Vive and iMac 5K

[liberty58]

Hi guys

iMac 5K owner here, just ordered a Vive.

Do you think I can run most games on my config ? I have a pretty good iMac but I know that they're often bad when it's about games. I tried the SteamVr Performance test and the dot was at the beginning of the green bar.

specs : 8g of RAM
Radeon Pro 575
i5 Kaby Lake 3,5gz

I'll also need a dongle to put the HDMI wire to the iMac, and I don't know if it'll touch the perfomance.

How are VR games nowadays ? Are they well optimized ? Seems like no one's talking about VR on MacOs when it was a big deal during the Keynote. Anyone here use his iMac to do some VR stuff ?

Thanks for the help, I'm a little nervous because it was a pretty impulsive buy and I don't know if I'll need a refund now or if I should “just try“ and then maybe have to sell it back in two month because I can't get more than 20 fps on basic stuff

 

[sputnikBA]

If VR was very important to you the 580 would have been better than the 575. The iMac VR stage demo at WWDC was done with a 580 model iMac I think.

That said though, maybe you can always go down the eGPU route and it won’t be an issue.

 

[liberty58]

Ok, is there a huge difference between 575 and 580 ? Do you think I could play most of the games (even in medium graphics) ?

 

[AlexMaximus]

Hi guys

iMac 5K owner here, just ordered a Vive.

Do you think I can run most games on my config ? I have a pretty good iMac but I know that they're often bad when it's about games. I tried the SteamVr Performance test and the dot was at the beginning of the green bar.

specs : 8g of RAM
Radeon Pro 575
i5 Kaby Lake 3,5gz

I'll also need a dongle to put the HDMI wire to the iMac, and I don't know if it'll touch the perfomance.

How are VR games nowadays ? Are they well optimized ? Seems like no one's talking about VR on MacOs when it was a big deal during the Keynote. Anyone here use his iMac to do some VR stuff ?

Thanks for the help, I'm a little nervous because it was a pretty impulsive buy and I don't know if I'll need a refund now or if I should “just try“ and then maybe have to sell it back in two month because I can't get more than 20 fps on basic stuff

I have the Vive for more then a full year now. I had the same concern. With my setup I can throw everything at it without any problem. I mostly play Adrift, beside many other less advanced titels. Since my system, although heavily modded, is a lot older then your shiny new 5k iMac, you can be assured a super smouth ride in VR. You absolutely will not need an external GPU Box in my opinion.
However, you may will experience one other small problem. VR runs on Windows, that means a bootcamp setup for you. Those games can take a lot of space and need to be stored on fast SSD drives. You may need to go for a fast Thunderbolt 3 external SSD for that VR bootcamp down the line.
What I can not comment on is the cooling of your iMac, and the delta of difference on the new enhanced Vive vs Vive Classic that just got introduced.

 

[liberty58]

I have the Vive for more then a full year now. I had the same concern. With my setup I can throw everything at it without any problem. I mostly play Adrift, beside many other less advanced titels. Since my system, although heavily modded, is a lot older then your shiny new 5k iMac, you can be assured a super smouth ride in VR. You absolutely will not need an external GPU Box in my opinion.
However, you may will experience one other small problem. VR runs on Windows, that means a bootcamp setup for you. Those games can take a lot of space and need to be stored on fast SSD drives. You may need to go for a fast Thunderbolt 3 external SSD for that VR bootcamp down the line.
What I can not comment on is the cooling of your iMac, and the delta of difference on the new enhanced Vive vs Vive Classic that just got introduced.

Thanks for your answer ! I was considering buying an external HDD in a few weeks so I'll probably do that. I already have a Bootcamp partition. Your GPU seems waaaay better than mine thought, and that's what I'm the more worried about

 

[AlexMaximus]

Thanks for your answer ! I was considering buying an external HDD in a few weeks so I'll probably do that. I already have a Bootcamp partition. Your GPU seems waaaay better than mine thought, and that's what I'm the more worried about

Theoreticly you are correct. But if you look through the Steam VR Games library, you will find a whopping 80 % of games with low to medium requirements. You will play all those games without problems. For those view remaining 10% - 20% of very strong hardware requirements, - just dial down the quality to Medium and you will be ok. You will find Settings that work Most of the Time. I think it also depends what Kind of player you are. Of course, you can not expect an iMac to beat a true gaming pc with multiple Gpu's that was Designed for just that purpose. But I think you will be ok unless you do high Quality FPS that require a constant above 60FPS in Real Time online multiplayer where every micro second counts

 

[pier]

Ok, is there a huge difference between 575 and 580 ? Do you think I could play most of the games (even in medium graphics) ?

The 575 goes about at about 4.5 Gflops and the 580 at about 6.2 Gflops, so yeah pretty huge difference if you also consider that the 580 comes with 8GB of RAM.

Anyway you could always go the eGPU route and get whatever GPU you wish.

 

[liberty58]

Theoreticly you are correct. But if you look through the Steam VR Games library, you will find a whopping 80 % of games with low to medium requirements. You will play all those games without problems. For those view remaining 10% - 20% of very strong hardware requirements, - just dial down the quality to Medium and you will be ok. You will find Settings that work Most of the Time. I think it also depends what Kind of player you are. Of course, you can not expect an iMac to beat a true gaming pc with multiple Gpu's that was Designed for just that purpose. But I think you will be ok unless you do high Quality FPS that require a constant above 60FPS in Real Time online multiplayer where every micro second counts

Ok thanks, I guess I'll try then !

The 575 goes about at about 4.5 Gflops and the 580 at about 6.2 Gflops, so yeah pretty huge difference if you also consider that the 580 comes with 8GB of RAM.

Anyway you could always go the eGPU route and get whatever GPU you wish.

I'll probably get an eGPU in a few month, because they're pretty expensive for me now. Hope I will at least be able to play a little with just the 575

 

[AlexMaximus]

Ok thanks, I guess I'll try then !



I'll probably get an eGPU in a few month, because they're pretty expensive for me now. Hope I will at least be able to play a little with just the 575

I found this Benchmark here..

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2969/radeon-pro-575

"We recommend the AMD Radeon Pro 575 for gaming with highest details at resolutions up to, and including, 1920x1080."

I think that doesnt sound too bad..