2009 iMac 24" Buying Dilemma/ Graphics advice..

Hello,



I have a dilemma and I am seeking guidance from you smart apple people. I am looking at either acquiring my father's 24" iMac or buying one used on ebay and I am not very familiar with graphics cards.



So I want a 24". Not only because I think its the perfect size but because I get a discount at work of 20% if the monitor is 24 inchs or less. I do mostly photo editing and processing along with web browsing. I also like playing videogames but have not done much of this on my 2007 macbook 13" (black). Basically the games I am looking to run would be like cod4, cod4 mw2 or bf3 on mac (if released) or windows partition via bootcamp. This is where I am unsure of which graphics card to get, I am not to familiar with the cards and would like to get an imac that would last me many years down the road.



So here are the stats from my dads older (early 2009) iMac 24": Nvidia GeForece 9400 256MB, 2.66 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB DDR3, 640 GB HD



Would that be sufficient for those games or should I go for something used with the top graphics card from 2009 (24inch) models?



For example I found some 24inch models that meet my other criteria (640+ GB HD, 4+ RAM) on ebay with these cards for about $1000, plus or minus $300.

•NVIDIA Geforce GT 130 512 MB VRAM

Ati Radeon HD 4850 video card




I have gone to these links below here to check out reviews and fps tests and it seems my dads imac's graphics card probably wont be very useful for cod gaming..
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4850.13975.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-130M.13789.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9400M-G.11949.0.html

Thanks for the advice!!

Here's my personal opinion in terms of graphics. Of the three choices...you would probably be better off with the GT 130 or the 4850...but I would stay away from the 9400.

With this being said...and the games that you want to play...these cards are still about 2 generations older (the 9400 probably 3 generations older) than what the current Mac models are shipping with.

So just keep in mind that running the newest games on older hardware...you may have to make some sacrifices...such as possibly playing at lower quality settings. But the real test will to actually play the games...and it also depends on your expectations for game performance.

HTH,

- Nick

Hmm... okay good to know. Thanks, thats kinda why I was posting here to see if any had any experiences playing those games on this model of iMac.

Yea I wish I lived near my father, I would download a demo of one of those FPS games I like to play to see how it sounds.

I guess this just confirms that I have a hard decision to make, take a free iMac and not play games on it (I have a xbox360, and only 'game' a 1-2x per week) OR spend a good portion of money on an older iMac that can play games. OR dish out even more for a 27" imac which I think is too much real estate and I wouldnt get discount either on it, so I cant really afford that..

Awww the problems we face..