new imac - Can I upgrade the vid card?

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cypher

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Hey gang! Long time lurker and windows user SOOOOOOOOOOO ready to switch. Got a q or 2 though: I'm looking at getting the 20" imac 2gb rama dn 250 gb hdd. I'll mainly use LW7.5 and stylemaster, firefox, and pagespinner on it as well as burn dvds and us iLife. Myy question iscan I pop a better video card in? Any info on the 5200 ultra? I should prolly get a powermac but i think the imac is enough for what I want. That and I'm trying to decide ibook or pb?
Thanks?
Erik
 
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adiliegro

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no. From what Ive read, and Im a noob to Macs, you can NOT switch out the Video Card at ALL.
 
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Unless Apple offers some special upgrade program later (extremely unlikely) iMac buyers are stuck with the standard graphics. Which is awful for 3D games, but fine for 2D work.
 
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There are 2 simple rules to follow:

1. you want to play high end games, don't buy a Mac...PCs are better for that.

2. You want a computer to be upgradable (beyond changing drives or RAM), don't buy an All-in-one or a laptop...they just aren't made in the purpose of having everything exchanged (this is true for PCs as well as for Macs).

I don't understand why this kind of question always comes up again... :confused:
 
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Matt

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Check to see if you can order your computer with a better graphics card at the Apple store.
 
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m1k

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Yeah, it's un-upgradeable. I have the 5200's little brother, though, the 5200 GO, in my PowerBook, and with 512MB of RAM I have no problem playing almost all 3d games. Seriously, my PowerBook can handle pretty much any game with the graphics levels at medium to high. I was skeptical at first about the graphics card, but it's actually quite good, and I don't mind it at all.

If you're doing 2d work it should be more than fine, ditto with games.

Good luck with switching!
 
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Avalon said:
There are 2 simple rules to follow:

1. you want to play high end games, don't buy a Mac...PCs are better for that.

Not entirely true in some cases. Unreal Tournament 2004 runs perfecly fine on my Powerbook 1.33 GHz. You just need RAM, lots of it. :) I have a total of 768MB and that seems to be plenty. The video cards in newer Macs are pretty decent. I'm partial to nVidia though. :)

2. You want a computer to be upgradable (beyond changing drives or RAM), don't buy an All-in-one or a laptop...they just aren't made in the purpose of having everything exchanged (this is true for PCs as well as for Macs).

Agreed.
 
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m1k

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Not entirely true in some cases. Unreal Tournament 2004 runs perfecly fine on my Powerbook 1.33 GHz. You just need RAM, lots of it. I have a total of 768MB and that seems to be plenty. The video cards in newer Macs are pretty decent. I'm partial to nVidia though.

I too have a PowerBook 1.33GHz, and I only have 512MB RAM and UT2004 runs perfectly with all the graphics levels on the highest. I agree, video cards in newer Macs are pretty good.

Seriously, the GeForce FX 5200 is quite a good card.
 
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1337_Blur

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I have an Imac g5 w/ 512 and the reg gcard and it works greater than i had ever hoped

good luck on your mac search!
 
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m1k said:
I too have a PowerBook 1.33GHz, and I only have 512MB RAM and UT2004 runs perfectly with all the graphics levels on the highest. I agree, video cards in newer Macs are pretty good.

Seriously, the GeForce FX 5200 is quite a good card.

Well, with high end gaming I was more referring to those gamers that think they need hundreds of frames per sec at the highest resolution, all option turned on... allthough for me it doesn't make a big diff in playability if I have 70 or 100 FPS, some people think that they really need that.
And on that level, a good gaming PC outperforms every Mac.
I have an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro in my PowerMac, and for the little gaming I do occasionnally, it's more than enough for me. I tried some 3D games too, and I could play them very well...of course not on the same level than an ATI 9800, but who cares?!
That's why I have an Xbox :D
 

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