iMac 5K + R9 M295X performance?

Astralogic

Gawd
Joined
Apr 24, 2012
Messages
581
Hi, I currently have a Windows PC with dual 980's, 4770K CPU, 16GB of ram.

If I got an iMac Retina 5K with the R9 M295X what performance drop would I see in games?
 
Are you running a 5K monitor right now? If not, what resolution are you playing at?
 
just 1080, but I do not expect to be able to game a 5k lol, Id like to know the performance difference at 1080 on both computers. (I might game at 1440p on the imac).
 
The m295x is a Tonga configuration with all CUs enabled but lower clocked. It will roughly perform about the same as the desktop R9 285 in theory (easier to find number comparisons against the GTX 980). Even a single GTX 980 would be considerably faster.

The new iMac has reported throttling issues depending on conditions when both the CPU and GPU are placed under extended load (eg. gaming) so the actual difference could be quite bigger.
 
Every pre-built computer under the sun, save for some companies where they can actually make gaming machines perfectly right (Alienware for example) nearly always have placed much greater emphasis on CPU rather than GPU, because it is much easier to convince a normal layman that a computer with a better CPU would be 'faster' than a computer with a better GPU.

Invariably, all pre-builts tend to have good CPU's paired with extremely supbar GPU's. Apple 5k iMac is no exception to this rule. However iMac 5k has an additional constraint in that everything piece of hardware must fit behind the screen, and the only GPU that can really do that are mobile GPU's. You most likely would not even fit a 290x in there without additional cooling components.

In the end, iMacs are great to do a lot of things, office work and movies are all great with the retina screen, however the poor hardware behind them, in addition to the hardware required to drive 5k resolution, make them not so good for gaming in general. If you want a gaming rig based on 5k, it would at least require 4x Titan X's (2 barely manage 4k, and 5k is 77% more pixels than 4k) in addition to a 5k screen.

Hence it is nearly always better to build your own if your primary focus is gaming. It's a pity really, retina displays are quite good quality.
 
I thought iMacs were supposed to be awesome?

Awesome is really a broad and vague qualification. They are awesome in certain ways while not awesome in others.

At the end it should be about the best fit device and not the "best" device.
 
That linus tech vid has convinced me to stay away from macs, thanks for that, the mac OS is far worse then I expected, I thought it would be much better then windows, and that lousy GPU , jesus.

I'm gonna see what IPS monitors are available :)
 
That linus tech vid has convinced me to stay away from macs, thanks for that, the mac OS is far worse then I expected, I thought it would be much better then windows, and that lousy GPU , jesus.

I'm gonna see what IPS monitors are available :)

Why would you buy an ips monitor? With 980 slightly ditch the 1080 resolution and step up to a 1440 or 120 hz monitor
 
When everything else is equal, IPS/PLS is better than TN unless you are doing competitive twitch gaming. IMHO, if the OP goes for 60Hz monitor, there is even less of a reason to go for TN.

I bought my Swift because at the time there was no other similar specc'ed monitor available. Do I still think it is a good monitor? Definitely. Would I prefer Predator given the choice? Absolutely.

It's just that high refresh IPS are only starting to appear on the market now.
 
Do what I did, switch to Linux. We can put great hardware on our rigs and run an awesome OS.
 
Back
Top