Imac i5 or imac i7 for gaming

[theflyingwasp]

Will there be a big difference for gaming? Also the more powerful i7 is it any better than the new ps4 or xboxone ?

 

[John Duncan]

I wouldn't buy a mac at all for gaming, I'd buy a Win machine.

 

[MajorFubar]

I agree. The Mac market is geared towards productivity. If you're buying a computer primarily for gaming, then it's the wrong platform. It's like buying sportscar and complaining that it's rubbish off-road.

 

[Dougal1331]

As above: Macs are not machines for gamers, really....

PC-wise, an i5 is just as good for gaming as an i7. Games (so far) do not really take advantage of the extra thread capability of the i7 (4 physical cores, plus hyper-threading to give 8 threads, whereby the i5 does not have HT, so four cores, four threads). Certain tasks- mainly specialist productivity and video editing software- are often a fair bit quicker with an i7, but for gaming and general day-to-day use, an i5 is certainly plently for most people.

Spend the difference (about £100) on a better discrete GPU...

EDIT and technically, even a midrange PC, if set up correctly, will be capable of stomping the latest consoles- which are about a generation behind in terms of graphics chipsets.

 

[ElectroMan]

You can set up a Mac to dual-boot into either Mac OS X or Windows - and/or Linux using Apple's Bootcamp, so you can run Windows games natively.

You can also use somthing like WINE to run Windows games, although WINE's a bit more complex to set up and use.

An Xbox One, PS4 or PC will have a lot more games!

 

[cheeseboy]

most games nowadays rely on the gpu, not so much the cpu.

Anyhoo, as has already been mentioned, if you want to game, you're better of with a windows pc, mainly due to the amount of games and bang for buck you're going to get. If you try doing it on a mac, you'll just end up disappointed.

 

[Green Bow]

i5 and i7 have about 1-2 frame per second between them. Save the money and get i5 if you can. Google "i5 vs i7 for gaming" if you need any further convincing.

 

[cheeseboy]

yep, just to echo everybody else, don't bother with a mac if it's just for gaming. The library for windows games is so much bigger than the mac, plus with the advent of websites like humblebundle or the steam sales you can pick up games for peanuts.

Again, I agree with the above - for gaming an i7 isn't going to really give you anything over and i5 - you need to spend the cash on the graphics card.

edit - oops just realised that was thread ressurection from ages ago - doh!

 

[Anderson]

Just to echo.

Windows for gaming.

Another thing to consider is that all the gaming graphics cards are primarily designed and developed for windows machine, if you're gaming you want a graphics card, another reason to go for windows.

 

[Deleted member 116933]

Sorry to dig up an old post but feel i had to chime in. I have an Imac 27inch with an i7 processor and it kitted out with with a 680m new one are even better.

Now i use it for work (designer) but also use it for play. I have it bootcamped and and it runs window better than any pc can (fact look it up windows is more stable on a mac).

Agreed if your going to just game then better to speand alittle less and get a PC but i can tell you now the cost isnt vastly different once you factor in a decent DECENT! screen (one that can match the imac) one that can run at a navtive 60hz and above with good colour separation then have to include a good gaming keyboard and mouse (without sale prices) your looking at some 13/1500 easily and will only go up. And you can get a refurbed mac for the same price from the Apple refurb store.

I can can tell you now that a kitted out imac can run games as good as any mid to high level PC. PC crowd just think only PC's can do it. Yes your paying a premium for an Imac but it just works and keeps working..... I have yet to come across a PC that can run constantly with little to no up keep and keep going. I would give a PC a month and thing would be dead from virus's and what not attacking it (mac arn't amune though)

Sorry to if im ranting but i do hate it when people blindly give advice and not give pros and cons of each. Weather the PC crowd want to admit it or not mac's can game espcailly the Imac's you just pay premium for build quality and name,no other machine will look as good as this in your home. Im sure this turn some heads though its a very touchy subject

 

[cheeseboy]

Sorry to if im ranting but i do hate it when people blindly give advice and not give pros and cons of each. Weather the PC crowd want to admit it or not mac's can game espcailly the Imac's you just pay premium for build quality and name,no other machine will look as good as this in your home. Im sure this turn some heads though its a very touchy subject

It was never blind advice, it's given advice as to what the state of play is and through experience. Hardware is pretty much irrelevent nowadays given the apple's all run intel based cpus and you can run osx on standard non mac box. The issue for gaming is twofold. The amount of graphics cards that are compatible with osx is nowhere near that of windows, and also, the amount of games on windows overshadows that of osx by such a large margin it's not even worth trying to debate.

Given it's almost now neigh on impossible to get to the innards of new mac's you are stuck with what they deem is compatible and what they want to sell you, at a price obviously.

If you want to buy a computer to look good, fine, buy a mac, if you just want to play games, why on earth would you? I take your point about the monitor, but you can buy 3rd party monitors with the same spec, without an issue, and you also talk about a gaming keyboard and mouse, both of which you would still need to buy if you had a mac.

Nobody has ever said you can't game on a mac so not really sure why you feel the need to reseurect a thread to big up the mac?

 

[Native_bon]

Sorry to if im ranting but i do hate it when people blindly give advice and not give pros and cons of each. Weather the PC crowd want to admit it or not mac's can game espcailly the Imac's you just pay premium for build quality and name,no other machine will look as good as this in your home. Im sure this turn some heads though its a very touchy subject

It was never blind advice, it's given advice as to what the state of play is and through experience. Hardware is pretty much irrelevent nowadays given the apple's all run intel based cpus and you can run osx on standard non mac box. The issue for gaming is twofold. The amount of graphics cards that are compatible with osx is nowhere near that of windows, and also, the amount of games on windows overshadows that of osx by such a large margin it's not even worth trying to debate.

Given it's almost now neigh on impossible to get to the innards of new mac's you are stuck with what they deem is compatible and what they want to sell you, at a price obviously.

If you want to buy a computer to look good, fine, buy a mac, if you just want to play games, why on earth would you? I take your point about the monitor, but you can buy 3rd party monitors with the same spec, without an issue, and you also talk about a gaming keyboard and mouse, both of which you would still need to buy if you had a mac.

Nobody has ever said you can't game on a mac so not really sure why you feel the need to reseurect a thread to big up the mac?

Cannot agree more. I use Alienware for gaming & music production. Yes I know am paying for the tower & design but I can upgrade & the after sales service is second to none. Its really special. The new mac pro..? looks amazing for what it does, but you will have to spent 3x as much to get the same performance you get from a pc gaming rig.

 

[Vladimir]

 

[ellisdj]

LOL just seen how old thsi thread is - oops ...

 

[Paul.]

Sorry to if im ranting but i do hate it when people blindly give advice and not give pros and cons of each. Weather the PC crowd want to admit it or not mac's can game espcailly the Imac's you just pay premium for build quality and name,no other machine will look as good as this in your home. Im sure this turn some heads though its a very touchy subject

It was never blind advice, it's given advice as to what the state of play is and through experience. Hardware is pretty much irrelevent nowadays given the apple's all run intel based cpus and you can run osx on standard non mac box. The issue for gaming is twofold. The amount of graphics cards that are compatible with osx is nowhere near that of windows, and also, the amount of games on windows overshadows that of osx by such a large margin it's not even worth trying to debate.

Given it's almost now neigh on impossible to get to the innards of new mac's you are stuck with what they deem is compatible and what they want to sell you, at a price obviously.

If you want to buy a computer to look good, fine, buy a mac, if you just want to play games, why on earth would you? I take your point about the monitor, but you can buy 3rd party monitors with the same spec, without an issue, and you also talk about a gaming keyboard and mouse, both of which you would still need to buy if you had a mac.

Nobody has ever said you can't game on a mac so not really sure why you feel the need to reseurect a thread to big up the mac?

Cannot agree more. I use Alienware for gaming & music production. Yes I know am paying for the tower & design but I can upgrade & the after sales service is second to none. Its really special. The new mac pro..? looks amazing for what it does, but you will have to spent 3x as much to get the same performance you get from a pc gaming rig.

to be fair to the Mac Pro, it has two work station class gpu in it and it works out pretty good value comparing like for like. Sure you can get better value for gaming, but it will absolutely crush processing large assembly in a modelling program. Different class completely.

 

[Anderson]

In my time, there is no gaming, enjoy your fun and your games while you still can. Remember, there's no fate but what we make.

Be strong.

 

[cheeseboy]

to be fair to the Mac Pro, it has two work station class gpu in it and it works out pretty good value comparing like for like. Sure you can get better value for gaming, but it will absolutely crush processing large assembly in a modelling program. Different class completely.

yeh, but the mac pro is a workstation, which is a different kettle of fish altogerher, and only rich people buy workstations to run games on Also, in order to upgrade the gpu on the new mac pro's, you have to buy proprietory cards from apple as you can't just go out and purchase a pci-express card as you used to.