Planning to switch from PC to iMac

Hi.
I`m a long time PC user that wants to switch to Mac. I just got a Macbook to see how I would like Mac OS. And I absolutely love it like all of you.
My old PC is dying (P4 3.0Ghz, 3Gb Ram, GeForce 6800GT) so I will need to get a replacement.
I`ll be using my computer for web browsing, photshop, word processor and multimedia like movies and music. All that I would like to do under Mac OS. But I will still need Windows for Games (Oblivion, Bioshock, The Witcher, FIFA 08, Half-Life, Crysis?).
My main concern in the new iMac is the graphic card. There is no way to replace it at all in the future? I did some research on the current games and they run pretty smooth on HD2600 but I`m not sure what`s gonna happen in a year or two. I don`t plan to buy a new iMac avery year. It`s almost $2000... For me that is lots of money so if I buy it I would like to keep it for at least four years.
You guys think that Radeon HD2600 is going to be still acceptable card in the nearest future( like two three years)? Or should I just wait, maybe Apple will upgrade those cards in the nearest future to some NVidia models?
Can you help me decide and share some gaming experience?
Did anybody try to playing The Witcher on it? Does it run smoothly on full details?
Any other thoughts?
Thanks!

Personally, if I had one gripe about iMacs it would be their limited upgradeability. Gamers like to bump up their machines Video cards every couple of years to keep up with the latest games and that's difficult with an all in one solution.

It's a big jump in $$ but if you want a system with upgrade potential, then a Mac Pro is what you want to look at. Traditional tower design, Insane Processor capability and most important, removeable Video card. You'll want to get an after market Vid Card since they don't offer the ATI HD 2xxx series on the Pros yet.

Food for thought.

-MikeM

I agree...the tower is probably your best bet if you want to beable to upgrade down the road...

Yep, its the only way you're going to get all the great benefits of a Mac, and the ability to upgrade in the future. I used to be in your situation but after switching to a Mac, I've converted to 100% console gamer, with Wi-Fi & online multiplayer games on consoles now, there's no reason to do it on a computer unless you're a mod crazy gamer

Here are some links on it:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2007...-april-2007/http://www.ppcnux.de/?q=node/6552
http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/m...apple-imac-24-inch/4505-3118_16-32564559.html

Can't you upgrade the intergrated graphics when you order the system? Maybe look and consider the choices.

But a Mac Pro is definetly future proof.

My suggestion would be to keep your PC for gaming. It is far more cost effective to build your own box and constantly upgrade it than it would be to buy a Mac Pro on one occasion. The Mac Pro is indeed upgradeable, but only to the extent that ATI or NVIDIA chooses to create a Mac-specific version of their cards and/or drivers - and because that is a much lower-volume product, you'll likely pay premium prices.

I don't mean to advocate Windows on a Mac forum, but it does do one thing very well in particular - and that's play games. If you really can't stand to run Windows full time on your desktop, might I suggest a dual-boot with Ubuntu Linux?

My main concern in the new iMac is the graphic card. There is no way to replace it at all in the future? I did some research on the current games and they run pretty smooth on HD2600 but I`m not sure what`s gonna happen in a year or two. I don`t plan to buy a new iMac avery year. It`s almost $2000... For me that is lots of money so if I buy it I would like to keep it for at least four years.

Click to expand...

Remember that the iMac keeps its value, wherease your PC would be worth very little in 3 years say.
In three years, put your iMac on ebay and you should get a very big chunk of the price of a new iMac. There's little price difference in upgrading the components in your PC every 3 years and upgrading your iMac by selling and buying a new one.

So you think that if I put the current around $2000 iMac on eBay in three years I`ll be able to get around $1500? If that`s the case then iMac would be my choice. I`m not a heavy gamer. I play a little and don`t really require the highest settings when I do. I was just curious. Proably in three years from now I will care less about the games even more, cause I`ll be older, maybe too old for games.

Ok. If I get iMac. There were two issues that I heard of. First was the gradient issue on the screen that couldn`t be calibrated. Do all of the iMacs have that problem or was it just some of them? Another issue was that iMacs were crashing and full restart was necessary. I know that Apple is working on a fix for that, but nobody really knows when it will be released. Do all the iMacs have that crashing problem?
I read somewhere (sorry can`t find the source right now) that the older white iMacs had better video cards than the current aluminium one. Is that true? If yes then maybe I`ll pick up refurbished older model and save some more money so I could get external har drive. ;D

Btw. Thank you all for the answers. You are very helpfull.
p.s. Are there some good retailers offering beter prices than Apple Store?

All I'm going to say is that I have a hard time slowing my MacBookPro down with video games. And all it has is a x1600 lol