Potential of new iMac GPUs in real terms

[Yixian]

Just a quick thread that I think a lot of people are looking for. FPS and shader speeds and all that aside, let's have some predictions/experiences of how the new iMacs will cope with certain future games that people are considering an upgrade to play.

Let's see if we can agree whether or not it'd be wise to consider the new iMacs could play the following games on at least normal settings, with 30 or above FPS.

Bioshock

Crysis

Unreal Tournament 3

Gears of War

StarCraft II


I'm guessing the low end cold do all of those on normal-low settings at ~30fps, with the exception of course of Crysis. The upper two models could probably notch the graphics up a bit for the same fps. Am I right?

 

[gloss]

Just a quick thread that I think a lot of people are looking for. FPS and shader speeds and all that aside, let's have some predictions/experiences of how the new iMacs will cope with certain future games that people are considering an upgrade to play.

Let's see if we can agree whether or not it'd be wise to consider the new iMacs could play the following games on at least normal settings, with 30 or above FPS.

Bioshock

Crysis

Unreal Tournament 3

Gears of War

StarCraft II


I'm guessing the low end cold do all of those on normal-low settings at ~30fps, with the exception of course of Crysis. The upper two models could probably notch the graphics up a bit for the same fps. Am I right?

I think you're being really optimistic. It's a low-midrange GPU, and all of those games (with the exception of Starcraft) are extremely demanding. I wouldn't expect to be able to run them at a decent clip.

 

[Yixian]

Hmm, not even Bioshock?

I figured it could run Bioshock at like 25 to 30fps on medium to low settings. Gears of War probably not not without mega amounts of ram.

 

[gloss]

Hmm, not even Bioshock?

I figured it could run Bioshock at like 25 to 30fps on medium to low settings. Gears of War probably not not without mega amounts of ram.

Nah, the only one of those games that isn't remotely next-gen is Starcraft 2. The iMac meets the minimum requirements for Bioshock, but I wouldn't expect much. Possibly low resolution, low detail.

 

[takao]

Hmm, not even Bioshock?

I figured it could run Bioshock at like 25 to 30fps on medium to low settings. Gears of War probably not not without mega amounts of ram.

bioshock afaik runs also on the Unreal 3 engine just like gears of war and UT 3

also with crysis and UT3 you have 2 future video benchmark games on that list which will also be very demanding

starcraft 2 is very likely the least gpu demanding game but much more cpu bound

 

[Haoshiro]

I think the game you don't need to worry about is Starcraft 2. Blizzard has always been good to mac gamers, and I think they'll be sure it runs great.

They've already said they are targetting low requirements to keep it running great on the majority of hardware.

 

[nxent]

I think the game you don't need to worry about is Starcraft 2. Blizzard has always been good to mac gamers, and I think they'll be sure it runs great.

They've already said they are targetting low requirements to keep it running great on the majority of hardware.

yeh i've always been impressed with the games from blizzard. they def go the extra to mile to ensure quality.