New iMac video card advice please

[doktordoris]

Hullo,
I had my beloved MBP pinched a few months ago and Im now able to buy a new PC. I have decided I shall buy a desktop Mac, not another notebook as I now have an iPad for when I leave the house.

I have decided to buy the top end 27inch iMac, and Im probably going to pay a the extra to upgrade the CPU. However Im undecided if spending the little extra to have the video card upgraded to the 2gig version is worthwhile.

I'm desperate to play Warcraft as I havnt played it since I owned a Ms os pc, I couldn't play it on my MBP as the gfx were either rubbish looking or very slow. Normally I play games on my 360, ps3, or on my wii. So I am not buying the iMac as a games machine, just as a home computer and wow machine. Bearing that in mind is the gfx upgrade a good idea?

Thanks for reading

Doris

 

[Wizzykin]

I'm not a Mac guy, yet - I'm just making the jump myself, but as a computer user I can say: no.

The card you're getting without upgrading is MORE than enough for a game like WoW.

Unless you're really doing some graphic intense things on your Mac, it seems like a waste of money, to me.

However, I would think the resale value would be higher, should you choose to sell and upgrade a few years down the road. But for what you're doing, the video card that comes with the base model is more than enough. The video card that comes with the 21.5" 2.5Ghz would be more than enough for a game like that, too.

*edit: on the other hand, the cards are also not replaceable, so you can't upgrade. If you're planning on using the computer for a fairly long time, then maybe it would be worth it, but I can't really say for sure.

 

[Rodus]

I wouldn't bother with the 2GB version, the GPU itself will probably become the bottleneck long before the 1GB VRAM.

 

[leman]

The 1GB is enough.

 

[SR20DETDOG]

Don't bother with 2GB upgrade.
I got the upgrade because I was in the mindset of, "it's only $100 extra, so may as well." It didn't take long for me to start wishing I'd just gone with the 1GB and used the $100 to upgrade to 12GB of RAM instead. Instead I'm still stuck with only 4GB.

 

[Thermonuclear]

Quiz time! Doubling the 27 inch iMac graphics RAM will cost you:

1) US$100
2) Higher electrical usage
3) Higher internal heating
4) Money that would be better spent on a main RAM upgrade
5) All of the above

The only practical reason for upgrading to 2 GB graphics RAM would be to better support one or more external displays.

 

[Georgio]

I had a 1GB 6970 i7 specifically for Warcraft. It seemed ok, but I was seeing artefacts and getting micro stutters especially when raiding so went for the 2GB card.
The result was a much better gaming experience and a cooler machine.

 

[dakhein]

The only practical reason for upgrading to 2 GB graphics RAM would be to better support one or more external displays.

Pretty much says it all.

 

[iSayuSay]

No .. as I said many times, GPU RAM upgrade is the most useless upgrade available on iMac today Especially for $100 ... that is expensive for what you get, which is nothing

You don't need VRAM as much as you would on system RAM. I game a lot and not feeling any better with extra VRAM nor external displays.

I'd like to have Radeon 6990M 512MB (in reality they only come with 2GB) .. rather than 6970M 2GB