High-End riMac Gaming Performance

[Mac32]

Yep there it is. The high-end Retina iMac is pretty disappointing in terms of gaming performance a year on from the 780M. Shame. Will have mine Monday, but am already a little bummed out...

Considering how people report that regular 1440p gaming will look considerably more blurry vs. 1440p native in regular iMacs, I don't really consider the retina iMac a practical gaming machine. Of course, older games like WoW will run in retina mode, but newer games...forget about it.
I just saw a riMac on display, and the display is amazing. Huge difference when reading text, much easier on the eyes than a regular monitor. Too bad about the gaming issues, including blurry graphics in non-retina 1440p.
I think I'll hold on to my late iMac 2012 for now (since I game regularly), but I'll definitely consider a retina iMac in the future - preferably with a 980M or better...

 

[leenak]

I don't find gaming blurry at all at scaled resolutions. I'm not sure if it is due to what games people are playing that make it seem blurry.

 

[WilliamG]

Considering how people report that regular 1440p gaming will look considerably more blurry vs. 1440p native in regular iMacs, I don't really consider the retina iMac a practical gaming machine. Of course, older games like WoW will run in retina mode, but newer games...forget about it.
I just saw a riMac on display, and the display is amazing. Huge difference when reading text, much easier on the eyes than a regular monitor. Too bad about the gaming issues, including blurry graphics in non-retina 1440p.
I think I'll hold on to my late iMac 2012 for now (since I game regularly), but I'll definitely consider a retina iMac in the future - preferably with a 980M or better...

I'll report on this when I get mine Monday...

 

[Seven823]

Thank you. That's exactly what I am waiting for. I plan to upgrade to i7 but not so sure about the GPU. I don't do game often and no video editing. After the comparison between base model and high-end done by barefests, would be great to see the difference between mid vs. high-end. Look forward to the results.

I've run unigine valley and heaven under both Windows 8.1 boot camp and OS X and 3dMark if anyone is interested.

My results are here, http://retrop.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/new-27-imac-retina-benchmarks-and-speed-tests-os-x-windows-8-1/.

This is with the i7 and the M290X, I've got the M295X coming on Tuesday so I'll be able to run the same test on that and post the difference.

Late 2014 – 27″ iMac i7 4790K 4Ghz, 16GB, 512GB SSD, AMD M290X
Unigine Valley – Extreme HD – OS X – 1096
Unigine Valley – Extreme HD – Win 8.1 – 1302
Unigine Heaven – Extreme – OS X – 659
Unigine Heaven – Extreme – Win 8.1 – 841
3dMark Win 8.1 – 5319

I think people had been calling out for Windows boot camp benchmarks. As you can see, quite a bit higher than in OS X.

 

[ErikGrim]

There's already a thread for this in the gaming forums:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1810652/

 

[w00tini]

Games are not blurry in non-retina resolution. because the pixels are so much smaller than a standard monitor, it looks fantastic in 1440.

 

[Mac32]

I'll report on this when I get mine Monday...

Thanks, looking forward to read your findings!

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Games are not blurry in non-retina resolution. because the pixels are so much smaller than a standard monitor, it looks fantastic in 1440.

Well, some people claim playing in 1080p on a regular iMac looks fine, which it clearly doesn't. Blurry vs not blurry is a more subjective opinion. A comparison with the non-retina iMac in native 1440p is more objective, and I've read about people comparing them side by side say there is a noticable difference. It's difficult to test this in a store with riMacs on display, so it's very useful to read these comparisons...

 

[vir3l]

imac is capable to play games in 4k under windows with 50% more fps.

 

[newbish]

Thanks, looking forward to read your findings!

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Well, some people claim playing in 1080p on a regular iMac looks fine, which it clearly doesn't. Blurry vs not blurry is a more subjective opinion. A comparison with the non-retina iMac in native 1440p is more objective, and I've read about people comparing them side by side say there is a noticable difference. It's difficult to test this in a store with riMacs on display, so it's very useful to read these comparisons...

1080p or 1440p? i think most of them played it in 1440p.
if it is played in 1440p then it should not appear "blurry"... well it's better if the people who claim the major visible difference side-by-side to also take pictures of the differences.

1080p, yeah more chance of being "blurry" if played fullscreen. personally i have played the latest borderlands in 1440p and it looks perfectly fine. (i have no 1440p display to compare side by side but it is definitely not blurry)

 

[inhalexhale1]

Thanks, looking forward to read your findings!

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Well, some people claim playing in 1080p on a regular iMac looks fine, which it clearly doesn't. Blurry vs not blurry is a more subjective opinion. A comparison with the non-retina iMac in native 1440p is more objective, and I've read about people comparing them side by side say there is a noticable difference. It's difficult to test this in a store with riMacs on display, so it's very useful to read these comparisons...

Agreed, lowering the resolution on my 1440p iMac blurs the screen significantly. I think it's most obvious in games. I will say that when I had the 15" rMBP, lowering the resolution didn't produce as drastic as a blur, but it was still noticeable. I think it's always going to be obvious when your not at native res, and 1440p scaled down vs 1440p native isn't going to look as good. But like you said, some people seem to not care/ not notice.