Gaming?

[Bogaman426]

Hello all, im looking at getting an new Imac, i´m sold on everything but one thing, so i´m hoping that you pros can help me out a bit. I like to play games on my computer, i´m not a hard core gamer, but like to play every once in a while. here are the specs im looking at for the imac i want.

Display:27 inch( i love the size of that screen)
Processor: 3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
Memory: 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
Hard Drive:1TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive
Graphics:AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5

Will i be able to play games like Starcraft 2(or anyother game for that matter) on ultra settings? do the games look clean/good? will the set up i´m looking at cut it? the reason i ask is because i know that with a PC you can upgrade the Graphics easy but i dont think that you can do that with a Imac ( correct me if i´m wrong) so with this graphics card cut it for a a couple of years? i will be studying computer programming and would like to know if the imac is good for that kind of thing? fill free to tell me what you all think or if you think i should change something to make it better.
thanks
bogaman426
PS. is the solid state drive worth it?

[chscag]

The only machine that would probably be better at playing games than the one you picked is the Mac Pro with a beefed up graphics card.

Don't worry - it's a good choice.

[cwa107]

PS. is the solid state drive worth it?

In my opinion, the price/performance factor isn't quite there yet. Even though SSDs have come a long way in a short time, they're still nascent products with legitimate longevity/reliability concerns.

Then again, since it's not all that easy to open the case on an iMac, if you really desire the absolute best disk I/O money can buy at the moment, then it might make sense to get one built right in.

[robduckyworth]

yep, you will be able to max out SCII with that no problems. Its not a massively intensive game to run anyway. Its more of a hog towards the CPU side tbh.

For programming - yep. you can run all three major OSes on a Mac - OSX, Windows, and all variants of Linux. So you can use every language available, any particular tool you prefer etc etc, and develop for whatever platform you want.

You cant upgrade the graphics card. But put it this way. currently the top of the range AMD graphics card is a 6990. the second best is the 6970. the one in the iMac is mobile GPU, which means lower power draw, lower clock speeds and presumably less onboard RAM, but still top specs in terms of mobile GPUs. while it probably wont beat a full on dedicated desktop 68xx series, its one of the best atm.

[Bogaman426]

Thanks guys for all the help! im convinced that its what im looking for! i might not get the SSD and just go for the 1T Hard drive, save some money: ) nice to know that i can do all of the programming that i want on it as well. Macs are the Best!!!