riMac m295x and COD Advanced Warfare

[ikaka]

I'll answer one question I was wondering about when getting the new iMac

I have the i7, m295x, 1tb Fusion, 8GB + 16GB (I added)
Windows 8.1 Pro x64 installed on a USB 3.0 SSD

When I started reading the forums here and the issues arose regarding the heat and loud fan noise, I did get worried. However everyone worrying about it probably never used any 15-17" high-end macbook pro's since Apple switched to Intel CPUs. Those things got so hot you could cook on them, they could literally burn your knees and yes there were a few issues with the video cards, however Apple wasn't the only company affected. What I am trying to say, get the AppleCare and stop worrying about it. It's in no way "overheating" it's just running hot.

As I was playing COD for an hour, when I would pause the game I could hear the fan, not louder then any other blow style computer fan and it's lower then the Air with i7 or the 15" retina pro. If you ever had a desktop gaming computer with a good video card and it was standing right next to your monitor, trust me you would have heard it also, especially the once with the blower style heatsinks. AMD R295 and nVidia TITAN were ridiculed about the noise levels when the cards just came out.

On to the fun part. I ran COD Advanced Warfare at 2560x1440 with some things at Medium, some at High (I'll take screenshots later, these were the default settings that COD configured by itself) and I changed Supersampling to 2x

To my surprise, the game ran smooth as butter. The graphics looked crisp and awesome, I couldn't feel any frames dropping, even after an hour of gaming. I was kinda shocked and excited at the same time. If I paused the game I could hear the fan, when I played it was covered up by the ambient noise of the game.

Not only this is a powerful iMac, it's also a pretty damn good gaming computer.

 

[Boomhowler]

Did you try running the game at native res? Wouldn't this essentially put the same strain on the GPU as running it at half-res and WITH supersamplingx2?

 

[ikaka]

Did you try running the game at native res? Wouldn't this essentially put the same strain on the GPU as running it at half-res and WITH supersamplingx2?

Lol, that makes sense. I'll check that out tonight.

 

[bulldogg80]

I did also try COD Advanced Warfare at my new iMac retina, just tested the game some minutes on 2560x1440 Max settings no AA the game looks and runs like butter

 

[rainydays]

It's in no way "overheating" it's just running hot.

It's way too early to say that. And just because the chip might stand the heat doesn't mean the rest of the board will. There has been issues with that in previous iMacs so I would say that there is some reason to be concerned.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

Great to here, I wonder if it will run GTA V at 1440p on at least high though...

 

[ikaka]

It's way too early to say that. And just because the chip might stand the heat doesn't mean the rest of the board will. There has been issues with that in previous iMacs so I would say that there is some reason to be concerned.

The GPU runs hot when gaming, it's a fact. Issue is, if there will be any repercussions of the cards running at that temperature for extended periods of time.

However.

The desktop AMD R9 290x is running extremely hot (95-100C) and was used in bitcoin mining for the past year, where the cards are pushed to extreme and work 24/7 at 100% and so far I haven't seen anyone complaining that the GPU failed.
On the other hand I had Gigabyte 780ti GHZ edition that physically burned with smoke and everything twice already while the card never made it above 85C, Gigabyte is actually refunding me even though I bought from NewEgg.

I have the AppleCare and I am not worried about it one bit. The funny thing is, Apple wasn't the only manufacturer that had issues with previous video cards. nVidia f*ed up once and then AMD f*ed up.