24 inch iMac resolution scaling?

PinkPig

PinkPig

PinkPig

Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2004
Posts
3,535
Hi everyone,

I'm currently sorely tempted to buy an iMac - in the past I've bought fairly high-end PCs but the amount of time I spend gaming has dramatically fallen and I mostly use the PC for things that I could easily do on a Mac instead. I'd be quite happy to use my 360 for gaming.

Having said that, it would be really nice to be able to boot the iMac into Windows and play a few games from time to time - in particular say HL2. I've seen reports and videos that it plays fairly well (relatively speaking) on an iMac. I'd really like to get the 24 inch iMac though, and I'm a bit worried that the high resolution (1920x1200) will give the fairly weak graphics card no chance at all.

So has anyone tried playing any games (in Windows under Bootcamp) on the 24 inch iMac in the native resolution? Does anyone know how well the screen scales to lower resolutions? Does the iMac support most common resolutions? If I played in say 1280x800 would the display look horribly blurry or pixelated? I'm really looking for someone who's actually tried it rather than just speculation, so please say if you're just giving ideas or opinions!
 
My housemate has the 24" iMac (2.4GHz), and his manages games fairly well, albeit obviously not at the native resolution of the display. It does seem to scale down well though; MoH Airborne at 1280x800 or thereabouts still looks good, as does HL2.

It's still very playable, just don't expect amazing performance from its mid-range graphics chipset. It does well, as long as you don't start piling on the AA and AF.
 
TheVoice said:
My housemate has the 24" iMac (2.4GHz), and his manages games fairly well, albeit obviously not at the native resolution of the display. It does seem to scale down well though; MoH Airborne at 1280x800 or thereabouts still looks good, as does HL2.

It's still very playable, just don't expect amazing performance from its mid-range graphics chipset. It does well, as long as you don't start piling on the AA and AF.
Click to expand...

Could you just confirm that you're talking about the current generation iMac? I've just realised that the previous ones (September 2006-ish) had an option for a 7600 GT (I think) which is better than the 2600 Pro on the current generation.
 
24-inch: 1920 by 1200 pixels

I would guess that you could scale down to 1680 x 1050 or 1280 x768, but starts too look crummy down at the level. Or at least my Dell 2405 does.
 
It would be decent at 1680 x 1050.

WotDa actually posted some benchmarks of his 2.8GHz iMac, might want to search them out :)
 
EVH said:
It would be decent at 1680 x 1050.

WotDa actually posted some benchmarks of his 2.8GHz iMac, might want to search them out :)
Click to expand...

Wasn't that me? ;)

But either way, OP - I have the above mentioned system and it handles anything. Just dont expect max settings! although don't take from that that the graphics will be poo - on the contrary they look good.

I have Steam for DOD Source, Counter Strike Source (Both playable at 1440x) and also Bioshock, Medal of Honour: Airborne etc...

I have Cyrsis to play yet, not had the time to sit down and play....Still ain't finished MOH:A and BioShock!

Drivers are the key to the x2600 - The final release of Leopard and Bootcamp should help - but I havent ran the tests again since.

Might do a recap!

I used all 3 3DMark's to get numbers, and Steam's Stress Test!

:)
 
PAC2007 - or anyone else with a new 24 inch iMac - could you tell me what resolutions are available in Mac OS X and in Windows? I'm just a bit worried that there might not be much flexibility if the only options are 1920x1200 and 1280x800, say. Is there a resolution similar to the native resolution of the 20 inch screen?

Secondly, my laptop has a "don't scale image to full panel size" option (something like that)in the graphics settings, which means that it will show a lower resolution in just the centre of the screen rather than stretching it, which avoids the blurring issues you get from a scaled image on an LCD. Does the iMac support this either in Mac OS X or in Windows? (it's dependant on the graphics driver in Windows)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom