If you haven't already, get the i7. I had the same decision thinking the i7 would be a waste but in the end your iMac will be useful for longer and the resale value will be better. If you decide to sell in a year or two the i7 will still be in it's prime.
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Which 27" for Gaming?
- Thread starter jinx5000
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my biggest fear is that with either model (i5 or i7) the GPU won't be able to handle the games i wanna play with good frame rates.
I will definitely be taking a step down from what i have now GPU wise as my PC has a xfx-5850 but i really want to get a mac...
and i don't game all day every day, but when i do, i like it to play well and aw a good setting...
so by getting an imac i would be gimping myself a big... but is it enough that my gaming experience would be reduced dramatically?
I will definitely be taking a step down from what i have now GPU wise as my PC has a xfx-5850 but i really want to get a mac...
and i don't game all day every day, but when i do, i like it to play well and aw a good setting...
so by getting an imac i would be gimping myself a big... but is it enough that my gaming experience would be reduced dramatically?
Hellhammer
Moderator emeritus
Why don't you keep the PC and get a Mac Mini? If you don't need a powerful Mac (only used for general stuff), the Mini should be sufficient and you could keep your old monitor etc and use the PC for gaming.
That is actually a really good idea...
i'll look a bit more into that
the only thing i can see wrong with that is my monitors...
I currently run a 24" next to a 20" extended desktop which leaves my desk pretty crowded, i wouldn't have anywhere to place an extra monitor and that 27" is ridiculous and i want one! It would get overwhelming always unplugging my monitors from my PC and connecting them to a mac mini whenever i wanted to do something else.
I am getting away from gaming now and don't play nearly as much as i used to but there are still occasions where i just wanna kill an hour or so and ill play something... but i think Diablo III might get me back into gaming as it was D2 and CS which got my into gaming over 10 years ago.
i really like OSX and the simplicity, reliability, and software it entails. I think i would personally be happier making the overall switch to Mac with the option to occasionally boot up in Win7 and screw around for a bit. i used to have a '09 MBP 13" but sold it for personal reasons and really miss Mac.
great idea though! i will definitely be thinking about it a lot more now
however; another main reason im looking at selling my PC is because i need the funds to buy a new mac, and the best place to get that much money is by selling my current setup
i'll look a bit more into that
the only thing i can see wrong with that is my monitors...
I currently run a 24" next to a 20" extended desktop which leaves my desk pretty crowded, i wouldn't have anywhere to place an extra monitor and that 27" is ridiculous and i want one! It would get overwhelming always unplugging my monitors from my PC and connecting them to a mac mini whenever i wanted to do something else.
I am getting away from gaming now and don't play nearly as much as i used to but there are still occasions where i just wanna kill an hour or so and ill play something... but i think Diablo III might get me back into gaming as it was D2 and CS which got my into gaming over 10 years ago.
i really like OSX and the simplicity, reliability, and software it entails. I think i would personally be happier making the overall switch to Mac with the option to occasionally boot up in Win7 and screw around for a bit. i used to have a '09 MBP 13" but sold it for personal reasons and really miss Mac.
great idea though! i will definitely be thinking about it a lot more now
however; another main reason im looking at selling my PC is because i need the funds to buy a new mac, and the best place to get that much money is by selling my current setup
Hellhammer
Moderator emeritus
Does your monitors have multiple inputs? If so, you can just press a button on the display and it will change the input so you can easily switch between Mac and PC. Or you could have the PC on 24" and Mini on 20" if they have only single input. If you post the model numbers of the displays, I can take a look.
My monitors only have one input each. I looked at that :/ I wouldn't wanna run just one monitor per device as I am too used to an extended desktop. Which is another reason I like the 27" I wouldn't need two monitors.
I think I already have my mind set on getting an iMac with the only hesitation about running the games I wanna play (sc2, dao, cs, bfbc2, and d3) I will not be playing crysis or any other games as I am playing less than i used to now and realistically don't have the time to play as much as I used to. But again its the gnu that ahas me worried. I know the new 5xxx series cards are pretty good even though the 5750 is on the lower end. I'd feel a lot better if I could see benchmarks or hear about users of the i5 playing these games ansa the res and quality there playing at and their frame rates. Any thoughts?
Running games at native res is always the goal but if that's not gonna be playable, will going down to 1080 look weird on that giant monitor?
I think I already have my mind set on getting an iMac with the only hesitation about running the games I wanna play (sc2, dao, cs, bfbc2, and d3) I will not be playing crysis or any other games as I am playing less than i used to now and realistically don't have the time to play as much as I used to. But again its the gnu that ahas me worried. I know the new 5xxx series cards are pretty good even though the 5750 is on the lower end. I'd feel a lot better if I could see benchmarks or hear about users of the i5 playing these games ansa the res and quality there playing at and their frame rates. Any thoughts?
Running games at native res is always the goal but if that's not gonna be playable, will going down to 1080 look weird on that giant monitor?
Running games at 1080 look great on my 27" iMac. I had to drop it down to 1080 because the games weren't running smooth at 2560x1440. But 1080 is HD so I don't think it matters. It still looks great.
What games r u running in 1080? And what are ur fram rates in 1080 compared to when running them native?
For what it is worth, I have a mid 2010 iMac i7 that I frequently play World of Warcraft, Startcraft II, and Dragon Age on. I play them using OSX at 1080 on mostly high graphic level and they play very smooth and look great.
do u notice any major increases in performance when reducing the res? and is it weird going from native to 1080?
Actually the performance increase was tremendous. See, initially when I got my iMac I was running games at 2560x1440 fine using Apple's provided drivers. I assume they were ATI drivers but they didn't come with the Catalyst Control Center so I had no control over options like anti-aliasing, etc.
After I upgraded to ATI's Mobility drivers from their site I took a performance hit at the 2560x1440 resolution. I believe the reason is because those drivers were likely utilizing more anti-aliasing and other effects to improve image quality where as the other drivers weren't. Once I dropped down to 1920x1080 resolution everything ran smooth at the highest settings.
I did not notice a difference in quality dropping down to 1920x1080. In games, it looks great. I haven't tried it but I bet dropping down to even lower resolutions like 1280x720 would look fine as well.
Edit: I forgot that initially with Apple's drivers I was running in 16-bit color without realizing it. So that may have been why I was getting higher frame rates at 2560x1440. This was a bug in a version of the drivers Apple/ATI released. After upgrading to ATI's latest Mobility drivers I've been running in 32-bit color so that may have factored in.
After I upgraded to ATI's Mobility drivers from their site I took a performance hit at the 2560x1440 resolution. I believe the reason is because those drivers were likely utilizing more anti-aliasing and other effects to improve image quality where as the other drivers weren't. Once I dropped down to 1920x1080 resolution everything ran smooth at the highest settings.
I did not notice a difference in quality dropping down to 1920x1080. In games, it looks great. I haven't tried it but I bet dropping down to even lower resolutions like 1280x720 would look fine as well.
Edit: I forgot that initially with Apple's drivers I was running in 16-bit color without realizing it. So that may have been why I was getting higher frame rates at 2560x1440. This was a bug in a version of the drivers Apple/ATI released. After upgrading to ATI's latest Mobility drivers I've been running in 32-bit color so that may have factored in.
Like the other guy said - dropping the resolution down from native to 1080p will show a large increase in frames per second.
I posted an article on the i7 27" gaming performance if anyone is interested: http://www.techulous.com/news/imac27i7gaming.html
I posted an article on the i7 27" gaming performance if anyone is interested: http://www.techulous.com/news/imac27i7gaming.html
are you gaming in OSX or Windows?
and when u dl the drivers do u dl them on the windows side or osx or both?
when u dl the drivers... do u get the 5750? or the 5850m?
i'm planning on gaming in windows and will definitely want to control vid settings
and when u dl the drivers do u dl them on the windows side or osx or both?
when u dl the drivers... do u get the 5750? or the 5850m?
i'm planning on gaming in windows and will definitely want to control vid settings
Unfortunately, I use more of an "eyeball" approach than a "scientific" one but I believe I notice a performance increase; especially in SCII. At native rez I would sometimes get some choppiness but I never get while playing at 1080. I think playing games at 1080 looks great but it is very subjective. I know some folks that want a zero jagged edge look to games. You obviously need anti-liaising and native rez for that. Again, I play all my games on OSX with standard drivers.