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iMac 27 inch and gaming
- Thread starter palebluedot
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^^Hellhammer was looking at this in another thread, the mobile 4850 is just a desktop version with lower clock speeds, the mobile 5850 is a slowed down 5770.
So are you saying the current iMac graphics card is good or bad? You made it sound like there is a chance they will update it to a better ATI card soon. The iMac is in mid-cycle after all.
At 2560 x 1440 the results were
Average, Min, Max
20, 11, 43
20, 10, 42
20, 10, 42
(I ran the benchmark 3 times...)
Yikes, so not even 60fps?
At 2560 x 1440 the results were
Average, Min, Max
20, 11, 43
20, 10, 42
20, 10, 42
(I ran the benchmark 3 times...)
how much aa? those numbers seem very low if I can get a solid 30 out of dirt2 with the mobility 4850.
Is it possible to over clock in OS X? I am going to be gaming more in OS X once Steam for OS X comes out with L4D2, TF2, etc.
I doubt it's possible since you have to use Apple's "drivers".
^^Just run 1080 on the 27", still looks great and with the likelihood of more and more games supporting quad core cpu's the i5/i7 is a winner. Plus it'll have a better resale value when the iMacs with x-fired 5790's are released
^^Just run 1080 on the 27", still looks great and with the likelihood of more and more games supporting quad core cpu's the i5/i7 is a winner. Plus it'll have a better resale value when the iMacs with x-fired 5790's are released
From my experience with monitors you will not be getting the same clarity. It's not like running 720p on a tv that supports 1080p. Also the processor has minimal impact on gaming.
And if Apple can't even fit a desktop 4850 in the 27 inch iMac how do you expect them to fit two 5790's?
Err... in an iMac with not much room I'd rather not, I shudder at the thought of thermal damage.
GTA IV is a terrible example. The only reason why the CPU is used so much is because it's terribly optimized. Rockstar really dropped the ball with the port, and again you will be playing at a lower resolution on the 24" making it stress less on the GPU. But even if you really want to use that as an example here's GTA 4 running on an early 2009 iMac with a GT 130(512 MB),CPU impact varies from game to game, try playing GTA IV and saying a quad CPU had minimal impact over a Dua.
As for the 5790's: Sarcasm, this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gewxKRji8tY
If the GT 130 with a Core 2 Duo can play it that smooth I'm sure the 4850 will do it that much better.
To put things into perspective here's a 27" iMac playing it at native resolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUgidrRtWZM
The 24" iMac gets a much better framerate.
And you can't detect sarcasm on the internet very well, a wink face can mean a lot more than just sarcasm.
So do you really think the 24" C2D could game better than the 27" i5/i7?
Does anyone know if there are plans to release a 21" i5/i7 with that GPU in the iMacs right now? It's kind of strange the 27" has modern specs but the other ones are speced with a last gen processor (C2D) and GPU.
Does anyone know if there are plans to release a 21" i5/i7 with that GPU in the iMacs right now? It's kind of strange the 27" has modern specs but the other ones are speced with a last gen processor (C2D) and GPU.
I don't think so, I know so. The 24" with the 4850 is the best iMac for gaming at the moment.
No, the 27" can use all the same resolutions as the 24" plus higher ones for less taxing games, add to that the quad CPU that more and more games/apps will start to use and a higher RAM ceiling and the 27" makes sense. It'll be faster in other tasks that are highly multi-threaded which should be useful in the long run as I'm assuming you'll be doing more then just gaming.
A 21" with a 4850 and Quad i5/i7 would run very hot indeed, we'll probably see them with the dual core i5/i7 and Nvidia 320 or Radeon equivalent.
The only problem with the 27" running at a lower resolution than native(like all monitors) everything will look MUCH worse than a 24" running natively. I've been over this already. There's a reason why no one runs their monitors lower than native resolution.
Right now I can't even think of 10 games that actually utilize a quad core CPU. Same things goes for apps, there are very few multithreaded apps that use all cores. The 24" iMac goes up to 8 GB of RAM, I have yet to see someone with a 27" iMac that has more than 8GB of RAM and if they do you can bet that they payed up the nose for it. By the time apps actually start utilizing these multiple cores efficiently will be when the 4850 will have passed its time and also time for you to upgrade to a newer more powerful machine. I buy products that will perform well by todays standards, not tomorrows. Because by the time tomorrow comes around will be when I'm ready to upgrade.
Not to mention a 24" refurb goes for around $1000 cheaper than a new 27". Paying $1000 more bucks for a CPU that most things don't even utilize and a high res monitor that you plan on running at a lower resolution than native? That's your call.
I play Battlefield 2 Bad Company on my 27" i7
I run through Bootcamp Windows XP SP 3 - I have a Windows7 Upgrade though that I have yet to run.
It all runs very nicely except for the fact that I cannot play the game with sound on Multiplayer because it crashes immediately. Single player is fine, but I have played a ton of Multiplayer without sound, so I just listen to my iPod instead, rather than constant machine gun noise.
It does take me out of the game sometimes, and it isn't as immersive, but I run 2560x1440 with high settings and its fine.
Hopefully Dice fixes the issue, but from what I have been reading, Dice is a **** company when it comes to fixing glitches, and problems with coding and programming.
I run through Bootcamp Windows XP SP 3 - I have a Windows7 Upgrade though that I have yet to run.
It all runs very nicely except for the fact that I cannot play the game with sound on Multiplayer because it crashes immediately. Single player is fine, but I have played a ton of Multiplayer without sound, so I just listen to my iPod instead, rather than constant machine gun noise.
It does take me out of the game sometimes, and it isn't as immersive, but I run 2560x1440 with high settings and its fine.
Hopefully Dice fixes the issue, but from what I have been reading, Dice is a **** company when it comes to fixing glitches, and problems with coding and programming.
I have no issues with Battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer although I'm using Windows 7, just letting you know so that you can expect it to work once you upgrade your system from XP.
Just do yourself a favor and think of it as a desktop card! It's a unique mobility card in that it's based directly off its desktop counterpart (same number of shaders, transistors, bus width etc) except it's clocked lower than desktop version.
It's a very good card, and will run most modern games at native resolution just fine with high-max settings. Only thing it won't do is pump your epenis.
It's a very good card, and will run most modern games at native resolution just fine with high-max settings. Only thing it won't do is pump your epenis.