mactracker) comparing the Mac Pro Mid 2010 with this years iMac Retina 27".

It seems the single core speeds are where the biggest gains have been for later CPUs and that is of course what makes those computers more snappy to work with.
 

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