iMac vs. Mac Pro for Aperture, Garageband/Logic, Gaming

[odinsride]

With the announcement of the updated iMacs and Mac Pros today, I'm reconsidering my plan to buy a Mac Pro and get an iMac instead. I just want to make sure it will have enough power for what I want it to do (27" Quad Core is what I would get most likely)

- Aperture
- Garageband/Logic for recording guitar
- Gaming (WoW, D3, maybe some other games on bootcamp side)

My biggest concern would probably be speed in Aperture, as well as FPS in games at such a high resolution. I currently have a PC with ATI 5870 gaming at 1680x1050. I know that FPS will be going down by increasing the res and decreasing the card but hopefully not too much.

Can anyone speak from experience on using an iMac for Aperture & Gaming?

Thanks

 

[coreysandler]

Aperture

Hmm.. this is similar to what I am doing as well. Aperture should run great with the graphics card and stuff as long as you also include 8gb RAM. You might need to turn down your resolution for gaming. It is unfortunate Apple does not offer a higher end graphics card, Aperture and gaming would benefit greatly from it. I recommend waiting for some tests to see how it compares to older iMac models as well as if the graphics card is the desktop vs mobile version (providing a significant difference in performance)

 

[pyramis]

If budget isn't a major consideration for you, you're gonna get a lot more power out of a Mac Pro than an iMac. That's more of an issue for gaming, I imagine.

iMac is powerful. Aperture will run fine.

 

[DoFoT9]

if you arent doing all 3 at once, then go the iMac. its a VERY powerful machine. you wouldnt believe it until you use it - in saying that, RAM is your biggest limitation most likely.

the MP would of course last alot longer, but screens are costly. expansion also comes into it.

given the fact that you can turn AA off as those high resolutions (as its redundant), performance would be quite good. SC2@1400p on high settings gets ~30FPS.