Been thinking about purchasing a Retina iMac but came across this thread here
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1717441/ does anyone know or can confirm if i can run Windows 7 on the Retina iMac and if so if it would be in true 5K or if it would actually be in 4K? I have seen a youtube clip with Win8 installed through Bootcamp and I recall the person saying Win8 runs at 4K and not 5K as the Mac OS does.
Also if this is indeed possible to run Win7 through Bootcamp on the Retina iMac should I wait for the refresh that could be coming in the next couple of months or purchase now? My concern is if I wait for the next refresh and then Bootcamp won't have any support for Win7. Can anyone here shed some light on this?
I run Windows 7 in Boot Camp on my 5K Retina iMac and it runs great for what I use Boot Camp for (exclusively gaming). Yes, currently the maximum supported resolution is 4K. Scaling in Windows 7 is not perfect, but it works just fine for such an old system that was also never really designed for high resolution displays. No worries there, as long as you undertsand the limitations.
After installing the Boot Camp drivers from Apple, install updated graphics drivers from AMD, available here (the first download of the two):
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/bootcamp
Unfortunately, generic AMD drivers (unlike those from Nvidia) don't work with Macs in Boot Camp and we have to wait until AMD releases a Mac-specific update every now and then. The current drivers are newer than the ones Apple provides and should offer better performance, unfortunately they're still not on par with what PC users have. They also don't support resolutions larger than 4K yet. Hopefully an update will bring it sometime in the future. We have to keep checking the AMD Boot Camp driver page for future updates.
Generally, I would recommend running Windows 7 on the 5K iMac especially if you use it as a "console" for gaming or some other specific application and don't want to bother with all the Microsoft services in Windows 8.1. If you're more into productivity and multitasking, Windows 8.1 is of course more modern, fast and fluid and better designed for modern computers and I'd recommend giving it a spin. And of course Windows 10 when it comes out. As the meat of potatoes of my "actual" iMac usage takes place in OS X, I'll stay with my tried and tested, lean and mean Windows 7 for the foreseeable future. But I digress.
The current-gen Retina iMac may be the last one to get Windows 7 support, I'm afraid. This is of course just pure speculation, but I guess the latest Intel CPUs and chipsets Apple uses no longer support BIOS emulation or whatever it is that makes it possible to install a system as old as Windows 7 - either by design or by choice of Apple (in the latter case, there may be workarounds, of course). Of course, by the time the Retina iMac is updated, Windows 10 will likely have been released and it doesn't look so bad. We have to let got of 7 one day, after all.
Sorry for a lengthy post, just wanted to be as helpful as possible.
