Mac or Windows PC?

[d0nK]

yes, if you can wait for the next imac upgrade.. they will put 1GB vRam in 21.5" too. But what are your daily tasks? what are you doing in your old pc now?

You are optimistic.

I want at least 1Gig GFX cards.
I want fusion as standard.

I hold absolutely no hope whatsoever in Apple delivering what I want in their next update.
Top of the line + bto buyers need not worry though. They are always catered for adequately.

 

[sonicrobby]

You are optimistic.

I want at least 1Gig GFX cards.
I want fusion as standard.

I hold absolutely no hope whatsoever in Apple delivering what I want in their next update.
Top of the line + bto buyers need not worry though. They are always catered for adequately.

They could make it standard right now, but you would be paying out the ass for a base model. As the materials become cheaper, they might become the standard in the future.

 

[Serban]

i can expect from apple this late year to do what with macbook pro done. To introduce 4K imac displays with those standard...like 1GB vRam GTX and SSD PCIe, and let the old models for one more year

 

[theluggage]

Oh yeah and I hardly play any games so I'm no hardcore gamer at all.

...probably why Apple skimp on the GPU and video card RAM in their entry/midrange models: Mac isn't a huge 3D gaming platform (although there's more than enough to keep you entertained) and if you are planning to use "pro" software that makes use of the GPU you can probably be persuaded to spring for an upgrade...

As far as I'm concerned, the dealbreakers for the iMac are:

* No (official) way to upgrade the hard drive/ssd - and the unofficial way means gluing/ungluing the screen. This is the biggie: Hard drives wear out, fill up and fail. SSD is really taking off (I've just fitted a SSD in my MacBook Pro and it flies) and coming down in price. Its very likely that 1TB SSDs will become affordable in the lifetime of any new Mac you buy now. Also, I think the jury is still out on how long SSDs will last in everyday use (probably the limited lifetime of Flash memory will be outweighed by not having moving parts, but...) Even with the new retina laptops and the Mac Minis, although the HD/SSDs are not officially user replaceable, the DIY upgrades don't look so bad.

* Ditto for RAM (although the 27" iMac does have user upgradeable RAM) although that's not such a biggie - I'd spring for the 16GB and expect that to be adequate for the next few years.

* Having an iMac with the screen built in means that you can't plug your old PC desktop or laptop into your nice new screen (AFAIK can plug in a Thunderbolt-equipped laptop, though).

Personally, unless this changes, next time round I'll either stick with another MacBook Pro (there's not much it won't do) unless I manage to cook up some crazy justification for why I absolutely need one of the new Mac Pros.

 

[Geekazoid]

You seem to be getting pretty hung up about getting a 1gig video card because you don't want to downgrade from the one in your 6 year old PC. Given your usage profile and the general upgrade you'd be getting, do you think you'd notice you had 512mb less ram on your video?

The answer to your question is....well...yes I would. I've actually gone through 3 graphics card upgrades since having my PC. The first card had 256MB and it died on me and so I had to upgrade it. I then went to a 512MB graphics card and that was good for a bit. After a while though with the applications I were using the 512MB of vRAM was starting to bottleneck my PC and so I upgraded to a 1GB graphics card and I was quite happy with that. But now the whole PC is feeling slow, not because of the graphics card but just the whole system so that's where I figured that the next logical step would be to upgrade my whole PC to a newer machine whether it be an iMac or Windows PC who knows. I do know one thing for certain and that is that I do absolutely need at least a 1GB graphics card for my uses and don't want to downgrade at all to 512MB.

I hope that answers your question, even if it was a long answer, but I just need to explain why I definitely need a 1GB graphics card. Now you, and others, might say "why don't you just get the high end 27" iMac and you'd have your 1GB graphics card" and the answer to that would be "I don't want to pay $2,000 for a computer and don't really want a 27" display because I don't need it".

Anyway you should now understand why I need that 1GB graphics card.

 

[Serban]

lets hope for the best. Maybe we will get "retina" iMac and we get 1gb or 2 for the high bto 21.5"

 

[Steve121178]

If I had to choose one, I'd opt for the PC. It's not restrictive, you can upgrade components easily and it will be far more suitable for gaming for example.

But at the end of the day, it really comes down to the OS. Do you want to use Windows or OS X? If it's the latter then get a Mac.

Also, there's far more to a GPU than just RAM...

 

[Bear]

The answer to your question is....well...yes I would. I've actually gone through 3 graphics card upgrades since having my PC. The first card had 256MB and it died on me and so I had to upgrade it. I then went to a 512MB graphics card and that was good for a bit. After a while though with the applications I were using the 512MB of vRAM was starting to bottleneck my PC and so I upgraded to a 1GB graphics card and I was quite happy with that. But now the whole PC is feeling slow, not because of the graphics card but just the whole system so that's where I figured that the next logical step would be to upgrade my whole PC to a newer machine whether it be an iMac or Windows PC who knows. I do know one thing for certain and that is that I do absolutely need at least a 1GB graphics card for my uses and don't want to downgrade at all to 512MB.
...

Have you ever considered that when you bought newer graphics cards with more vram that the GPUs on the card were more powerful as well? So a current 512MB card may be faster than your old 1GB card.

I do realize some applications do need the extra vram, but some don't - it all depends on what you're running.

...
I hope that answers your question, even if it was a long answer, but I just need to explain why I definitely need a 1GB graphics card. Now you, and others, might say "why don't you just get the high end 27" iMac and you'd have your 1GB graphics card" and the answer to that would be "I don't want to pay $2,000 for a computer and don't really want a 27" display because I don't need it".

Anyway you should now understand why I need that 1GB graphics card.

Well if you need a 1GB graphics card and don't want a 27" display, that tells you what you should buy. I do recommend you skip straight to a 2GB graphics card to save you from having to replace it soon.

 

[The Robot Cow]

How old is that 1gb graphics card? I have the base 21.5 iMac and it has the Nvidia Gt 640m 512mb card. I can play Portal 2 smoother and better on this iMac than it runs on my Ps3.

I was on the same boat as you a few months ago and i was going to get a custom built pc but i took a chance and got the Mac. Let me just say I do not miss Pc(well except for a couple programs that but no biggie if you want to you could install windows on the mac)

 

[Geekazoid]

I can tell you guys that I have currently have been thinking a lot about this and I have a desire to want to learn and use FCP X and Motion 5 and I definitely know that a PC can't natively run OS X, well you can but it's not technically natively, they're called it a Hackintosh and with a name like that it requires a lot of tweaking and special hardware and the right components to make a Hackintosh work I'd imagine. Anyone here built a Hackintosh? If so how easy/difficult was it to make it all work. I find myself more and more leaning towards the iMac choice and I'm into making motion graphics and would love to see what Motion 5 can do for me.

Although I have still got that custom PC in mind just because I may change my mind at the last minute.

How many PC users who switched to a Mac initially wondered why the bought the Mac and not a PC when they had already bought the computer. I did that with my MBA and for about 2-4 weeks I's like "ahh I have really stuffed up, I should've bought a PC". But after a while after those 4 weeks or so the machine started to grow on me and with each passing day I loved it more and more. So who knows an iMac might be the best choice for me.

----------

How old is that 1gb graphics card? Well it's a NVIDIA GeForce GT 430 and only has 96 cuda cores.

I have the base 21.5 iMac and it has the Nvidia Gt 640m 512mb card. I can play Portal 2 smoother and better on this iMac than it runs on my Ps3.

Really? I would've thought the PS3 would've been more powerful at playing games. Interesting.

I was on the same boat as you a few months ago and i was going to get a custom built pc but i took a chance and got the Mac. Let me just say I do not miss Pc(well except for a couple programs that but no biggie if you want to you could install windows on the mac)

I have installed Windows on my MBA but I didn't like how the display looked under Windiws. i tried to calibrate it but to no avail.

 

[Chippy99]

If I had to choose one, I'd opt for the PC. It's not restrictive, you can upgrade components easily and it will be far more suitable for gaming for example.

But at the end of the day, it really comes down to the OS. Do you want to use Windows or OS X? If it's the latter then get a Mac.

Also, there's far more to a GPU than just RAM...

If Microsoft could just fix this endless, incessant and insanely infuriating downloading of updates and telling you you can't use your machine for half an hour whilst it dicks around installing updates and other nonsense that you couldn't give a toss about, then it might be a viable option.

MS seem to think every PC is theirs and that the actual owners are less important. I open my laptop in a meeting and have to smile inanely at my customer whilst whistling and drumming my fingers waiting for the bloody thing to boot. Then 2 minutes later, I have to wait another 5 minutes for it to shut down. Eventually giving up and stuffing it in my bag only to find hours later it's nearly melted because it failed to shutdown at all.

In a word: Unusable.

The UI and all of that is pretty irrelevant to me to be honest.

 

[Spinnetti]

I love these posts... we all come out of the woodwork.

A rational person examines use cases, cost and performance and make a rational decision. The reality is, social factors, sense of prestige, desire to be one of the herd etc. drive us to emotional responses. Truth of it? Except for rare use cases, it just doesn't matter. For me, I have high needs for simplicity, clean design and NOT being one of the herd. Many others hate the feeling of being "locked in" to a "closed" ecosystem.... Get what you like and can afford - not like the "internets" can answer your personal needs. I have a BTO topped out imac and dual boot windows 7 (well, that and 1/2 dozen other computers). Its a dang fast windows pc. I remember I bought a PC for is open expandability, and when it finally felt slow, I found that I couldn't use a single part except the case as everything else had changed mobo-memory-chip-graphics bus etc. etc.

 

[CoinOP]

Here is a unbiased opinion.

I have a base model 27" 660 for a few weeks now. I was about to build my own PC, but got sick if the problems with my current PC. Which I always kept clean for audio recording(no serving on the net, downloading and installing whatever). But it still gave me headaches!!!

I bought a Mac, something I said I would never do. But the truth is I should have done this before. Why? It just works! With my PC I've spend too much time on the net looking for help to fix things instead of using it. Those days are finally over.

 

[Chippy99]

Here is a unbiased opinion.

I have a base model 27" 660 for a few weeks now. I was about to build my own PC, but got sick if the problems with my current PC. Which I always kept clean for audio recording(no serving on the net, downloading and installing whatever). But it still gave me headaches!!!

I bought a Mac, something I said I would never do. But the truth is I should have done this before. Why? It just works! With my PC I've spend too much time on the net looking for help to fix things instead of using it. Those days are finally over.

In
Your
Dreams

I have not long since switched over from Windows to OS X (a year or two) and overall I much prefer Mac land.

But to say it just works and problems are a thing of the past is frankly nonsense. There's COUNTLESS things that just do not work or which can be a total pain to get working. Less than on Windows? Probably. Eliminated? Good lord no.

 

[Arfdog]

In
Your
Dreams

I have not long since switched over from Windows to OS X (a year or two) and overall I much prefer Mac land.

But to say it just works and problems are a thing of the past is frankly nonsense. There's COUNTLESS things that just do not work or which can be a total pain to get working. Less than on Windows? Probably. Eliminated? Good lord no.

Eliminated, no. Vastly, almost utterly disposed of? Yes.

 

[Chippy99]

Eliminated, no. Vastly, almost utterly disposed of? Yes.

Let's agree to differ.

I have no particular love of Window. Quite the opposite in fact. The way it takes contol of your machine and does what IT wants all the time when you need to do what YOU want and you can't because it's applying some inane update that you didn't want, it drives me bonkers.

But in terms of general reliability and the extent that "it just works", I find no discernable difference between OS X and Windows 7. If I had to choose a winner on that front, I would say Windows if anything.

Neither are particularly troublesome, but both have issues occassionally. For example, I don't think Apple have got to grips with USB 3.0 so far. I have had 4 external USB 3.0 hard drives on 2 iMacs and eject/not coming back online problems to some extent with all combinations. Only occassionally, but it's not fault-free. I get none of that with the same hardware in Windows.

 

[CoinOP]

In
Your
Dreams

I have not long since switched over from Windows to OS X (a year or two) and overall I much prefer Mac land.

But to say it just works and problems are a thing of the past is frankly nonsense. There's COUNTLESS things that just do not work or which can be a total pain to get working. Less than on Windows? Probably. Eliminated? Good lord no.

Yes! Since I have the Imac nothing but sweet dreams. PC was a complete nightmare!

Your drives not ejecting? Who cares? Wish that was the least of my problems with PC which refuses to eject drives for no apparent reason in the first place....

 

[throAU]

You seem to be getting pretty hung up about getting a 1gig video card because you don't want to downgrade from the one in your 6 year old PC. Given your usage profile and the general upgrade you'd be getting, do you think you'd notice you had 512mb less ram on your video?

My bet is "no" and a 6 year old PC with 1 gig of video RAM will be outperformed by a modern machine with 512 MB of video in most things anyhow, as RAM is not a direct measure of performance.

It only comes into play when driving multiple screens, higher resolution or lots of high resolution textures (i.e., high end 3d gaming).

And even then, a 6 year old box with 1 GB of video memory won't have enough video processing throughput to make use of the video memory it has anyway.

It's a classic case of on paper spec looking like it is "better" than something else with a smaller headline number, when the reality (e.g., how many ALUs the card has, how many FLOPS it can process etc) is completely different.

Dell laptops are a classic for that. Often sold with headline figure of "1GB video!" etc and then paired with some really crappy low-end GPU that is barely better than integrated video. But hey, they get the feature to check off in the spec sheet!

What I'm saying is, whether you are comparing PC vs mac or whatever - take 3 different PC laptops for example, all with "1 GB video" and the performance will be radically different depending on the number of ALUs the GPU has. But "1 GB video!" is easy to advertise and looks to an end user like a good thing Most of them barely understand RAM capacity at all, trying to explain the number and processing ability of the ALUs on the card, what shader model it supports, etc will never work...

 

[Chub]

I was in your situation not too long ago, except I went down the custom PC route. Yes I do prefer OSX, but to be perfectly honest I have never had any problems with Windows. From reading through this thread I have seen quite a few past PC builders complaining about BSOD's etcetera.

However most of the time this is probably down to user error unless of course the hardware is sub par. In most cases I agree that OSX utilises system resources a lot more conservatively. By this I mean a Windows system can feel very slow with some mid range hardware.

Anyway, before any of you think I am biased towards Windows I am planning to get a rMBP at some point as I feel that the MacBook line is far superior to many Windows laptops out there.

I will conclude however that you will be happy with either purchase, both of which should perform well. Even the PC if it is built probably and setup correctly.

All in all I mostly made my PC for gaming hence the fact I have 2 670s in SLi but unless you are gaming even the 640M is decent for most day to day things. One thing I will mention though is an SSD. Even a Mac without an SSD will feel as slow as a slug, a 1TB 5400RPM drive really is slow. I know some people may disagree and try to defend this, but really £1000 for a stock iMac with a 1TB HDD is pretty sub par.

 

[iSayuSay]

Mmm I think I'll stick with my custom PC. One of the many advantages of a Windows PC is if the Display dies you can easily replace it or any component for that matter. Plus I think it's better bang for the buck.

Don't get me wrong, I love OS X but I think a Windows 8 PC is what I need.

Sorry to waste everyones time but I've just been having a good think about it and the PC seems the best logical option.

You want the best of both world? Here's some advice:

1. Build your own Windows PC, say for $1200 you'll get a nice powerful tower for years to come. For hardcore gaming, video editing and so on. Don't forget to include SSD though. Again it's much cheaper than configuring SSD on the iMac.

2. Get a 27" display to match 27" iMac, say something like Dell Ultrasharp 2713HM, it's a 2560x1440 and you can get it for around $700 or less. It comes with multiple video inputs for flexibility, and USB 3 hub too, so it's a nice monitor compared to ATD. Not to mention it has 3 years warranty from Dell. Perfect!

3. Lastly, if you have some more $$ to spare, get a Macbook Air, a 11" high end model would suffice for around $1100. You can connect it through DisplayPort to your monitor. Voila, you get a Mac, and mobile computer to be on the go.

Those configurations will be perfect and versatile for any condition you'll likely encounter. Be it heavy editing, hardcore gaming, or lightweight stuff on a Mac. You hardly miss anything

 

[Mac32]

You want the best of both world? Here's some advice:

1. Build your own Windows PC, say for $1200 you'll get a nice powerful tower for years to come. For hardcore gaming, video editing and so on. Don't forget to include SSD though. Again it's much cheaper than configuring SSD on the iMac.

2. Get a 27" display to match 27" iMac, say something like Dell Ultrasharp 2713HM, it's a 2560x1440 and you can get it for around $700 or less. It comes with multiple video inputs for flexibility, and USB 3 hub too, so it's a nice monitor compared to ATD. Not to mention it has 3 years warranty from Dell. Perfect!

3. Lastly, if you have some more $$ to spare, get a Macbook Air, a 11" high end model would suffice for around $1100. You can connect it through DisplayPort to your monitor. Voila, you get a Mac, and mobile computer to be on the go.

Those configurations will be perfect and versatile for any condition you'll likely encounter. Be it heavy editing, hardcore gaming, or lightweight stuff on a Mac. You hardly miss anything

Great advice. Apple missed the boat with the new iMac IMO. The very fact that you can't use the iMac as an external display severely limits its usefulness in the long run for specific tasks, esp. gaming.

 

[iSayuSay]

Great advice. Apple missed the boat with the new iMac IMO. The very fact that you can't use the iMac as an external display severely limits its usefulness in the long run for specific tasks, esp. gaming.

Apple misses the boat with a lot of things. Here's a fun fact:

What kind of 27" display that only has USB 2 hub, no audio out, costs $999 and would not connect to anything but Thunderbolt computer, not even HDMI, DVI, nor DP?



Only in world

 

[Fatboy71]

I was a Windows user for 10 years and I was fed up with it. I got my first Mac (iMac) in January of this year and I will not be going back to Windows.

I knew within the first few weeks that my next computer would be another Mac

 

[Geekazoid]

================update=================

Hey guys,
I just would like to update you all on my decision in relation to upgrading my 6 year old PC.

I have finally, after much thought and consideration (and my mind will not change on this) will buy a 27" iMac (Probably the very top model). The reason is because ever since owning a Macbook Air OS X has just really had an impact on me. I mean I love windows however I haven't used my PC for awhile now but every now and then when I do I'm reminded of how much more I like OS X. I actually didn't think it was possible for me to be so amazed and like OS X. I do admit it does take a bit to get used to but eventually you just think....WOW! This is so good.

What lead me to make such a decision (I hear you all ask)? Well it isn't just because I own an iPad, iPhone and MBA but rather just the design and fluidness of OS X just makes me realise what I would be missing out on if I went with a desktop PC instead of a desktop iMac. I know if I went with the PC I would be imagining what it'd be like if I had bought an iMac. This was a decision that did take a fair amount of time to make. As you know I was like "I want a PC. No! I want a Mac. No! A PC. No! A Mac (or rather in this case an iMac).

I know a lot of fanboys will be happy with my decision. However I didn't make this decision to fulfil anyone else's happiness or satisfaction but my own.

To put my decision in a few words as possible I'll say this.

(((((((I LOVE OS X)))))))

Just one more thing!

At the moment I'm trying to save for other things so it probably wont be until July/August 2014. But I don't care because I have something to look forward to, can't wait.

 

[snapdragonx]

Your thought process is pretty much exactly the same as mine. I just ordered the 27" iMac for all the same reasons (with everything maxed out). It should arrive in the next couple of days. Very excited!