If you are going to playing games you will want to use bootcamp.

Go for the biggest video card you can.

If it's 'proper' gaming then I wouldn't even bother, however if it's casual gaming then you ought to be alright. Will look great on that screen anyway!

Hmm, doesn't sound too promising. Games-wise it would be stuff like GTA-IV, X3 Terran Conflict, Half-Life 2 and similar. I'd like to be able to play with decent levels of detail in native resolution.

That likely to push the top-end iMacs too far then?

The 590GTX is massively better than the 6950 isn't it? I see your point but that's not really apples-for-apples is it? I want to know if, judged on its' own merits, the high-end iMac will run the sorts of games I play OK.

For context, my current PC has a dual-core Opteron 185 @2.6GHz (I think), 4GB DDR RAM and a Radeon X800XL (since my 8800GTX died last year). I guess maybe what I should be asking is whether the high-end iMac is very much better than the PC or not, but I suppose the answer to that is fairly obvious.

On the games you listed only GTA-IV will struggle at the high resolution of an IMAC screen (the source engine games HL2, L4D, Portal 2 work well with even modest GPU grunt) . The others should be fine as long as you don't over do the MSAA

I can only speak from the point of view of flying games - I have a 4 year old core 2 duo iMac which runs Flight Simulator 2004 fairly well. It dies under the weight of FSX, though.

As already said, for casual gaming It's worth it as the iMac is a fine machine with all the OSX loveliness. If you're a hard core gamer though you will be disappointed with the performance in Windoze.

I think if you compare his two systems, the iMac will come out at about £ 2 200 (not including windows license), while his PC will be less than £ 1700 (including screen). So you're right, it's hardly apples-for-appels, but it's as good as an iMac can get...


Your posts show you just want to have confirmation to buy an iMac, which is OK, just remember you'll be a bit restricted when it comes to playing video games. And upgrading the video card afterwards will be quite difficult.

If you want to do gaming buy a PC.
There is nothing you have listed that a PC can't do. There doesn't seem to be any reason to buy an Apple except for the "oooh shiney" factor but that will compromise your gaming experience.

Can you back that up? I.e. have you got a link to some benchmarks somewhere or something? Not dismissing your post, just if that's true then it would be handy to be able to quantify it.

I do sometimes play the Lock On games and Falcon 4 BMS - do you run those on yours?

I won't just be playing Windows games on the new machine, I'll be doing other stuff as well. I'd rather not use Windows any more than I have to, hence I'm considering a Mac - I like OS X, I don't much like Windows.

Fair point, I wouldn't be looking for as much RAM as in his iMac and I already have a Windows 7 licence but yes, it would still be a bit more expensive than a comparable or moderately more powerful PC. I'm just a bit sick of the big, noisy box under the desk, the rat's nest of cables as mentioned by someone else

Erm I don't need anyone's confirmation to buy anything, I just asked how well modern iMacs run games under Windows. But yes, I'm aware they're not upgradeable really, other than memory and storage.

I don't really want to have two machines, but I see your point also.

I know a PC will do everything, thanks. As I said above, I have my reasons for not wanting a PC but I'll go that way if the Mac means making unreasonable consequences.

Thanks for that, useful info.

I understand there is a fanboy element to most posts on here, but having used both I find them equally useful in different situations.

However, using a "PC arms race" as an example of why to go Mac is ridiculous. You can do exactly same on PC as you have done the Mac, simply don't upgrade.
There is also a "Mac arms race", just you chose to stick with what you had, you can do exactly the same with the PC.