iMac 5k Windows Res / Gaming issues

[kurinzo]

Hello.

Are there any updates about 5k resolution support for r290/r295x in Windows? (8.1, 10).

Also, i have a question about gaming. Several games, while i'm in mac (like Civ V) tells me, that 1440p is my native resolution, and 5k resolution isn't available. Is there any solution for staff like this? Also, SimCity on Mac tells me, that max resolution is 1080p

Looking for your advice.

 

[yjchua95]

Hello.

Are there any updates about 5k resolution support for r290/r295x in Windows? (8.1, 10).

Also, i have a question about gaming. Several games, while i'm in mac (like Civ V) tells me, that 1440p is my native resolution, and 5k resolution isn't available. Is there any solution for staff like this? Also, SimCity on Mac tells me, that max resolution is 1080p

Looking for your advice.

Playing games at 5K is unrealistic, even a GTX 980 would have trouble at that resolution.

 

[kurinzo]

That's ok, i understand. Anyway, the question is — why several games detects my max. resolution as 1440p, or even 1080p, so weird.

 

[yjchua95]

That's ok, i understand. Anyway, the question is — why several games detects my max. resolution as 1440p, or even 1080p, so weird.

Perhaps because of the systemwide scaling in Windows?

If you set the scaling at 200% (default retina scaling), this might happen.

 

[shaunp]

I guess it depends on how the game is written. Support for 5K will be limited as you will need massive amounts of GPU power to drive it. This is the main reason I wouldn't put a 5K screen on my gaming PC, it's just not worth it right now, stick to 1440p as there's tons of support and the demand on the GPU aren't so high. As one of the other posters said, be realistic. A retina iMac is never going to be a decent 5K gaming platform, it is however a great machine for every days stuff, fantastic for photo editing and it also happens to be able to play some games.

To put things into perspective I also have a nMP with dual D700's - basically the fasted thing Apple make right now as far as graphics are concerned. The gaming experience, even in Windows isn't so great. Quite jerky actually. Probably due to driver support with crossfire, but I never feel that it's that smooth anyway. My old PC (i7 3770K with a single GTX 780) runs rings around it as a gaming platform. I'm not intending to start a PC vs Mac debate about gaming here, just saying I have both and in my opinion I don't think the Mac is a great gaming platform. It's great at everything else, but I'll stick to the PC for games.

 

[yjchua95]

I guess it depends on how the game is written. Support for 5K will be limited as you will need massive amounts of GPU power to drive it. This is the main reason I wouldn't put a 5K screen on my gaming PC, it's just not worth it right now, stick to 1440p as there's tons of support and the demand on the GPU aren't so high. As one of the other posters said, be realistic. A retina iMac is never going to be a decent 5K gaming platform, it is however a great machine for every days stuff, fantastic for photo editing and it also happens to be able to play some games.

To put things into perspective I also have a nMP with dual D700's - basically the fasted thing Apple make right now as far as graphics are concerned. The gaming experience, even in Windows isn't so great. Quite jerky actually. Probably due to driver support with crossfire, but I never feel that it's that smooth anyway. My old PC (i7 3770K with a single GTX 780) runs rings around it as a gaming platform. I'm not intending to start a PC vs Mac debate about gaming here, just saying I have both and in my opinion I don't think the Mac is a great gaming platform. It's great at everything else, but I'll stick to the PC for games.

The D700/W9000 is a workstation card and the drivers for it are optimized for GPGPU computing. So gaming performance would be somewhat disappointing.

 

[kurinzo]

Perhaps because of the systemwide scaling in Windows?

If you set the scaling at 200% (default retina scaling), this might happen.

That was about games running on mac :c On windows in same games i can set resolution up to 4k...

 

[Samuelsan2001]

That was about games running on mac :c On windows in same games i can set resolution up to 4k...

You can do that yes but the graphics aren't up to the job. In fact at the moment no graphics are really unto the job short of 2 top cards in SLI.

 

[shaunp]

The D700/W9000 is a workstation card and the drivers for it are optimized for GPGPU computing. So gaming performance would be somewhat disappointing.

Bootcamp doesn't install the W9000 drivers though, it installs the regular catalyst drivers. I think the issue is more to do with crossfire support for the games I was playing (Skyrim and Fallout New Vegas). If I were to ditch the Apple supplied drivers and use the latest catalyst drivers performance might improve, but to be honest I can't be bothered. My PC is much better at gaming anyway, and it means I don't have to have a bootcamp partition on the nMP.