Imac 24" and World of Warcraft

[Ieziebie]

Hey,

I'm 2 inches away from buying a new Imac 24".

I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I do want to be able to play World of Warcraft at maximum resolution with some eye candy (2x AA). Now, I would like to get some real life experiences from people with this machine.

What are your settings? How is the game running? How much fps do you have running around Shattrath with the above mentioned settings?

Or should I just look out for a previous generation Imac with the 7600GT upgrade? Anyone can compare both? The net gives me contradictory informations.

Just.....any experience about the 24" Imac and World of Warcraft....

Thanks

 

[Jdot]

That setup will get wonderful fps with AA on without AA you will get about 75fps with everything cranked up with AA I'm guessing 45-50. WoW doesn't necessarily need the highest fps as the game looks very smooth even at just 20fps

 

[Ieziebie]

I know it's not necessary to get 75 fps.... I'd be happy with 35-40 with everything cranked up. But I want to be sure about it, so would just like some hands on experience. Just to see what can be turned on...

 

[Consultant]

Here are some video benchmarks for iMacs.

WOW, runs >60FPS on 1920x1200, high quality
(as of September 15th, 2007, with Tiger)

http://www.barefeats.com/imacal5.html

 

[Ieziebie]

Yes, I saw that....but is that with AA? And with AF there's a big difference with the old Imac... that's what makes me doubt...

 

[IBitePrettyHard]

I have a 24" Aluminum iMac, and World of Warcraft runs very well in 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. I have most of the settings on high, with a few exceptions. From what I recall, I have the Terrain Distance turned all the way up and all the Texture settings and Filter settings maxed.

With these settings I get about 24 fps in Shattrath when it's crowded. In typicall outdoor environments I average 30-45 fps, and in 5-man instances I get 60-110 fps (with Spell Effects on high).

Keep in mind, this is with a HUGE resolution and before we've gotten an ATI update to replace the current driver we have now, which is pretty crappy. I could lower the resolution for better performance, but when you see how sexy it looks at 1,920 x 1,200, you might stick with that too. The colors and clarity of the 24" is quite simply the best I've seen on any monitor or TV...ever.

 

[Ieziebie]

I have a 24" Aluminum iMac, and World of Warcraft runs very well in 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. I have most of the settings on high, with a few exceptions. From what I recall, I have the Terrain Distance turned all the way up and all the Texture settings and Filter settings maxed.

With these settings I get about 24 fps in Shattrath when it's crowded. In typicall outdoor environments I average 30-45 fps, and in 5-man instances I get 60-110 fps (with Spell Effects on high).

Keep in mind, this is with a HUGE resolution and before we've gotten an ATI update to replace the current driver we have now, which is pretty crappy. I could lower the resolution for better performance, but when you see how sexy it looks at 1,920 x 1,200, you might stick with that too. The colors and clarity of the 24" is quite simply the best I've seen on any monitor or TV...ever.

That's what I call a real life experience, hehe. Thanks. Could you check where the AA and AF settings are?

 

[PellePirat]

That's what I call a real life experience, hehe. Thanks. Could you check where the AA and AF settings are?

Yes pls, lets get some facts pls

Arh, got some of my questions i posted in another WoW thread answered here

I see Wow can run in 1920*1200? Thats crazy really, but im looking forward to it.

But, with that high resolution, is AA the really needed? Or? I mean, the higher res, the more pixels for smoothing out edges naturally?

My expectations to WoW on my ordered iMac is max resolution (1920*1200 apparantly, which is more than enough), 2AA (if needed?), 2-4AF (not that important) and then most eyecandy on max. Im expecting 30+ fps as minimum. WoW is a bit ram intensive, so ill get 2gb of ram, maybe 4gb (not only for WoW though, since 2gb is quite enough for that)

Im so much looking forward to get my imac now to try out wow, crazy resolution

 

[ijimk]

best of luck on your purchase...

 

[Curren~Sea]

I have a 24" iMac and run WoW at full full full video options. It's gorgeous and runs plenty smooth. What are you coming from? You will not be disappointed (keep a drool rag handy). Remember, always run games at your monitor's native resolution (faster and looks way better), which in this case is the game's highest. Have fun!

 

[That-Is-Bull]

I'm able to run WoW on my 20" (1680x1050) with all the settings maxed and I usually stay above 80 FPS, around 50 FPS with Vista open. Sometimes I ride a windrider from Org to TB just because it looks pretty.

 

[Ieziebie]

I have a 24" iMac and run WoW at full full full video options. It's gorgeous and runs plenty smooth. What are you coming from? You will not be disappointed (keep a drool rag handy). Remember, always run games at your monitor's native resolution (faster and looks way better), which in this case is the game's highest. Have fun!

I'm coming from a 17" Imac Core Duo 1.83Ghz

 

[Curren~Sea]

I'm coming from a 17" Imac Core Duo 1.83Ghz

In that case I don't know how huge of a difference you'll see. The major factor will be the video card. Go for the 256mb version, of course.

Btw, if you plan on selling your 17" let me know what you want in a PM. I'm trying to find something for my mother-in-law.

 

[AppleWoW]

For WoW AA is not needed. All it will do is drop your frame rate. As a WoW whore i'd say the 24" would do well with wow and fly through it. Im waiting for my 20" iMac which will be a HUGE upgrade to the current G4 im using. What ever you pick you'll be happy! And dont froget to throw in that extra gig of ram if not just for wow but for other apps too.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

My current 20" iMac runs WoW @ around 35 tp 75 frames depending on where you are. A new 24" iMac with 2GB RAM would run WoW better than this.

 

[IBitePrettyHard]

I'm using the Mac side to play WOW, so if you're on Windows, the settings pane looks slightly different.

I have my AA settings on 24-bit Color 24-bit Depth 1X Multisampling, which is the second setting for AA on the Mac. (16-bit Color 24-bit Depth 1X Multisampling being the lowest).

1,920 x 1,200 is a lot of area to cover, so the framerate drops substantially each time I turn up to 2X, 4X, or 6X. In my opinion the picture already looks fantastic, so it's not that important to me.

I have Anisotropic Filtering on High, and ALL Terrain, Spell, Environment, and Texture settings on High.

I have Enable All Shader Effects disabled, because I found that it dropped my framerate 20-30% with very little benefit. (It disables Full-screen Glow Effect which is the culprit)

 

[xSeanZx]

I have the new 24" Alu iMac and I play WoW on full settings and it looks beautiful.

Its awesome because with such a big screen you can run it windows mode and do other things if you need. (Like have thottbot open while playing)

 

[AppleWoW]

My current 20" iMac runs WoW @ around 35 tp 75 frames depending on where you are. A new 24" iMac with 2GB RAM would run WoW better than this.

Actually the 20" would be faster than the 24" with the same stuff inside (2.4Ghz 2GB ram 256MB vid card). And the reason for that would be because the vido card has to render more. Upgrading to the 2.8 isnt that much above the 2.4 (could be wrong but so far i'd say their close). Aslong as you have 2GB of ram you should do fine.