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Imac 27 5k with 290x worth going to 295x

M

MadMacV

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I just switched over to MAC i got a deal on mid 2014 with i5 and 290x 1tb fusion for $1700 from Bestbuy. I game some.. how much faster is the 295X in gaming i read its slower because it throttles in Windows..

Thanks ahead for any insight
 
I'm not a gamer, so I don't have a whole lot of insight for you, but I should note that as far as I know (and I could be wrong), it is not possible to replace the GPU on an iMac with Retina display, so what you bought is what you're likely going to have to live with unless you're still in the return window.

However, I worry about this machine's ability to push a game at any reasonable frame rate given the sheer number of pixels it has to push. OS X El Capitan is plenty smooth for me on my retina iMac (Late 2014, 16GB RAM, 3.5GHz quad-core i5, 1TB Fusion Drive, M290X), but I recall major issues with even Mission Control on OS X Yosemite.
 
I am not talking about upgrading what my imac 5k but returning it and getting one with 295X Ive already installed windows and tried a few games like Witcher 3 and new batman game. they both run in 40fps at 1080P wonder how much faster the 295X would me
 
Returning it and getting what you want is the difference between 1700 and $2,549.00. Plus tax.

NOT WORTH IT. At those upper ends the iMac only makes sense for people who need the extra power. Gaming is not in the function set of an iMac and not a legitimate need for that power.

BTW...I am running Bioshock on the same model you have it its fine. Games do vary.
 
ZipZap said:
Returning it and getting what you want is the difference between 1700 and $2,549.00. Plus tax.

NOT WORTH IT. At those upper ends the iMac only makes sense for people who need the extra power. Gaming is not in the function set of an iMac and not a legitimate need for that power.

BTW...I am running Bioshock on the same model you have it its fine. Games do vary.
Click to expand...


Gaming is something that needs the extra power, and you can of course game on a mac 🙄 Perfectly legitimate reason. My 21.5" iMac with a 750m (far off the m295X in the 5K iMac) runs GTA V at 1080p, 60fps with settings set to normal and high, and a few things on very high (such as water, AF and AO) but with no AA.

Clearly, Macs are not made for gaming primarily, but as a secondary use, the is absolutely no reason to why they can't and as long as you have a dedicated GPU, they will run just fine!
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
Gaming is something that needs the extra power, and you can of course game on a mac 🙄 Perfectly legitimate reason. My 21.5" iMac with a 750m (far off the m295X in the 5K iMac) runs GTA V at 1080p, 60fps with settings set to normal and high, and a few things on very high (such as water, AF and AO) but with no AA.

Clearly, Macs are not made for gaming primarily, but as a secondary use, the is absolutely no reason to why they can't and as long as you have a dedicated GPU, they will run just fine!
Click to expand...

Apple even advertises gaming on their product pages. A Mac is no more or less a Gaming PC than any other PC. Plus, the iMac will still be A LOT faster than most PCs out there. Not to mention the fact that I have never seen so many new games coming to Mac now as there was before.

Anyone arguing that you can't game just because of the 5K display is moot; Even if you had a GTX 980 Ti you would still have to turn the resolution down on the most demanding games anyway.

I for one, like the convenience of that my iMac provides by being both capable as my primary gaming machine while also being able to run Mac OS. Hopefully, I'll get to upgrade this year though; I'm not going to buy Star Wars Battlefront this December if I can't run it at very high settings.
 
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I am not a hardcore Gamer. I still have my PC with Titan X Water Cooled.. but thats the problem i dont play games very much so I am selling it.. I already have Imac 5k with 290X and well at 1080P few games Ive tried not to bad 40fps. I am just trying to see if the 295X is that big of a jump since I will have to pay around $2500 to get that config.. and I only got $1700 in my config. Alot of people says 295X throttles so much that its not worth the premium. Just trying to get some feedback
 
It will probably be able to handle games better when windows 10 and direct 12 is out. It should be able to utilize the GPU and CPU in a better way compared to today. I read somewhere that they was planning to add directx 12 support in Witcher 3 also.
 
MadMacV said:
I am not a hardcore Gamer. I still have my PC with Titan X Water Cooled.. but thats the problem i dont play games very much so I am selling it.. I already have Imac 5k with 290X and well at 1080P few games Ive tried not to bad 40fps. I am just trying to see if the 295X is that big of a jump since I will have to pay around $2500 to get that config.. and I only got $1700 in my config. Alot of people says 295X throttles so much that its not worth the premium. Just trying to get some feedback
Click to expand...

I honestly think you're fine with the M290X. There are numerous reports of the M295X throttling, which is a shame. Considering you got the $2300 model for only $1700, I'd say take the model you have and run.
 
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MadMacV said:
I just switched over to MAC i got a deal on mid 2014 with i5 and 290x 1tb fusion for $1700 from Bestbuy. I game some.. how much faster is the 295X in gaming i read its slower because it throttles in Windows..

Thanks ahead for any insight
Click to expand...

M295X is AMD Tonga architecure GPU.. it uses memory bandwidth a lot more efficiently. So it allows either higher resolutions or better textures but in addition it has also about 35% more raw computing power.. and extra 2GB of GDDR5. So it depends on your workload. Windows drivers are probably badly optimized because only Apple uses the chip atm. Don't know about its future.

However $1700 is so much cheaper...
 
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I like to see some benchmarks from 290x and 295Xx with a few games. trying to justify the premium to get 295x
 
MadMacV said:
I like to see some benchmarks from 290x and 295Xx with a few games. trying to justify the premium to get 295x
Click to expand...

I already posted an example. Here is the picture, scroll down to see a few games and how the 290 and the 295 stack up:
image.jpg

As you can see, it could definitely be considered a worth while upgrade at normal prices, but with your deal that you got on your iMac, I would say it's not worth while.
 
MartinAppleGuy, Thanks for that info.. I like to see a benchmark with like Witcher 3 , New Batman. and some modern Games. anyone overclocked the 290x to see how far it can go.. Basically the Limited amount of Gaming i do . just trying to see how modern games run 1080P is fine. because I have a 4k Gaming PC right now and well with TitanX its can't keep up .. Just love the IMAC I have my pc setup to run hackintosh just such a PIA and getting Imessage and other is hard to get working.
 
Zarniwoop said:
M295X is AMD Tonga architecure GPU.. it uses memory bandwidth a lot more efficiently. So it allows either higher resolutions or better textures but in addition it has also about 35% more raw computing power.. and extra 2GB of GDDR5. So it depends on your workload. Windows drivers are probably badly optimized because only Apple uses the chip atm. Don't know about its future.

However $1700 is so much cheaper...
Click to expand...

Higher resolutions?
 
fathergll Ive got offers for 2k for my pc rig.. but its extemly power.. i7 4790k 16gig Ram Intel 750 400gig PCI Express SSD Titan X video card water cooled and Samsung 4k 40" Curved Monitor. 1300 watt Power Supply. I just dont use it much and enjoy the compact of imac 27
 
MadMacV said:
fathergll Ive got offers for 2k for my pc rig.. but its extemly power.. i7 4790k 16gig Ram Intel 750 400gig PCI Express SSD Titan X video card water cooled and Samsung 4k 40" Curved Monitor. 1300 watt Power Supply. I just dont use it much and enjoy the compact of imac 27
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that the i7 in the retina iMac is also a Devil's Canyon 4790K. So it can be very powerful too, aside from the mobile GPU (max you can go is Tonga, M295X. I've yet to experience much heat and throttling issues with it though).
 
MadMacV said:
fathergll Ive got offers for 2k for my pc rig.. but its extemly power.. i7 4790k 16gig Ram Intel 750 400gig PCI Express SSD Titan X video card water cooled and Samsung 4k 40" Curved Monitor. 1300 watt Power Supply. I just dont use it much and enjoy the compact of imac 27
Click to expand...



Ok that's a pretty beefy setup.



Well I don’t think it’s worth spending $700 to upgrade to a 295x(remember the 295x runs a lot hotter than the 290x as well so it’s not just about extra framerates).



The simple litmus test is ask yourself what else could you do with $700? Playstation 4, vacation, iPad, cloths, put it in the Bank…etc. If you want those extra framerates more than anything than go for it.
 
I was personally contemplating getting the i7 and the 295X, and after about a month of research and looking at benchmarks I realised that the extra power and extra cash is only wasted since the amount of time that I would ever need that much power (i7 and 295X) would be less than a few hours a month.

I think it all comes down to how much of the time you spend on your computer will you NEED the extra power. Rendering etc.

If this was a computer for work, maybe I would get it just to be on the safe side, but since this is my daily machine that I do everything from music to mail, and sometimes some Dota 2, there is no need to pay the extra 700usd (350usd per upgrade here in Sweden). For the i7 and the 295X I was looking at 3,000USD WITH student discount.
 
Dubadai said:
I was personally contemplating getting the i7 and the 295X, and after about a month of research and looking at benchmarks I realised that the extra power and extra cash is only wasted since the amount of time that I would ever need that much power (i7 and 295X) would be less than a few hours a month.

I think it all comes down to how much of the time you spend on your computer will you NEED the extra power. Rendering etc.

If this was a computer for work, maybe I would get it just to be on the safe side, but since this is my daily machine that I do everything from music to mail, and sometimes some Dota 2, there is no need to pay the extra 700usd (350usd per upgrade here in Sweden). For the i7 and the 295X I was looking at 3,000USD WITH student discount.
Click to expand...

A fellow Swede here who's sort of in the same boat as you are. I have been back and forth at the CPU/GPU options for a week or so but considering these are some of the specs you can never upgrade I've decided to bite the bullet and add i7 and 295X to my cart. Reason is that it's not like things get slimmed/trimmed down with each OS upgrade, (as with iOS and every other OS) the system has to carry even more load and features and CPU/GPU can never be upgraded. The iMac 5K I am opting for I expect to run as my main machine for at least 5 years or so and have learned that better safe than sorry makes wonders with blood pressure =)
 
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WhatAmI said:
A fellow Swede here who's sort of in the same boat as you are. I have been back and forth at the CPU/GPU options for a week or so but considering these are some of the specs you can never upgrade I've decided to bite the bullet and add i7 and 295X to my cart. Reason is that it's not like things get slimmed/trimmed down with each OS upgrade, (as with iOS and every other OS) the system has to carry even more load and features and CPU/GPU can never be upgraded. The iMac 5K I am opting for I expect to run as my main machine for at least 5 years or so and have learned that better safe than sorry makes wonders with blood pressure =)
Click to expand...

Based on heat throttling reports with the 295x. I would expect the next version to correct or change gpus.
 
I not even considering the I7. the I5 With 295X is what I am looking at.. Still not sure yet.
 
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