gaming

[Turkish]

Before the PC massive come in and bang on about overclocking, cooling systems and how superior a gaming rig is to a mac I DON'T CARE.

With that out of the way is anyone using a current i5 or i7 for gaming be it via steam for mac or bootcamp with a windows OS to run windows versions of games?

Any feedback as to how well they perform in terms of detail level and smoothness of motion etc would be appreciated. Consoles will always be my main platform for gaming but when I replace my current mac it looks like there are a few more options for me to pick up some titles on the mac too.

 

[Krispwee]

You looking at MacBook Pro or iMac?

 

[Turkish]

iMac, I'll be replacing my G5 with a new model when they release the 2011 iMac's was wondering how anyone with a current ish 2009/2010 iMac gets on with gaming on them.

 

[Addicted]

running an i7 watercooled @ 4.2Ghz (build @ http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18197085 ), runs everything fine, gonna try Dead Space 2 tomorrow but everything has been flawless so far!

in terms of performance, you can't currently beat it, so to answer your question yes it's the ideal processor, but make sure the other components are on an equal level! If you are running a mac, i'm not sure what gfx card would be supplied as i don't touch them, but make sure it's powerful enough!

 

[Turkish]

I'm asking specifically about iMac's not the processor itself. I'm buying a Mac, not a PC modded or otherwise. Perhaps my first post wasn't specific enough, I just wanted to get an idea if anyone was using theirs for any gaming and how they held up.

 

[Krispwee]

The thing with the current Mac's is the graphics cards inside them aren't top end stuff. They run games in OSX through Steam using the Source Engine (HL2, CS Source, Left 4 Dead 1/2 etc) pretty well as the engine is getting a little dated. Your looking at an easy 40 - 60fps which is perfectly playable (thats with most settings on high). Other games with newer game engines will struggle. A benchmark shows that on Bioshock you will get an average of 24fps with settings on high (thats with the 27" i7 with the ATi 5750 which is the best iMac you can get). 24fps will start to hurt your eyes especially when theres lots of stuff going on. To get it running nicely you would need to change the detail, shadow and anti-aliasing levels down.

In bootcamp things aren't so pretty. It will be a case of having to change the graphics settings down fairly low to get things to run at the highest res. If your looking to run Crysis on the current range then expect it to be pretty bad.

Just gotta hope Apple can cram in a higher end graphics card into the next refresh which, by the size of the current top end stuff, isn't going to be too easy.

 

[Turkish]

That's the kind of info I was looking for, I suspected that the gfx card would be the limiting factor as even 15+ years ago when I was gaming on PC's they seemed to be the thing you had to upgrade every five f**king minutes to keep your machine running new titles well.

As I say I'm not expecting it to run newest titles flawlessly and silky smooth just trying to work out whether it's going to open up some options if I see a title that might not be released on consoles for one reason or another.

How would it cope with something like rfactor or lfs? I know these are older and I would imagine a bit less hard work due to the detail level compared to an FPS title?

 

[Keydogg]

I'm shocked that the ATi 5750 is the highest graphics card you can get. Regardless of whether Apple think their users want to play games, surely they should offer something WAY more substantial for those who want to pay it. My 3 year old quad core with 8800GT will out perform it!

 

[Krispwee]

rFactor should be fine as its fairly old now (although still awesome!). Some tracks/mods don't run particularly well at the best of times as they are usually made by some kid in his bedroom. I find that my PC can struggle when driving round some different version of the Nurburgring (I expect due to the size and it having to load it into the game). You probably won't be able to run it with Anti-Aliasing up high, reflection high and also shadows high as they are the main things on rFactor that affects my FPS. Also worth giving GTR Evolution a try as its running on an old but exceptionally good engine.

rFactor 2 will probably be fairly graphics intensive when/if it comes out.

 

[Munson]

They're far from ideal as a gaming platform, but if you want to use one then it'll mostly be fine so long as you can accept some compromise. They have good processors, so a heavily CPU-bound game could benefit a lot if you used a lower resolution (taking a load off the GFX). Any heavily GFX-bound game is going to have to be run at fairly low settings and low resolution. Don't expect to be able to play Crysis very well on it, for example.

 

[Turkish]

I'm not overly worried tbh, so long as it'll do a half decent job then it'll do me. As I say it's just as an addition to my console gaming, if it'll run no worse or look no worse than some of the games on my 5 year old xbox360 and PS3 then I'll be plenty happy. I know it's not going to be gaming rig epic as it's not a machine tailored to that kind of use.

 

[Darren S]

That's the kind of info I was looking for, I suspected that the gfx card would be the limiting factor as even 15+ years ago when I was gaming on PC's they seemed to be the thing you had to upgrade every five f**king minutes to keep your machine running new titles well.

As I say I'm not expecting it to run newest titles flawlessly and silky smooth just trying to work out whether it's going to open up some options if I see a title that might not be released on consoles for one reason or another.

How would it cope with something like rfactor or lfs? I know these are older and I would imagine a bit less hard work due to the detail level compared to an FPS title?

It's not as bad as that. I had a 4870 for years and then swapped it for a 4890 nearly two years ago. Because I could (and for no other reason) I picked up another 4890 off Fleabay for a ton and now use both in Crossfire. Together, they'll run pretty much anything in 1920x1200 with eye candy switched on. Sure, I could go out and spend £400+ on the latest card and see a benefit from doing so. But you don't have to. The concept of having to remortgage your house every 6 months to keep at the forefront of PC gaming is just pure myth.

D.

 

[Munson]

2JZ. I'm still rolling with DDR2 RAM, a QX9650 and a GTX295. Plays everything still. I am due a new build though.

 

[Turkish]

It's not as bad as that. I had a 4870 for years and then swapped it for a 4890 nearly two years ago. Because I could (and for no other reason) I picked up another 4890 off Fleabay for a ton and now use both in Crossfire. Together, they'll run pretty much anything in 1920x1200 with eye candy switched on. Sure, I could go out and spend £400+ on the latest card and see a benefit from doing so. But you don't have to. The concept of having to remortgage your house every 6 months to keep at the forefront of PC gaming is just pure myth.

D.

Either way it's not a path I'm interested in going down again. Mac will be for browsing media etc and a little bit of gaming as it sounds like it'll do for the occasional use I'd want from it. I'll be sticking with the consoles for main gaming duties.

 

[Christopher]

GPU will always be your limiting factor with an iMac for gaming.

Apple underclock their hardware for heat and noise reasons, mainly. This can be reversed, but TBH, there's no point when a £500 PC build will out-perform it on benchmarks.

I play GTA IV, WoW and Half-Life on mine with ease on max settings. I tried Crysis on max and got 7FPS. LOL. It'll play with most things set to high, but Crysis' water makes an iMac sh*t itself, for whatever reason.

i7, 1GB VRAM, 8GB RAM.

 

[Darren S]

GPU will always be your limiting factor with an iMac for gaming.

Apple underclock their hardware for heat and noise reasons, mainly. This can be reversed, but TBH, there's no point when a £500 PC build will out-perform it on benchmarks.

I play GTA IV, WoW and Half-Life on mine with ease on max settings. I tried Crysis on max and got 7FPS. LOL. It'll play with most things set to high, but Crysis' water makes an iMac sh*t itself, for whatever reason.

i7, 1GB VRAM, 8GB RAM.

FLOL. What you say about the reasons for holding back on the gfx hardware for heat and noise are definitely true on Macs. It does however make me smile that the rest of the hardware is really decent stuff and then it gets a good dose of self-fail by a strangled gfx card. It's like making the next, brand spanking new VTEC-yo Teggy Type-R redline at 3k.

Personally, I'd put up with the noise.... and the go.

D.

 

[Christopher]

Definitely. Another issue is because of the 'unibody' structure of the new iMacs, everything is fixed straight onto the Aluminium frame. You can barely touch to back of my iMac if you're playing games for a lengthy period without using SMCfancontrol to max out the fan speeds.

So if you're planning gaming on your iMac, or any Mac, I'd suggest getting SMC before you even start.

Here's the inside of a 27" model like mine. I had this as my wallpaper for a bit. It messes with your eyes. lol. Kinda cool though.

 

[Turkish]

Lol that's cool. Or not as the case may be during gaming. So basically set the cooling fans to max before gaming? Guess that's always going to be an issue with all that packed in a small case. I've just watched some YouTube clips of 2010 iMacs playing COD and crisis etc and looks pretty impressive to me compared to consoles anyway.

 

[Christopher]

I have three sets of parameters set up; one is for normal use, one is for gaming, with the fans at half-speed, and the last is for Crysis. iMac Dyson setting FTL, though. It's scarily loud in a kinda impressive way.

And yeah, they can make games look great, but not on the same level as a dedicated gaming rig.

The plus side being that when you exit a game, you're not forced to use Windows for everything else. For the amount of time I want to sit at a desk to play games, I'm pleased with that deal.

 

[Turkish]

Will be interesting to see what processors, gfx card etc the 2011 models will get. If I'm honest the clips I've seen on the net look plenty good enough for the occasional gaming I'll be likely to do on it.

 

[wozzaa]

If you do want to game, run Windows. The drivers are basically massively better in windows for the hardware. Don't use the bootcamp GPU drivers. Go to the ATI site and get the mobility drivers.

Then you are looking at around a 30-50% speed increase over OSX in games. OSX is good for general computing. Windows kicks it's arse when it comes to gaming speeds though. It's not even close. Seen benchmarks where it was struggling to see 30fps under OSX. Fire it up in windows and bang 70fps for the exact same settings.

 

[Munson]

Are you talking about DirectX games there though? What about OpenGL stuff?

 

[Turkish]

Me or wozza? I've taken a look at a load of clips on YouTube now and the i7 models seem to perform better than I expected and certainly well enough for a non gaming rig owner who'll be wanting it for light use only. Both the steam for mac stuff and the bootcamp clips of crysis running didn't look bad at all IMO.

 

[Goodj]

I'm runnig a playstation 3, and that runs everything just sweet.

but then, when you've got 7 processors on the go, that tends to be the case

 

[Christopher]

And what has that got to do with gaming on an iMac?

I've got a PS3, too. It's still in it's box since GT5 flopped.

 

[Keydogg]

And what has that got to do with gaming on an iMac?

I've got a PS3, too. It's still in it's box since GT5 flopped.

Lol, headshot!

 

[Goodj]

And what has that got to do with gaming on an iMac?

I've got a PS3, too. It's still in it's box since GT5 flopped.

That the console is a better and cheaper alternative than trying to force a mac out of its comfort zone.

 

[Turkish]

I take it reading comprehension isn't your strongest skill so I'll repeat myself. I have a PS3, a 360 and do most of my gaming on these and will continue to do so after purchasing the mac. My current mac is being retired and I just want to know how the new model I will be replacing it would cope with occasional gaming.

Black and White enough for you to grasp now?

 

[Christopher]

He read it, he's juz trollin'

Getting back on topic though, if you're an occasional gamer, it'll be fine. Like I said before though, don't expect PC FPS and levels of detail. Also watch those temps!

I use my iMac for work, so it's on 24 hours a day. I've probably played games on ir for about ten hours in total. Anything more than that, I prefer to fire up the 360 and sit on my sofa with a beer and relax a bit more.

 

[Munson]

PS3 sucks. Only worth having for Uncharted, and even then you have to use a 20 year old controller designed for people with gaming claws. The last time mine was switched off, was when I completed Uncharted 2, and the next time it's switched on will be when Uncharted 3 is released.

 

[Christopher]

So yeah, iMac. Gaming.

This is not a thread about how sh*t the PS3 is.

 

[Turkish]

If current ones are fine as it appears I'll be interested to see the spec of the new 2011 models in terms of processors and gfx/video cards. I'd imagine they'll have moved on slightly again and be more capable again. I think I've talked myself into a 27inch i7 (or it's replacement) aarrrrgggghhh lol

 

[Munson]

So yeah, iMac. Gaming.

This is not a thread about how sh*t the PS3 is.

ooOOOOOOOOOoooooo!

 

[Christopher]

If current ones are fine as it appears I'll be interested to see the spec of the new 2011 models in terms of processors and gfx/video cards. I'd imagine they'll have moved on slightly again and be more capable again. I think I've talked myself into a 27inch i7 (or it's replacement) aarrrrgggghhh lol

They won't go bigger physically, but the resolution might increase.

 

[Christopher]

ooOOOOOOOOOoooooo!

But it is f*cking sh*t.

 

[Turkish]

I was talking in terms of the gear onboard. I'm guessing the panel will remain the same but the changes may be the processor (sandy bridge seems to be getting kicked about) the gfx/video card and perhaps the pricing for SSD options altering a little.

 

[Tom]

Theres a fault with sandy bridge which will almost certainly delay the updates.

 

[Turkish]

I'm not in any great rush tbh Tom. I'm not desperate to buy right away so even if it's last 1/4 of 2011 I'll just pick one up then I'd rather have the newer model and if lion has arrived by that point the new OS too.

 

[David]

I saw gaming on a mates mac. It ran wow fine and even the new dc online was okish... as in, it played in the same sort of region as my current dell laptop...

Maybe i'm used to a certain level of gaming in terms of fps and smoothness, but to me it was very poor. There is my 2p.

Macs aren't for games.

 

[Turkish]

What year and processor is his David?