Is this iMac a good deal?

[elkhamelk]

Hello,

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro Early 2011 I love but I'm really considering getting a a 21.5 iMac. I have a pretty heft tax return so my budget is around $1000-1300 but want to keep it as close 1k as possible. I've been looking at the 2013 model iMacs but I'm not so sure about the Iris Pro Graphics. I want to play some recent games but nothing too intensive (games like Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, etc) so I kind of want a dedicated GPU. So to cut back on costs and maybe get more bang for my buck, I found this iMac 2012. (http://www.macmall.com/n/macNavLinks-307?q=9425078&qt=9425078)

I'm wondering if this iMac is a good deal? Or if I should just go for the base model 2013 model. Are the new processors that much better? Is this graphics card better than the Iris Pro?

Please if you guys could give me any insight I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks

 

[Lauwie]

The iris pro is about 10% slower than the 650m. So in that way it doesn't make that much of a difference between the two unless you're a huge performance freak.
Both cards will play games at medium to high detail settings (In skyrim the detail between high and ultra isn't to noticeable unless you add texture packs of course ).
However there is a catch a pretty important one, these benchmarks of both cards have been run on laptops with 1376x768 resolutions. If you wan't to play at higher resolutions u need more Vram or you're performance will decrease.
The iMac has a 1080p screen so you need more Vram, and as of OS X Mavericks the Vram for Integrated cards (Iris Pro) will be dynamically allocated, so if you need more Vram it will allocate more of you're system's Ram.
So the iMac with iris pro might have a slight advantage here!!!
The drivers in Bootcamp somehow also apply this method, although I don't know if this is firmware related or just something to do with the drivers.

Anyways short story short, probably better of getting the new one

Hope I could help

 

[yjchua95]

For comparison, the GT750M found in the 21.5" iMac outperforms the GTX660M (which itself is a pretty decent GPU).

This is because Apple only uses the fast GDDR5 variant of the GT750M.

 

[Lauwie]

For comparison, the GT750M found in the 21.5" iMac outperforms the GTX660M (which itself is a pretty decent GPU).

This is because Apple only uses the fast GDDR5 variant of the GT750M.

I'm sorry but what are you trying to prove

 

[magilla]

Hello,

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro Early 2011 I love but I'm really considering getting a a 21.5 iMac. I have a pretty heft tax return so my budget is around $1000-1300 but want to keep it as close 1k as possible. I've been looking at the 2013 model iMacs but I'm not so sure about the Iris Pro Graphics. I want to play some recent games but nothing too intensive (games like Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, etc) so I kind of want a dedicated GPU. So to cut back on costs and maybe get more bang for my buck, I found this iMac 2012. (http://www.macmall.com/n/macNavLinks-307?q=9425078&qt=9425078)

I'm wondering if this iMac is a good deal? Or if I should just go for the base model 2013 model. Are the new processors that much better? Is this graphics card better than the Iris Pro?


Please if you guys could give me any insight I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks

Have you tried looking at the stuff offered by Powermax.com or by giving one of their techs a call? While they sell new equipment, they specialize in just-slightly-used to older equipment at very decent prices.