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iMac GT130 or 4850!? Need advice/help!

thanks for the clarification

The specs support the 8800 > GT130. It is common, however, that real life experience probes to be different than theory. I know so far I just have medic349's real life experience with a new iMac. These machines were just released yesterday so it is going to take a couple of days before we get some real tests, but medic349 happens to try the 8800 on a GPU intensive game and compare it to a new one (not clear yet which one, 120 or 130).

I am also confused because Apple specs are GT120 and GT130, as opposed to GT120M and GT130M, similar to the Mac Pro new base card, the GT 120 (albeit with 512 VRAM), and there is no real tech info an a GT 120 or a GT130 anywhere. I find hard to believe Apple will replace an already aging video card with an even worst one, but you never know.

Eidorian said:
Why not? The 8800M GTS has double the shaders (64:28:16 vs. 32:16:8) and the same VRAM clocks. Core and shader clock speeds are tossed around so there's no way to be sure there.
Click to expand...
 
larrymarshall2 said:
I'm in about the same boat...wondering if the GT 130 is for me or the 4850.

Looking for advice...I'm looking to use it for motion graphics with Motion 3 and FCP. Not looking at doing much HD stuff on it at the moment, but I am wanting to play some games (especially starcraft 2).

I see that it's only $50 more to upgrade to the 4850 if you're ordering the GT 130, but the wait changes from 1-3 days to 4-6 weeks. I had a bad experience with ordering some previously from Apple (my current PowerMac G5 duel 2.5ghz) said it would ship in 3 weeks, was delayed 2 months. Does this happen often and will this happen to the iMac with a 4850 in it?

Also, if I order 4850, and 6 weeks go by and they still don't ship, am I able to change the GPU back to the GT 130?
Click to expand...
By the time you are talking the 130 or the 4850 there really is no excuse to get the 4850. The price difference is only what $45? It's clearly superior card and you can't tell me that that last $45 is braking the bank on your $1,800 machine.
 
Guys, do I understand it correctly that the GT130 of the new iMacs that we are talking about is the underclocked version of the desktop GT130 and not the GT130M????
If so, then this card must be pretty powerful and we shouldn't look at the benchmarks of notebookcheck.net where only the GT130M is stated....
 
0087215 said:
Guys, do I understand it correctly that the GT130 of the new iMacs that we are talking about is the underclocked version of the desktop GT130 and not the GT130M????
If so, then this card must be pretty powerfull and we shouldn't look at the benchmarks of notebookcheck.net where only the GT130M is stated....
Click to expand...
We don't know right now if Apple is using desktop components. I'll put money it's another mobile video card name game that they don't want to reveal. We need someone to post some GPU-Z screenshots.
 
Eidorian said:
We don't know right now if Apple is using desktop components. I'll put money it's another mobile video card name game that they don't want to reveal. We need someone to post some GPU-Z screenshots.
Click to expand...

Allright... so I guess the best option here is just to be patient and to wait a bit for the detailed info about new iMacs/the 4850 and its support in Leopard to show up....
Because 41$/€ for a new graphic card which is by far better/faster than the GT130 is really nothing... I am only concerned about the heat/noise issues with the 4850 as it is much faster and must get pretty hot...
 
that is exactly what I have been trying to get at

It seems as it is the desktop one. We have at least one real life experience, more than a formal test, from a former owner of a prev. generation iMac (with 8800 video card) who just switched to a new one. Yes, mr. medic349, I am talking about you. :)

I hope he gets online soon and provide some input.

0087215 said:
Guys, do I understand it correctly that the GT130 of the new iMacs that we are talking about is the underclocked version of the desktop GT130 and not the GT130M????
If so, then this card must be pretty powerfull and we shouldn't look at the benchmarks of notebookcheck.net where only the GT130M is stated....
Click to expand...
 
0087215 said:
Allright... so I guess the best option here is just to be patient and to wait a bit for the detailed info about new iMacs/the 4850 and its support in Leopard to show up....
Because 41$/€ for a new graphic card which is by far better/faster than the GT130 is really nothing... I am only concerned about the heat/noise issues with the 4850 as it is much faster and must get pretty hot...
Click to expand...

If it was noisy and made the iMac overheat, do you really think Apple even sell it? They wouldn't knowingly sell you a broken computer!

As for your little bro, tell him that he will not be getting a good iMac, he will get a GREAT iMac if he waits.

I feel it's a shame when someone says they will go with the GT 130 because they don't want to wait the 4-6 weeks for the ATi 4850 (which only cost 50 bucks more than the GT 130); it screams shortsightedness.
 
I think so too... Because it seems unfortunate that Apple would introduce a new high-end iMac which has a worse/slower graphic card than the previous 8800GS...
 
avihappy said:
If it was noisy and made the iMac overheat, do you really think Apple even sell it? They wouldn't knowingly sell you a broken computer!

As for your little bro, tell him that he will not be getting a good iMac, he will get a GREAT iMac if he waits.
Click to expand...

haha... thx mate... I won't tell him anything about his new iMac... he doesn't even know he is going to get one on his birthday... This is more exciting as I see it :)

Probably I am going to wait a couple of weeks and order a high-end iMac with the 4850 in it, however I am not a big ATI fan... I trust nVidia products more...
 
0087215 said:
haha... thx mate... I won't tell him anything about his new iMac... he doesn't even know he is going to get one on his birthday... This is more exciting as I see it :)

Probably I am going to wait a couple of weeks and order a high-end iMac with the 4850 in it, however I am not a big ATI fan... I trust nVidia products more...
Click to expand...

While I too am an nVidia fan, in the computer world you go with who is best. Right now, ATi is leading the pack in both Mobile GPUs and Desktop Cards.

Don't forget, nVidia also has questionable practices. For example, they rename their old cards so that the have a higher model number, making it hard to tell which is really better if you look at model number alone.

One more thing, I hear that ATi drivers on the Mac are better than nVidia drivers. Supposedly it's because ATi writes their own Mac drivers, while Apple has to write the drivers for nVidia chips.

I think the reason you have to wait a few weeks for the iMac is that the ATi 4850 drivers will be included in Mac OS 10.5.7 update.
 
more

The one I got 2 weeks ago was stock out of the box with 2 gigs of RAM, 500gig Hard Drive and the 8800 gt, I didn't upgrade anything. As I said I don't know if WOW runs better due to the increase in RAM or what, but for now like I said with the increase in RAM and Hard Drive space even if it were running the same as the 8800 did it was worth it.
 
GT120 or GT130

Which model did you get now?

Thanks

medic349 said:
The one I got 2 weeks ago was stock out of the box with 2 gigs of RAM, 500gig Hard Drive and the 8800 gt, I didn't upgrade anything. As I said I don't know if WOW runs better due to the increase in RAM or what, but for now like I said with the increase in RAM and Hard Drive space even if it were running the same as the 8800 did it was worth it.
Click to expand...
 
GT130 desktop)

0087215 said:
Guys, do I understand it correctly that the GT130 of the new iMacs that we are talking about is the underclocked version of the desktop GT130 and not the GT130M????
If so, then this card must be pretty powerful and we shouldn't look at the benchmarks of notebookcheck.net where only the GT130M is stated....
Click to expand...

Not sure if it means anything, but Nvidia says GT120 and GT 130 on their web page, not GT120M or GT130M. http://www.nvidia.com/page/apple.html
Would be interesting to know prices of the ATi and Nvidia cards, seeing as the difference is only $45.

And, which card would be better for HD video editing? Or isn't the GPU relevant?

Finally, how will the CUDA/OpenCL/SnowLeopard support differ from the two cards?

I know we'll see more benchmarks in the coming days, just wanted to get all my questions out there right away... I'm a first time MAC buyer, and want to make sure I'm ordering the right one. :p
 
rsaeter said:
Not sure if it means anything, but Nvidia says GT120 and GT 130 on their web page, not GT120M or GT130M. http://www.nvidia.com/page/apple.html
Would be interesting to know prices of the ATi and Nvidia cards, seeing as the difference is only $45.

And, which card would be better for HD video editing? Or isn't the GPU relevant?

Finally, how will the CUDA/OpenCL/SnowLeopard support differ from the two cards?

I know we'll see more benchmarks in the coming days, just wanted to get all my questions out there right away... I'm a first time MAC buyer, and want to make sure I'm ordering the right one. :p
Click to expand...
HD2600 Pro = Mobility HD2600XT

8800GS = 8800M GTS

I'll believe the GPU-Z screens over what Apple says.
 
I believe the M is indicative of this being the mobile version just like the 4850 is the mobility version of the ATI card not the desktop version.
 
rsaeter said:
Not sure if it means anything, but Nvidia says GT120 and GT 130 on their web page, not GT120M or GT130M. http://www.nvidia.com/page/apple.html
Would be interesting to know prices of the ATi and Nvidia cards, seeing as the difference is only $45.

And, which card would be better for HD video editing? Or isn't the GPU relevant?

Finally, how will the CUDA/OpenCL/SnowLeopard support differ from the two cards?

I know we'll see more benchmarks in the coming days, just wanted to get all my questions out there right away... I'm a first time MAC buyer, and want to make sure I'm ordering the right one. :p
Click to expand...

CUDA is Nvidia only. In terms of OpenCL, which SnowLeopard is integrating, the 4850 has a significant computational edge
 
Even more followup

Sorry the posts have been slow, playing with my new toy today :) The one I got today has the Nvidia GeForce gt130 card in it. I've been looking trying to find the comparison between the 8800 that was in the one I exchanged and the GT130. The only thing I've found was the quote from mac that states they have increased the video performance. Someone in an earlier post stated that the GT130 would equate to a 9600 card and so far its clear that WOW runs alot smoother and has almost no dips in FPS like the 8800 machine I had did. I will pick up a copy of COD4 in the morning and see what kind of marks i get with it then.
 
medic349 said:
Sorry the posts have been slow, playing with my new toy today :) The one I got today has the Nvidia GeForce gt130 card in it. I've been looking trying to find the comparison between the 8800 that was in the one I exchanged and the GT130. The only thing I've found was the quote from mac that states they have increased the video performance. Someone in an earlier post stated that the GT130 would equate to a 9600 card and so far its clear that WOW runs alot smoother and has almost no dips in FPS like the 8800 machine I had did. I will pick up a copy of COD4 in the morning and see what kind of marks i get with it then.
Click to expand...
Can you install Windows on it and run CPU-Z and GPU-Z?
 
interesting

According to barefeats.com as posted in another thread, the GT130 is an 8800Gs..
 
medic349 said:
According to barefeats.com as posted in another thread, the GT130 is an 8800Gs..
Click to expand...
It can't be the desktop 9600GSO/8800GS in the current iMacs. :D

It has a 192-bit memory interface. The video RAM would once again fall in at 384/768 and it doesn't. You're going to be using a 128/256-bit one and I'll bet on 128-bit.
 
medic349 said:
I bought a 24 inch Imac (my first mac !) almost 2 weeks ago and yesterday while walking thru the mall i saw the new models had come out. I had teh 3.06 with the 8800 graphics card. I went in this morning and exchanged it ( with absolutely NO hassle.. Another reason I am sold on Mac) now the only game I play religiously is WOW and even tho it will run on just about everything there were spots in the LK expansion that got kind of laggy with everything maxed out. With the new model I can run everything maxed out and with the FPS set to 60 it actually runs better on the new machine. I've heard that the game is more processor and ram dependent than video but one thing is for sure, the mac is running ALOT cooler now than it was with the 8800. After long Naxx raids I could almost literally cook an egg on the thing while now its barely warm to the touch. I will get back after trying more games but for an even exchange it was well worth it
Click to expand...

Good to hear I'm in the same boat and will be returning my 3.06 Ghz iMac (that I bought one week ago) day after tomorrow. I to want to get the best new one out there but am curious medic, did you get the ati or stick with the stock Nvidia 130 - also I'm guessing you obviously swapped for another 3.06 GHz iMac? Please list your details as I'm very much in the same boat as you. When you say "I returned with no hassles" does this mean you did NOT have to pay 10% restocking fee? Do you live in the USA? Thanks in advance for any details you can provide me and enjoy your new iMac!
 
Wormy23 said:
I know these are Apple benchies so they're not representative of everyday use... but:



Source: http://www.apple.com/imac/features.html Click on "View iMac Graphics Performance Chart".

Seems like ATi 4850 is ahead. I hope Barefeats.com gets some data soon :)
Click to expand...

That is vs the 120. It's a bit closer of a race vs the 130 but the ATI is clearly the best card available with this latest iMac down I mean update. ;)
 
itommyboy said:
Good to hear I'm in the same boat and will be returning my 3.06 Ghz iMac (that I bought one week ago) day after tomorrow. I to want to get the best new one out there but am curious medic, did you get the ati or stick with the stock Nvidia 130 - also I'm guessing you obviously swapped for another 3.06 GHz iMac? Please list your details as I'm very much in the same boat as you. When you say "I returned with no hassles" does this mean you did NOT have to pay 10% restocking fee? Do you live in the USA? Thanks in advance for any details you can provide me and enjoy your new iMac!
Click to expand...

Yes I exchanged it for a 24" 3.06 with the GT130 card. And when I say I returned it with "no hassles" .. I walked into the store (The Woodlands, Texas) and was greeted with odd looks because I was carrying the huge box and told them I loved everything about the mac and was wondering since the return date on the receipt was March 8th if I could exchange it for the model that came out the day before. I was told that it would be absolutely no problem, was in the store for maybe 15 minutes while they did the exchange and was NOT charged a restocking fee. The manager on duty said with a smile "oh we understand, we have alot of people exchanging them, for the increase in RAM and hard drive space, why wouldn't you?" As I said I am new to Mac and everything so far has been amazing from customer service at the store, to questions and even the exchange.
I also posted in a similar thread that the 3.06 24" Imac with the GT130 card I got yesterday in the exchange literally ran circles around the 24" I bought initially with the 8800 card while playing a full 25 man raid in WOW. All in all, I am more than happy with the new machine and the GT130 card..
Hope this and the post in the other thread helps a bit :)
 
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