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Starcraft 2 running on i7 iMAc

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dkd0nuts

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
25
0
Hey Guys,

I've been searching the net and havent really been able to find any reports of people running sc2 on the core i7 imacs. I was wondering if anyone here has run the starcraft 2 beta on the core i7 imacs yet (any benchmarks?). I realize that you'd have to use bootcamp at this point. I'm still debating whether or not to get a pc tower or core i7 imac. Starcraft 2 is a big factor in this decision because yeah.. gonna be playing it alot and might also get a beta key from a friend.

Does anyone think a 27inch screen will be too big for this game? i'd want to be able to run it on ultra settings at a smooth framerate and full resolution
 
Speculation only, but something tells me the 4850 isn't going to run a cutting edge game at 2560x1440 with everything maxed out and stay smooth...
 
My other two friends that have it are running it on one year old laptops pretty smoothly so I think it could be possible? the Sc2 engineers did a good job of keeping the system reqs pretty low
 
It'll run, don't worry about that. The issue is how well - to power the 2560x1440 display the Mobility 4850 is going to struggle, which in turn means cranking the options downwards. Don't expect to run the game maxed out, or probably anywhere near. I'd imagine you might squeeze out medium settings with no AA.

To run 2560x1440 at ultra settings, AA etc. you need a powerful GPU - we're talking a full fat 5870 or similar desktop cards.
 
It WILL run

It WILL run, but the problem we face hear, and as many have mentioned, is how well it run on maximized screen resolution.
I have friend in Boston who got beta, and he decided to install it on his iMac 27" with the highest graphic and RAM, with Windows XP.
It runs pretty well, and it seems like he had it with medium settings. You can see that the medium settings are almost as same as high, but low settings? They look like toys lying around the space.
It will run fine when Blizzard comes out with Mac Beta, and it's taking time since, Mac's only have limited Graphic Cards (which is, for now, nVidia Graphics and ATI Radeon HD 4850).
 
seong said:
It WILL run, but the problem we face hear, and as many have mentioned, is how well it run on maximized screen resolution.
I have friend in Boston who got beta, and he decided to install it on his iMac 27" with the highest graphic and RAM, with Windows XP.
It runs pretty well, and it seems like he had it with medium settings. You can see that the medium settings are almost as same as high, but low settings? They look like toys lying around the space.
It will run fine when Blizzard comes out with Mac Beta, and it's taking time since, Mac's only have limited Graphic Cards (which is, for now, nVidia Graphics and ATI Radeon HD 4850).
Click to expand...

Or, if you have a Mac Pro, a 4870 or GTX 285...
 
I run GTA IV on my 24" 4850 iMac on almost the highest settings 1600 x 1200.

I doubt Starcraft is going to be as detailed as GTA. Should be fine.

Hopefully I'll get a beta key!
 
turn off AA and it should be OK. i've read that turning on AA almost doubles the graphics RAM usage
 
I don't bother with AA on mine, it almost doesn't even matter with resolution that high.

I play DDO with all settings maxed, and it eats it for breakfast. I don't think you'll have any trouble. If you get ME a beta key, I can try it for ya. ;)
 
Yeah I mean it doesn't have to be at max resolution but if I'm paying 2k plus for a computer I'd want the game to look good and play smoothly.. I wish apple would just update the iMac line already and put in a better graphic card lol

when can we expect to see refreshes? June-ish?

Has anyone been able to find anyone with sc2 running on an iMac?
 
does anyone else think that the iMac graphic card will probably be updated with the next mbpro refresh? the radeon 5xxx seems to be pretty common in laptops these days and it would look kinda bad if the mbpro had a better graphic card than the imac... could be wrong though
 
dkd0nuts said:
does anyone else think that the iMac graphic card will probably be updated with the next mbpro refresh? the radeon 5xxx seems to be pretty common in laptops these days and it would look kinda bad if the mbpro had a better graphic card than the imac... could be wrong though
Click to expand...

I would almost bet that the next thing to upgrade in the iMac would be the GPU, because it's old and what else could they upgrade? Most things got upgraded in the last refresh, except the graphics card because they couldn't really put in anything better.
 
dkd0nuts said:
My other two friends that have it are running it on one year old laptops pretty smoothly so I think it could be possible? the Sc2 engineers did a good job of keeping the system reqs pretty low
Click to expand...

i7 imacs have the GPUs of one year old laptops
 
I just got my imac i7 and while it is a beautiful machine and works great for most things, the truth is mac sucks for gaming. I've sort of stopped gaming so it's not a big deal to me but I was hoping that I could still get my game on every once in a while but after playing around with it a bit I have to say I would be really disappointing if I was really in to games still.

But still happy I made the switch.
 
Larpy said:
I just got my imac i7 and while it is a beautiful machine and works great for most things, the truth is mac sucks for gaming. I've sort of stopped gaming so it's not a big deal to me but I was hoping that I could still get my game on every once in a while but after playing around with it a bit I have to say I would be really disappointing if I was really in to games still.

But still happy I made the switch.
Click to expand...

not sure i understand what youre trying to say lol are you saying that the imac is disappointing when you play games on it?

I dont even game that much I just want to play SC2 on high settings been waiting for that game for like 10 years lol
 
Tried the replay function with my i7 4gb of ram; when all maxed out and in 2500ish resolution it was fluid. I will try playing to see if its the same... Ill keep you guys posted.

M.
 
OmegAHAL said:
Tried the replay function with my i7 4gb of ram; when all maxed out and in 2500ish resolution it was fluid. I will try playing to see if its the same... Ill keep you guys posted.

M.
Click to expand...

Nice press ctrl alt F to pull up fps meter thanks for the post
 
Using the replay viewer to see actual ingame replays and using fraps to record my framerate, I got on average 24-34 fps with max resolution and settings.
The framerate is lower when viewing zerg main base, because of all the shadows and reflections from the creep and buildings.
Not surprising, the framerate doesn't suffer at all when viewing large battles, because the lynnfield tears through all the battle effects.

When playing max resolution and everything at max settings, save shaders to medium, and you get a very good 40-50 fps on average. The mobility 4850 does a pretty good job running starcraft2.


Keep in mind though, all this is without anti-aliasing (anti-aliasing is not in the beta) but if you keep the game's resolution equal to your screen's native resolution, then you really don't need anti-aliasing.

Here's a pic of in-game screenshot at iMac's native resolution and max settings (night scene of terran base and terran thors spawning)
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c104/twisted_metal_2/SC2-2010-02-28-09-39-47-94.jpg
 
Sambo110 said:
I would almost bet that the next thing to upgrade in the iMac would be the GPU, because it's old and what else could they upgrade? Most things got upgraded in the last refresh, except the graphics card because they couldn't really put in anything better.
Click to expand...

They could upgrade (but probably won't) a number of things

1.) blu-ray
2.) SSD
3.) USB 3.0
 
The mobility 4850 isn't an old gpu. It was just introduced last fall if I remember right. The mobility 5000 series certainly isn't a vast upgrade if you look at both simulated and real fps benchmarks alone (and by that I mean virtually same fps for some games).
Asking for desktop gpu to be housed within an iMac just won't happen-- they're too big, virtually an entirely new computer within a card.


If someone wants better gpu performance on their iMacs, they could simply overclock their mobility 4850s, because the mobility 4850s are exactly like their desktop variants only slower clock speeds. Given the good cooling in the new iMacs, it isn't entirely impossible.
 
I did see a youtube video somewhere of a dude overclocking his 27" imac with the 4850, monitoring the temperature it stayed in a safe range and he had great results, so this seems to be a viable option. You do void the Apple warranty by overclocking however, so there is that risk...
 
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