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Radeon 4850 vs...

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layziegtp

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 26, 2009
115
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This week I ordered my very first Mac. The big, beautiful 27" iMac. First of all, it blows my 'old' notebook out of the water, the Sager NP5792. The specs from the laptop vs the iMac are big.

17" Matte Screen vs 27" Glossy
2.2Ghz C2D vs 2.8Ghz Quad Core HT
4GB RAM vs 8GB RAM
100GB HDD vs 2000GB HDD
8800m GTX vs HD4850

Its a sizable upgrade. But, I have a few question, since I've been out of the game for so long. I'll be it for Mac owners in my circle of friends, so you guys are my lifeline. And a few question I already have even before my iMac ships.

1. How does the HD4850 stack up against the 8800m GTX? Will my gaming experience be better, worse, or about the same? Consider that I'm a gamer at heart, and I live, breathe, and die frame rates.

2. I'm used to a heavy laptop bag. It's probably more than 30lbs. I go to a lot of LAN parties. Would you feel safe transporting your iMac to a LAN party? Has anybody done it before? How was the experience?

3. Networking with Windows users. My friends are a mixed bag of XP, Vista, and 7 users. We play just about everything, old and new at our parties. Can I game in Mac OSX (with old games at least, think CS 1.6)? Will we hve todo something to accomadate the Mac? Or will I have to dual boot to Windows to really play?

4. Last question for now. If I buy a Time Capsule, an backup my music, movies and pictures to it, will other people (read:Windows users) be able to access those files?

5. Okay, I lied. One more? World of Warcraft on Mac - how is it? I'm gonna start playing again with the new iMac. And.. Server recommendations for alliance side! =)

THANKS!
 
layziegtp said:
1. How does the HD4850 stack up against the 8800m GTX? Will my gaming experience be better, worse, or about the same? Consider that I'm a gamer at heart, and I live, breathe, and die frame rates.

2. I'm used to a heavy laptop bag. It's probably more than 30lbs. I go to a lot of LAN parties. Would you feel safe transporting your iMac to a LAN party? Has anybody done it before? How was the experience?

3. Networking with Windows users. My friends are a mixed bag of XP, Vista, and 7 users. We play just about everything, old and new at our parties. Can I game in Mac OSX (with old games at least, think CS 1.6)? Will we hve todo something to accomadate the Mac? Or will I have to dual boot to Windows to really play?

4. Last question for now. If I buy a Time Capsule, an backup my music, movies and pictures to it, will other people (read:Windows users) be able to access those files?

5. Okay, I lied. One more? World of Warcraft on Mac - how is it? I'm gonna start playing again with the new iMac. And.. Server recommendations for alliance side! =)

THANKS!
Click to expand...

1. If you are a hard core gamer you made the wrong decision of buying an iMac, it will run most games fine but don't expect it to be at full res specially on that 27" screen, with all the details turned up. It should run most games fine though just not at full res and details like I said.

2. Couldn't answer that question never tried.

3. Should not have to do anything really. Just as long as you have the Mac OS version of whatever games you want to play or you boot camp to play them.

4. Nope. Unless you go and share your backups.

5. WoW plays great on a mac very good indeed should be just fine. I used to play now I play Aion much better game BTW.
 
1. ATI 4850 will blow out 8800M GTX easily, so your experience should be better

2. I haven't done it because I'm a console gamer but my friend takes his 24" iMac to LAN parties quite often without problems. Just use the original case which came with your iMac

3. Yes, you can game with your Windows buddies but I recommend you to install Windows with BootCamp because games run much smoother in Windows

4. Yes, you just need to install the application from the disk that comes with Time Capsule to your PC.

5. Your iMac should run it at max settings without problems, but as I said, I recommend using it in Windows
 
1- The 4850 and the Quad core will run games better than the 8800 for sure.

2 - The 27" is going to be huge and probably a PIA to lug around with you but not impossible. You will just have to find the right case for it.

3 - If you are a gamer Windows is the way to go. Games are cheaper and more plentiful and Windows has DX10.
 
As a gamer this may be food for thought....

I have ordered this iMac revision but I did falter due to the 4850 GPU being around eighteen months old. In the next iMac revision (6 months?) Apple may adopt the ATI Radeon 5xxx series mobility GPU's. The 5xxx series mobility GPU' represent significant improvements in performance and support DirectX 11 and are reportedly due to be released in first quarter 2010.

This is all speculative and Apple are not renowned for including top/current GPU's in the iMac so who knows - another revision to include the 4850 isn't out of the question. For these reasons I just bit the bullet and ordered this time round.
 
tempusfugit said:
world of warcraft is about 5 years old, so if it doesn't run well on any new computer, said new computer is a piece.
Click to expand...

5 years old perhaps, but it continually recieves facelifts via patches and with a new expansion just around the corner.

I consider myself a gamer, but not hard core. I like casual games, but I like that I CAN play newer games if I want to. My 8800m GTX still chews away at anything I throw at it (sometimes I have to sacrifice quality), and I really just want to know how much of an upgrade the 4850 is. 5%? 50%? 100%? Would like a benchmark, but I'm never gonna find one thy directly compares the two.

Thanks again!
 
layziegtp said:
5 years old perhaps, but it continually recieves facelifts via patches and with a new expansion just around the corner.

I consider myself a gamer, but not hard core. I like casual games, but I like that I CAN play newer games if I want to. My 8800m GTX still chews away at anything I throw at it (sometimes I have to sacrifice quality), and I really just want to know how much of an upgrade the 4850 is. 5%? 50%? 100%? Would like a benchmark, but I'm never gonna find one thy directly compares the two.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Here are some great benchmarks! 8800M GTX is comparable to 8800 GS used in 2008 iMac
 
Interesting. I'm looking then at about a 25% increase, probably a bit more after factoring in some other upgrades. Not bad, but there's no way it will pull it's own weight at native resolution.
 
I'm curious about topic as well. I was about to purchase a MacPro Quad 2.93 for work and play but then these quad I7 iMac's came out (about to).
Now I know either one will handle my work and other stuff pretty easily but how will the latest iMac in Boot Camp play the latest released games ? The Operation Flashpoints, Arkham Asylums, etc ...

Thanks
 
I traveled all the time with my 20" iMac and I recommend using a iLugger bag for the 27" during traveling.

Also consider getting Windows and using bootcamp to play video games.
 
lasuther said:
I traveled all the time with my 20" iMac and I recommend using a iLugger bag for the 27" during traveling.

Also consider getting Windows and using bootcamp to play video games.
Click to expand...

Suppose the 30" ACD Lugger would work for the 27" iMac? Hard to tell, but it looks like a pretty neat product.
 
If you are a "hard core" gamer then pass on the iMac.

iMac is great for casual gamers though.

In my case "hard core" gamer is behind me.
 
jmpage2 said:
If you are a "hard core" gamer then pass on the iMac.

iMac is great for casual gamers though.

In my case "hard core" gamer is behind me.
Click to expand...

Same. I got to the point where I spent more time modding and tweaking games for frame rates that I got burned out. Mostly into WoW and The Sims 3 now. As long as it's faster than my old notebook, even by a bit, I'm gonna be happy.
 
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