Can you game on a 1GB vRAM iMac?

[TheMasterOfTech]

So I want to buy a new (to me) iMac and I have seen a considerable amount of 2012 27 inch/2013 21.5 and 27 inch iMacs with the 1GB Nvidia card. so Im wondering what games you could play on it, and how god it is with just general usage. Iy would probably have a ssd and 8-16gb of ddr3 ram. the games I want to be able to play are:
minecraft (doesn't need that powerful of specs)
car mechanic simulator 2018/21 (look up the requirements if you don't know already)

or should I just save up a bit more and just get the newer retina ones with 2-4gb of vRAM and just don't buy the older one?

 

[velocityg4]

It’ll be fine playing games from that era. Maybe some new light weight Indy games.

General usage should be decent. Especially if you install an SSD. I think the Ivy Bridge models are the first with SATA3.

 

[saudor]

Depends on what you else are planning but Mine craft should be fine. These simulation type games tend to be more CPU bound. Intel was lazy from 2011 to 2017 so the cpu performance is generally about the same. The GPU is weak for modern games though.

in either case, I'd strongly recommend installing windows via bootcamp - games run so much better

 

[Lihp8270]

You may get some luck with older games running at 720p on low quality textures.

1gb of vram really is nothing these days.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

So I want to buy a new (to me) iMac and I have seen a considerable amount of 2012 27 inch/2013 21.5 and 27 inch iMacs with the 1GB Nvidia card. so Im wondering what games you could play on it, and how god it is with just general usage. Iy would probably have a ssd and 8-16gb of ddr3 ram. the games I want to be able to play are:
minecraft (doesn't need that powerful of specs)
car mechanic simulator 2018/21 (look up the requirements if you don't know already)

or should I just save up a bit more and just get the newer retina ones with 2-4gb of vRAM and just don't buy the older one?

There are tons of games to play on that iMac.
Like Texas Hold'em or a kin.