My 2008 iMac is still a decent gaming machine. My son and his friends use it for Minecraft, BF2142 and Starcraft 2. Although SC2 to be playable requires low settings.
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Are Macs Good for Gaming?
- Thread starter BeK
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My 2008 iMac is still a decent gaming machine. My son and his friends use it for Minecraft, BF2142 and Starcraft 2. Although SC2 to be playable requires low settings.
There are two things ill point out for you. First, the iMac displays are a crazy high resolution, hence you need a lot of GPU horsepower to drive it at highest resolution and settings. The iMacs are all about compromise... Their GPUs are generally under-powered mobile chipsets. If I were buying a computer to do general stuff and some gaming a Mac is a good choice. If you want a dedicated gaming computer and want to run at highest settings and resolutions, build a PC.
1000
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
the 680mx on the new iMac the 13th best gaming graphics card you can buy, only recently usurped from #10 because of the Titan, 780 and 770. Not bad. It overclocks pretty well, there is a whole iMac thread on the mac rumors forums talking about the iMac's gaming prowess.
I have the new iMac, I'm playing Battlefield 3 on ultra settings at full resolution 2560 x 1440, getting an average of 55fps according to FRAPS. I'm a gamer, been playing games for years, I assure you, it plays games good, real good.
If all you want is a top of the line gaming machine, then no, don't buy a mac, you can build a PC that will smoke the iMac for half the cost. However, if first and foremost you love OS X, and you love games, and you cant afford, or don't want two computers, then the iMac is a good choice. Or consider a used 2008 or 2010 mac pro with a GTX 680. I read somewhere that the new Mac OS will have drivers for the Titan so a used mac pro might be another option.
My understanding is the Titan already works in the Mac Pro. Just add a psu.
I'm somewhat disappointed with the performance of the GTX 680 in my 2008 Mac Pro. Maybe I was expecting too much.
Barefeats
Color me curious. What is a self-built Mac Pro?
I'm a part time gamer. No more than an hour a day, I'm mainly playing Lord of the Rings Online these days. For myself and my son (a hard core gamer) I prefer Macs. I just set up dual boot, I'd rather have one Mac which can run both Windows and OS X rather than a Mac and a PC, or just a PC. This way I can put more money into my Mac and get a top of the line, versus a middling PC and a middling Mac.
If I was a hardcore gamer and didn't do much else with the computer I'd go PC only.
Anyhow for this use model the Mac works just great. In dual boot they are great computers. The MacBook Pros in particular make good dual-boot gaming computers. Any of them with a discrete mobile chip.
If I was a hardcore gamer and didn't do much else with the computer I'd go PC only.
Anyhow for this use model the Mac works just great. In dual boot they are great computers. The MacBook Pros in particular make good dual-boot gaming computers. Any of them with a discrete mobile chip.
When it comes to games, Windows PC's are better still.
Apple is just the afterthought of the pc gaming world
Mine is.
6-core 3.33GHz
12GB DDR3
GTX 680 2048MB
Intel 520 SSD 240GB - 600GB Velociraptor.
Eizo Foris FS2333 >3.4ms IPS with less than 1ms input lag @1920x1080p
3DMark Vantage is like 36,500. Everything plays just fine. Not even overclocking yet. No need.
6-core 3.33GHz
12GB DDR3
GTX 680 2048MB
Intel 520 SSD 240GB - 600GB Velociraptor.
Eizo Foris FS2333 >3.4ms IPS with less than 1ms input lag @1920x1080p
3DMark Vantage is like 36,500. Everything plays just fine. Not even overclocking yet. No need.
Stop spouting misinformation, a gaming PC has no 'neon' requirements, not everyone is into flashy lights, and there's a huge variety of cases and parts depending on which aesthetic route you want to go, you can also make gaming rigs with next to no noise (that's not even going into W/C setups).
That's true. A good gaming rig is good for a lot of other things. I think it's this simple truth that has fueled most of the Hackintosh movement.
Ditto, I have a very similar system, same CPU/GPU. I have 32gb DDR3 and game at 2560x1600, games run beautifully on my now 3-year old Mac Pro
Please find me a pc with the same specs as the imac with the 680MX, coupled with a 27 inch 1440p display, that has the same build quality as the imac, and is cheaper
That's because you thought it would accelerate compute. GTX 680 sucks at compute. It rules in games' pixel and texture fillrates. GTX 580 was the last gen that Nvidia didn't hobble to distinguish their line up. They ripped the compute out of their gamer cards. A Quadro k5000 is very close to the same kepler core (1536 CUDA cores etc) and has all that stuff in it and destroys compute benchmarks. It also costs $1800.00. Read up below.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/nvidia-quadro-k5000.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6140/...erbased-quadro-k5000-secondgeneration-maximus
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That is probably a impossible question as the GTX680mx was built for the iMac and is not in anything else. So just find a nice PC with a GTX660ti in it. That is what that card's performance is relative to. No PC has the build quality I know of. They love their oil based junk too much. Snap in, throw out. But you can definitely get a faster better performing PC for much less money if what it looks like is not an issue.
Because you're hell bent on proving everyone in this thread wrong.
I've owned the iMac with 680MX for 2 months now and it's an unbelievable gaming machine, handles far cry 3 and f1 2012 like a dream. How can you say that people WILL be dissatisfied with gaming on macs? I for one am thrilled
I don't game yet I'm dissatisfied with the little I've gamed on an iMac at 1440p medium settings and 3xAA.
My goal was not to replicate the iMac the goal was to beat it at gaming performance for about the same money which is not terribly difficult.
I'm glad you like your iMac, there are many who do Apple sells an awful lot of them. But when you talk about gaming at 1440p on a slow display with graphics slower than a 660Ti gaming performance isn't your priority.
I was asking the same questions late last year. I am so happy I took the chance and went for the iMac. I do a lot of gaming on OS X and Windows. Yes, you'll need a Bootcamp partition for certain games, but the hardware on the new iMacs will have absolutely no problem with the latest games, so long as you go with a higher end model. The new Mac Pro will definitely have no troubles.
Beyond that, OS X is just a better OS. Period. It's lacking support for some games, but that's just because the publishers haven't bothered to port them. It's perfectly capable, and you'll be much happier using OS X and Mac hardware than anything else. Even if you do have to go into Bootcamp now and then.
Are Macs good for gaming? Yes.
Are they great for gaming? No.
Despite the fist thumping by some in this thread you can play most games on medium to high and be just fine on an iMac or Mac Pro. If you want Ultra with screaming speeds and don't care about losing all that OSX offers then a PC is probably better for you.
If you do go mac and want your investment to last you longer in the gaming space though a Mac Pro would be a definite improvement over an iMac as you'll be able to change up your graphics cards over time.
Are they great for gaming? No.
Despite the fist thumping by some in this thread you can play most games on medium to high and be just fine on an iMac or Mac Pro. If you want Ultra with screaming speeds and don't care about losing all that OSX offers then a PC is probably better for you.
If you do go mac and want your investment to last you longer in the gaming space though a Mac Pro would be a definite improvement over an iMac as you'll be able to change up your graphics cards over time.
Still don't see what the point of saying that is though. why not just let people do what they want on what they want and stop telling people what their computers are for
My PC runs Mountain Lion and Windows.
Best of both worlds!
My next machine will probably be based on the Silverstone FT-02, it a small, alu case, but can run 2x long 2 bay GPUs and has that cool 'looks like a trash can' Mac Pro styling!
Best of all, I can put many drives inside and upgrade parts whenever I want using standard parts off the shelf.
Best of both worlds!
My next machine will probably be based on the Silverstone FT-02, it a small, alu case, but can run 2x long 2 bay GPUs and has that cool 'looks like a trash can' Mac Pro styling!
Best of all, I can put many drives inside and upgrade parts whenever I want using standard parts off the shelf.
The new Mac Pro is so much unlike previous Mac Pros that I wouldn't consider it as a pro Mac that can also game. It's likely going to be uber expensive (even for Macs), far exceeding the price of the Retina MBPs. It truly is a speciality PRO Mac. 3D artists and renderers and the like are who this Machine are intended for.
Get the 27" iMac and max out the video card, and opt for the SSD or Fusion Drive.
I dont understand your reasoning for this
I think he meant macs suck when it comes to gaming. Not all macs suck but good with gaming. Then he mentions about rather building a computer. It doesn't make sense unless he meant; "Macs are good except for gaming"
Which makes sense because Apple DOES have a history of not so great gaming graphics card.
But now its pretty good (Except the 13" macbook pro and macbook airs) But the new Imacs and 15" macbook pros all have good graphics card..
My AMD 6770 with 1gb (late 2011 macbook pro 15" upper model) is able to play Arma 2 DAYZ on medium graphics (that game has lots of moving textures and can see a very far distance of russia in the maps so I give my graphics card credit)
Games like Garrysmod is O.K on OSX but when I use bootcamp I get GREAT FPS as if i had a very powerful desktop with a great graphics card.
Do I wish I got a little bit of more power out of my 2,500$ laptop? Yes, I do sometimes look back and wish i could of built a MONSTER pc but if something goes wrong on it I would rather bring it into a store and they handel the situation very easily and for you rather and sending the PC yourrself over seas then they beat the crap out of your computer and takes almost a month to recieve back (Apple took 3 or 4 days to replace my faulty motherboard and thats in Longisland New york) [They probably have a fixing facility somewhere on the east coast by Newyork]
Longstory short its good for what I need with gaming but I wish there could be more
No one here games in OS X. That would be foolish. How many games can you crank to ultra on a GTX 680 on a PC at 1080p? That is what I get on my Mac. Crysis 3 cranked at 60+ fPS, yes. Far Cry 3 at ultra everything at 45+FPS yes. Look at what a i7-980x and GTX 680 on Windowscan do and you have my Mac. Stop talking nonsense about what setting you can get. If you have a Mac Pro you can slot a freakin Titan if you are so inclined.
This discussion is getting a bit emotional All in all, 'good game performance' is an entirely subjective notion. For instance, I am absolutely happy playing games on my rMBP with its 650M and I haven't find a game that won't run well on it. However, many gamers define 'good' as max image quality at steady 60fps. And Macs won't deliver that. The original question was 'are Macs good machines compared to a dedicated gaming PC'. And the answer is clearly 'no'. Disregarding the Mac Pro, the best GPU one can get with an Mac is the 680MX which is roughly compatible to the 660Ti - a midrange card. It won't even be able to max out current games at 1080p resolution, and the iMac's native panel is higher.
All in all, 'good game performance' is an entirely subjective notion. For instance, I am absolutely happy playing games on my rMBP with its 650M and I haven't find a game that won't run well on it. However, many gamers define 'good' as max image quality at steady 60fps. And Macs won't deliver that. The original question was 'are Macs good machines compared to a dedicated gaming PC'. And the answer is clearly 'no'. Disregarding the Mac Pro, the best GPU one can get with an Mac is the 680MX which is roughly compatible to the 660Ti - a midrange card. It won't even be able to max out current games at 1080p resolution, and the iMac's native panel is higher.