Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I want a new iMac...but is it good for gaming?
- Thread starter WorldTravelBro
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I agree very much. We Mac users who are also gamers should be rather more vocal than we are right now. After all, gaming on a Mac beats working on a PC and while you can do both of these on either platform, our platform of choice is the Mac.
I think that the day OS X and Macintosh Machines will become a gaming platform, a LOT of PC gamers will leave Windows and their tower computers...
The lack of gaming performance in Macs is just about the only thing I hear holding back any Windows user under the age of 40.
Apple should also understand that casual gamers play the same games as hardcore gamers and so require almost the same performance, and that "casual gamer" isn't a niche anymore, it's almost a whole generation.
This issue is more complicated, though. Having Apple deliver you a mac that will be designed for gaming purposes will be a positive move (indeed, there are so many people that would love that) but you'll still have to deal with the low number of A-class titles for OS X, the huge delay these titles are ported to OS X, the performance differences due to bad-written drivers etc. etc.
On the other hand, there would be no excuse to get a PC anymore, since the mac can run windows natively as well, so it could use its gaming power there.
Yes, I would upgrade my current late 2012 iMac for this in a heartbeat. Will Apple actually deliver a proper GPU this time, like they did with the late 2012 model (680MX)? That is yet to be seen. The best thing people can do is to send emails to Apple, and ask questions about this on the Apple forums.
One thing is for sure, both 780M and 880M were a disappointment (throttling when overclocking). Crossing my fingers for 980MX...
yeah sadly the 780M in general is inferior to a overclocked 680MX. But the 680MX has the VRAM problem, 2 GB are very tight for playing @1440p on some games, and sadly the scaling to 1080p looks like ass on the imac 27" (terrible color bleeding of reds, greens and very,very ,VERY blurred out image quality).
Generally all the top geforce mobile cards (680, 780 and 880) plays optimally at a 1080p resolution maximum on newer, demanding games (for example BF4, watch dogs, Metro Last Night, Project CARS), 1440p works good on older and less demanding games (MMO games such as WoW, Final Fantasy 14, RTS and MOBA-like games like StarCraft 2, Dota 2, Diablo 3; Assassin's Creed series and virtually any game that was ported from a 360/Ps3 can be maxed @1440p).
Generally all the top geforce mobile cards (680, 780 and 880) plays optimally at a 1080p resolution maximum on newer, demanding games (for example BF4, watch dogs, Metro Last Night, Project CARS), 1440p works good on older and less demanding games (MMO games such as WoW, Final Fantasy 14, RTS and MOBA-like games like StarCraft 2, Dota 2, Diablo 3; Assassin's Creed series and virtually any game that was ported from a 360/Ps3 can be maxed @1440p).
I thought about this long and hard...and I think getting a PC type computer is better for gaming.
I did order an i5/750M/8GB/256GB iMac for some mild gaming (really, no more than Blizzard games and finally finishing games like Half Life 2) and that was a $1600 purchase, after student discounts. It's currently got a return label slapped on it.
I looked on NewEgg and found an ASUS ROG G750JW for $999, on sale. i7/GTX 765M/12GB/750GB-7200rpm drive (ordered a 256GB 840 Pro for $169) and for $1168 I believe this is a much better bang for buck.
After gaming a bit on my MBA I believe in having a good of a cooling system as possible and I believe the ASUS ROGs are engineered perfectly for gaming load. I really like my MBA and would love to be able to keep the iMac but the ROG laptop makes more sense for my budget and intended use.
I did order an i5/750M/8GB/256GB iMac for some mild gaming (really, no more than Blizzard games and finally finishing games like Half Life 2) and that was a $1600 purchase, after student discounts. It's currently got a return label slapped on it.
I looked on NewEgg and found an ASUS ROG G750JW for $999, on sale. i7/GTX 765M/12GB/750GB-7200rpm drive (ordered a 256GB 840 Pro for $169) and for $1168 I believe this is a much better bang for buck.
After gaming a bit on my MBA I believe in having a good of a cooling system as possible and I believe the ASUS ROGs are engineered perfectly for gaming load. I really like my MBA and would love to be able to keep the iMac but the ROG laptop makes more sense for my budget and intended use.
I'm still holding out for a decent GPU in an October refresh iMac.
It would really help if they let us BTO the high end GPU in the 21".
Well one thing's for sure - TB2 will be on the iMac.
Then we can just buy a Sonnet IIID TB2 enclosure and put a GTX 780 Ti in it. Some guy over at the TechInferno forums hooked up a GTX 780 Ti to his rMBP and it worked at near-native speeds.
http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-...6gbps-tb2-sonnet-echo-express-iii-d-win8.html
If eGPUs really will work without massive hacking and fiddling then I'll stick to an rMBP!
It works. It's just plug and play (for OS X and Boot Camp-UEFI only). Go through the link and read it.
Just hook up a PSU, a GPU and the Sonnet IIID, plug into Thunderbolt, and that's it.
Oh this soooo much. I really don't want a 27" inch but I want to max out everything else. Maybe the smaller size can't handle the heat.
yes,but i think a 950M for the 21.5" with 2 Gb vRAM will be a perfect companion
But the games will be still be played on the clasic resolutions of 1080p for the 21.5" and 1440p for the 27" and not on the native resolution if they will release the 4k and 5k imacs
But the games will be still be played on the clasic resolutions of 1080p for the 21.5" and 1440p for the 27" and not on the native resolution if they will release the 4k and 5k imacs
That has Intel HD 4000. Not going to game
----------
I think it is because the cost of it would be too high that users would just buy the 27".
None of the graphics cards Apple use (with the exception of the Mac Pro) are expensive at all, the difference in cost to Apple between the low end and high end GPUs in it's lines are usually like.. $50-100.
It's part of the reason we always feel so short changed in the graphics department.
It's a PC only game. Better getting a PC, you could really consider having to boxes, that's what I do.
I'm not actually sure that Apple need to do anything of the sort to snare the gamer market.
Sony recently bought a streaming games company and are about to incorporate the technology into their PS4 allowing the user to run (for a small monthly fee) any PS1, PS2 & PS3 game. Games that are not in any way compatible with the PS4.
In theory, although not in practice due to licensing restrictions, the PS4 could even be used to play X-box games.
Now I've not tried this type of service so I can't comment on any issues such as lag that may become apparent but if Sony can deliver a service that moves the grunt work of graphics to the cloud and relegate the graphics card to just displaying pixels rather than calculating what they should be then even todays graphics cards are overkill.
I've even heard the odd rumor that the ATV could be used in this way with the simple addition of a bluetooth controller and an appropriate app for the casual end of the market.
It's a fairly safe bet that with investment and time this type of service will improve and any issues will vanish.
Tie games to an iTunes account for rental or purchase and you've got a very credible gaming platform that is hardware agnostic providing your network connection is up to scratch.
The graphics card becomes simply irrelevent.
Sony recently bought a streaming games company and are about to incorporate the technology into their PS4 allowing the user to run (for a small monthly fee) any PS1, PS2 & PS3 game. Games that are not in any way compatible with the PS4.
In theory, although not in practice due to licensing restrictions, the PS4 could even be used to play X-box games.
Now I've not tried this type of service so I can't comment on any issues such as lag that may become apparent but if Sony can deliver a service that moves the grunt work of graphics to the cloud and relegate the graphics card to just displaying pixels rather than calculating what they should be then even todays graphics cards are overkill.
I've even heard the odd rumor that the ATV could be used in this way with the simple addition of a bluetooth controller and an appropriate app for the casual end of the market.
It's a fairly safe bet that with investment and time this type of service will improve and any issues will vanish.
Tie games to an iTunes account for rental or purchase and you've got a very credible gaming platform that is hardware agnostic providing your network connection is up to scratch.
The graphics card becomes simply irrelevent.
It should be fine for most games. Anything Blizzard related, Dota, League of Legends, indie games, there's lots of stuff that it'll run perfect. Only the very top end games, especially FPS games that are maxed graphically will probably have issues. May not even be a graphics thing honestly, the 10-15ms screen lag may just be what bugs you. For most games like League its not big deal, but for FPS it can be.
If the games that you care about playing run in OS X, then it's an issue about which OS you like better. Building your own PC will yield you a longer life and greater expandability than any iMac, but if you're not all about changing parts and/or you like OS X better, then that doesn't buy you much. Hope that helps.