Buying a new iMac. Is this a good idea?

I am about to buy myself a new computer. I am considering the new iMac (the 24 inch, 2.8GHz model).

Is this a suitable machine to run Second Life on? If not, which is the best Mac to purchase to run Second Life?


Specs are:

1. 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
   
2. 2GB memory
   
3. 500GB hard drive1
   
4. 8x double-layer SuperDrive
   
5. ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
   

Thanks in advance, Mimmi

A friend of mine just got that version of the 24" iMac, and loves it. She used to be on a barely playable Mac Mini, and says it is a huge improvement for her.

I'm holding out for a quad-core Mac Pro tower, myself. But for less money, the 20" and 24" iMacs do seem to be a good system fro SL, from what I have heard from owners.

Thanks for that info Ceera. I feel a whole lot more excited about my impending purchase now.

Can anyone else who owns an iMac confirm that it will run SL fine? The new machine will come with Leopard so I guess I need to know if that has any issues as well.

I am sure that any new Mac will be an improvement on my current setup. But I dare not say what that is lest I be mercilessly mocked

TIA, Mimmi

Hello Mimmi, buying a mac in general is always a good investment anyway , especially since they are on the intel platform. Why? because if you ever feel bad with running SL on mac os, you still have the possibility to run it on Windows with the same computer!
My experience of mac told me that the SL mac client was slower than the windows one. In my personal case, I even meet crashes, but it is due to my specific Santa rosa edition macbook pro that has a GFX card and a BIG driver issue.
To fix that, I can run SL on an XP partition I made on the same drive. Mac OSX and XP coexist as friendly neighbors. I can choose to reboot and run SL on XP, or I can run SL/XP through a virtualization program such as Parallels Desktop so I don't have to reboot.

Bottom line is: GET THE IMAC IT'S A GREAT COMPUTER!

I bought myself a shiny new imac 2.4 20" last week. This was an upgrade from my existing macbook which graphically couldn't cope.

The specs are:
2.4ghz core2duo
2 gig ram
320 HD
Radeon 2600 PRO 256 graphics

It had a firmware problem with the graphics card, and this meant I had to ring apple and they talked me through a firmware upgrade for the card chipset. Now everything is fine on it, and it runs like a dream.

Windlight is my most stable client - whack up the graphics for pics, and run it in custom with the sliders turned up for everything else.

Now instead of having 2.8 fps, I am on about 14-15 in busy areas and around 25+ in quiet areas.

It's a whole new view of SL for me.

I'd say go for it

I own the same machine. It's great with the latest version of SL. Best mac I have ever owned!

The new iMac works great! I upgraded from my old eMac to an iMac 24" and whoah! The upgrade from Tiger to Leopard did not impact SL at all from what I can see.

Jut make sure the video ram is nice and high as you can get

Will this be enough Court?

ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

Ta, Mimmi

thats the best video you can currently get in an iMac... and yes is a decent mid ranged video card. Apple doesn't use the high end cards (except when the Mac Pro first came out, and possible next time its updated soon), but the high end cards are a waste of money for most people. Most users will never see the benefit of a $600 video card over a $150 video card. It would make some benefit in SL, but not really for the amount of money they cost. All of that is a moot point on the Mac though since Apple doesn't have a wide range of hardware options.

The biggest problem with Apple and the highest-end video cards is that Apple doesn't put a big enough power supply or a strong enough cooling system in their top-of-the line Mac Pro Tower for the high-end cards to run. So, sadly, if you *really* want the most advanced video cards, you have to buy a Windows-based gaming rig, with a huge power supply and extra fans.

Would be really cool if Apple could support an external expansion chassis, with a PCI Express slot and a huge power supply...

Hi! sorry just ran across this

the architecture of the mac will allow for 256 to work well for some time. However keep in mind that most video cards these days are 512+, and game developers like to be biased towards PC market because thats where most of the money (currently) is.

However, Apple is famous for its architecture. Their logic board in combo with the dual-core Intel CPU will take a huge load off the graphics processor, and even better, Apple switched to Nvidia, which is a little more hip with their drivers. ***EDIT*** oops let me eat my words as the iMac still has ATI. Honestly it shouldn't be a problem, however take note that all other mac's have switched to Nvidia, so that might be a question to ask the salesman (even though they wont tell you anything about future products) *** end edit ***

A friend has a base new iMac which is 20" with 128MB i believe, and he says it runs "pretty damn good" with Second Life. I have a 15" macbook pro with 256MB ATI video ram, and it works fine in >most< situations, but i'll get lag in hi-prim areas and often have to reduce y drawing distance to 128. My white Macbook with 64MB video ram only pays lip service to second life, looking like an old Space Quest game from 1986.

Finally, i am suspicious that Apple will be upgrading their iMacs to 512MB soon. iMacs have been lingering in the low ram for some time, and video ram is getting cheap. If its not absolutely necessary to buy a computer right now, you might want to wait until the next apple product announcement--which is a period when many purchasers from the previous quarter say things like "fu**!" Apple releases computers like many car companies release cars. They release a version that makes people go "wow" at first, then as sales start to slow down, they add extra features and give the systems a boost. I wouldn't be surprised if the next iMac release, especially teh 24" version gets a feature upgrade.

I hope this helps and doesn't provide more confusion

Hi me again

I just spoke with a architecture guru at my office, who happens to be an avid SL user and landlord. heres what i learned about the graphics architecture in the imac

ATI will probably remain in the imacs because they are better-suited for OEM, and they emit less heat, which is an important issue in a computer that uses convection to release heat.

256MB is the current "sweet spot" and currently DirectX10 is the main eater of anythign larger than that. But that means you have to hve a PC and (gasp) vista.

you >might< see an issue with textures at 256 on a 24" screen, so you might need to lower your resolution and/or texture detail. My mac, albeit a different one, has Intel Core2duo + Ati Radeoon x1600 @ 256MB, and anything larger than 1280w starts to look like a Space Ghost animation. However, I prefer beauty over lag, so i have my settings up high.

A good smoke test IMO would be to run windlight, turn graphics settings to Ultra, and go to a hi-prim or lag place like the Heart Garden Centre, which is loaded with prims and flexiprims. i dont know if you could do this at an apple store, but maybe someone here could try it out. i recommend windlight because it is a better example of what the client will be like a year from now when it gets even larger and more bloated. Also, running in full-screen mode might take some edge off. I typically run in a window so i can hide SL when my boss walks by

-court