[MG] iMac Gaming card

[Gregory Davis]

Heres my take.

Want a great machine that runs Motion and Final Cut Pro plus plays 
games.  Get the iMac.  But be aware that you will probably want to get 
a new iMac in about 3 years if you are into gaming at all.

The iMac is a "consumable" machine.  Use it and then upgrade especially 
for gamers.  If your a normal computer user that iMac will last for 6 
years easy.

But since we are all gamers then heres what you really should do.

Decide what is most important to you keeping a system for a long time 
and upgrading it or paying a premium for games and upgrading it.

Then go look at PowerMac G5 towers and a Cinema Display.

The entry level Single 1.8 GHz tower has an upgradeable video card 
which is about all that you would ever upgrade except the RAM.  You 
will probably get about two years extra out of this tower than the iMac 
for Gaming.

If you have to have cutting edge graphics get the Dual 1.8 machine.

I think the Dual 2.0 and 2.5 are kick A. for gaming but too much of a 
premium for the PCI X slots that will never be used in a gaming machine 
and who needs more than 4 gigs of RAM in a machine for gaming.  Gamers 
should only be running one application at a time anyway.

If you want to wait then you could probably get a clearance model after 
the next models of G5 tower come out.  The problem with this is that 
you will have to start checking CompUSA or another retailer on a daily 
basis once the announcement is made.

Here is the draw back to doing that.  Apple tries to keep inventory in 
the sales channel at a low right before new models come out.  That way 
their retailers and own stores don't loose too much money on the 
"deals" because there aren't a lot to be found.

If you can find one then here's a strategy that has worked well for me 
in the past few years.

Once a model is clearenced wait for the price to drop about 200 to 300 
dollars.  This puts the machine below cost.  This can take some time 
after the new models come out and you run the risk of having the 
machine bought out from under you.  Buy as much RAM as possible using 
Rebates.  The machine needs more than 1Gig of RAM.

Use the machine until the next model is clearenced.  Buy a new 
"clearance" deal.  Sell the old computer on eBay with the RAM and 
hopefully Apple Care if you were shrewd enough to get it worked into 
your deal.  Apple Care  will cover the demo or open box clearence item 
you are getting for the remainder of 1 to 1.5 years and the new person 
buying the machine has peace of mind.  It also improves the amount of 
eBAy bids.

Now you have an almost cutting edge machine every 9 months to a year.  
You have Apple Care for tech support and if your lucky you  are making 
money or breaking even on the deal.  I've broke even on 1 deal and made 
money on two deals I've done this way.
On Nov 28, 2004, at 4:07 PM, John Erdman wrote:

> Oh Dear! That's not good news at all!  I was going to wait till after 
> XMas anyway for price drops and good deals. but the suggestion to wait 
> till after MWSF is excellent.
>
> Since I don't consider myself as a real hard core gamer but rather one 
> who enjoys single player FPS's and strategy games I'm hoping that the 
> "consumer grade" iMAC would probably be all right. Certainly it's got 
> to be better than my current semi-antique AGP/400 with an 8500 video 
> card. The G5 iMAC looks as if it will solve my need for improved 
> portability but yet preserve most of my game playing ability. I just 
> don't want to give up too much of future playability. Is that a 
> reasonable assumption?
>
> Thanks for your suggestion
> John
>
>
> On Nov 28, 2004, at 4:31, JL wrote:
>
>> The video card on the new imacs, is really bottom-of-the-barrel
>> with no option to upgrade.  Is this a problem?  Certainly the
>> games won't look as nice as they could, but since the imac is
>> supposed to be the consumer model it's quite conceivable that
>> game makers would dumb-down their games to suit the 32meg vid
>> cards (as Blizzard did with WoW) in order to maximize their
>> audience.
>>
>> As for what you should do, that's up to you.  If my budget
>> could afford a new mac right now, I would not be buying.  At
>> the least I would be waiting until after MWSF in early
>> January, to see what will be announced.  Perhaps there will
>> be something more to my liking.
>>
>
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