New iMac ATI 5750

mrplow · Jul 27, 2010

So the new iMac has a 5750 GPU..... what's the chances of getting an authorised dealer to upgrade my 27" i7 imac from earlier in the year to install the 5750 daughter board?

trademark · Jul 27, 2010

you have to make sure the 5750 in the new iMac is either a mobility 5750, desktop 5750, or a mobility 5850 that apple just decided to name 5750. No one knows until someone buys a new iMac and gpu-z's it.

Kamina · Jul 27, 2010

The HD 5750 isn't much better than the HD 4850. No upgrade necessary.

Maverickman · Jul 29, 2010

I have read confirmed reports that the GPU in the new iMacs is a Mobility HD 5850 with 1GB GDDR 5 memory. It is anywhere from 5-15% faster than the Mobility HD 4850 depending on the game. The Mobility HD 5850 is comparable to a desktop HD 5750, so that's why Apple is calling it an HD 5750. I don't think it would really be worth upgrading from the HD 4850m to the HD 5850m. You'll gain DX 11 support and a few frames but that's it. In fact the new iMacs are just marginally faster than the late-2009 models. This is just an incremental upgrade and not a total refresh.

mrplow · Jul 29, 2010

Thanks all for the info. But I was more interested about whether it was possible rather than the pros and cons.

Kamina · Jul 29, 2010

It is possible, but not woth it.

mrplow · Jul 29, 2010

Er thanks

jackcharles · Jul 29, 2010

I'm also pondering this; I want to see if I can swap that new 1GB HD 5750 with my HD 4850 somehow. I need my iMac for work but I use bootcamp/win 7 to play. Some of the newer games I am struggling to get playable frame rates even on medium graphics settings (specifically Battlefield: Bad Company 2) at 1280x720. Soon there will be games that require DirectX 11, which the HD 4850 can't handle. Would apple ever offer an upgrade service?

bluemonkeyguy · Jul 29, 2010

Imac new proccesor

so it is possible to exchange the gpus but is it possible to exchange processors, for example my 2.8 ghz i7 with the 2.93 ghz i7?

mrplow · Jul 30, 2010

jackcharles said:
I'm also pondering this; I want to see if I can swap that new 1GB HD 5750 with my HD 4850 somehow. I need my iMac for work but I use bootcamp/win 7 to play. Some of the newer games I am struggling to get playable frame rates even on medium graphics settings (specifically Battlefield: Bad Company 2) at 1280x720. Soon there will be games that require DirectX 11, which the HD 4850 can't handle. Would apple ever offer an upgrade service?

It's helpful if you add your machine specs to your profile.

I play bad company 2 under Windows 7, bootcamped on my i7 iMac and it runs great at 1280x720 (and a bit above tbh, but not as far as native res!).

Have you tried installing the latest mobility drivers from ATI?

jackcharles · Jul 30, 2010

mrplow said:
It's helpful if you add your machine specs to your profile.

I play bad company 2 under Windows 7, bootcamped on my i7 iMac and it runs great at 1280x720 (and a bit above tbh, but not as far as native res!).

Have you tried installing the latest mobility drivers from ATI?

I have the standard late-2009 27 inch i5 version (2.67GHz, 4GB Ram, ATI Radeon HD 4850 etc). After further investigation (looking at the system reqs

) the game recommends a minimum of ATI Radeon HD 4870. I played most of the game on medium detail, but sometimes it would really slow down. When I switched to low detail it was smooth. Older games like Assassin's Creed 1 look stunning.

mrplow · Jul 30, 2010

I'd definately update your drivers (10.7 issued on 26th July is the latest at this point).

It could be the difference between Single and multiplayer. I only ever play online. Haven't taken the single player any further than the first one or two missions when I first got it.

Kamina · Jul 30, 2010

jackcharles said:
I'm also pondering this; I want to see if I can swap that new 1GB HD 5750 with my HD 4850 somehow. I need my iMac for work but I use bootcamp/win 7 to play. Some of the newer games I am struggling to get playable frame rates even on medium graphics settings (specifically Battlefield: Bad Company 2) at 1280x720. Soon there will be games that require DirectX 11, which the HD 4850 can't handle. Would apple ever offer an upgrade service?

I dont know what you are doing with your Mac, but i own a iMac 27" i5 with the HD4850 and 8GB Ram and i can play Crysis and Crysis Warhead on 1920x1080 and Very High settings (only Shaders on High) with 25FPS (Win7)...so whatever you are doing, you're doing it wrong.

BrentRS1985 · Jul 30, 2010

mrplow said:
So the new iMac has a 5750 GPU..... what's the chances of getting an authorised dealer to upgrade my 27" i7 imac from earlier in the year to install the 5750 daughter board?

If you're thinking about upgrading both the cpu and the gpu, I think it would be cheaper to sell your current computer and just buy the new one.

trademark · Aug 1, 2010

It has been confirmed that the 5750 is actually a mobility 5850, while the 5670 is a mobility 5730. They are all mxm cards, so upgrading is very possible.

Anyways, their speed gains over their predecessors isn't enough to justify a user-swap of the gpu--especially since Apple has not released new gpu drivers for osx yet. (the '10 macs have them, but the '09 iMacs do not-- however, the new drivers provide significant performance jump to '09 iMacs as well (barefeats did a fancy hd copy to test the differences), so we can expect apple to give us the up-to-date drivers sometime down the line.)

mrplow · Aug 1, 2010

BrentRS1985 said:
If you're thinking about upgrading both the cpu and the gpu, I think it would be cheaper to sell your current computer and just buy the new one.

Never mentioned changing my CPU!

BrentRS1985 · Aug 1, 2010

mrplow said:
Never mentioned changing my CPU!

sorry, that was bluemonkeyguy

BOREophyll · Aug 2, 2010

trademark said:
It has been confirmed that the 5750 is actually a mobility 5850, while the 5670 is a mobility 5730. They are all mxm cards, so upgrading is very possible.

Anyways, their speed gains over their predecessors isn't enough to justify a user-swap of the gpu--especially since Apple has not released new gpu drivers for osx yet. (the '10 macs have them, but the '09 iMacs do not-- however, the new drivers provide significant performance jump to '09 iMacs as well (barefeats did a fancy hd copy to test the differences), so we can expect apple to give us the up-to-date drivers sometime down the line.)

Hey there. This is my first post on anything having to do with macs so pardon my noobie-ness.

I just purchased a refurbished iMac 27" last night (my first mac, woohoo!). It is the ATI 4850 Quad Core 2.66ghz model. I'm just wondering if anyone knows if the new Mid Summer 2010 GPU drivers would be on this.

From what I gathered in this thread it seems as though I should expect a performance boost in the GPU sector with these new drivers.

I have no problem waiting for them to be released, just wondering if they would be pre-installed on my system.

Thanks!

trademark · Aug 2, 2010

The most recent drivers are not on the 09 model iMacs, no. Not yet, anyways. Hopefully 10.6.5 brings them. The differences between the old and new drivers is huge, roughly 30 or so fps per game.

Now, if you wanna get these drivers early, I'd try to follow these instructions provided on my thread at macrumors. It's not an official apple thing, so only do it if you really want to.

BOREophyll · Aug 2, 2010

trademark said:
The most recent drivers are not on the 09 model iMacs, no. Not yet, anyways. Hopefully 10.6.5 brings them. The differences between the old and new drivers is huge, roughly 30 or so fps per game.

Now, if you wanna get these drivers early, I'd try to follow these instructions provided on my thread at macrumors. It's not an official apple thing, so only do it if you really want to.

Another stupid question:

All these driver issues only happen when gaming in OSX, correct? If I game in Windows XP/7 under bootcamp the 5750 and 4850 will have nearly identical performance sets, right?

My problem is I just bought the 27" ATI 4850 i5 2.66GHz Quad Core refurbished and THEN I read this thread.

I'm almost thinking of calling Apple to stop the shipment and just spend $100 more to get the 27" 5750 i3 3.2GHz.

--Sorry for my off topic question--