Why do so many people buy iMacs for gaming?

[Jedi Master]

Funny stuff

No it really shouldn't, this is a legitimate question, this is exactly the same as asking "What do you use your Mac for?", it's called a forum for a reason, I'm here trying to start a discussion about it because I'm interested in gaming although don't game all that much which is a reason why I'd like to find out more.

Maybe if you don't like the question then don't click it and don't post on it? You're only bumping it further up the subforum.



My household has 5 Macs.

5 Macs how many PC's? I would think you'd know, but I don't think anybody is buying a Mac as an exclusive gaming machine.

Originally Posted by Siderz
Honestly, the amount of gaming-related questions I see on this site is phenomenal.

I don't see a "PHENOMENAL" number of questions. Most seem to indicate light gaming. The number of posts are small in scope, but big numbers might not be your thing.

So, you have 5 Macs why?

Back to Dell and Candy crush for you.

 

[edfoo]

If you're a Windows troll, you do not belong here.

Sorry to disappoint you while I am replying this post on my brand new 13" rMBP. Recently retiring my 5 year old white Macbook. Joining this forum to learn news and rumours about Apple products, not to read about wankers' posts.

 

[Arfdog]

Not to mention the monitor, case and power supply you'd use for a gaming PC will most likely last several generations. The saving really come into play when you take into account multiple generations of hardware.

I find it funny how some people here think that the parts in their iMac are somehow inherently superior because they come in an Apple branded fancy chassis. It's all the same for the most part.

Lol. Allow me to debunk some of these points. Parts in the iMac (or any OEM like Dell, HP, Lenovo) are superior to aftermarket stuff, even if branded identically. Superior in either quality or cost or both. Apple, as the OEM, has superior pricing power over the suppliers. The suppliers beg Apple to be their supplier, and they get the business with rock-bottom pricing, yielding very low or consistent margins to the poor supplier. Suckers such as us, the regular consumer, then pay a very high margin for the "rest of production", basically all the production that didn't meet Apple's A+++ requirements. We pay more for less quality.

As for the components lasting generations, that's fine, except it's not worth anything except to you. Someone else's custom rig is worthless to everyone else. A Mac, even if older, still has very high resale. So you can put that extra cash into your next machine. Try doing that with your old GPU in order to buy the new model....

 

[Arfdog]

And at the end of three years you can sell off the internals of your PC or upgrade it piece by piece. Only want to game? You can just grab a better next-gen GPU for ~$400 and sell the old one to recoup some of the cost.

And with that, you can over clock that system for even more performance. It's going to run cooler. It's going to run quiet (depending on your fan settings.) And it's expandable and upgradable.

Again, yeah you can sell your old GPU for 1/10 the initial cost. That will really put a dent in the next GPU purchase, lmao.

Or you can buy a Mac which will hold at least 1/3 to 1/2 of its value.

Run cooler and quieter than the new iMac? Quantitative proof please. A 2012 iMac is whisper quiet, about 15 dB. The case is also lukewarm to the touch, about 80-90F by my measurement.

Finally, what happens when you get a blue screen due to overclocking? Call up custom PC warranty?

 

[Arfdog]

This thread should be closed.

The bottom line, in which most of my fellow Mac users think, is that we value design and usability over price. We want something that looks simple, minimalistic and Zen on our desks, instead of an ugly, clunky box.

We're also rich enough to buy a complete product instead and sit back to enjoy it, instead of having to spend the trouble to buy separate parts and also the hassle of assembling it either.

If you can't afford a Mac, don't complain and troll around here saying why Windows is better.

This is a ridiculous statement. I most certainly didn't buy an iMac because it looks pretty. Its design is the result of a very focused vision of what a PC should be. It's price is only a slight premium 5-10% over a comparable PC.

It's not about rich. It's about value. You get way more for the dollar with the Mac. You get a completely built computer, a superior OS, superior operation and efficiency (cool and quiet), superior integration with mobile. A PC is less money, but it goes down the drain faster. The only thing better about a PC is the software selection.

 

[MythicFrost]

Again, yeah you can sell your old GPU for 1/10 the initial cost. That will really put a dent in the next GPU purchase, lmao.

One tenth? Where'd you get that figure from lol? It's more like half, and at the very worst one third. And that will shave a fair amount off your purchase.

Or you can buy a Mac which will hold at least 1/3 to 1/2 of its value.

It's not by any means great to have to buy a whole new iMac for $2k instead of just upgrading one part for $200-$400. (Less the money brought in from selling the old GPU / iMac.)

Run cooler and quieter than the new iMac? Quantitative proof please. A 2012 iMac is whisper quiet, about 15 dB. The case is also lukewarm to the touch, about 80-90F by my measurement.

I can't really give quantitative proof. There's no way anyone's benchmarked the rig I spec'd up, and especially not in the way I mentioned.

The iMac idles at about 19 dBA which is near silent. But it does ramp up and get louder and hotter under load.

The Noctua NH-D14 produces 19.8 dBA in performance mode (1200 RPM) and as low as 12 dBA in silent mode (900 RPM.) In performance mode it cools an i7 3960X (six-core w/ HT) overclocked to 4.25GHz at 1.325V and keeps temps at 47c (116F) in Prime95 as opposed to the i7 4771 (quad-core w/ HT) in the iMac at 3.5GHz at stock voltage which would easily hit 80c (176F) if not 90c under the same test, whilst sounding quite loud.

The GTX 770 DCUII runs at 34 dBA under load, measured 100 cm from the GPU with the side panel of the case off. (In a passively cooled system, so it's quite accurate.) Hard to compare that to the 27 inch iMac w/ the 780M as there's no proper acoustic benchmarks, but it should be more or less the same. If you set the fan speed of the 770 to low, or underclock it (as it's already a bit better than the 780M) you could easily get it much quieter than the iMac under load.

But you've also got a few other fans inside a PC which will add to the noise. All up though it should be quieter than the iMac with silent settings.

Finally, what happens when you get a blue screen due to overclocking? Call up custom PC warranty?

Why would you get a blue screen? If you overclock it properly then you won't. If you do, then you should be able to fix it.

 

[iSayuSay]

Again, yeah you can sell your old GPU for 1/10 the initial cost. That will really put a dent in the next GPU purchase, lmao.

Or you can buy a Mac which will hold at least 1/3 to 1/2 of its value.

Run cooler and quieter than the new iMac? Quantitative proof please. A 2012 iMac is whisper quiet, about 15 dB. The case is also lukewarm to the touch, about 80-90F by my measurement.

Finally, what happens when you get a blue screen due to overclocking? Call up custom PC warranty?

You love pulling numbers out of thin air do you? Any 3 or 4 years old PC components can be sold for half or third its original value. As long as it works normally of course.

Same case with Mac. Hold onto it too long and it loses its value. An acquaintance of mine sold his 24" iMac from 2008 for $300ish and it was a high end machine at the time cost him a nice $1800. That's a perfectly normal iMac and it sold for only 1/6 of its price.

Mac retains its value better? LOL

Also .. how if your iMac graphic toasted? A custom built PC could still works using iGPU while the graphic card being replaced/repaired. With iMac? You have to bring in the WHOLE BAGGAGE. Works stopped, projects stopped, playtime stopped.

 

[Arfdog]

You love pulling numbers out of thin air do you? Any 3 or 4 years old PC components can be sold for half or third its original value. As long as it works normally of course.

Same case with Mac. Hold onto it too long and it loses its value. An acquaintance of mine sold his 24" iMac from 2008 for $300ish and it was a high end machine at the time cost him a nice $1800. That's a perfectly normal iMac and it sold for only 1/6 of its price.

Mac retains its value better? LOL

Also .. how if your iMac graphic toasted? A custom built PC could still works using iGPU while the graphic card being replaced/repaired. With iMac? You have to bring in the WHOLE BAGGAGE. Works stopped, projects stopped, playtime stopped.

So you're implying a PC holds value as well as a Mac? lol. Sad thing is you're being serious.

And what does a 2008 PC or component sell for as a fraction of its original cost? It's damn near worthless.

If the Mac is "toasted" you have a warranty, and there's an extended one if you want. You can't easily get that with a PC. That's worth the downtime.

 

[iSayuSay]

So you're implying a PC holds value as well as a Mac? lol. Sad thing is you're being serious.

And what does a 2008 PC or component sell for as a fraction of its original cost? It's damn near worthless.

If the Mac is "toasted" you have a warranty, and there's an extended one if you want. You can't easily get that with a PC. That's worth the downtime.

It's always amusing to see you always play hero when it comes to Mac critics. Always.
Funny thing is I also own an iMac, Macbook, iPad, iPhone mostly also with AppleCare. In fact most likely I've had worked with Macs longer than you have. I administer Mac computers on my workplace and I know how many damaged and toasted Macs happened.

The thing is I admit and realize the drawbacks of owning a shiny Apple computer. Simple things are super easy on it but advanced tweakings nearly impossible. And TOTAL downtime when a Mac breaks for simplest thing is unacceptable.
Just because WiFi card damaged I need to stop all my works and bring the whole machine for services. Really? That's worth the downtime for such simple problem?

In the end it's just an electronic product, dude. Not national security. What's with your jerky attitude and fanatism? The computer is the TOOL. Not the user.
So does it really matter if it's valued 1/3 1/4 or 1/10 in a few years?

And really, I genuinely curious. What makes you so darn patriotic when it comes to an iMac? Do you get Apple paycheck for every post you make here? No, really. I'm curious.

 

[dublove]

Well I can give my opinion on 'iMacs for gaming'.

27" 2013 here. A mate of mine is into gaming heavily, dual crossfire ati's in his machine etc etc. Well, he thought the iMac was nice but wouldn't play games very well. So I switched to bootcamp and loaded up Tomb Raider 2013. 1080p everything maxed out. He couldn't believe it - the iMac was barely audible after 30minutes of game. Plus the fact that it made his crossfire ati's seem a complete waste of money.

Who'd have thought? An expensive, good looking lifestyle like product you can do production work on, and play games...

 

[2Turbo]

Well I can give my opinion on 'iMacs for gaming'.

27" 2013 here. A mate of mine is into gaming heavily, dual crossfire ati's in his machine etc etc. Well, he thought the iMac was nice but wouldn't play games very well. So I switched to bootcamp and loaded up Tomb Raider 2013. 1080p everything maxed out. He couldn't believe it - the iMac was barely audible after 30minutes of game. Plus the fact that it made his crossfire ati's seem a complete waste of money.

Who'd have thought? An expensive, good looking lifestyle like product you can do production work on, and play games...

Well I agree it can max that game out. But it can't max out games like BF4 online with 60 FPS. So if it can't even do that now, how is it going to be in 2 years when the next battlefield or whatever comes out? With a PC you just upgrade the gpu (if needed). It's bad enough that they don't include the 780m in 21.5" as the native 1080p would be easier to max then 1440p.

I'm starting to see if you're a serious gamer it makes more sense to invest in a gaming pc and run OS X on an integrated graphics iMac, Mac Mini or MacBook.

I think the iMac is great for the gamer that doesn't demand top performance and doesn't mind upgrading every 1-2 years to be able to keep up.

 

[Arfdog]

I'm starting to see if you're a serious gamer it makes more sense to invest in a gaming pc and run OS X on an integrated graphics iMac, Mac Mini or MacBook.

I think the iMac is great for the gamer that doesn't demand top performance and doesn't mind upgrading every 1-2 years to be able to keep up.

That's probably a true statement and thread closer. Although i think most regular people don't upgrade 1-2 years to keep up with gaming trends. So Macs should suit them fine.

 

[iSee]

There doesn't really need to be a specific reason.

Gaming is inherently about fun and entertainment (obviously). So there's no particular reason anyone would choose to optimize on FSP/$ or whatever metric you think is rational. They should really use the system they find funnest or most satisfying. Anything else any you're missing the point. And obviously that's completely subjective. Some will want to get the most FPS/$. Some will want the max FPS, period. Some will want a glass and aluminum, large-screen beauty. Some just like consoles.

Not to mention, many people buy iMacs for multiple reasons. Gaming might be just one of many things they use their iMac for.

I'd agree that anyone buying an iMac strictly for gaming is swimming upstream a bit. I'd guess most do so with their eyes open and enjoy going off the beaten path.

 

[Arfdog]

It's always amusing to see you always play hero when it comes to Mac critics. Always.
Funny thing is I also own an iMac, Macbook, iPad, iPhone mostly also with AppleCare. In fact most likely I've had worked with Macs longer than you have. I administer Mac computers on my workplace and I know how many damaged and toasted Macs happened.

The thing is I admit and realize the drawbacks of owning a shiny Apple computer. Simple things are super easy on it but advanced tweakings nearly impossible. And TOTAL downtime when a Mac breaks for simplest thing is unacceptable.
Just because WiFi card damaged I need to stop all my works and bring the whole machine for services. Really? That's worth the downtime for such simple problem?

In the end it's just an electronic product, dude. Not national security. What's with your jerky attitude and fanatism? The computer is the TOOL. Not the user.
So does it really matter if it's valued 1/3 1/4 or 1/10 in a few years?

And really, I genuinely curious. What makes you so darn patriotic when it comes to an iMac? Do you get Apple paycheck for every post you make here? No, really. I'm curious.

Well i'm glad you've chosen to reply reasonably.

I'm not a jerk, but I won't stand around when false statements are made. You talk about downtime with a Mac, how about downtime with a PC? LOL it's way worse, and you should know that if you administer computers.

For example, my work Dell laptop does the strangest things like the screen goes blank but my mouse works. I can't hit ctrl-alt-del, can't do anything. It just sits there. Then I have to reboot. Also, every week or 2 I have to reboot just because there's some new OS patch. An OS fix every 2 weeks???

I have yet to reboot my Mac after probably several months. I just put it to sleep, or it goes to sleep itself. Macs excel at simple processes, but it's a computer too, so it can do anything a Windows box can do. The weirdest thing my Mac has done is the screen has stalled for a few seconds when waking up. That's it. No reboot no nothing.

Mine and my friends Macs (who inspired me to jump to Mac) literally have never had any real faults. To me, thats astonishing when coming from a Windows PC. Blue screens galore on my old Pentium 4 machine running XP, stupid waking issues or the occasional freeze with my work Dell.....

 

[2Turbo]

Blue screens galore on my old Pentium 4 machine running XP, stupid waking issues or the occasional freeze with my work Dell.....

A little out dated wouldn't you say. Windows 7/8 is pretty stable unless you don't know what you're doing. I haven't seen a Windows blue screen in years.

 

[marzer]

Because we are wealthy elitist who must have the best. We have a superior sense of what makes good design and what will look awesome on our desks. We can tell our friends we have a Mac.

And it gives us something to do when people ask ridiculous questions like this one....

Nice to see someone else who just gets it! Now excuse me, someone is tapping on the Rolls window wanting to borrow my Grey Poupon...

 

[MythicFrost]

So you're implying a PC holds value as well as a Mac? lol. Sad thing is you're being serious.

And what does a 2008 PC or component sell for as a fraction of its original cost? It's damn near worthless.

If the Mac is "toasted" you have a warranty, and there's an extended one if you want. You can't easily get that with a PC. That's worth the downtime.

I'd say so, but that's five years. If you're still gaming with a GPU that old you'd only need to spend $100 or $150 to get something two or maybe even three times better. And you could recoup ~$30 for the old one.

You can actually. When you buy the parts (NewEgg, for example) you can select an extended warranty.

 

[iSayuSay]

Well i'm glad you've chosen to reply reasonably.

I'm not a jerk, but I won't stand around when false statements are made. You talk about downtime with a Mac, how about downtime with a PC? LOL it's way worse, and you should know that if you administer computers.

For example, my work Dell laptop does the strangest things like the screen goes blank but my mouse works. I can't hit ctrl-alt-del, can't do anything. It just sits there. Then I have to reboot. Also, every week or 2 I have to reboot just because there's some new OS patch. An OS fix every 2 weeks???

I have yet to reboot my Mac after probably several months. I just put it to sleep, or it goes to sleep itself. Macs excel at simple processes, but it's a computer too, so it can do anything a Windows box can do. The weirdest thing my Mac has done is the screen has stalled for a few seconds when waking up. That's it. No reboot no nothing.

Mine and my friends Macs (who inspired me to jump to Mac) literally have never had any real faults. To me, thats astonishing when coming from a Windows PC. Blue screens galore on my old Pentium 4 machine running XP, stupid waking issues or the occasional freeze with my work Dell.....

You might have a lemon Dell, no arguments there. And in that case, a lemon Mac could be equally painful to deal with. When it comes to a laptop, they're pretty much equal. Consumers don't have terribly many options when it breaks. It's even much worse if you're out of warranty.

But with a desktop everything should be easier. At least I want to keep an old MacPro design with updated hardware. And it works that way in reality. When I need to replace a component in a desktop in workplace it doesn't have to be completely stripped down. So in many cases the computer could still be usable.

With iMac? Spec wise it's decent. But basically it's a giant iPad hung on a stick.
Anything snapped inside and you have nothing. The whole pack needs to be brought down along with it.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

I just love my iMac. It makes the sun shine, the grass grow and everything beautiful. As someone who is disabled and lives on a modest fixed social security disability income, my 27" iMac also makes me feel elite and wealthy even though I am not. It makes me feel like one of the cool kids if you will.

My iMac does everything I want and offers me apps to do things that you cannot get on Windows.

Last but certainly not at all the least, my iMac excels at playing games including AAA titles at high resolutions, high settings and with good performance. I will concede it does not compete with a high end gaming PC but in reality, most PC users do not own a high end gaming PC either. Don't believe me? Check the Steam hardware survey results and see what PC users typically play games on. There you get a more meaningful comparison to what Mac gamers play games on.

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/?platform=pc

Check out the above link and get a load of what the most popular graphics cards are on surveyed PCs for gamers using Steam which is a lot of gamers. Note also that nearly 50% of those surveyed are still using DUAL CORE CPUs! This information is current as of October 2013!

This data isn't going to sit well with people who are always comparing top spec PCs as if they are the norm for PC gamers. It's quite the reality check to see what people really game on. While not all participate in the survey, given that Steam has over 40 million customers and generally 3 to 5 million people playing games on the service at any given time 24/7 it is probably safe to assume this is a fairly representative sample.

Now, when you examine this issue in that context a new iMac is looking pretty damned good - because actually, it is pretty damned good for gaming. And of course, it is quite a nice computer otherwise not least of all because it runs OS X.

I think that pretty well answers the OP's question along with the many remarks in this thread to the effect of, we buy Macs for more than gaming but they are great for that too. And I also agree with some that as usual, you get what you pay for. You don't get to pay for a Chevy and drive off the lot with a Cadillac. A PC is a capable machine but it is no Macintosh.

 

[Irishman]

price:spec ratio, not nearly as many games as other platforms, barely any exclusives.



Why not?

You're looking at it just the way I would expect someone marketing another platform to look at it. (i.e. not looking at the iMac's advantages).

----------

I'm just here asking a simple, genuine question. I'm not trying to be hostile or 'troll' the forums, I'm genuinely curious as to why so many people buy iMacs for gaming over cheaper/better alternatives and hope to have a nice discussion about it, and people are answering well and putting thought into it. There's no need to bother if you're just gonna ask more questions and write 'facepalm', the goal here is to feed my curiosity and change my views.

First throw out your preconception that Macs bog down while playing games.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

When someone spends $1500+ on a computer; I think y=the can do what they like.

 

[iSayuSay]

When someone spends $1500+ on a computer; I think y=the can do what they like.

Apparently not. Apple doesn't want you to do anything with your iMac. It's a closed system.
You can't replace the harddrive or ssd
You can't replace the graphic/cpu
You can't even add your own RAM on 21.5" iMac

Yeah sure you can smash your Mac if you choose if that's what you call freedom. But in a sense of authority, Apple controls what you may or may not do with your Mac. Step over the line and Apple might stop covering your hardware.

 

[plucky duck]

I didn't even know bootcamp was an option when i bought my iMac. It was a pleasant surprise that I could load Windows natively and still be able to do some decent gaming on the machine.

I bought it for it's size, large resolution, OSX, and the ability to utilize both the left and right panes of the display for watching a movie and browsing the net on the other pane. Not sure if pane is the right word to use, but the idea of being able to multitask that way and take advantage of the large resolution display intrigued me. I've build computers for a good decade and didn't want to go back to that. The iMac IS the right amount of compromise for me. Wanted to try something different, and OSX to date is a pleasure to use. Aperture and FCP are a pleasure to use as well.

Games for OSX are very narrow selection, I'm glad I have the option for bootcamp.

Games I play on the iMac, mostly in Windows:
- NFS:HP
- Just Cause 2
- Witcher 2
- Roller Coaster Tycoon
- Civ 5
- SimCity 4
- SF4
- GTA4
- Sleeping Dogs
- Alan Wake
- Crysis 2

None of the games above when I play them on the iMac made me feel as if the iMac is underpowered. Granted, not many are very intensive games anyhow.

Glad I went the all-in-one route and pleasantly surprised at the level of user experience the OSX had to offer.

 

[2Turbo]

I want a Mac for work/normal use but, IMO the problem is I also want to keep current with demanding games like BF4, BF5, etc.

My reasoning behind the iMac has been: resale value is high, so I can just resell after 1-2 years and get the top gpu iMac to continue gaming. This allows an all-in-one work/play setup. Keep in mind it will still be mid-range gpu. With 20nm mobile maxwell coming within 1-2 years and %40-%50 more performance, it could take the iMac into 'current' desktop high-end gpu levels.

But looking at late 2012 maxed iMacs on eBay, I'd lose at least $500-$800 after fees for just 1 year of ownership.

If I invest in a gaming rig, it would save me from having to sell my entire Mac every 1-2 years just for the gpu. I wouldn't need to upgrade my iMac very often just for normal work. Then all I need to do is upgrade the gaming pc's gpu every couple years.

So I'm thinking of going iMac or Mac Mini and Gaming PC. More expensive at first but might pay off after a couple years. You get better gaming performance, and don't have to sell a $3k machine every time you turn around.

Any input, am I nuts? Please guys I'm going in circles with this crap lol. I'm just getting back into gaming after quitting for several years. I'm used to getting by on a MacBook Air for work.

1) Should I go iMac 780m and lose $800 or more resale value by the end of next year?
2) Or should I go iMac iGPU / Mac Mini and Gaming PC.

 

[yjchua95]

I didn't even know bootcamp was an option when i bought my iMac. It was a pleasant surprise that I could load Windows natively and still be able to do some decent gaming on the machine.

I bought it for it's size, large resolution, OSX, and the ability to utilize both the left and right panes of the display for watching a movie and browsing the net on the other pane. Not sure if pane is the right word to use, but the idea of being able to multitask that way and take advantage of the large resolution display intrigued me. I've build computers for a good decade and didn't want to go back to that. The iMac IS the right amount of compromise for me. Wanted to try something different, and OSX to date is a pleasure to use. Aperture and FCP are a pleasure to use as well.

Games for OSX are very narrow selection, I'm glad I have the option for bootcamp.

Games I play on the iMac, mostly in Windows:
- NFS:HP
- Just Cause 2
- Witcher 2
- Roller Coaster Tycoon
- Civ 5
- SimCity 4
- SF4
- GTA4
- Sleeping Dogs
- Alan Wake
- Crysis 2

None of the games above when I play them on the iMac made me feel as if the iMac is underpowered. Granted, not many are very intensive games anyhow.

Glad I went the all-in-one route and pleasantly surprised at the level of user experience the OSX had to offer.

Tried NFS MW2 yet? That one's pretty good.