Macs have never been known for being suitable gaming computers. When Apple switched to Intel processors in 2006 many of us hoped that finally we’d see many of the popular games available for Windows be introduced at the same time or close enough on the Mac platform too. That never happened though and still there are few major gaming titles that make it to Apple’s computers.
It used to be that the hardware was to blame. Apple computers used different processors than Windows PCs and had much more proprietary or at least unusual hardware components and solutions. That’s very much changed in recent years and in terms of hardware a Mac is not that different from a PC.
Apple’s all in one iMac desktop was recently updated together with the Mac Pro. To summarize they’re now faster with better graphics and there are a few more options than before.
There are two models of the iMac: one with 21.5-inch display and one with a 27-inch display. On the 27-inch model you get 2560 by 1440 pixels, more than you’ll use in most games. It’s powered by a Quad-core Intel i7 processor of up to 2.93GHz. With support for up to 16GB RAM those are pretty impressive specifications.
In terms of graphics the top of the line iMac sports ATI Radeon HD 5750 card with 1GB of memory. That’s certainly not the latest and the greatest but I think even demanding gamers will be happy with the performance.
Something that is for the first time an option in the new iMac is that you can configure it with a second drive, a solid state drive (SSD). A solid state drive is generally faster than a hard disk drive so it can boot faster, for example. In the iMac you can opt for up to 2TB main disk drive and up to 256GB of solid state drive.
What are the downsides? Price is obviously one. You will undoubtedly be able to build a high-spec gaming PC for much less than the cost of the iMac. Configurability is another big drawback. There’s little choice in hardware components with the iMac. Go for a PC and anything is customizable.
You can of course run Windows games on a Mac with Boot Camp or other solution. However as a Mac users you want to play games in Mac OS X and a lack of games for that platform has been a problem for gamers on Apple’s platform. That has however been address lately, at least in some measure, by Valve releasing Steam for Mac. Steam is an online platform with which you can buy and download games including their famous Half Life titles. Around 100 games are so far available for SteamPlay meaning for both Windows and Mac so if you already bought the Windows version on Steam you get the Mac version for free. That’s a very good development for Mac gamers and the addition of the latest iMac only adds to that.
This article was originally published in Khaleej Times.
