03-26-2009, 05:42 PM

As a potential new owner of a IMac 24" with the above mentioned graphic card I would be grateful to hear from others as to how good. I rang the Apple Store and was assured it is very good for gaming. I would like verification of this. How different is it to the better specced IMacs with dedicated graphics cards and is it so discernable. Thanking you in anticipation

03-26-2009, 05:58 PM

If I'm not mistaken, the 9400M Apple uses for its MacBook and iMac is an onboard chipset with no dedicated video RAM, so logically it should be pretty weak compared to any dedicated vdeo card. It's certainly an improvement over the GMA chipset that was there previously in the MacBooks, but don't expect this thing to be able to handle games with very high system requirements. If you look at the comparison in the MacBook Pro:

Apple - MacBook Pro - Graphics - Advanced NVIDIA graphics processing power in a notebook

You'll see that it gets framerates up to 2.4 times worse than the 9600M, and that's only a mobile graphics card. Compared to pretty much any desktop class video card, the 9400M should be really bad.

If you look at the World of Warcraft forums:

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> The WoW Performance Guide For Macs

You'll see that the specific model you're getting, even with settings turned down, only gets 20-30 fps in WoW, and that game isn't exactly new.

03-26-2009, 11:13 PM

I dunno about the onboard graphics in the latest releases, but the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS in my five week-old iMac has no trouble with WoW or COD4. I have been very pleased.

03-30-2009, 06:02 AM

If you are gaming, you need the 9600M. Don't go near the 9400.

03-30-2009, 01:33 PM

Thank you to the members who have taken the time to reply to my question.
In particular i found the leads from Discerptor very helpful. I am very grateful to you all. Casarticus

03-31-2009, 03:35 PM

Im not a gamer but I just couldnt bring myself to buy an integrated graphics card. I kept trying to talk myself into the base 24" iMac but I couldnt do it no matter how much I tried.

I ended up with the 2.93 version with the GT120 I dont need the GT130 (probably dont need the 120 either) but I think in the long run I will be happier that I spent the money now.

03-31-2009, 03:46 PM

You could always look out for the previous model iMac, which had dedicated graphics, on the Apple refurb store and save youself a few quid in the bargain!

Or buy one from somewhere like PC World who never seem to have the latest models in anyway! LOL

Here's the link to the USA Apple refurb store (I'm guessing that's where you are, if not check on relevant country's store page) Refurbished Mac - Apple Store (U.S.)

03-31-2009, 03:53 PM

Originally Posted by shfle

You could always look out for the previous model iMac, which had dedicated graphics, on the Apple refurb store and save youself a few quid in the bargain!

Or buy one from somewhere like PC World who never seem to have the latest models in anyway! LOL

Here's the link to the USA Apple refurb store (I'm guessing that's where you are, if not check on relevant country's store page) Refurbished Mac - Apple Store (U.S.)

Yea thats a great option, I almost bought the refurb version, but I wanted the faster ram and larger hard drive. But if I didnt I would have bought one of those in a second!

03-31-2009, 04:30 PM

But apart that, the iMac 24" with 9400m is a excellent value, and it caters to the needs of many. You could do all the normal work, make movies, some modeling as well, surf web, music.. watch hi-def on the enormous 24" Full HD screen. Gaming? Not so much, but do-able for casual gamers.

04-02-2009, 06:49 PM

Real honest talking, Thanks to all you guy's