iMac Gaming - BF: Bad Company 2

I have the 2nd best iMac currently available, and I'm trying to play video games on it with Bootcamp. I just got the new Battlefield Bad Company: 2, but the performance issues are mind boggling. All explosions just lag it out. Turning down the graphics settings doesn't do much to alleviate this, the only thing that seems to work well is reducing the resolution, but then it just looks like garbage if I do that. My best guess is that Apple completely screwed up by putting a 256MB video card in a huge widescreen (2560x1440) monitor. Does anyone have any suggestions to fix this? Honestly I think this is the last time I purchase a Mac, I can't believe I wasted 1700$ on this crap!

A Mac has never been a great idea for a Windows gaming machine. Sorry, but what else is new? Of course then, neither is any other manufacturer's all-in-one systems like the iMac.

I would suggest you head over to AMD and pick up the latest drivers for the video card direct from them instead of using the ones supplied with the SL disc.

In my 20+ yrs of PC gaming, one thing I learned, if you try and run a game with anything less than the recommended spec, expect less than good game play. My preference was to have at least a step or two above the recommended spec. And that still didn't always allow you to have max settings. A lot of times, the games demanded more than the best card on the market could give it.

Yes, I'm one of those that helped keep the video card industry alive by purchasing a new video card with just about every 2nd or 3rd game I bought for many years. Some of those years it required a whole new computer to go with the video card.

I've never been able to successfully update my video card drivers, I always get an error trying to install them.. something about them not being compatible with my machine. Any ideas?

Cant be the 2nd best imac available then he he he lol

Yes, it is look at specs <---

3rd over on the list: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/ho...-BUYNOW-MACBOOK-INDEX&cp=BUYNOW-MACBOOK-INDEX

It's just sad that the rest of the specs are so high compared to the video card, which is the most important part for 3d apps. If I went out and bought a decent video card would I be able to have someone install it? Or would it be incompatible with my mac/os?

nmccready said:

I've never been able to successfully update my video card drivers, I always get an error trying to install them.. something about them not being compatible with my machine. Any ideas?

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Sorry, I don't. Have read of others doing it.

I just haven't attempted to play those type of Win based games on my Mac, besides WoW. Still have a couple of Win machines in the house, but have moved most of my game play to the PS3 in the last few years. And that has been pretty slim of late. Can get pretty frustrating after being one of the 'kings of the hill' for many, many years having the 11-13 yr olds wipe the floor with me as I'm hitting 60 now.

nmccready said:

Yes, it is look at specs <---

3rd over on the list: iMac - Apple Store (U.S.)

It's just sad that the rest of the specs are so high compared to the video card, which is the most important part for 3d apps. If I went out and bought a decent video card would I be able to have someone install it? Or would it be incompatible with my mac/os?

Click to expand...

I was just having a giggle about the spec.... My GF is a graphic designer so thats why we have a mac. Its the 24 incher, the only problem I have with it is the size of the hard drive, it just too small.

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FB322B/A?cid=AOS-EMEA-SHOP-GoogleBase-UK

this is the spec but with a wee 300gb HD

The spec on yours does look good but I have been lead to believe that macs were mainly designed for the design industry.

Running that graphics card at the native resolution of the monitor will not happen... You'd really need 1Gb of VRAM and a decent GPU. Lower the resolution to something like 1440x900 and maybe low - medium settings. If its still bad keep lowering the resolution to see if it eventually can run smoothly.

Sadly Apple don't really build computers for gaming. Saying that this MPB runs NFS: Shift and Crysis just about as well as the 8800GT did in my previous MacPro running BootCamp...