New late 2015 iMac 5k owner questions

[D2STREET]

Finally after 3 weeks of waiting I got this beauty of a machine! I've been browsing these forums for the past few months to acquaint my self with some of it's features. However, I do have a few questions regarding general advice & certain gaming aspects. I know that it would be my best bet to bootcamp to a windows OS, but Im not quite sure which one I should choose. Also, I don't know which way would should go about bootcamping to Windows. Would it be faster to get and external SSD then connect via thunderbolt 2, or partition off of the internal hard drive mainly the HDD? How does storage actually effect performance when the application or game is already active?

Specs on my iMac:

iMac Retina 5k, 27 inch, Late 2015
Processor: 3.3 Ghz Intel Core i5
Memory: 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M395x 4096 MB
Storage: 3 TB Fusion Drive

 

[Penfold2711]

Finally after 3 weeks of waiting I got this beauty of a machine! I've been browsing these forums for the past few months to acquaint my self with some of it's features. However, I do have a few questions regarding general advice & certain gaming aspects. I know that it would be my best bet to bootcamp to a windows OS, but Im not quite sure which one I should choose. Also, I don't know which way would should go about bootcamping to Windows. Would it be faster to get and external SSD then connect via thunderbolt 2, or partition off of the internal hard drive mainly the HDD? How does storage actually effect performance when the application or game is already active?

Specs on my iMac:

iMac Retina 5k, 27 inch, Late 2015
Processor: 3.3 Ghz Intel Core i5
Memory: 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M395x 4096 MB
Storage: 3 TB Fusion Drive

I have almost the same spec as you except mine is a i7 4gz and I have windows 10 bootcamp running off a partition and it runs fine the only ball ache i have is obviously you have to wait for apple to sign the graphics drivers which they don't like doing, so on the windows gaming side you could be stuck with maybe 6 month old drivers which sucks.

But games still run good Hope you enjoy your machine

 

[CWallace]

The Bootcamp Assistant only works with the internal drive, so if you go with an external SSD, you'll need to do it manually (I am sure there are guides).

In terms of graphics drivers under Bootcamp, Apple recently released an update.

 

[mmomega]

you can install the latest graphics drivers directly off the manufacturers website from bootcamp. You don't have to settle for the bootcamp driver.
I downloaded the latest from AMD/ATi for my 395x and installed immediately after installing Windows. Actually I never installed bootcamp drivers at all. I just created a partition, installed Windows10 from a USB drive and installed my own latest drivers I download from the net.

Also running BootCamp from an external is much more intensive than using the internal drive. You'll have to research that and decide for yourself if it's worth it.

Also I personally went with an external graphics solution, this is definitely not for everyone and adds quite an extra expense. I did an external GTX 980 Ti card. Gaming is much much better but it was easily another $1,000 on top of my iMac price.

 

[maflynn]

you can install the latest graphics drivers directly off the manufacturers website from bootcamp. You don't have to settle for the bootcamp driver.

True, but if you're not a gamer, I don't see an advantage of downloading them. My needs are simple, so I just use the Apple drivers.

 

[mmomega]

True, but if you're not a gamer, I don't see an advantage of downloading them. My needs are simple, so I just use the Apple drivers.

Right and it's not for all but my comment was mainly focused towards the person that said you may have to wait 6+ months to get an updated driver. They may not be aware you can download drivers from the manufacturer rather than only being limited to Apple's bootcamp drivers. Which really just make sure that everything within the Mac is functional. After that you can update any driver to a newer one. ie: Intels newer chipset drivers, Intel HD Graphics drivers, Broadcom ethernet or wifi drivers, etc. If you know you're hardware which you can usually find in device manager in Windows you can almost always find a more up to date driver.

I had an issue with 2011 Mac Mini's that there wasn't a working bluetooth/WiFi driver in Bootcamp support. But after finding out the chip manufacturer I downloaded a driver over ethernet and installed which enabled my BT and WiFi.

 

[imacken]

They may not be aware you can download drivers from the manufacturer rather than only being limited to Apple's bootcamp drivers.

Really not sure how you have done that. It has always been an issue with Mac GPUs that although AMD software will initially detect the GPU, when it comes to installing the drivers, it just falls over.
I tried with the latest Crimson 16.15 from the AMD site for my R9 M395X but with the usual failed result.
Please tell us your technique!

 

[mmomega]

I've done this on all of my iMacs and I have (still being used daily) a :

All of them running native Win10 64bit
2009 27" AMD 4850
2010 27" AMD 5750
2011 27" AMD 6770
2012 27" nVidia 780m
2013 27" nVidia 870m MacOS only
2015 27" AMD 395x

I'll boot over to Win10 when I get home and see if I have any issues with the Crimson drivers. I haven't been in Windows in that machine in a while to check.

The only one that has ever given me issues is the 2011 and it always wants to download the Intel HD graphics driver off of Windows Update which will cause a BSOD until I SafeMode in and manually delete the file again and restart the machine. (igdkmd64 in System32 folder I believe, in case anyone else ever has this issue)

 

[imacken]

I've done this on all of my iMacs and I have (still being used daily) a :

All of them running native Win10 64bit
2009 27" AMD 4850
2010 27" AMD 5750
2011 27" AMD 6770
2012 27" nVidia 780m
2013 27" nVidia 870m MacOS only
2015 27" AMD 395x

I'll boot over to Win10 when I get home and see if I have any issues with the Crimson drivers. I haven't been in Windows in that machine in a while to check.

The only one that has ever given me issues is the 2011 and it always wants to download the Intel HD graphics driver off of Windows Update which will cause a BSOD until I SafeMode in and manually delete the file again and restart the machine. (igdkmd64 in System32 folder I believe, in case anyone else ever has this issue)

I'm not doubting you've done it, I just want to know how! It's not the Crimson drivers, I have never managed it on any Mac over the years, and it's been a favourite topic here and on other forums for a long time. Please enlighten us!

 

[CWallace]

You have to modify the INF file and sign the CAT with a Digital Certificate.

This blog outlines the process: http://www.remkoweijnen.nl/blog/2015/09/21/update-amd-display-driver-under-bootcamp/

He is also nice enough to provide signed .cat and .inf files.

 

[imacken]

You have to modify the INF file and sign the CAT with a Digital Certificate.

This blog outlines the process: http://www.remkoweijnen.nl/blog/2015/09/21/update-amd-display-driver-under-bootcamp/

He is also nice enough to provide signed .cat and .inf files.

Thanks, I'm aware of that procedure, and it's hassle! It always has been a hassle to get AMD drivers installed on Macs. The thing is that mmomega suggested that he had done it all by simply downloading and installing from the AMD site, and we're waiting to hear how he did it! Fingers crossed that he's found an easier way.

 

[imacken]

I guess we'll never know! Pity, as it would be very useful.