Imac - great to play with?

[Hj12345]

I have long thought about buying an iMac, and here it comes - I will buy the 24 "- it is probably the second best model, but with the best graphics card to match my requirements - I do not think it is worth going from 2.93 to type 3.1 in CPU for a few thousand, it was said. But since I will play high-performance games (type Microsoft Flight Simulator FX) and other games that obviously requires a huge amount, so I wonder how this will go? Will I be able to use best settings? How will it be?

You who have a relatively new iMac, and are running type EVE Online or WOW (which I think is demanding games) - how does this work? Can you run at high performance? For even if I buy a Mac, it is still 2700 dollars and I spend a little performance for the money and more for the name Apple, right?

What I have done otherwise, during my last year is kind surf on the web, create images and other crap that requires not so much CPU, as otherwise I would just as well be buying a Macbook if it was such a thing I'm looking for, but not.

I've Been running OS X (had time to travel over a Mac Mini, MacBook, and then last but not least, a MacBook Pro) for nearly seven years, so I am not a beginner or so, but I've never had a mind to play with, something I have started to like lately.

The performance will be as follows:
2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB (possibly because I am alone upgrade to 8GB in the near future)
640GB Serial ATA Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 512MB

How much affect Bootcamp, or...Rather, pull down the gameplay? For me it's troublesome - when you go through another program to run an operating system - it is quite weird for me, but apparently so it works better than expected. What about drivers? Is it worth to buy an iMac now, or should I wait until the type Thursday (because the event is on Wednesday)?

Grateful for any assistance in this world, even though I have had a foot in almost seven years. It sucks.

 

[Vster]

I have the 3.06 24" with the 512MB nVidia. I've never dual booted or run windows on the machine so I can't help you there, but WoW plays great on it.

 

[rigid]

I play team fortress 2 and darkfall online through boot camp and I don't notice any difference than playing on a regular PC. I run mostly everything at max effects and it is very smooth.

I have the 24" 3.06ghz model with the geforce 8800.

 

[MasConejos]

I have an iMac 2008 w/ 2.8GHz C2D, 4GB ram, and nVidia 8800 GS 512MB

I game both in OS X (Cider ports, Crossover, Parallels) and in Windows XP.

Although I don't play anything really cutting edge, any game I've played, be it cider port or boot camp, I've been able to play at native resolution with most graphics settings on high.

I am not a hardcore gamer so I don't track fps or anything. I am generally happy with 20-30 fps (depending on context), so if you are similar you shouldn't have any problem (you'll have a faster processor and better video card).

A sample of games I play with max/near-max settings:
Enemy Territory: Quakewars (Cider)
City of Heroes (Cider and Windows)
Team Fortress 2, Half-life 2, Portal (Crossover)
Warcraft III (Native OS X)
Left 4 Dead (Free weekend) (Windows)

 

[Hj12345]

Thanks for all the quick answers, this sounds promising. Of course I need not be at the highest settings, but I would surely get some value for money when I play, if you know what I mean.

The big remaining question now is: if there is a new Imac on Wednesday or whether I was right to order a "old" one at Thursday - what do you think? Repetitive question, but have not revealed any new rumors lately, so it is probably not a major update in a while - right?

If it is just a price reduction will I earn it because I get a Ipod Tocuh that I will sell - but then maybe I would have bought the computer back in June?

GAH.

Apologize for the terrible English, but I hope you understand what I mean.

 

[rigid]

Regardless if theres a new imac on wed (which there will won't =P) you should just go ahead and buy one, because the current generation ones can run anything under the sun pretty much. Their performance is top notch, mine is a year old and I want to hug it every day! Okay not really =).

 

[Tom Dahl]

I have had a 2009 24" iMac since APril 10th -- the 3.06GHz model with the top ATI 4850 graphics option, and 4GB of memory.

I play WoW a lot on it, and I absolutely love it. I run it at full native resolution (1920 x whatever) with Ultra video settings (i.e., everything maxed) and 2x multi-sampling. In general on Northrend (the most demanding continent of the four in the game) the system gets 60-80 FPS, sometimes 100 FPS. In simple places, 200 FPS. In Dalaran at prime time when crowded with players, it gets about 25 to 35 FPS.

Comparing the ATI 4850 to the GT 130, I think the 4850 is roughtly 10% to 25% faster depending on test (according to tests that I in part helped BareFeats to perform this past spring).

 

[MasConejos]

Even if they were to come out with a new model (high;y unlikely), Intel's next generation processor isn't coming out for servers until later this fall. That means you wont see it in a mobile chipset (iMac) for at least 6-9 more months. Any new release would just be a small incremental tweak. Look for a large change as early as next spring/summer

 

[Pur3 Macs]

I have the 24inch 2009 2.66 ghz model with a NVIDIA 9400 256mb graphics card and MAN IS IS SMOOTH!
I like to play those graphic intense games, I've tryed out age of empire 3 and halo mac and pc(with boot camp for pc version) aswell as battlefield 2142 on boot camp all run extremely smooth smoother than any pc I've ever seen.

 

[Skweeky]

Just a quick note to say that here in the UK at least Apples iMac page on their website says it's currently being updated.

So, maybe there is something new coming along.

................
Oh and even though I've been a frequent visitor to Macrumours for over a year now, I'm still classed as newbie... that hurts.

 

[AlexisV]

They're lowering iPod prices to get rid of stock, but you never know - Mac prices might change.

How much affect Bootcamp, or...Rather, pull down the gameplay? For me it's troublesome - when you go through another program to run an operating system - it is quite weird for me, but apparently so it works better than expected. What about drivers? Is it worth to buy an iMac now, or should I wait until the type Thursday (because the event is on Wednesday)?

Bootcamp is just a program to partition your hard drive to enable you to install another OS. Windows runs natively, so there is no slow down.

Apple don't tend to update the graphics drivers very often though. Much better to get the latest ones off the nVidia site and use Mobility Modder to convert them to work on mobile chips, as in the iMac.