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ATI Radeon HD 2600 really that bad?

inkswamp

inkswamp

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 26, 2003
2,953
1,279
I've heard a lot of carping about how bad the iMac's ATI Radeon HD 2600 graphics card is and so (as someone who generally doesn't care much about GPU muscle) I went Googling and was disappointed to find that this card is about one step up from the bottom of ATI's barrel and that in terms of games, it barely cuts it.

I'm puzzled as to why Apple made all this fuss about EA returning to the Mac when the iMac, the machine ostensibly intended for the same consumers who would be buying said games, will likely not be able to run many modern games very well, if at all. What sense does that make?
 
inkswamp said:
I've heard a lot of carping about how bad the iMac's ATI Radeon HD 2600 graphics card is and so (as someone who generally doesn't care much about GPU muscle) I went Googling and was disappointed to find that this card is about one step up from the bottom of ATI's barrel and that in terms of games, it barely cuts it.

I'm puzzled as to why Apple made all this fuss about EA returning to the Mac when the iMac, the machine ostensibly intended for the same consumers who would be buying said games, will likely not be able to run many modern games very well, if at all. What sense does that make?
Click to expand...

Many people have wondered that and the simple answer is that it doesn't make any sense. Welcome to Steve's world. :rolleyes: And it's not just the iMac or the retarded GMA950 graphics of the Mini. Check out the thread in the Mac Pro forum about upgrading Mac Pros to 8800s. What a soap opera. :rolleyes:

I'm hoping the next iMac gets an ATI 3870-X2 and a matte 24' or 30' screen. I'm not holding my breath. :apple:
 
inkswamp said:
I'm puzzled as to why Apple made all this fuss about EA returning to the Mac when the iMac, the machine ostensibly intended for the same consumers who would be buying said games, will likely not be able to run many modern games very well, if at all. What sense does that make?
Click to expand...

I think all the fuss is based on future machines, probably in a year to two years time. However saying that the current 2600 card will play most games on the market relatively well, thereby meeting most people's needs.

However the bottom line is if serious gaming is important in your computer needs then DON'T buy a Mac. I know a few serious gamers who build their own machines specifically for gaming and nothing else.
 
Nordichund said:
So what serious games on the Wii would you recommend for serious gamers then?
Click to expand...

Metroid Prime 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, No More Heroes, Zack & Wiki, Super Paper Mario, SSX Blur, Trauma Center, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, the entire GameCube back catalogue.

Enough?
 
I find the graphic card to be good enough, but I don't play games, apart from classic Arcade games, on my Mac.

Though I'd admit that it's a bit strange Apple doesn't at least give you the option to go for a better video card.
I definitely think sales would increase damatically if gaming on the Mac could be on par with dedicated game PC's.
 
nout72 said:
I find the graphic card to be good enough, but I don't play games, apart from classic Arcade games, on my Mac.

Though I'd admit that it's a bit strange Apple doesn't at least give you the option to go for a better video card.
I definitely think sales would increase damatically if gaming on the Mac could be on par with dedicated game PC's.
Click to expand...

a 512MB option, and i would have got it
 
Yeah no 8800gt will be in the iMac. One problem is heat and the second is noise.

I hope they upgrade the card a bit, but the reality is most folks just don't play cutting edge games on their pcs. And Apple isn't going to design the iMac around gaming.
 
I finally gave up on using Macs for gaming. It is better just to get a nice high-end graphics card and stick it in a desktop PC and use it for gaming. I don't even bother connecting it to the Internet so I don't have to deal with Windows updates or even have a firewall running. I don't play online games anymore because they are too addicting.
 
As long my iMac runs WoW and I will be able to play Starcraft 2 so I'm happy. I have a Xbox 360 and I play majority of my gaming on that.
 
Firstly, don't believe everything your read on the internet. The HD2600 is not as bad as some reviews have made it out to be, particularly with the last set of drivers from ATI. Many reviews were looking at desktop 2600 Pro cards with DDR2 whereas the iMac has DDR3. Secondly, at the time the iMac was introduced, the ATI card was the fastest laptop card of that generation available (at least according to benchmark results).

If you are a serious PC gamer then you could build a standalone gaming rig for less than $1000 that would probably beat a Mac Pro hands down at gaming. It would not be as aesthetically pleasing as an iMac but it could do its job very well. My kids split their gaming time evenly between their iMacs (and mini), their 360, their Wii and their DS's (and now their iPods) with few complaints.
 
The man above speaks sense.

I play Crysis, Call of Duty 4 and FEAR on my HD2600.

The chip is perfectly adequate, although I understand most reviews from June/July 2007 were testing early samples with old drivers. I got about a 20% jump in performance when I changed from the August to the November drivers.
 
First, the imac's card is not really a 2600 Pro as apple says, but an underclocked 2600 XT.

Second, the 2600 XT can run basically any current game fairly well. You're not going to get 60 fps on crysis with high settings, but the game will run, and most other games will get good fps even with med-high settings.

So in answer to your question, no, the card in the imac is not really that bad. It's not ideal, but it's quite competent. Also, this imac is nearing 8 months old, and hopefully close to being revised, including (again, hopefully) a new graphics card. So do keep in mind that you're evaluating a product near the end of its life cycle.
 
ive just finished playing hl2 + episodes 1 + 2.. on full settings its a slightly dated game but its gorgeous on my imac.. i love it..

And if you want to play games on a mac you have to have windows..

and if your going to have windows and are a gamer.. then why not build a windows gaming machine... i would if i was a 'gamer'..

i gave up on gaming a few years ago for constantly having to pay £100's to upgrade my machine every so often to get the best out of everything and then all the windows reformats and viruses and windows crashes, bsod's and general windows shitness


Im very glad i came to mac for my all round computing!

especially as i can boot into windows for a frag sesh every once in a while.. my imac has been the best windows machine ive had.. albiet windoze does crash whereas leopard hasnt yet :D


im very happy with the graphics gpu.
 
I have a HD 2600 Pro in my old Windows system, allied to an old PentiumD CPU ( 3.0Ghz ) and 4Gb of RAM. That plays most games I want ( C&C3, MTW2 and Civ4 ) with ease. HL2 and CS:S are fine too.

I can only imagine that with a C2D CPU and a RAM increase, an iMac will play most games ( apart from the very latest ) with ease, especially under Boot Camp ?
 
Drivers?! Do they come through the Mac OS X Leopard Software Update or do we have to download them from the ATI site?
 
flopticalcube said:
ATI doesn't supply drivers for laptop cards normally. Bootcamp is an exception. You can also use the standard ATI desktop drivers and run them through Mobility Modder to make them look like laptop drivers.
Click to expand...

So, if mobility modder has that functionality already, why do you need the ones ATI makes specifically for the laptop GPU? Higher performance? Designed around wattage?
 
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