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Why do so many people buy iMacs for gaming?

Got a PC, would prefer a Mac

I asked myself the same question as the poster of this thread and ended up building a PC with a very fast graphics card. Why? As much as I prefer the Mac and OSX I couldn't warrant the price of a Mac Pro for gaming, the Mini doesn't have good enough graphics and I don't like the iMac. The iMac is a great machine if you like all in one's, but I don't and I prefer a matt screen.

If Apple update the Mini with a similar design to the Pro, with a gaming orientated GPU (780 TI, etc) and a core i5/i7 in there then I'd buy it yesterday. All the games I play are available on Mac, and it's a pain having to swap between OS X and Windows machines for different tasks. My personal point of view is there is too much of a gap between the mini and the pro (£2000) and the iMac doesn't fill it. There's plenty of scope for a £1000-1500 desktop with gaming graphics that isn't an all in one. Apple, pull your finger out and build it!


----------- UPDATE - 26/04/2014

My needs have changed somewhat as I need to do more prototyping in VMware now so need a machine that can have at least 64GB RAM. I could update the gaming PC, but I'm at the point where I'd rather consolidate to a single box and I prefer OSX. Just ordered an nMP. 6-core, 12GB RAM (will update to 64GB from Crucial), 512GB SSD, D700's. My gaming requirements are secondary to my VMware needs and the D700's are good under Windows (if I decide to bootcamp) and okay under OSX. As more games get developed for Mac and the Mac Pro native performance should improve. I'll post some comments about gaming performance when I get it. I bet the PC (i7 3770k, GTX780)is faster however.
 
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As a "PC/MAC gamer" myself, I never understood the obsession of the gamer community with running everything on ultra setting at the absolute smoothest setting possible at the highest resolution setting.

I mean, when you listen to them, it's like almost no gaming matter or you can't be serious about gaming, if you don't make your own gaming tower that can run everything of the highest settings.

I mean, with time I realized that I don't care that much about having better shadows or the absolute perfect water rendering. For example, I play Far Cry 3 on my 2013 27' iMac with the Radeon 755M GT card, I have some settings on medium, some on high, some on low, I get very decent framerate, the game still look very good and in the end I end up having the same fun playing it. I really can run every game I want, even if its not on ultra settings.
 
Thank you for all these useful facts so I may wrap them up and jam them down PC gamers fanboys throats. :D

What I find amusing is that "PC experts" usually know nothing about Mac unless they own one. Then, they rarely have anything bad to say about Mac.
 
Siderz said:
Why would you spend all that money when you're just gonna run Windows on it anyway?



I can ask what I want, it's a free country. If people don't want to answer my question, then don't...it's not your decision whether or not people want to answer me.
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Who said anything about running Windows?

I bought my iMac because at the time:

* Quad core was nice

* 27 inch screen was nice

* OS X is beyond better than Windows

I rarely game but when I do, this beast plays LoL and SimCity 5 just fine, other games too.

If you're a heavy gamer I agree buying an OS X machine is foolish, but for the casual gamer this unit is fantastic.
 
iSayuSay said:
I don't know whether my old iMac has so many problems induced by heat or not. But I did use it intensively to the point its body is hot to the touch. The new designed iMac is cooler though. It's been less problematic than the old one but I could see the display having a smoke-like stain.
Oh yeah I need to bring in the whole machine again. F that :mad:

Problem is, iMac is not a "tower" .. 90% of iMac component is laptop's but it's stuck beneath a 27" display. So it's just as risky as having a laptop. All in one package.
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Yeah, my 2010 did both of those things. It would be hot to the touch under load. Hot enough that placing your hand on it was uncomfortable, but you could still stand it. Any hotter, and you might not have. I also had the screen issue where it looked like it was a water stain creeping from the right side. Which is what I think you were talking about.

But even so, I still went with another one. I know that they have taken care of the heat problems. Hopefully it doesn't do the thing with the screen. Cheers!
 
shaunp said:
I asked myself the same question as the poster of this thread and ended up building a PC with a very fast graphics card. Why? As much as I prefer the Mac and OSX I couldn't warrant the price of a Mac Pro for gaming, the Mini doesn't have good enough graphics and I don't like the iMac. The iMac is a great machine if you like all in one's, but I don't and I prefer a matt screen.

If Apple update the Mini with a similar design to the Pro, with a gaming orientated GPU (780 TI, etc) and a core i5/i7 in there then I'd buy it yesterday. All the games I play are available on Mac, and it's a pain having to swap between OS X and Windows machines for different tasks. My personal point of view is there is too much of a gap between the mini and the pro (£2000) and the iMac doesn't fill it. There's plenty of scope for a £1000-1500 desktop with gaming graphics that isn't an all in one. Apple, pull your finger out and build it!
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That seems like a very reasonable point of view. I once yearned for a higher-spec Mini, but the iMac fit my bill because it's an AIO.
 
Black Friday new mac just for games?...

Got my 1st mac iMac 2.7 21.5" and the 1st question my daughter asked me was, will it play minecraft! Argh!
I get a high end (compared to win7) and all I get asked is this!:D
 
It appears the 775M is the same exact card as the 680M.. But has the Boost 2.0 whereas the 680M has 1.0. Technically the 775M should edge out since it overclocks and holds more speed.. And in the reviews and benchmarks it proves true that it's faster than the 680M.

I have a 680M in my last year's Sager custom built Notebook.. it's heavily overclocked too.. I would imagine overclocking the 775M under Windows using NvidiaInspector on the iMac is very possible and could be overclocked to be nearly the same performance as a 780M.

So all things said, my 680M is a powerful beast of a GPU running almost everyhting at ultra settings smoothly. Only the newer cutting edge games aren't as smooth in Ultra.. but still very playable. BF4 maxed out at 1080p is smooth enough.

I'm considering selling my 680M laptop for the $1999 equipped 27" iMac.
 
Diversion said:
It appears the 775M is the same exact card as the 680M.. But has the Boost 2.0 whereas the 680M has 1.0. Technically the 775M should edge out since it overclocks and holds more speed.. And in the reviews and benchmarks it proves true that it's faster than the 680M.

I have a 680M in my last year's Sager custom built Notebook.. it's heavily overclocked too.. I would imagine overclocking the 775M under Windows using NvidiaInspector on the iMac is very possible and could be overclocked to be nearly the same performance as a 780M.

So all things said, my 680M is a powerful beast of a GPU running almost everyhting at ultra settings smoothly. Only the newer cutting edge games aren't as smooth in Ultra.. but still very playable. BF4 maxed out at 1080p is smooth enough.

I'm considering selling my 680M laptop for the $1999 equipped 27" iMac.
Click to expand...
Don't forget though, that the native resolution on the 27 inch iMac is 1440p. So if you went for the 775M you'd get a lower frame rate at native resolution, or you'd have to run downscaled at 1080p.
 
MythicFrost said:
Don't forget though, that the native resolution on the 27 inch iMac is 1440p. So if you went for the 775M you'd get a lower frame rate at native resolution, or you'd have to run downscaled at 1080p.
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Yup, I get that, I had a Thunderbolt Cinema Display back when they came out and I had to down-res a lot of games to get decent framerates when I was using my 15" MBP with AMD 6750m GPU.. WoW would run at native 1440p pretty good though at almost near ultra quality :p
 
I didn't buy my iMac for gaming but it is a very capable gaming machine as it turns out.

I opted for the 780M and running BF4 i'm getting at least 60fps in firefights running high settings but with AA off and 1080p.

This for me is a good result.

I'm an occasional gamer and now i rarely use my xbox 360 i decided not to rush out and buy an xbox one, so having a mac i used for work which can also run the occasional game is a good.
 
steinercat said:
GTX 800M is just around the corner.

Any speculation/chance for a Spring refresh?
Click to expand...

It's just a shifting paradigm:

875M = 780M
850M = 765M

etc.etc.

The only true new cards will be the upper end ones.. Like the new 880M will be a "super 780M" etc. They are very incremental these days. Although unless they introduce an all new platform and moving away from Kepler.. I have a feeling the 8xx will be the last year for Kepler.. 2015 should be a better year for graphics.

----------
bp1000 said:
I didn't buy my iMac for gaming but it is a very capable gaming machine as it turns out.

I opted for the 780M and running BF4 i'm getting at least 60fps in firefights running high settings but with AA off and 1080p.

This for me is a good result.

I'm an occasional gamer and now i rarely use my xbox 360 i decided not to rush out and buy an xbox one, so having a mac i used for work which can also run the occasional game is a good.
Click to expand...

Only thing that's annoying is down-ressing the native 1440p panel makes it look a bit soft .. I like the sharpness of native resolution :/
 
Hey guys,

anyone playing EVE Online with the 27" iMac with GTX 780m? I'm interested in how it performs. Only game I play and and I'd like to get full 60fps at max settings, which I think is easily possible (based on comparing benchmarks with my current gpu, a 560ti DC CUII, and EVE is not the most demanding game) but would like to get a confirmation.

EDIT: This would be with Bootcamp+Win7 to avoid the issues with the native client, and also to improve the performance. I have no issues with booting to Windows just for gaming, but I do have plenty of issues with using Windows for work. I'm an ex-mac user who also uses macs at workplace and no matter how much I've tried to cope with Windows for the past three years, it's been a struggle especially when it comes to coding, which I've mostly solved by dual-booting to linux. However I need Adobe CC more than before, and moving back to OSX gives the best of both worlds.
 
Firstly, I wanted the Mac OS instead of Windows. Any games I happen to play, such as Diablo 3, work very well on my iMac and I have had no issues with them. I'm not a hardcore gamer, though… but any games I play I'm very happy with the iMac. It's capable.
 
Navy Comet said:
Hey guys,

anyone playing EVE Online with the 27" iMac with GTX 780m? I'm interested in how it performs. Only game I play and and I'd like to get full 60fps at max settings, which I think is easily possible (based on comparing benchmarks with my current gpu, a 560ti DC CUII, and EVE is not the most demanding game) but would like to get a confirmation.

EDIT: This would be with Bootcamp+Win7 to avoid the issues with the native client, and also to improve the performance. I have no issues with booting to Windows just for gaming, but I do have plenty of issues with using Windows for work. I'm an ex-mac user who also uses macs at workplace and no matter how much I've tried to cope with Windows for the past three years, it's been a struggle especially when it comes to coding, which I've mostly solved by dual-booting to linux. However I need Adobe CC more than before, and moving back to OSX gives the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...

I can't comment on Eve as I've never dabbled, but I have a 27" i7 iMac late 2012 with 680MX GPU and it is excellent for gaming. On the windows benchmarks it scores 7.8/7.9 in every category except the HD which is 5.8 but that doesn't seem to impact on the overall performance.
I generally run on med/max settings with v-sync and never notice any slowdowns.
The 780 GPU in the new iMacs is supposed to be 30% faster than the 680 so it will absolutely fly.
I upgrade every 2 years so May next year I'll probably be getting a Mac with an 880 or similar and obviously that will be even better especially as hopefully the Oculus Rift CV1 will be available.
 
Georgio said:
I can't comment on Eve as I've never dabbled, but I have a 27" i7 iMac late 2012 with 680MX GPU and it is excellent for gaming. On the windows benchmarks it scores 7.8/7.9 in every category except the HD which is 5.8 but that doesn't seem to impact on the overall performance.
I generally run on med/max settings with v-sync and never notice any slowdowns.
The 780 GPU in the new iMacs is supposed to be 30% faster than the 680 so it will absolutely fly.
I upgrade every 2 years so May next year I'll probably be getting a Mac with an 880 or similar and obviously that will be even better especially as hopefully the Oculus Rift CV1 will be available.
Click to expand...

Cheers Georgio!

Sadly Oculus Rift went the way of the dodo just a few weeks back.

Any EVE players with 780m who could comment on the performance?
 
Navy Comet said:
Cheers Georgio!

Sadly Oculus Rift went the way of the dodo just a few weeks back.

Any EVE players with 780m who could comment on the performance?
Click to expand...

Regarding OR hopefully after all the out-pouring of hate Zuckerberg will just pump in the money and leave Palmer and his team to do what they do best.
I was initially appalled by the sale but i think you have to look at it as Zuckerberg bored and looking to invest his billions somewhere that interests him and not some cyber-hacking enterprise with FB taking a live feed from your virtual porntime... :D
 
Gaming issues via bootcamp

I have the iMac 27 (late 2013) model i5 3.4ghz 16GB

the fan is running constantly at 1200 rpm and you can hear the fan noise and airflow which is annoying!

having serious issues with OS windows 7 via bootcamp while playing gaming

my iMac 27 late 2013 has no hardware issues done a test!
The fan noise becomes very loud and the iMac get very hot which is quite scary!

Going to download

SSD Fan Control for Mac and Macs fan control for windows 7

Not sure if that will help

also playing games like Batman Arkham Origins PC under bootcamp windows 7 64bit is great
but within 10 mins the the fan noise is very bad! and the iMac gets very hot at the back!

the game is on med settings!

i thought the graphics card would cope
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2048 MB

apple tech help are useless they don't have a clue! they say take it to the store for a check up


Does anyone have this issue with bootcamp?


only brought this iMac last month :(
 
As long as my iMac can handle civilization and football manager I'm happy with my gaming experience
 
I call myself getting old because gaming just doesn't mean as much to me as it used to. I do enjoy playing a game every once in a while but I may get in 3-4 hrs a month if that.

Personally I am at the point where I do NOT want to bother building machines any more, updating drivers, researching how to squeeze out every inch of performance, researching and dealing with water-cooling setups, etc etc.
I just want to buy a very nice machine that does what I need/want with almost no maintenance and if it breaks, someone else can repair it and for 5 years, my iMacs have served me very well.

I IMO was a Windows/PC poster boy since building my 1st Win95 machine. I always needed the best video cards, best CPU, best cooling setup and one day I bought an iMac and then the days of a "thousand" cables, cords and monster tower cases were a thing of the past. The first time I had an issue and had to deal with the Apple Store and they gave me a replacement on the spot I was 100% sold and not looking back.
 
mmomega said:
I call myself getting old because gaming just doesn't mean as much to me as it used to. I do enjoy playing a game every once in a while but I may get in 3-4 hrs a month if that.

Personally I am at the point where I do NOT want to bother building machines any more, updating drivers, researching how to squeeze out every inch of performance, researching and dealing with water-cooling setups, etc etc.
I just want to buy a very nice machine that does what I need/want with almost no maintenance and if it breaks, someone else can repair it and for 5 years, my iMacs have served me very well.

I IMO was a Windows/PC poster boy since building my 1st Win95 machine. I always needed the best video cards, best CPU, best cooling setup and one day I bought an iMac and then the days of a "thousand" cables, cords and monster tower cases were a thing of the past. The first time I had an issue and had to deal with the Apple Store and they gave me a replacement on the spot I was 100% sold and not looking back.
Click to expand...

My sentiments entirely; I have far better things to be doing than trying to figure out why a PC is playing up.

Win7/bootcamp/iMac is the best of both Worlds.
 
Siderz said:
That's a good point, but is a Mercedes going to bog down while driving on a normal road?
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Dont think there is much point talking about peoples taste when it comes to the choices they make when buying things. Especially if what becomes clear to me you will not accept any answer and will aleays have another "but". Tactics Ive seen often and the only answer to this is that I agree to disagree with you, your opinion on certain subjects and whatever other issues or problems you have.

You might aswell ask why people buy anything and use it in a way You think or the World thinks is not the intended way. I used PCs all my life and now I use way too powerful and overpriced mbps/imac on browsing net and some casual gaming. Just because I like the experience, the design, quality and brand itself.

So why do I use it for gaming? Because I dare and because I dont care whatever whoever might think about anything I do in life - incl what car I drive on what roads and what toilet roll I use to wipe my arse and the list goes on - so be my guest and pick whichever point you feel you should disagree with :D

Its nothing personal just another ******** thread about ******** attitude..
 
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