I would build my own. Using Artechnica as a guide. Really it depends on how often you want to update the system. You could build a pretty OC friendly rig and not upgrade every cycle.
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FPS in WoW on iMac 24" alu? Disapointing so far.
- Thread starter PellePirat
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I would build my own. Using Artechnica as a guide. Really it depends on how often you want to update the system. You could build a pretty OC friendly rig and not upgrade every cycle.
Blizzard recently added dual-core support in the 2.3 Update. I'm now getting 30% higher framerates than before...which for me is just icing on the cake now.
I have Multisampling set on the Default and Full Screen Glow turned off...but all other settings are on High. (OSX 10.4, 2GB RAM)
On a typical day, I get 35-52 fps in Shattrath when it's crowded. Call me crazy, but I think that's pretty impressive running at 1,920 x 1,200 Resolution.
The only problem I have had is the stuttering issue the OP mentioned. I have posted on the Blizzard site and others have found this problem. I think this might be more of a Wow/Blizzard problem with the current platform than an issue with your iMac. I expect future patches to resolve this.
Also, the barefeats article shows that games run very well with the 2600 card under vista but not necessarily under OS X. Drivers will be optomized. ATI just fixed the firmware issues. Driver updates will be forthcoming.
Doesn't help when the screen resolution is 1920x1200. See here how the screen resolution cripples fps for any game.
That article was published in 2005. Better video cards have come and gone since then. Why do we continue to make excuses for Apple's bad hardware choices? A buddies Windows PC with a modern video card (from this year) gets twice my FPS. We both have 24" monitors. WoW is three years old, either the game isn't optimized or OS X isn't (drivers included).
Admittedly, I only ever test WoW on the iMacs with the original (1.4) Bootcamp drivers but my results where similar to Barefeats (actually a little faster).
http://www.barefeats.com/imacal3.html
Is the NEW GPU SLOWER than the old one?
If you bought the 24" iMac solely for gaming, and expected it to match your buddy's framerate (he probably paid good money for the video card alone), you should have looked elsewhere.
Most people go with iMacs because they're essentially the most powerful all-in-one system, they come with OSX, and they're much more reliable than anything else out there. I gladly give up a few extra fps for a great system that puts my friend's PCs to shame. He can keep his extra 20 fps in Counterstrike. It's bad enough he has to put up with Windows.
Btw...to put the quality of Dell PCs into perspective...eMachines is now rated higher in reliability than Dell. In fact...eMachines is now the HIGHEST rated PC maker in the desktop category according to the 60,000 users surveyed. After you-know-who of course.
I think it's safe to say that the end is near. lol.
2007 Survey Results
PC World 2007 Survey of 60,000 PC users
I'm pretty sure this is an Intel-related bug. I was playing WoW on my MacBookPro and everything was fine, good framerates, until one of the recent patches (I forget which one exactly). Then, the stuttering began. And it stayed. And WoW became pretty much unplayable. Nothing else had changed on my system and I tried everything to resolve it including a complete reinstall. In frustration, I tried loading up WoW on my older dual G5 with more primitive 64 MB Radeon 9600 Pro GPU, and to my surprise it ran perfectly smoothly (although at a somewhat lower framerate). I capped the framerate at 25 and I've been using the G5 for WoW ever since. The stuttering is a complete deal-killer for me and until they fix it, I can't switch back to the Intel. I suppose it's possible the problem is a combination of a Blizzard and an Apple update, who knows.
So any more people tried wow on the new alu Imac 24"?
I am also one of the ppl planning to take the big step from PC -> Mac
but needs to know I can play Wow, Starcraft 2 atleast without any problem on the new machine.
Anymore ppl want to share their FPS / experience raiding and playing on the new imac alum 24?
I see a lot of thread ppl complaining everywhere which makes me hesitate...
I am also one of the ppl planning to take the big step from PC -> Mac
but needs to know I can play Wow, Starcraft 2 atleast without any problem on the new machine.
Anymore ppl want to share their FPS / experience raiding and playing on the new imac alum 24?
I see a lot of thread ppl complaining everywhere which makes me hesitate...
this is really weird, i just watched a bunch a videos on
youtube with people playing BioShock, Crysis etc with great
fps on a 24" iMac... it had me all excited to get one... but
now reading this really makes me wonder...
youtube with people playing BioShock, Crysis etc with great
fps on a 24" iMac... it had me all excited to get one... but
now reading this really makes me wonder...
Isn't anything above 60 FPS totally unnecessary? I'm not an FPS gamer, but it seems to me that a frame rate higher than a regular television signal would be past the point of making a difference. TV runs at 30 fps (or 60 fps if you consider interlacing) and the picture's motion looks seamlessly fluid.
Why would anyone care about a frame rate higher than that? The only reason I can guess is that maybe the games don't utilize any motion blur, so moving objects appear choppy on screen in the same way that broadcast sports events in the late 90's used to look choppy after they started using those high-speed cameras for the regular broadcast signal instead of just on the slo-mo cameras like they do now. Is that what's going o, or is it something else?
What's the deal?
Why would anyone care about a frame rate higher than that? The only reason I can guess is that maybe the games don't utilize any motion blur, so moving objects appear choppy on screen in the same way that broadcast sports events in the late 90's used to look choppy after they started using those high-speed cameras for the regular broadcast signal instead of just on the slo-mo cameras like they do now. Is that what's going o, or is it something else?
What's the deal?
Greater than 60 fps is totally unnecessary for WoW, in fact anything over 30 fps is really not necessary (I believe the game caps the frame rate at 100 by default, but most people use the /maxfps option to bring that down). What the important thing is, and the hard thing to achieve, is consistent frame rate. Because in WoW, when the action gets heavy and you get a lot of objects and effects on screen, the frame rate can dip and that can have more than visual consequences, it can get your character (along with your whole party) killed. So even though >60 fps is unnecessary, higher average frame rates generally mean that when you get a dip (and you will), it'll be less likely to cripple you. The difference between a short dip to 10 fps and a dip to 3 fps can be important.
Like I posted before, I get 35-40 with everything turned up all the way at 1680x1050 except multisampling i have at 1x. my friend has a 20" alum imac with a R2600 and he gets 45-50 with the same settings as me.
I think I am done with that game now though. level 27 is enough for me.
I think I am done with that game now though. level 27 is enough for me.
Now that OSX is out apple and ati should be able to improve these drivers, I only see them getting better in the future but its going to take some more time. There are a few games that are running less then the hardware can do. I dont think the games from varios companys were getting the attention from Apple/Ati/Nvidia that they should have. 2008 things should start hopping . Just give me my UT3 on Mac and ill be happy.
OS X has been out for six and a half years, why should 2008 be dramatically different? There has been slow improvements in OS X for gaming, but I wouldn't expect anything amazing to happen over what we have now (but for the record I think WoW runs adequately on modern Mac hardware).
I think he meant Leopard. Also, I'm pretty sure the real problem here is solely on the new iMacs with the crappy ATI cards in them. The card specs aren't even bad, it's the POS drivers. They're bad even in Windows.
I just wish ATI would get off their ass and actually start delivering quality graphics card drivers again.
Okay that makes sense. But if that's the problem, why don't they make visual effects switching dynamic during game play? Meaning obviously frame rate is more important than anything else when the action gets heavy, so the system should have a threshold where when the frame rate dips below a certain point it should automatically switch off extra visual effects. That way you'd be able to have all the great looking visual effects turned on when things are going slow in the game and you have time to appreciate them, and when things get fast paced and you aren't likely to even notice the fancy visual effects then you also get a fast frame rate.
If anyone implements this idea in their game, you can have this idea for free, but I want my name in game credits!
From a developer point of view, switching effects on/off dynamically and on the fly is not really the way to go, it would means building another set of logic on top of what you are already running which leads to more unnecessary load. It is better to allow the players themselves to customize and follow that rule strictly. Furthermore, what you think is acceptable or not acceptable is pretty much very subjective to each individual.Okay that makes sense. But if that's the problem, why don't they make visual effects switching dynamic during game play? Meaning obviously frame rate is more important than anything else when the action gets heavy, so the system should have a threshold where when the frame rate dips below a certain point it should automatically switch off extra visual effects. That way you'd be able to have all the great looking visual effects turned on when things are going slow in the game and you have time to appreciate them, and when things get fast paced and you aren't likely to even notice the fancy visual effects then you also get a fast frame rate.
If anyone implements this idea in their game, you can have this idea for free, but I want my name in game credits!
That's true, but you just make that a setting. So the user could set the frame rate threshold for reduce visual fx mode to kick in.
Okay, so what effects get turned off? And how does the dev not make it noticeable? I mean I sure would notice if I all of a sudden had distance fog or items far away that I am tageting are dissapearing on me.
Yeah, but as has already been pointed out, the 24" iMac's native resolution puts quite a strain on the system's resources.
The HD2600 is a mid-range graphics adapter, and it's not powerful enough to decently run recent games at 1920x1200. People running WoW on 20" iMacs apparently don't have that kind of trouble.
On the other hand, I've seen Oblivion and The Witcher on a 24" iMac, and both were running quite well, so YMMV.
I got a 15" MBP back in June (2.4 GHz, 2 gigs RAM, 8600 GTM w/ 256 megs), and it's a decent gaming rig. I've been playing Overlord, Neverwinter Nights 2, Titan Quest and The Witcher, all running at 1440x900 (native resolution) with most or all options on.
I haven't really gamed on OS X, though, and since I quit WoW quite some time ago, I can't say how well it runs on a MBP, though there are plenty of other threads on that specific subject.
OS X is certainly one of the main reasons, along with the fact that the iMac is damn sleek.
Reliability, though, both hardware and software, seems to have fallen much lower on the list of Apple priorities in recent times ...
I think Apple has to do a lot more to ruin it's reputation in that respect. Here in the forums, we're hearing of every problem that has ever happened to an iMac owner...and it tends to give the impression that Apple's quality control is slipping. Despite this, the majority of iMac users never have any problems at all.
PC World released their 2007 survey recently...
PC World Survey of 60,000 Computer Users
Apple came out #1 in both Reliability and Customer Satisfaction in both the desktop and laptop categories. No surprise there.
