iMac and external gpu

[corvus32]

Seeing as how the conversation has turned in this direction, how many year(s) do you guys figure the top end imac gpu will be able to handle (the majority of) games at medium-ish settings? I'm not talking crysis-like games here, that are already even pushing the limits, but stuff like Portal 2, WoW, Rift, Civ, other less-gpu-intensive FPS games...

You have until we start seeing "less-gpu-intensive games" and "CryENGINE 3" used interchangeably.

Until then, enjoy.

 

[archer75]

Seeing as how the conversation has turned in this direction, how many year(s) do you guys figure the top end imac gpu will be able to handle (the majority of) games at medium-ish settings? I'm not talking crysis-like games here, that are already even pushing the limits, but stuff like Portal 2, WoW, Rift, Civ, other less-gpu-intensive FPS games...

Do you think we'll be seeing the gpu struggling with high settings, native res by the end of the year (medium settings, native res this time next year)? I've been playing WoW on my 2006 C2D mbp with no issues at medium-ish settings. I feel like we might be underestimating the functional longevity of these machines.

Obviously I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I do like to play and keeping up with modern games is somewhat important. My 2006 C2D macbook can't really handle Portal 2 (which is one of the reasons I'm looking at upgrading... after ~5 years of use, it's feeling outdated), but it's done otherwise well up to this point.

It can handle crysis 2 now. I was just playing it last night at native rez. And I don't see game system requirements climbing at the rate they used to. I think it will do well for a couple of years.

 

[topmounter]

Game on your 21.5" iMac as long as you can and when it runs thin on horsepower, just spend the money you saved not buying the 27" iMac on a dedicated gaming PC. If you don't want to build it yourself, you can always have a local computer shop do it for you.

 

[sth]

I'd love to see someone getting an external PCIe graphics card to work via TB and route the display signal back to the iMac's second TB port.
Don't get your hopes high on performance (TB not much faster than a PCIe (v1) 4x slot), though. I'd just like to know if it's possible from the software-side.