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iMac will focus on gaming? (2012)
- Thread starter nlr
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It's unlikely; seeing as us gamers aren't Apple's core demographic, and only about 4% of Steam users use a Mac.
Although, the 680M, which is probably the card we'll see in the 2012 iMac can play a lot of games at ultra and also at 1080p. I'm sure you'd be able to play pretty much every modern game on high at 1440p.
Check this for more: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-680M.72679.0.html
Although, the 680M, which is probably the card we'll see in the 2012 iMac can play a lot of games at ultra and also at 1080p. I'm sure you'd be able to play pretty much every modern game on high at 1440p.
Check this for more: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-680M.72679.0.html
Well, all I can say is that if Apple wants to improve over the AMD 6970m in the top 27", and use a 28 nm card, their only choice is the Nvidia GTX 680M.. which is a fantastic card, giving mid-range desktop level performance. (They could also go with the comparable AMD 7970m, but I believe if they were using AMD GPUs we would have seen the new iMacs in May.)
Don't get a Mac if you plan on doing any gaming.
1) For the same price you can get a much more powerful Windows PC (componentwise)
2) Games for OSX won't run as well as their Windows counterparts, as less time is put into development.
Bottom line - if sheer power is what you need, don't get a Mac. I got mine because I love the fluidity of OSX, and the overall aluminium design - combined with the portability of my MBA. Not for the power though - for that a Windows anyday
1) For the same price you can get a much more powerful Windows PC (componentwise)
2) Games for OSX won't run as well as their Windows counterparts, as less time is put into development.
Bottom line - if sheer power is what you need, don't get a Mac. I got mine because I love the fluidity of OSX, and the overall aluminium design - combined with the portability of my MBA. Not for the power though - for that a Windows anyday
But surely the high end 27" iMac is perfectly capable even today, especially when paired with Boot Camp? That 6970M, even though it's aged, is still pretty capable - the next gen iMac is going to be the best computer suited for gaming Apple have in their line-up.
Definitely when paired with Bootcamp. I think a lot of people forget that you can boot into Windows 7 on modern Intel based Macs. Seems like a ridiculous claim, however look at all the comments of "don't get a Mac because OSX versions run worse". Ah, if anyone is doing "real" gaming they will be booting into Windows. To me, it helped justify the cost of a Mac Pro. I wanted the OS X experience, but the ability to run any game I want. So, it was like 2 machines in one for me.
Even the top end iMac is not really an ideal gaming machine. I have the top spec 27" with the GPU 2GB. It plays the old stuff I like but I didn't get it for gaming.
Windows box with a crossfire or sli setup is going to cost you a lot less, and provide a much better platform for games....It's only recently that popular titles are being ported over. Don't laugh....I'm playing Quake
Windows box with a crossfire or sli setup is going to cost you a lot less, and provide a much better platform for games....It's only recently that popular titles are being ported over. Don't laugh....I'm playing Quake
Even the top end iMac is not really an ideal gaming machine. I have the top spec 27" with the GPU 2GB. It plays the old stuff I like but I didn't get it for gaming.
Windows box with a crossfire or sli setup is going to cost you a lot less, and provide a much better platform for games....It's only recently that popular titles are being ported over. Don't laugh....I'm playing Quake
Have you tried newer games?
No, I'm strictly a retro, part time gamer...I have Bioshock...that runs really well, but that and Quake are the only two I have. Incidentally Quake runs perfectly at max settings on my 17" MBP too. I have no new titles, and have a garbage bag FULL of windows games that I'm trying to sell...must be 100 of them, so I did used to play...Doom, The Max Payne series. Crysis etcetera. I've never really felt the urge to bootcamp and I don't have windows on any of my Macs....
You should try some real stuff on it. The 6970m w/ 2GB is actually a very good card. Doesn't hold a candle to the top 2012 m-cards, but you could run most games in near the highest settings. Diablo 3 isn't extremely demanding and could probably run at max.
Biggest thing holding that card back is the poor OpenGL hardware acceleration. Booting into Windows solves that.
No, I'm strictly a retro, part time gamer...I have Bioshock...that runs really well, but that and Quake are the only two I have. Incidentally Quake runs perfectly at max settings on my 17" MBP too. I have no new titles, and have a garbage bag FULL of windows games that I'm trying to sell...must be 100 of them, so I did used to play...Doom, The Max Payne series. Crysis etcetera. I've never really felt the urge to bootcamp and I don't have windows on any of my Macs....
A little off topic, for retro games I was able to get DOSbox to run on OSX using Wine. Setup is a little funky, but it'll work if you keep at it.
I used to have a 2007 iMac 20 inch 2.4GHz C2D with Windows XP, I could run anything using the Unreal engine pretty darned well (so like UT3). Source engine games like L4D didn't run very well.
My 2009 Mac Pro with Windows 7 and a 5870 runs pretty much everything on ultra settings very well. The only game that will slow it down so far is Metro 2033 on max settings, so I turn down the detail a little bit, then it runs nicely.
My current guess is 650M for low 21", 660M for high 21" and low 27", 680M for high 27".
The 650M isn't bad.. but it's not as good as the 6970m in today's top 27".
It'll never been a true gaming machine, but it'll fill in the box that it should be 'adequate' enough to handle most games with tolerable performance.
I can't afford the top top iMac. I wish they'd allow a memory upgrade for video ram on the standard 27inch!
I think it didn't exist at the time, or I'd definitely have used the OS X version.
Personally, I wish they made a mid tower gaming desktop and dropped the whole all-in-one crap. That's just me tho and unfortunately I don't think that'll ever happen. I'm a gamer but love OS X, wtf am I supposed to do? If apple sold OS X by itself I'd buy it and throw it on a custom gaming rig and be happy with it but Apple's too cool for that
Personally I'm more than willing to take the OpenGL performance hit to not use Windows. And just hope the performance gap closes at some point.