New iMacs and games

Brym

My family's computer crapped out, and they want to get a mac now. Since I'm not around to provide tech support anymore, I'm all for that solution. The only slight hitch is that my brother, who will be in the house for 2 more years, likes to play Valve and Blizzard games.

So my question is, does anyone know how the latest iMacs perform playing games in Boot Camp? They don't need a screaming machine or anything, just something that can play Left 4 Dead and Diable III. We're looking specifically at the 20" model, which has a 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2 Megs of RAM, and an ATI Radeon 2600 with 256 MB ram.

Thanks.

maximumzero

I have the 3.06Ghz iMac with the 512MB 8800 and it plays games beautifully in Boot Camp.

But here's your warning: Sound sucks under windows. While it handles graphics just fine, I can't stand playing games in Windows because all the audio sounds like it's being played out of speakers made out of styrofoam. No bass whatsoever.

I passed multiple TF2 sales on Steam simply because I knew I would never play the damn thing due to poor audio, and went on happily playing the 360 version instead.

Edit: And before anyone pops their head in with "Update the Drivers lol" I've tried that. Multiple times.

Edit 2: That being said, Blizzard's games are always Mac & PC in the same box. Once Diablo III and Starcraft II drop expect to be able to play them directly in OS X.

chasehatesbears

I have a Macbook Pro that doesn't seem to suffer any sound-wise while running bootcamp. Weird.

VGChampion

maximumzero wrote: »

I have the 3.06Ghz iMac with the 512MB 8800 and it plays games beautifully in Boot Camp.

But here's your warning: Sound sucks under windows. While it handles graphics just fine, I can't stand playing games in Windows because all the audio sounds like it's being played out of speakers made out of styrofoam. No bass whatsoever.

Edit: And before anyone pops their head in with "Update the Drivers lol" I've tried that. Multiple times.

I've got the same problem as you I believe. I found a driver a long time ago that did wonders to the audio. Still not as good as it could be but it no longer has that "fuzzy/static" noise.

maximumzero

It's not fuzzy or static, it's just as if someone turned the treble all the way up and the bass all the way down.

Imagine if you were standing in the hallway outside of a room that the game was being played in, that kind of thing.

I might set up my Digital Camera when I get home to give you folks a sample.

Marlor

It might be worth getting a cheap USB sound card.

It's not an ideal solution, but it's probably going to be better in the long run than messing around with drivers for hours on end.

My Macbook sounds fine in Boot Camp... but if I had audio issues, I'd definitely be grabbing a cheap USB sound card and hooking it up to some external speakers.

maximumzero

Marlor wrote: »

It might be worth getting a cheap USB sound card.

It's not an ideal solution, but it's probably going to be better in the long run than messing around with drivers for hours on end.

My Macbook sounds fine in Boot Camp... but if I had audio issues, I'd definitely be grabbing a cheap USB sound card and hooking it up to some external speakers.

At this point the only reason to use Boot Camp is to play games.

So I just pretty much don't play any games.

Migliori

I don't want you to have to wait and wait but it does seem likely quad core iMacs with LED backlit screens will be here shortly. Maybe in two weeks.

maximumzero

So here we go...Any thoughts on how I can my iMac not sound quite so shitty in Windows?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0P7RP_Zx0Y

(Excuse the clickyness of the mouse)

Senshi

chasehatesbears wrote: »

I have a Macbook Pro that doesn't seem to suffer any sound-wise while running bootcamp. Weird.

This.

I do, however, use headphones most of the time.

PeregrineFalcon

maximumzero wrote: »

So here we go...Any thoughts on how I can my iMac not sound quite so shitty in Windows?

(Excuse the clickyness of the mouse)

Buy some external speakers? I know it's a Mac but even they should have headphone jacks.

If it still sounds like ass through headphones, USB sound card.

To the OP - the 2600XT should manage, but you won't be playing at native resolution. Should manage 720p at medium details though, Source engine scales quite nicely. Diablo III might be a bit better since Blizzard games are notoriously scaling-friendly (ie: WoW running on a grilled cheese, without even needing pickles)

maximumzero

PeregrineFalcon wrote: »

maximumzero wrote: »

So here we go...Any thoughts on how I can my iMac not sound quite so shitty in Windows?

(Excuse the clickyness of the mouse)

Buy some external speakers? I know it's a Mac but even they should have headphone jacks.

If it still sounds like ass through headphones, USB sound card.

To the OP - the 2600XT should manage, but you won't be playing at native resolution. Should manage 720p at medium details though, Source engine scales quite nicely. Diablo III might be a bit better since Blizzard games are notoriously scaling-friendly (ie: WoW running on a grilled cheese, without even needing pickles)

Why should I have to buy external speakers? Sound in OS X though the iMac's speakers is better than most of the external speakers I've heard before. Very deep and rich.

psyck0

I game in bootcamp and have some pretty good speakers, and the bass is OVERPOWERING in Windows with them. Get some speakers. The compy ones just can't handle the low frequencies, and the OSX sounds are probably devised to compensate while Windows and other applications aren't.

acidlacedpenguin

. . . you have tried adjusting the windows sound mixer to increase the bass right?


also what psyck0 said. I don't think I've ever seen any display with built in speakers have good sound. Some of them passable, but not of them have speakers I'd want to use.