Is the NVidia 8800 GS a good card?

[adamlbiscuit]

Now you may think its a pretty noobish question, but I ordered recently a previous gen 2.8 GHZ iMac, with an NVidia 8800 GS in it. Had I known about the upgrade, I would have waited (curse me for not browsing here often enough.)

Now I'm kinda worried about just how good this graphics card is, is it dated? Will it hold for a few more years? How good is it at gaming?

Personally I'm a guy who loves graphics design, so I'll be using high res photoshop canvases etc. mostly. I'm positive it'll be able to handle this fine. On the gaming front though I'm not sure. The games I'm most likely to play are the Sims 2 & Sims 3 when it arrives but i may end up buying others.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

It's actually an 8800M GTS in the iMac. It's a generation and a half old, but it's still above average in terms of performance, and will be fine for The Sims and most games, but will have trouble with demanding games at high detail settings on high resolutions.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

It's actually an 8800M GTS in the iMac. It's a generation and a half old, but it's still above average in terms of performance, and will be fine for The Sims and most games, but will have trouble with demanding games at high detail settings on high resolutions.

thats all i needed to know. Thanks I'm glad its above average.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

Right apple have informed me that they are gonna send me the new iMac because the one i originally ordered hasn't been shipped yet and they obviously thought they might as well.

The card in this one is the NVidia GeForce GT 130. Now I've heard this one isn't as good as the one I was originally getting, but I'm under the impression that the improved ram in the new model will help out.

Basically what its going to be used for is:

Photoshopping
Light Gaming (Sims 2 & 3 are the most likely games I'll be playing)
and the rest just everyday things like surfing web & playing music etc.

So the question now is, Is the NVidia GeForce GT 130 going to be good enough for the above things? And the rest of the computer in general (I'm getting the 2.93 GHZ one with the GT 130) for that matter?

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

Photoshopping
Light Gaming (Sims 2 & 3 are the most likely games I'll be playing)
and the rest just everyday things like surfing web & playing music etc.

So the question now is, Is the NVidia GeForce GT 130 going to be good enough for the above things? And the rest of the computer in general (I'm getting the 2.93 GHZ one with the GT 130) for that matter?

It'll be fine for what you want.

The ATI card is best for more intense gaming and for lots of work with apps that use Core Image (Aperture, for instance), since ATI cards generally have better drivers on OS X.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

It'll be fine for what you want.

The ATI card is best for more intense gaming and for lots of work with apps that use Core Image (Aperture, for instance), since ATI cards generally have better drivers on OS X.

As long as its ok for what I want to use it for then thats good

 

[CubeHacker]

If they are sending you the model with the GT 130 (repackaged 9600GT), then thats pretty much the same as the 8800gs in the old model. For the extra $50, the 4850 will give you about 25% better performance though, especially at higher resolutions.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

If they are sending you the model with the GT 130 (repackaged 9600GT), then thats pretty much the same as the 8800gs in the old model. For the extra $50, the 4850 will give you about 25% better performance though, especially at higher resolutions.

Well I'm coming from a MacBook with an Intel GMA 950 so I guess anything'll impress me right now haha. Thanks for the advice though