iMac and the radeon x1600

[zooburner]

Hiya there

I'm thinking of making the break from a PC to a Mac, the model i have my eye on is a 20 inch Imac, and im thinking of a 2.2duo, 2gb Ram, and x1600 256mb upgrade.

Now the only thing that concerns me a bit is the X1600, i currently have a pc that runs a X800 XL on agp, 1gb ram, P4 3.0 now i know in tests the X800 easily outperformed the X1600 in tests in the world of AGP.

Can anyone tell me if the X1600 is any good for games, and to give examples of games they have been able to run on it at a decent framerate, im just trying to work out if in the end this will be an upgrade or downgrade.

as for software im going to try and run all universal software (to take better advantage of the intel chip) the software i have thought of based on looking at reviews is

Mariner Write (for word processing)
Freeway Pro (for web design & publishing)
Toast 8 (for cd/dvd burning etc)
and PS CS3 (for photo ediing) .. when it comes out that is

I have my eye on other various Freeware/retail products but they are my main concern.

I would welcome any opinions and advice from anyone who has used these programs and general advice on the Imac itself.

Many thanks
zooburner

 

[Eidorian]

Topic beaten to death...

http://www.google.com/search?q=imac x1600

https://forums.macrumors.com/search/?searchid=5206525

 

[zooburner]

Thanks

Thanks for those links, they tell me all i need to know.

Effectively to get the performance i feel comfortable with i would have to get a 24 inch or Power Mac, the PM is overpriced, and the 24inch oversized, plus the cost of software.

Ive decided to spend my budget of £2,500 on a good pc.

But thanks for your help

zoo

 

[wazgilbert]

Topic beaten to death...

http://www.google.com/search?q=imac x1600

https://forums.macrumors.com/search/?searchid=5206525

and 2nd link broken. I'd like to have benefitted too - any ideas?

 

[reflex]

For what it's worth ...

I have a gaming computer with an X800-XL and both an iMac and Macbook Pro with an X1600. So far I haven't noticed any difference in gaming performance.

I do recommend getting 2GB of ram either way, if you didn't plan on that yet.

 

[Eidorian]

and 2nd link broken. I'd like to have benefitted too - any ideas?

The second link was a MacRumors forum search using the query "X1600". The link is time dependent so yes YOU TOO can search the forums.

 

[roland.g]

Maybe you've heard of the best gaming machine out there.
Awesome framerate. Best graphics card.
Comes at you lightning fast.

It's called planet earth.
They have footballs, basketballs, soccer balls, hockey skates and sticks and pucks, skis, snowboards, just to name a few, and they all tie in this great concept of heart rate and oxygen.

 

[Maynerd]

Maybe you've heard of the best gaming machine out there.
Awesome framerate. Best graphics card.
Comes at you lightning fast.

It's called planet earth.
They have footballs, basketballs, soccer balls, hockey skates and sticks and pucks, skis, snowboards, just to name a few, and they all tie in this great concept of heart rate and oxygen.

your post has nothing to do with the OP maybe you posted this in the wrong thread

 

[LBmacman]

your post has nothing to do with the OP maybe you posted this in the wrong thread

LOL

 

[Peace]

My iMac has the 256 Meg version of the X1600 and I play WoW almost every day and whenever I go into a heavy battle it does great.

Of course the iMac I have also has the C2D 2.33 CPU.

I'd recommend it to any gamer.

 

[Eidorian]

I strongly suggest getting the 256 MB upgrade. I wish I had.

I'm running into a texture limit with some newer games. It's not the clock speed that's the issue but the lack of video RAM to store the larger more detailed textures.

I've clocked mine to 480/520 with no ill effects for hours of gaming. (Windows that is.)

 

[maconservative]

I "switched" from a PC with Intel Northwood 3.0 GHz, 2 GB RAM, ATI X850XT AGP 256 VRAM, etc. to the Rev. A Intel 1.83 GHz Core Duo 17 " iMac with ATI X1600 128 MB VRAM.

A long story short, my iMac plays Battlefield 2, using Boot Camp, better than my "gaming" PC.