Best Apple computer for gaming

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apple_noob

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Sep 17, 2017
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What is the best Apple computer for gaming that costs less than 3,000USD? I am ok with a model that is a little older, but it must be 2015 or newer. It can be a Mac Pro (although I'm pretty sure those are more for home servers).
 
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velocityg4
It would be the 27" 5k iMac with the Radeon Pro 580 and i7-7700K option. I'd recommend upgrading the RAM yourself. You should also go with the 512GB SSD as you can't upgrade that later. Macs also have horrible performance with a hard drive as a boot drive. I can't imagine it will be long until the fusion drive suffers the same fate. You can always slap on an external USB hard drive for more storage.

iMac 5K
- i7-7700K
- Radeon Pro 580
- 8GB RAM
- 512GB SSD
$2,699

Upgrades to do yourself
- 16GB RAM kit ~$100
- 2TB External HDD 7,200RPM ~$80

Obviously you'd want to drop the resolution when gaming. 2560x1440 will look cleanest as it is a direct 2:1 scaling. Most games should perform well enough. Although you'll have to drop the detail...
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velocityg4

velocityg4

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Nov 21, 2006
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It would be the 27" 5k iMac with the Radeon Pro 580 and i7-7700K option. I'd recommend upgrading the RAM yourself. You should also go with the 512GB SSD as you can't upgrade that later. Macs also have horrible performance with a hard drive as a boot drive. I can't imagine it will be long until the fusion drive suffers the same fate. You can always slap on an external USB hard drive for more storage.

iMac 5K
- i7-7700K
- Radeon Pro 580
- 8GB RAM
- 512GB SSD
$2,699

Upgrades to do yourself
- 16GB RAM kit ~$100
- 2TB External HDD 7,200RPM ~$80

Obviously you'd want to drop the resolution when gaming. 2560x1440 will look cleanest as it is a direct 2:1 scaling. Most games should perform well enough. Although you'll have to drop the detail settings on some. 1920x1080 will be faster but will suffer in picture quality do to scaling issues.

The GPU in the Mac Pro is very dated. Plus the configuration you would need would cost a fortune.

You could buy a used 2010/2012 Mac Pro. Toss in the highest Ghz Xeon which is compatible and a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti for that price. That would be the best gamer.

You could also buy a Mac Mini, monitor and build a proper gaming rig for that price. Then use a KVM switch to jump between the mini and the gaming PC.
 
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Solandri

Solandri

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Jan 4, 2012
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A $1k-$2k Windows gaming PC running Steam In-home Streaming with the game displaying on any Mac/Macbook of your choice. Apple is notorious for allowing the GPUs in their computers get horribly out of date (without lowering their pirce) before updating them. They have a pretty solid lock on the professional video editing market, whose businesses don't blink at dropping $3k-$10k for outdated equipment as long as it runs OS X (consistency with their established workflow is more important than performance per $). So there's very little pressure for Apple to either keep their hardware up to date or to keep its price competitive.
 
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apple_noob

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Ok thanks so much velocityg4. I'm thinking the iMac is the best. I realize an old Mac Pro would be better if I upgraded it but its very old and is going to stop receiving OS X updates in a year. Plus a flashed 1080ti costs a fortune.. thanks again
 
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velocityg4

velocityg4

Glorious
Nov 21, 2006
5,390
471
46,440


You're welcome. For long term support and ease the iMac is best.

I don't know where you are getting that 1 year number from for the Mac Pro. Apple doesn't publicly release plans like that. It could be next years OS X it could be five years from now. Even when it isn't supported, there will likely be workarounds. Unless they switch to ARM CPUs.

Just for clarification. You don't need a flashed 1080 Ti. A flashed card just provides the boot screen. Which can be useful for boot issues. As long as you keep the old card for diagnostics, OS X installer, &c. That shouldn't be an issue.

All you need to do is install the drivers for a regular 1080 Ti Founders Edition. Non FE will likely work but FE cards are built to spec. So, there is less to worry about for compatibility. You get a black screen at boot. As soon as OS X gets to the point in the boot sequence where it detects hardware and loads drivers the card turns on. You also need a power cable adapter.
 
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apple_noob

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Oh I did not know about the whole flashing issue. Also, it is not guaranteed, but it seems like it will lose update support. There has been a trend with the mac pros where 1.1 , 2.1 , 3.1 , and 4.1 all lost support back to back years with each new update. I just don't want to take the risk. Plus Xeon are pretty bad for games

 
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