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Diablo 3 Showdown: iMac 8800gs vs MBP 9600gt

C

czeluff

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2006
272
2
Hello to all,

I'm purchasing a 24" iMac tonight. There's no changing my opinion on this. I'm curious, however, as to what people think will playing Diablo 3 better: the iMac's 8800GS or the MBPs 9600M GT.

Quick notes:

1. the iMac's GPU is a desktop GPU, the MBPs is mobile (duh)
2. the iMac 8800gs has 512mb of memory, the MBP i'm curious to compare it to would be the 256mb version.
3. The 9xxx series natively supports DX10, the 8 series does not. Keep in mind, though, that I will be playing this game in OSX, not in Windows.

Thanks everyone. Also, if you wouldn't mind throwing out your thoughts as to the average FPS with each of these machines; that'd be good to know. Diablo 3 has been in development for quite some time, and compared to many games already released, it doesn't have THE most mind-blowing graphics. Do you guys estimate ~30FPS with these cards, 40fps, 50+?

Chad Z
 
I think it's all pure speculation at this point...we can make guesses all day, but without seeing the minimum and "recommended" specs, we won't know for sure. *shrug*
 
czeluff said:
Hello to all,

I'm purchasing a 24" iMac tonight. There's no changing my opinion on this. I'm curious, however, as to what people think will playing Diablo 3 better: the iMac's 8800GS or the MBPs 9600M GT.

Quick notes:

1. the iMac's GPU is a desktop GPU, the MBPs is mobile (duh)
2. the iMac 8800gs has 512mb of memory, the MBP i'm curious to compare it to would be the 256mb version.
3. The 9xxx series natively supports DX10, the 8 series does not. Keep in mind, though, that I will be playing this game in OSX, not in Windows.

Thanks everyone. Also, if you wouldn't mind throwing out your thoughts as to the average FPS with each of these machines; that'd be good to know. Diablo 3 has been in development for quite some time, and compared to many games already released, it doesn't have THE most mind-blowing graphics. Do you guys estimate ~30FPS with these cards, 40fps, 50+?

Chad Z
Click to expand...
I'm afraid that most of your information is incorrect.

1. The iMac GPU is actually a laptop card - Apple wants you to think it's a desktop GPU by calling it an 8800 GS, but it's actually just an 8800m GTS.
2. The iMac GPU does support DX10 (the 8800 series were the first DX10 chips, and the 8800m GTS is no exception).
3. I'll be very surprised if the 8800m isn't significantly faster than the 9600m - yes, it's a last generation card, but it's the high-end laptop card of the last generation, whereas the 9600m is only the midlevel card of the current generation. Going by http://www.notebookcheck.net, the 8800m GTS is in the middle of the Class 1 cards, while the 9600m GT is in the middle of the Class 2 cards. Throw in the double video ram and the 8800m should be the clear winner in just about any benchmark vs the 9600.

I don't have any specific framerate estimates, but I'd bet that your iMac will get significantly better numbers than the new MBP.
 
9600M GT < 8800M GTS

Heck of a lot more shaders and memory bandwith on the 8800M GTS. It's a rather powerful mobile GPU.
 
thx for fixing

I apologize for the wrong info. Thanks very much for correcting me :)

Glad to hear most people think the iMac will still be a better machine. As much as I'd like to wait a few months to see if Apple updates the iMacs with Quad-core and a 9800M GT (or something similar), I already know the 24" iMac is a gorgeous machine, stable, and has a Firewire 400. Losing that on my desktop would NOT be good.

Chad
 
The imac is basically a laptop mounted on its side and connected to a big LCD aka laptop parts inside.

You won't be seeing a quadcore processor or anything near desktop class GPU til they are being seen in laptops. :)
 
Radio Monk33 said:
The imac is basically a laptop mounted on its side and connected to a big LCD aka laptop parts inside.

You won't be seeing a quadcore processor or anything near desktop class GPU til they are being seen in laptops. :)
Click to expand...

Actually, the iMac has had a desktop GPU before - the BTO upgrade of the 7600 GT in the white iMacs was a desktop card, for instance.
 
Eidorian said:
9600M GT < 8800M GTS

Heck of a lot more shaders and memory bandwith on the 8800M GTS. It's a rather powerful mobile GPU.
Click to expand...

The iMac doesn't have a 8800M GTS. It's a 8800M GS. Big difference. The GS is a very cut down version of the GT, which is slower than the GTS.
Basically, GTS>GT>>GS
 
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