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Running WoW on 27" iMac with i7???

O

OCBulldogs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 25, 2009
18
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I'm looking at the 27" with i7 proc and 8Gbs. The only game that I play is World of Warcraft, what do you guys think?

a) Will the game HAVE to run windowed? Since it doesnt support the higher native resolution...

b) If I run it at the highest Mac setting (1600x1200 or similar) what will the picture quality be? Any idea about the performance?

c) Will the video card be able to handle "all settings maxed out"?

Thanks for your help! Paying $3k for a system that doesn't run WoW well would be a HUGE dissapointment.

- Mike
 
You won't know for sure until people get them and test them, but WoW ought to run smoothly at pretty high settings on the quad core iMac. It will run at max settings for sure, but you might find that you'd rather have slightly lower settings for a more optimal frame rate.
 
I own a pc with the following quad core 2.5ghz cpu 4 gb of ram and radeon 4870 512mb

I run wow with everything maxed and with a resolution of 1920x1200 it runs locked at 60 fps everywhere but the wrath of the lich king areas which run around 45 to 55

I know this is a different setup but I would imagine the i5 and i7 with speed boost would match this performance or best it.
 
It will run WoW just fine. Not sure if you'll have to run it in windowed mode, but there is a 'fullscreen' windowed mode that I use all the time (lets you have access to quicksilver,expose, etc; but otherwise appears to be fullscreen). WoW is very gentle on system specs (as opposed to something like Crysis).

If you really want to make sure, put your WoW folder on an external (or iPod in disk mode), head over to an apple store, and test it on a few different machines. That's what I did last time I got a new machine (and I even got a bit of a crowd when I tested it on a MP with the 30" ACD)

If you are not near an Apple Store, wait until the benchmark results are posted at barefeats.com
 
What about video quality at a lower resolution?

Can anyone adress the video quality when stretching a lower resolution out on the 27" screen??

Is anyone running WoW on the 30" monitor?
 
I have my mac mini hooked up to a 1920x1200 monitor and I run wow at 1680x1050 it looks great of course its not quite as sharp as native but your splitting hairs at a certain point. I am more than confidant that wow running at 1080p on the 27" will blow your mind.

p.s. /nerd on If you play on laughing skull my characters are

lvl 61 DK is vorlenx
lvl 29 Paly vorlex

/nerd off .....damn its stuck
 
A buddy of mine is a Film producer and he works on a mac pro with dual 30s. He plays WoW a whole lot more than I do, so I'll find out what his experience is like settings wise.

FTR - My 2006 mac pro can't handle wow at full settings lol (well, not entirely true, it can do it, but I like to be in the 100+ FPS range.)
 
Ok there is no doubt in my mind that the i7 is going to blow WoW up.. in a good way.

You were asking about someone who plays with an iMac 24" so I can give you some info.

I've been using my 24" iMac, 4GB ram, 3.06 C2D, GeForce 8800 512 MB for quite some time.

Even with these far inferior specs compared to the new 27" i7's, WoW runs perfectly smooth with everything maxed. I get usually 60 FPS or more, another not crowded is more like 100+. Only setting not completely maxed is the "View Distance" which is maybe at like 80%.

Aside from the huge processor upgrade from mine, the video card alone would likely give me double in performance jump

And btw if you have to play in windowed mode don't sweat it I'm guessing most people are going to utilize the massive screen to allow themselves to have multiple windows open while still maintaing insane resolutions. I play in windowed mode on my 24" - hate having it full screen. Lets me keep Safari/iTunes all that good stuff right at finger tips
 
Photekk said:
Ok there is no doubt in my mind that the i7 is going to blow WoW up.. in a good way.

You were asking about someone who plays with an iMac 24" so I can give you some info.

I've been using my 24" iMac, 4GB ram, 3.06 C2D, GeForce 8800 512 MB for quite some time.

Even with these far inferior specs compared to the new 27" i7's, WoW runs perfectly smooth with everything maxed. I get usually 60 FPS or more, another not crowded is more like 100+. Only setting not completely maxed is the "View Distance" which is maybe at like 80%.

Aside from the huge processor upgrade from mine, the video card alone would likely give me double in performance jump

And btw if you have to play in windowed mode don't sweat it I'm guessing most people are going to utilize the massive screen to allow themselves to have multiple windows open while still maintaing insane resolutions. I play in windowed mode on my 24" - hate having it full screen. Lets me keep Safari/iTunes all that good stuff right at finger tips
Click to expand...

Awesome post! Thanks so much. This is exactly what I was looking for, in terms of feedback.

So, I will go ahead and get a new iMac 27"!
 
Photekk said:
Ok there is no doubt in my mind that the i7 is going to blow WoW up.. in a good way.

You were asking about someone who plays with an iMac 24" so I can give you some info.

I've been using my 24" iMac, 4GB ram, 3.06 C2D, GeForce 8800 512 MB for quite some time.

Even with these far inferior specs compared to the new 27" i7's, WoW runs perfectly smooth with everything maxed. I get usually 60 FPS or more, another not crowded is more like 100+. Only setting not completely maxed is the "View Distance" which is maybe at like 80%.

Aside from the huge processor upgrade from mine, the video card alone would likely give me double in performance jump

And btw if you have to play in windowed mode don't sweat it I'm guessing most people are going to utilize the massive screen to allow themselves to have multiple windows open while still maintaing insane resolutions. I play in windowed mode on my 24" - hate having it full screen. Lets me keep Safari/iTunes all that good stuff right at finger tips
Click to expand...

I play fullscreen windowed mode on my 15" MBP. This way, I am able to enjoy my WoW at full resolution with no OS elements in the way-- and then I can use Expose to get to Adium/Firefox when I am in a flight or resting in a city. Best of both worlds in my opinion. :p
 
OCBulldogs said:
I'm looking at the 27" with i7 proc and 8Gbs. The only game that I play is World of Warcraft, what do you guys think?

a) Will the game HAVE to run windowed? Since it doesnt support the higher native resolution...

b) If I run it at the highest Mac setting (1600x1200 or similar) what will the picture quality be? Any idea about the performance?

c) Will the video card be able to handle "all settings maxed out"?

Thanks for your help! Paying $3k for a system that doesn't run WoW well would be a HUGE dissapointment.

- Mike
Click to expand...


LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Wow runs on slower Macs, why the latest high-end iMac couldn't run Wow ???
 
Photekk said:
Ok there is no doubt in my mind that the i7 is going to blow WoW up.. in a good way.

You were asking about someone who plays with an iMac 24" so I can give you some info.

I've been using my 24" iMac, 4GB ram, 3.06 C2D, GeForce 8800 512 MB for quite some time.

Even with these far inferior specs compared to the new 27" i7's, WoW runs perfectly smooth with everything maxed. I get usually 60 FPS or more, another not crowded is more like 100+. Only setting not completely maxed is the "View Distance" which is maybe at like 80%.

Aside from the huge processor upgrade from mine, the video card alone would likely give me double in performance jump

And btw if you have to play in windowed mode don't sweat it I'm guessing most people are going to utilize the massive screen to allow themselves to have multiple windows open while still maintaing insane resolutions. I play in windowed mode on my 24" - hate having it full screen. Lets me keep Safari/iTunes all that good stuff right at finger tips
Click to expand...

That same iMac is what I just upgraded from when I built a new PC for gaming. For me to get anywhere near 60fps I would have to run on one tick less than Ultra, 2x multisample, Full Screen Glow off, and High Quality Shadows off. In Dalaran I would drop down to around 10-20fps with those settings during busy times. There is no way you're getting 60fps in Northrend areas if you have everything maxed except for View Distance unless you have multiple at 1x maybe. Maybe in Outland yea that sounds about right. I have everything maxed on my new i5 750 PC build with a 4890 1GB set at 8x multiplesampling at 1920x1200 and I get 70 fps max in outside areas in Northrend, but it drops down to 30-40 fps in places like Dragonblight when flying over the trees around Agmar's Hammer.

The 4850 is a better card than the 8800GS, but it is the mobility card and if you check out benchmarks of the 4850 mobility at 1920x1200 you can see that most recent games are going to be in the 30fps area at best with AA turned on. Bump up to the native res of the 27" and it will only be playable at lower settings with no AA.

macchiato2009 said:
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Wow runs on slower Macs, why the latest high-end iMac couldn't run Wow ???
Click to expand...

Run on slower Macs, yes. Run with settings maxed on a 27" screen with a mobile 4850, no. The OP specifically asked if he could run with everything maxed.
 
macchiato2009 said:
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Wow runs on slower Macs, why the latest high-end iMac couldn't run Wow ???
Click to expand...

Ok, let me go back to the start of this thread. I am just about to buy the new 27" iMac and only play WoW. I was concerned that the crazy high-resolution of the new screen might pose some issues for WoW. That's why I wanted to see what the experiences/thoughts of the gang were first. Almost ANY computer will play WoW, but it takes alot to run it at maxed out specs, highest resolution, etc.

Looks like the general concensus is that's there's no problem. Go for it!
 
Lava Lamp Freak said:
That same iMac is what I just upgraded from when I built a new PC for gaming. For me to get anywhere near 60fps I would have to run on one tick less than Ultra, 2x multisample, Full Screen Glow off, and High Quality Shadows off. In Dalaran I would drop down to around 10-20fps with those settings during busy times. There is no way you're getting 60fps in Northrend areas if you have everything maxed except for View Distance. Maybe in Outland yea that sounds about right. I have everything maxed on my new i5 750 PC build with a 4890 1GB 8x multiplesampling at 1920x1200 and I get is 70 fps max in outside areas in Northrend, but it drops down to 30-40 fps in places like Dragonblight when flying over the trees around Agmar's Hammer.

The 4850 is a better card than the 8800GS, but it is the mobility card and if you check out benchmarks of the 4850 mobility at 1920x1200 you can see that most recent games are going to be in the 30fps area at best with AA turned on. Bump up to the native res of the 27" and it will only be playable at lower settings with no AA.



Run on slower Macs, yes. Run with settings maxed on a 27" screen with a mobile 4850, no. The OP specifically asked if he could run with everything maxed.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Lava Lamp Freak. You get where I'm coming from. What's your take in the 27" Quad Core for a WoW rig???
 
Lava Lamp Freak said:
That same iMac is what I just upgraded from when I built a new PC for gaming. For me to get anywhere near 60fps I would have to run on one tick less than Ultra, 2x multisample, Full Screen Glow off, and High Quality Shadows off. In Dalaran I would drop down to around 10-20fps with those settings during busy times. There is no way you're getting 60fps in Northrend areas if you have everything maxed except for View Distance unless you have multiple at 1x maybe. Maybe in Outland yea that sounds about right. I have everything maxed on my new i5 750 PC build with a 4890 1GB 8x multiplesampling at 1920x1200 and I get is 70 fps max in outside areas in Northrend, but it drops down to 30-40 fps in places like Dragonblight when flying over the trees around Agmar's Hammer.

The 4850 is a better card than the 8800GS, but it is the mobility card and if you check out benchmarks of the 4850 mobility at 1920x1200 you can see that most recent games are going to be in the 30fps area at best with AA turned on. Bump up to the native res of the 27" and it will only be playable at lower settings with no AA.



Run on slower Macs, yes. Run with settings maxed on a 27" screen with a mobile 4850, no. The OP specifically asked if he could run with everything maxed.
Click to expand...

I definitely get around 60 FPS usually.. and like I said I'm not talking about crowded areas (hence, I'm not usually in Dalaran - and that's not an accurate portrayal of framerates since your are taking a hit due to the insane bandwidth being used in that area)

I've messed around with pretty much every single setting graphically in WoW and there are only a few that have any real impact on my framerates - view distance is big, glow effect is like 5 FPS, high res shadow is maybe 2-3 FPS for me.

The AA surprisingly doesn't change my FPS by much going from 2x to 4x.

Anywhere other than Northrend and I'm constantly above 95 FPS

In Northrend it depends on where but outside of town I'm anywhere from 40-70 FPS.. but the bigger point is that it's always perfectly smooth, so regardless of what the FPS are saying my eye can't detect any stuttering and I have everything maxed (not to mention I used over 20MB of addons).
 
OCBulldogs said:
Thanks, Lava Lamp Freak. You get where I'm coming from. What's your take in the 27" Quad Core for a WoW rig???
Click to expand...

Personally, I think the new iMac is a great machine, but IMO it is not an adequate gaming computer, even for WoW, unless it is acceptable to you if you have to run at lower settings to run at the native resolution. So, my advise is to determine your needs not solely based on how well it plays WoW. At that price, there really isn't a comparable Mac, and it is probably Apple's best offering price wise.
 
Photekk said:
I definitely get around 60 FPS usually.. and like I said I'm not talking about crowded areas (hence, I'm not usually in Dalaran - and that's not an accurate portrayal of framerates since your are taking a hit due to the insane bandwidth being used in that area)

I've messed around with pretty much every single setting graphically in WoW and there are only a few that have any real impact on my framerates - view distance is big, glow effect is like 5 FPS, high res shadow is maybe 2-3 FPS for me.

The AA surprisingly doesn't change my FPS by much going from 2x to 4x.

Anywhere other than Northrend and I'm constantly above 95 FPS

In Northrend it depends on where but outside of town I'm anywhere from 40-70 FPS.. but the bigger point is that it's always perfectly smooth, so regardless of what the FPS are saying my eye can't detect any stuttering and I have everything maxed (not to mention I used over 20MB of addons).
Click to expand...

Wow, shadows was a killer for me, as it is for many people on Mac. I turned that off and it was huge boost in FPS. Full screen glow I couldn't tell a huge boost but after installing SL my performance was so poor making any changes boosted it. I never once saw anything over 70FPS in outside areas on my iMac and in places like Dragonblight I was down in the 30s. Also I could tell a difference between 2x and 4x. I always stayed at 2x. 1x was much smoother, but it was annoying having jagged edges on everything. I agree with you on view distance. That does make a big difference. I don't question you being able to achieve 60FPS on the iMac, it was just you saying everything maxed you would get 60FPS.
 
My cusin & uncle runs full force on WoW on their 24" with about 100 FPS 10/25man raids. if they is not in Dalaran ofcourse ...
But ...
How a 27" will handle it ...
Please tell.

[EDIT]
Just to add, both are in win.mode and they reach +100fps without trying, my uncle turned down/off the shadows since he finds them irritating so he is even higher than a 100.
 
OCBulldogs said:
Thanks, Lava Lamp Freak. You get where I'm coming from. What's your take in the 27" Quad Core for a WoW rig???
Click to expand...

Oh, one other thing I can add... I installed Windows 7 RC on my iMac for the last few days I had it, while I was waiting on my parts to arrive for my new PC build, and WoW was much better under Windows 7 than it was under SL using the same settings. So, if you do decide to go with the new 27", you might keep in mind that games might play better under Windows 7.
 
Obsidian6 said:
but I like to be in the 100+ FPS range.
Click to expand...

I'm not a gamer, so I have never really understood the obsession of getting 100 FPS when 99.9% of LCD monitors can only display at 60HZ / 60 FPS?

I know that there are 1 or 2 120HZ LCDs that have come out this year, and 120HZ HDTVs are available, but an iMac is only going to display 60FPS.

Correct me if I am wrong?
 
That Nehalem quad rig won't even know it's running WoW. I play it on the now last gen 3.06Ghz 24" with the same 8GB RAM and the same gfx card in the ati 4850 & it laughs at WoW max'd out except 1 bump down on AA (personal preference you never know in Dalaran).

You'll have the option of windowing it or full screen windowing it and I'm sure it will look amazing either way. I've got to say I'm impressed by these updates enjoy your new beastly rig.
 
spacepower7 said:
I'm not a gamer, so I have never really understood the obsession of getting 100 FPS when 99.9% of LCD monitors can only display at 60HZ / 60 FPS?

I know that there are 1 or 2 120HZ LCDs that have come out this year, and 120HZ HDTVs are available, but an iMac is only going to display 60FPS.

Correct me if I am wrong?
Click to expand...

I don't completely understand that myself, but FPS is dynamic when playing a game like WoW. You can be getting 100+FPS in an instance and then run outside and be at 20FPS in a busy area. So, it is generally good to strive for having the highest low FPS achievable, which might end up pushing you in 100+FPS in other areas, even though you wouldn't see a perceivable difference. Even at 60FPS on my PC I can still see short freezes when spinning my camera around in WoW, and that bothers me. Many people might be happy or not notice a difference, but I would really like to be running a 5850 for my 24" Apple Cinema Display, but I couldn't get this display to work with that card. With the 5850 I had no perceivable lag or freezes at all. So, I can only speculate that a slower card than what I have on a larger screen than I have would not be good enough for anyone who is as picky as I am when it comes to FPS and smoothness in WoW.
 
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