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New iMacs...older ones better?

B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
So it looks like the time for me to buy a new iMac has finally dawned. However, I've run into a predicament. The new Macs are purdy, however, they don't seem to have that much of an edge over the last generation, aside from a thinner machine and upgraded specs on the low-end machine (the one I'm considering).

I was intending to partition out 20gb of the HDD to Bootcamp and play games with, however, the graphics cards that the new machines come with look utterly gutless (ATI 2400XT and 2600 Pro), possibly slower than the last generations vid cards (ATI X1600/nVidia 7300GT). Can anyone confirm/deny this? All of the reviews of the 2400XT and 2600 Pro give them horrid benchmark testing in most OLDER games. I'm not looking for outstanding gaming capabilities, but in order to run stuff on these cards it almost looks like you have to run the games in bare-bones mode.

The nVidia 7600GT that was an option on the 24 inch last gen would be the ideal choice, however, I'm still looking at paying a large surcharge over a current gen machine for that.

Does anyone have the older gen and Bootcamp w/ games to give me some feedback on this? Google doesn't seem to be helping.
 
Kornphlake

Kornphlake

Turbo Monkey
Oct 8, 2002
2,632
1
Portland, OR
Mac=teh suxxors for gaming!!!1!11one

I really have no idea about the answer to your question as I really don't know much about Macs but I know with PCs if you are specing a computer with gaming in mind you need to set your budget much higher than the average computer purchaser would, I'm not sure where the newer graphics cards and newer games lie, but in the past you could play games on underpowered graphics cards to some degree by turning off the visual extras in the game settings, with PCs flashing the firmware and overclocking allowed some hotrodding of budget priced cards, probably not an option on a mac, much less on a notebook.
 
B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Kornphlake said:
Mac=teh suxxors for gaming!!!1!11one

I really have no idea about the answer to your question as I really don't know much about Macs but I know with PCs if you are specing a computer with gaming in mind you need to set your budget much higher than the average computer purchaser would, I'm not sure where the newer graphics cards and newer games lie, but in the past you could play games on underpowered graphics cards to some degree by turning off the visual extras in the game settings, with PCs flashing the firmware and overclocking allowed some hotrodding of budget priced cards, probably not an option on a mac, much less on a notebook.
Click to expand...
Not really true. I can build a solid gaming rig for 500$, but I don't want a PC and I don't want to play the latest and greatest. CS:S and a few RTS keep me happy, but the latest incarnation of the iMac video card can't seem to handle even that.

You can OC the cards in the Macs with Windows, but given the tight tolerances inside the machine I'm not so sure it's a hot idea.

I DID have a thought though last night...I've been reading about how the ATI cards spec'd in the new macs are very thrifty with power and thermal footprint. I think this may be the sole reason they're spec'd (the new iMac is very thin - almost as thin as a notebook). That's one thing I hate about Apple (aside from Steve Yobs)...form over function sometimes.
 
H

h22ekhatch

Monkey
Jun 13, 2005
269
0
Portland
I know this is totally ignoring your question, but I think the (old) white Imacs look cooler. The aluminum/black is cool too, I just think the white looks better.

That said, I think that thin aluminum KB on the new ones = two thumbs up.

I don't play games so I am pretty unhelpful beyond that :)

Uhm anyway.
 
B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
I think I'll just revert to original plan and buy one of the new models and get a 360 for games...PCs for games are dumb. :p
 
N8 v2.0

N8 v2.0

Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Oct 18, 2002
11,003
149
The Cleft of Venus
i am thinking i will buy a MacBook Pro in a few weeks....

i used to have Apple PC's back in the mid/late 80's and loved them
 
Silver

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
N8 said:
i am thinking i will buy a MacBook Pro in a few weeks....

i used to have Apple PC's back in the mid/late 80's and loved them
Click to expand...
If you don't need it right now, wait until October. No need to pay another $129 for the new OS in three months...
 
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