Need general mac advice...Just aquired a G3

My, it is so tempting!

It sucks that the displays are so expensive! I'll probably buy the more expensive of the two and use a monitor I have, lol.

Thew iMac looks to be better all around. I'm sure the X1600 is a **** of a lot better than the GMA950.

Other benefits of the iMac is also a great screen and good quality built in speakers. I'd say you'd get better value for money with an iMac.

Well, I'm kinda leaning against an iMac now. I guess macs just aren't meant to be gaming machines. I want a modern mac so bad but gaming is a huge thing I do on the computer. A mac pro would run games really well but I'm not made of $5000. The reason I bring this up is cause of this benchmark:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/imac-coreduo.ars/6

That's an iMac with an X1600 128 meg. It runs UT2k4 at 8fps....

VigCS said:

Well, I'm kinda leaning against an iMac now. I guess macs just aren't meant to be gaming machines. I want a modern mac so bad but gaming is a huge thing I do on the computer. A mac pro would run games really well but I'm not made of $5000. The reason I bring this up is cause of this benchmark:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/imac-coreduo.ars/6

That's an iMac with an X1600 128 meg. It runs UT2k4 at 8fps....

Click to expand...

Keep in mind that the benchmark tests for the iMac were using NON-Native format that were running under Rosetta, which is pretty slow...

I am playing Call of Duty 2 Online Multiplayer on my iMac with only the 126 VRAM... and I could not be happier.. very speedy, no shakes, no lags...


Also remember that those benchmarks were for the Core Duo (previos model) and not the Core 2 Duo (Current Model)..

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/imac-coreduo.ars/6 said:

That said, I thought it would be interesting to see how painful a PowerPC-native FPS would be on a Core Duo iMac. You can see the results for yourself. I suspect that once Intel-native games are available for the iMac, it will acquit itself better than its predecessor as a gaming machine.

Click to expand...

Ride is very correct. Those benchmarks are under Emulation. Anything using Emulation is not going to perform very well and especially a demanding 3d game.

Okay, thanks. Do you guysk now of any retail outlets that sell macs? I'd really like to test one for 3D capability before I buy.

Any Comp. USA should sell them. If you live in or near a major metro. area, there might be an Apple store near you. Use this link to find a store near you!
http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/

I got hold of a G3 to play with too. They are fun to tinker with, but to really get anywhere performancewise, there is a little bit of $$$ involved. You would be better off buying a newer Mac. And if you really want a Mac that meets your gaming needs, a Mac Pro is the only viable option. Everything else could do the job, but a Mac Pro is the only system that could keep up with your video needs. Maybe this helps, maybe this was all totally obvious to you, I don't know. Either way, good luck with your search.