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How well does the iMac 27" i7 do for games?

N

nizmoz

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 7, 2008
1,410
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I plan to retire my 3 year old system that has a dieing motherboard which I use for gaming. I play Battlefield games, WOW, Kalonline, Metal of Honor, Call of Duty type of games. I can build a pretty powerful gaming system for the price of the imac, but I really want to get a imac and hope it can run all these games just as good too. If anyone can give me some ideas if it can please let me know. Will I be able to use my Logitech Joystick, gaming keyboard, etc with it?

Thanks ahead of time for the advice guys.
 
On my 2009" i5 I'm able to run Crysis 2 at 1080p with High Details on. This is the system with the Radeon HD 4850. So I'd assume the current i7 model is even better, since it has the 5750.

But I'd wait for the iMac refresh this year, if possible. The gains of Sandy Bridge architecture will be pretty huge, and the graphics card bump is always nice. Especially if you're going to be getting Battlefield 3 and Skyrim later this year.
 
bamtan said:
On my 2009" i5 I'm able to run Crysis 2 at 1080p with High Details on. This is the system with the Radeon HD 4850. So I'd assume the current i7 model is even better, since it has the 5750.

But I'd wait for the iMac refresh this year, if possible. The gains of Sandy Bridge architecture will be pretty huge, and the graphics card bump is always nice. Especially if you're going to be getting Battlefield 3 and Skyrim later this year.
Click to expand...

The current iMac is only slightly better in gaming performance than the Fall 2009.

About Skyrim: I am sure the graphics will not be more demanding than Crysis2
 
probably stupid but the question:
Is there Crysis and all other games dedicated for Mac OS or you are playing on Windows installed with BC?
 
If you can: wait for the upcoming iMac refresh. The performance gain is worth waiting for, especially if you're a gamer.

Your peripherals won't be a problem, since you'll probably install Windows too. And Windows on the iMac is just like Windows on a normal PC.
 
brachson said:
probably stupid but the question:
Is there Crysis and all other games dedicated for Mac OS or you are playing on Windows installed with BC?
Click to expand...

Bootcamp.
Crysis (2) is only for Windows, not for OSX, like most of the games.
If you want to game on the iMac, you'll use Bootcamp for Windows.
 
Chris5488 said:
If you can: wait for the upcoming iMac refresh. The performance gain is worth waiting for, especially if you're a gamer.

Your peripherals won't be a problem, since you'll probably install Windows too. And Windows on the iMac is just like Windows on a normal PC.
Click to expand...


Yep, I will need to install Windows for a game or two. I will mostly use the Mac side if the games will work on that, but when a game doesn't support MACs I will have to switch to the Windows side.

I plan to wait for the refresh as my old system is still holding in there barely.
 
Yep. Wish we really knew exactly what the new Imac was going to have! :(
 
Lord Appleseed said:
It wouldnt surprise me if they put in the same GPU's as in the recent MacBook Pros. They're not bad, but not exactly an improvement either.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping to see a 6970M or 6850M (aka undervolted/underclocked desktop 6850) to appear in the top end 27" model.
 
Lord Appleseed said:
The HD 6750M isn't a downgrade to the Mobility HD 5750.
Click to expand...

It is. The 5750 is actually a 5850m. And a 6850 is a downgrade from a 5850. So the 6750m certainly is. A 6950 would be an upgrade but not by a huge amount. At least the desktop cards, I would think the mobility cards would be somewhat similar.

The 6000 series can be somewhat misleading as you'd expect better performance at similar numbers such as the 6850 or 5850. Even the 6970m can't quite catch my desktop 460gtx which is only a midrange card. And I'd hope for more power considering the higher resolution of the 27" iMac.
 
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If you are serious about gaming, I say skip this generation and the next generation altogether and build your own gaming rig.

I have the current i7 model and for all intents and purposes, it is a beast and chews through anything I throw at it, with the exception of games at native resolution.

I currently play COD WAW and Black Ops, Medal of Honor and Left 4 Dead 2. I run full details/high quality at 1920 x 1050 (or whatever that 2nd number is) and get online FPS at 50 and above in heavy situations, which is more than respectable but if you are REALLY into gaming, you probably want higher resolutions and maybe even better framerates.

If I run the same games at the same detail settings and native resolution (2560 x 1440) FPS is 30 to 40's and IMO that is not a good framerate for online FPS. Single Player is different, it looks amazing and I'll play that way all day long.

Waiting on the next gen will probably still be a disappointment for the gaming world as we are only going to see a 10-15% performance boost over the current i7. Sandy Bridge and a 6850 are not going to give the current i7 the boost that the people in the macbook world have seen compared to prior generations

To close, if the FPS numbers I mentioned above are acceptable to you, by all means get the iMac. I know I do not regret it nor ever think about a more powerful rig. I would suggest waiting though, the new hardware should be out soon and you might as well get every FPS with the money you spend.
 
Assuming we get a new imac in the next month or 2, when would be the next refresh after that ?

I understand BF3 is coming out in the latter part of the year and whilst i'm not intending to buy an imac as a gaming platform it would be nice to be able to play BF3 if possible. With that in mind, what would get improved on a refresh ? Would the gfx card get bumped up a bit ?

Sorry for the noob questions, new to apple so am unaware of how their refresh cycles go and i can wait to let this upgrade pass by and await the next one if it ties in with the release of BF3 and i get better gfx/cpu as a result.
 
archer75 said:
It is. The 5750 is actually a 5850m. And a 6850 is a downgrade from a 5850. So the 6750m certainly is. A 6950 would be an upgrade but not by a huge amount. At least the desktop cards, I would think the mobility cards would be somewhat similar.

The 6000 series can be somewhat misleading as you'd expect better performance at similar numbers such as the 6850 or 5850. Even the 6970m can't quite catch my desktop 460gtx which is only a midrange card. And I'd hope for more power considering the higher resolution of the 27" iMac.
Click to expand...

According to Notebookheck the HD6950M has 2GB Graphics Ram and 256bit.
I'd call that a huge upgrade from the current one.
Oh well, lets just wait and see.
 
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