Late 2012 iMac 21.5" base vs. rMBP 13" in gaming

[thomj]

I have the 13" rMBP and am wondering if I will notice a significant difference in the quality of my gaming if I were to exchange my model with the iMac mentioned above.

I have about a week to make this exchange, so all speedy opinions are greatly appreciated.

Best,
Jon

 

[ihuman:D]

There would be a big difference between the graphics I'd think.

 

[Serban]

in iMac you get quad core 2.7 Ghz i5, you get maybe if you can to put 1T fusion drive so more space, Geforce 640M

 

[thomj]

It'd be quite an exchange. I think I might get better graphics for gaming, but lose the graphics in text documents and web surfing. The question is: How much better will my gaming be?

 

[monokitty]

It'd be quite an exchange. I think I might get better graphics for gaming, but lose the graphics in text documents and web surfing. The question is: How much better will my gaming be?

If you were to bump up to the $1499 model with the NVIDIA 650M, the difference would be night and day. The 13-inch Retina MBP had HD4000 graphics which are integrated and do not hold a candle to the dedicated NVIDIA cards. Even the 640M is considerably better, but the 650M is the sweet spot if you're looking at the 21.5-inch models. The HD4000 is not gaming graphics chip -- at all. Additionally, you'd get a quad-core processor which many games now take advantage of for better performance.

 

[thomj]

If you were to bump up to the $1499 model with the NVIDIA 650M, the difference would be night and day. The 13-inch Retina MBP had HD4000 graphics which are integrated and do not hold a candle to the dedicated NVIDIA cards. Even the 640M is considerably better, but the 650M is the sweet spot if you're looking at the 21.5-inch models. The HD4000 is not gaming graphics chip -- at all. Additionally, you'd get a quad-core processor which many games now take advantage of for better performance.

Thanks. That was great insight.

 

[thomj]

Also, do you think that 16GB of RAM would make that computer much better?

 

[monokitty]

Also, do you think that 16GB of RAM would make that computer much better?

It would make the computer more future-proof. Day to day use won't exceed the default 8GB. The more you run at one time, the more RAM that is eaten up. An upgrade to 16GB of RAM will make little to no difference to gaming.

 

[thomj]

It would make the computer more future-proof. Day to day use won't exceed the default 8GB. The more you run at one time, the more RAM that is eaten up. An upgrade to 16GB of RAM will make little to no difference to gaming.

Thanks!