I know I definitely want a 27" iMac but Im on a tight budget and dont know which to buy. I am a moderate gamer and want to play WoW, Witcher 2, Battlefield 3 and Guild Wars 2 when they come out. The problem is that it would be all I can do to afford the 2011 high end. Assuming I didn't go that route, would I be better off from a gaming standpoint to get the 2010 with the 1GB 5750 or the low end 27" 2011 with the 512MB 6770. Which would I see best results with most likely? What would you guys do?
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Want a 27" but not sure on the 2010 or 2011 model. Please help
- Thread starter jta98z
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I'm going to guess that the older model would be better there. The card in the 2010 is roughly equivalent to the desktop 5750, while the new one uses a 6770m, which is a bit less powerful.
That just seems a bit odd to me. Why would a new version be slower than an old? The only thing that concerns me about the 2010 model is that I'm not really future proofing much. I'm not sure if you're a gamer or not but would you have any idea if the 2010 model be enough to run those games I listed?
Future proofing, at least on macs, is rather silly. Look at the jump in performance on the new Mac mini. Buy the Mac you want/can afford then sell it for the latest, just-released Mac if it is drastically better. This way it costs about the same if you chose to get an upgraded but older Mac, but now you would have a new Mac. Hope that makes sense.
This is the same exact thing I was going to tell him. Get the top end 2011 for the 2010 price.
The refurb 2011 is the model that I mentioned I could barely afford. Theres no way I could afford the new retail 2011. The 2010 I referred to would be the refurb also for $1449. So basically what I was getting at is should I get the 2010 refurb or the 2011 low end 27" from a gaming perspective?
For gaming? 2011, no question about it but only in the top end. Otherwise get the older model with the 1 gb card.
I had the same dilemma about a month ago. I end up getting the 2010 i7 2.9ghz. Just ask yourself a question. What can the 2011 i7 do that the 2010 can't do? Even in the future. If a program is big enough to bog down a quad core i7 2.9Ghz is probably going to do the same to a i7 3.4Ghz sandy bridge an all.
Thunderbolt. I could care less about because it will be some time before I could afford anything that can use that tech. Firewire is enough for my editing needs.
Thunderbolt. I could care less about because it will be some time before I could afford anything that can use that tech. Firewire is enough for my editing needs.
Don't get me wrong. If I had the money I would have bought the 2011 but I could not afford it. As it is i was over budget with the 2010 $1569 sticker price plus another $109 tax plus I needed an external HD $160 for video editing purposes.
Definitely understand. Wasn't criticizing your purchase, just clarifying that the GPU is also different since your post focused on the CPU.
It really depends on what setting you want to play your games on. After doing a lot of research on the video cards between the 2010 and 2011 I buckled down, saved a bit more and went for the 2011. After looking at the benchmarks for the two different cards I had to go for the 2011. If the 2011 isn't in your cards, the 2010 will get you by as long as you don't crank the settings up all the way up.
See I'm not a person who needs everything on ultra but I would like things to look nice
I have a month old 2011 iMac 21''. I don't know if your interested or not, but let me know if you are. I'm willing to sell it because my wife and I need money to pay bills.
let me know!BTW, it runs games great!
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One last bump just for final thoughts. Been debating for 2 months and can't decide
One last bump just for final thoughts. Been debating for 2 months and can't decide
I'm close to upgrading and will probably stick with the 2010 model since I want to use it as an input device for my windows laptop. The 2011 model can no longer do that.
Cheers,