iMac running Civ5

[angelus512]

Hey guys Im mulling a purchase of a 27inch iMac potentially, partly for Civ5 and also partly because it was on the agenda to do anyways, just hadnt made up my mind whether i'd buy this incarnation of the imac or wait for 2011 version.

If anybody is running Civ5 on bootcamp iMac 27inch version with the 512meg graphics card not the 1GB let me know how the performance is. If anybody has OPINIONS however please post.

However currently I have a system I put together myself maybe 3-4 years ago.

CPU Dual core I believe, speed was around 2.2GHZ if i remember.

Graphics card is 512 nvidia 8800GTS im pretty sure.

4GB RAM

Average HDD nothing special.

Anybody think i'll have issues with this hardware on large maps? Cos I'd rather not have to buy the iMac at this point would rather wait for the 2011 version.

Also any replies suggesting I go for a PC please shelve them i've always used PC's until recently when i grabbed a macbook pro for work a few months back. Love the mac now.

Also I DO NOT GAME. I only game when their are new civs, starcrafts or diablo's. No other games at all but I'm a hardcore Civ gamer. Have played since the first civ and love it.

Advice appreciated. Sorry if this is in the wrong area.

 

[davidlee]

I use boot camp on my 27" I7 iMac. ATI Radeon 4850, 2.8Ghz. Not yet tested w/ Civ 5 but I expect it will perform very well.

I think they're a great gaming platform unless you really need a watercooled death star that can run Crysis on max detail at 1800x1600 at 120fps. Don't underestimate the quality of the screen and the impact that it has on your enjoyment.

A 100Gb partition should be enough for windows if you only run a few games - allow maybe 50Gb + 10 for each game you want to have installed.

The 1Gb graphics card + i7 CPU are highly worthwhile IMO.

Also, hopefully Civ5 will eventually make it to OS X, as Civ4 did.

This machine scores a 5.9 on the "Windows User Experience Index" FWIW.

I'll try to remember to post back tomorrow once Civ5 has unlocked.

 

[Ralgar]

It works acceptable on my 2009 MacBook (but with an SSD) so I guess it will work fine on a current iMac.

But I also expect an update/Patch/Mod to enhance performance, even on freakish high end gamer PC there are some issues like relatively long end-of-turn times.

 

[angelus512]

Cheers guys. I had planned (if i got the iMac 2010 version) to skip the 1GB ATI one because I've read the performance of that card is really not what it should be and the slightly lower end 27inch one is more than ample and its 2K RMB difference.

I am an expat living in china so custom making a PC is much harder than it was in Australia so i opt to go for all in one iMac instead of chancing it with chinese cobble goods.

 

[SleepingMonkey]

As I am not always computer savvy. I haven't tried to use boot camp for my mac yet, (usually wait for mac release) but with the new release of Civ 5 I'm willing to give it a go. Does anyone know of any good online articles that explain how to use boot camp? Also I'm on a MacBook Pro, OS X 10.5.8, Processor 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3... yeah not really sure what all that means. Do you think I could run Civ 5 through boot camp?

 

[BladeRnr]

I have a Mid 2007 iMac:
- 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
- 3 GB Ram (upgraded from original 1 GB)
- 256MB Radeon HD 2006 Pro (in reality an underclocked Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT)

So my CPU is a bit better than minimum, RAM is between minimum and recommended and GPU is just below minimum.

However, I can run CiV in WinXP (DirectX 9) under boot camp at low to medium settings at around 20 FPS, which is plenty for a TBS game. The graphics don't look as great as the review screenshots (all taken at high settings under DirectX 11), but they do look good. Plus the wait between turn is around 5-10 sec, so it plays perfectly fine.

All in all, if you worry that your "old" Mac won't be up to the job due to the high systems requirements, don't.

 

[crag]

Runs fine on my 2009 MBP 17" (with 8 gigs of RAM). You won't have any problems running this game (or any other).

 

[peter grimes]

The new iMac 27" will run civ 5 just fine. I'm running the demo on my early 2010 iMac 27", but not through boot camp. I'm using CrossOver Games by codeweavers. There are some graphics glitches, but I suspect those have less to do with the machine and more to do with the translational software. Just a hunch.

If you'd like to see screenshots, go here - there's also a follow up post further along in the same thread that details my machine specs and includes more photos.

 

[DarkMaster]

Any of the 27'' will run Civ V very well (on bootcamp, of course), but make sure you get the high end one. The different in the graphics card is significant.

 

[davidlee]

Having played now for the past few days, I can say that you should opt for the fastest processor your budget allows - the graphics run at a constant speed, and for me work well at high res and medium-high detail. However in the later game, especially on large maps, you will spend considerable time waiting between turns, and a faster CPU (and to an extent, sufficient RAM) will make a difference.

 

[jamescat]

I've been running it for about a week now on a mid-2010 (latest) 15" MB Pro. 256MB nvidia 330M graphics card. I run Win7 Ultimate in bootcamp. I've run both DX9 and DX11, they both work. You should have no problem with any of the 27" models... faster processor, more cores (i remember rumours about this Civ handling multiple threads... not sure what came of that.) and better graphics. I usually run it in DX9 just because I really don't see much of a difference in the graphics...

 

[Caesarion]

I am playing on a base model 27" 2009 iMac via bootcamp. Settings are medium to low. Runs just fine for me.

 

[dannythefool]

I usually run it in DX9 just because I really don't see much of a difference in the graphics...

DX9 has this red splotches on random tiles bug. ;-)

Apart from that you'll only really notice DX11 if you a) have a DX11 card and b) can actually run the game at high-ish settings. If you can only run the DX10 version on low-ish settings my experience is that the DX9 version is faster.

Ok, so this isn't Mac related. I actually just checked in here because I was hoping for someone with the current MBP model to post something, thanks for that. I have one on order to replace my previous Macbook, and was wondering