NVIDIA GeForce 9400 OR ATI Radeon HD 4670

Hey everyone, just wondering if someone could help me, i'm looking at the new 21.5" iMacs and i'm not really sure about which one to get the one with the NVIDIA or the ATI graphics card, I want everything to run smoothly and look good and I've heard a few people saying that the NVIDIA graphics card is 'crap'. What are your views? thanks.

That ATI is a much better card. If you can afford the upgrade, that's what I'd recommend.

Just generally speaking, if you want to install windows and play 3D games, then you definitely want the ATI over the nVidia. No 3D stuff, the nvidia will do what you need.

If you care about benchmarks and such.

I intend on keeping the original snow leopard OS and doing a few bits of video editing, would the NVIDIA be good enough for that?

Yes, it is.

thanks, just dont want to fork out the best part of £1000 to find that i should of gone with the model up, thanks

Lewis.C said:

Hey everyone, just wondering if someone could help me, i'm looking at the new 21.5" iMacs and i'm not really sure about which one to get the one with the NVIDIA or the ATI graphics card, I want everything to run smoothly and look good and I've heard a few people saying that the NVIDIA graphics card is 'crap'. What are your views? thanks.

Click to expand...

A) The Nvidia Graphics Card is NOT Crap... that is just typical ATI folks talk.
For Bootcamp Windows, the older GT120 (9600m GT) and GT130 (9800m GTS) were both the better cards, cause most Windows games are for Nvidia, because the drivers of Nvidia under Windows cause less trouble. Also because the Nvidia cards have Cuda cores which speed up some math/encoding apps.

B) The 9400m is a Chipset with Graphics, in any new I-MAC you buy... it is in there as it is the Chipset of the I-MAC. So... an I-MAC with 9400m is one without an extra graphics card. The new I-MACs all have the 9400m...

C) Clearly... the ATI cards are all faster then the basic 9400m.

D) For office use only, the 9400m is fast enough... if all you do is WORD, EXCEL and accounting... hey... no need for more.

E) Down the road, an I-MAC with anything more then just the 9400m will be easier to sell on.

F) In our office we DESTROY HDs when we replace PCs... with a HUGE Hammer... if possible we remove the drives... and destroy only these, give away or sell what is left.

So... of you only do office work, don't play games... etc. The 9400m might be enough for you.

Regards,
Coolknight