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Gaming on the 27" iMac with the 4850

Darknight670 said:
And now we need to go on GPu-Z on bootcamp to find out whether Apple undeclocked the 4850M or not xD
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Already been done and determined. There are even "rumors" that Apple under clocked it even more than they originally did when they released the fix for the first wave of 4850 issues. Keep in mind these cards have been in the the last gen of high end iMacs since April.
 
DoFoT9 said:
true. but the next updates wont be as impressive as this one - e.g. the jump from dual core to quad core basically doubles the power of the machine! the next update will be like what 10% faster?
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But honestly, does the quad core double the power for gaming? And how's that hyperthreading working out? :rolleyes:

You're probably better off getting a used MacPro and a 4890 if you're going to do a lot of game playing.
 
Animalk said:
In a years time, if it isn't already the case now, you won't be able to smoothly scroll the itunes store front page if you make the itunes window size anywhere close to full screen. The IMacs at the store which I tried last week already couldn't do it.
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First of all, why would you want to have the iTunes Store window at full screen especially at that resolution, all you'd get is a bunch of dead space. Plus, I just tried it on my new 27" system and it's smooth as silk.

I am installing Windows 7 next week and will report back on my experience with some games like Half-Life Episode 2, Modern Warfare 2 etc. WoW already runs like butter but we knew that.
 
Since the GPU looks to be on a completely different card, maybe the HD 4850 can be changed with something more powerful later on. Maybe the next iMac refresh will have 5800 series card? Naturally it would cost a lot, but so do my other hobbies, too!
 
Darknight670 said:
And now we need to go on GPu-Z on bootcamp to find out whether Apple undeclocked the 4850M or not xD
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i would so laugh if apple actually over clocked this GPU. they have excellent cooling in there now so maybe a few extra MHz wouldnt hurt ;)

eelpout said:
But honestly, does the quad core double the power for gaming? And how's that hyperthreading working out? :rolleyes:

You're probably better off getting a used MacPro and a 4890 if you're going to do a lot of game playing.
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nah of course the quad core isnt gonna help gaming. the top C2D will beat the top quad in game tests by a few FPS. its for the other stuff that it is good for, i dont really care for gaming that much.
 
I have been saving for a mac pro for a while now, then the Imac 27 in quad came out, and I began to think it would be a viable option (I use C4D, Photoshop, and Xcode), I thought hmm 4850 isn't great but 512 megs of GDDR5 memory is still pretty good, but then I almost cried when I saw that it was a scaled down version with 512 megs of GDDR3 Ram. Many of you might say that "C4D is mostly CPU based," yes, it is, but I have seen Alienware Vs Mac Pro 8 core, and the 8 Core mac pro (2.26GHz) barely beat the 4 core Alienware (2.86GHz or something). I looked into it, and the Mac pro was hurt so bad because it had a gt 120, whereas the Alien had some 1.8GB card. I love apple, but I had better see a 5870 six in the mac pro by June.
 
Mhkobe said:
I have been saving for a mac pro for a while now, then the Imac 27 in quad came out, and I began to think it would be a viable option (I use C4D, Photoshop, and Xcode), I thought hmm 4850 isn't great but 512 megs of GDDR5 memory is still pretty good, but then I almost cried when I saw that it was a scaled down version with 512 megs of GDDR3 Ram. Many of you might say that "C4D is mostly CPU based," yes, it is, but I have seen Alienware Vs Mac Pro 8 core, and the 8 Core mac pro (2.26GHz) barely beat the 4 core Alienware (2.86GHz or something). I looked into it, and the Mac pro was hurt so bad because it had a gt 120, whereas the Alien had some 1.8GB card. I love apple, but I had better see a 5870 six in the mac pro by June.
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You know you can buy a GTX 285 for the Mac Pro right>
 
DoFoT9 said:
you do realise that both the CPU & GPU can be replaced in the iMac?

CPU uses the i7 860 or i5 760 which use the 1156 socket, there are plenty of those types of sockets - easy to replace.

the GPU isnt soldered on (has been verified by a user on this very thread). if you can find a mobility GPU then you can put it in yourself.
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Has anyone actually tried it successfully? I wouldn't get my hopes up... chances are OS X won't even work with your upgraded CPU or GPU without some kind of kernel hack which will break the rest of OS X ala hackintosh.
 
deadpoet said:
Has anyone actually tried it successfully? I wouldn't get my hopes up... chances are OS X won't even work with your upgraded CPU or GPU without some kind of kernel hack which will break the rest of OS X ala hackintosh.
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nobody has tried it AFAIK, way too expensive. but it has been observed that the GPU isnt soldered on, so it can be done. whether it works or not is another question (of course)
 
Sillyness

Macs have never been built for gamers and never will be. Every time a new Mac machine comes out the gamers whine and whine and whine about how bad the machine is for gaming. I also have a feeling that all those gamers had no intention whatsoever to buy a Mac in the first place. Get over it. There are a ton of pc's made built for gaming out there and most are cheaper then any Mac. :cool:
 
EddieGDub said:
Macs have never been built for gamers and never will be. Every time a new Mac machine comes out the gamers whine and whine and whine about how bad the machine is for gaming. I also have a feeling that all those gamers had no intention whatsoever to buy a Mac in the first place. Get over it. There are a ton of pc's made built for gaming out there and most are cheaper then any Mac. :cool:
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Well, I'm a gamer, and I was really excited about the new iMac. In fact, I'd ordered an i7. I'm also a software dev and was excited about the prospect of having a gorgeous machine that I could do everything on (play games, do iPhone dev and general computing goodness)

it was going to be my first mac too, but I've cancelled my order. Shame Apple are too cheap to put decent hardware in such an expensive machine. I guess I'll stick to PCs then, since I'm obviously not apples target market
 
I've got a gtx 285 1GB in my Mac Pro, it's a very good card :)
It's too bad Apple didn't include a 5850 in the iMac, or even GTX 285 1GB, that'd be awesome.
 
What ARE the chances of a stronger card coming? I need my MBP over the xmas break, so going to sell it and get the imac in January. IF there was an update, when would it happen?
 
DoFoT9 said:
most certainly not by christmas. i guess May.
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Any chance in Jan/Feb with the MBP refreshes?


The thing is, the only game I've not been able to run acceptably is Age of Conan, and this is on my MacbookPro. Is the 4870 an improvement over the 9600M GT?
 
It should suit me fine then. Anyone have any opinion on Age of Conan? How it will run? I like things to be smooth, only thing I'm picking about it a long view distance. Could only get this in 1024x768 on my MBP and that's no fun.


I'm very interested in changing this chip myself, seeing as it appears unsoldered. Are there any immediate options? Am I right in thinking the restrictions come from it being a Mac, and that windows mobility cards would not work?
 
Jason Beck said:
Just save yourself a lot of money and buy yourself a big HDTV and an XBOX. It'll last you longer. Well the TV will anyways.
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If it were possible spending a few hundred dollars on a new gfx chip would not be more expensive than buying a a big TV, and xbox 360 + accessories, and re-buying all the games I have on the computer.
 
DoFoT9 said:
finally some actual numbers to go off!! thanks for the link.
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We at Bare Feats Labs plan to run the same test set on the iMac Core i5 and i7 (both with the 4850) to post early next week, but I'll be surprised if they are any faster than the Core 2 Duo with the 4850 we tested earlier this year.
 
barefeats said:
We at Bare Feats Labs plan to run the same test set on the iMac Core i5 and i7 (both with the 4850) to post early next week, but I'll be surprised if they are any faster than the Core 2 Duo with the 4850 we tested earlier this year.
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i would assume the same thing. i presumed that the C2D E8600 (3.33GHz) would score the highest - unless there is a single-core game that there is to test, in which case the i7 may score higher because of turbo-boost @ 3.46GHz.

cant wait for the results :) will you be testing at full resolution? my i7 imac will arrive in the first week of december. :eek:
 
EddieGDub said:
Macs have never been built for gamers and never will be. Every time a new Mac machine comes out the gamers whine and whine and whine about how bad the machine is for gaming. I also have a feeling that all those gamers had no intention whatsoever to buy a Mac in the first place. Get over it. There are a ton of pc's made built for gaming out there and most are cheaper then any Mac. :cool:
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Some of us are casual PC gamers who are also Mac users. I prefer having just one machine instead of two -- I consider it a pain having to switch between machines, and no, I'm not one of those power user types.

I don't think the iMac will ever get a desktop video card because of its tight form factor. So gaming will forever be hobbled on the iMac. Ah well...

panzer06 said:
You're kidding right? The 4870 is worlds better than the 9600. See here for a comparison of the mobile chipsets. Not that any Mac uses the mobile 4870.
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I assume it generates a bucketload more heat than the 9600, so it'll probably be a no-go for now. Apple's laptops and iMacs never go for the latest video cards because of the heat problems within a small chassis.
 
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