I am relatively new to mac/pc gaming, so I don't really know much about comparing graphics cards or performance, so when I do research on these topics, I am not really sure how well to evaluate it. I pretty much only play Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 on my MacBook Pro.

I can only play both of them on the lowest of the low settings and, even with this, Diablo 3 has major framerate issues that make the experience pretty tedious.

I want to buy a 27-inch iMac with these settings:

Processor: 3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Memory: 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB

Hard Drive: 1TB Serial ATA Drive

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5

with the above settings, will I be able to play both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 on the highest settings with the best framerate?

Thank you in advance. whatever help you guys can give me would be much appreciated. Also, I am sorry if this topic has already come up.

Yeah you will be able to run both fine. I play both of the games on last years model of the 21.5 inch iMac and both run at the highest settings smoothly. I run SC2 on both the Mac and on the Windows partition and both work equally fine, Diablo is currently on the Mac side only have I haven't had a single problem yet with everything cranked up. For Starcraft 2, I have always ran it at the lowest settings with high effects because you can spot invisible units such as observers / DTs / Burrowed Roaches...etc a lot easier. But I am guessing it works fantastic with everything on High settings since it is a bit older then D3.

There have been issues with D3 regarding the Mac users, but it seems to be with the OSX. People who are running the game on a iMac with Windows, with the same hardware have no issues at all. My advice is to purchase a copy of Windows and use bootcamp for games that you cant play on Mac, or have issues with the Mac OS.

im using the most recent 21.5 in. iMac (the cheapest one) and it runs diablo and starcraft 2 just fine. Diablo 3 runs at about 30 fps with anti-aliasing off, and starcraft 2 runs at about that with 'high' settings. Im also using OSX, havent yet tried it with boot camp.

Thanks for your answers so far. I really appreciate it.

@ArcadeHero: when you say it runs Diablo fine at 30fps with anti-aliasing off, does that mean all the other settings are still at high? Sorry, I just wanted to clarify that.

@KatyGaGa said:

Thanks for your answers so far. I really appreciate it.

@ArcadeHero: when you say it runs Diablo fine at 30fps with anti-aliasing off, does that mean all the other settings are still at high? Sorry, I just wanted to clarify that.

Sorry, i could have been more specific, i was just working from memory. This is what I have it set to right now.

Fullscreen - 1920x1080 (16:9) - vsync off - texture quality: high - shadow quality: med - physics: high - clutter density: high - AA: off - low fx: off

Average framerate is about 28 fps, goes to low 30s in quiet moments, and about 24 fps when the screen is full with enemies. I havent messed too much around with the settings, and i dont have an install of windows to try it with.

Also, this is with the cheapest model of the iMac with the most recent refresh. The 27 inch has a faster video card, so would likely get better performance.

@KatyGaGa said:

I am relatively new to mac/pc gaming, so I don't really know much about comparing graphics cards or performance, so when I do research on these topics, I am not really sure how well to evaluate it. I pretty much only play Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 on my MacBook Pro.

I can only play both of them on the lowest of the low settings and, even with this, Diablo 3 has major framerate issues that make the experience pretty tedious.

I want to buy a 27-inch iMac with these settings:

Processor: 3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Memory: 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB

Hard Drive: 1TB Serial ATA Drive

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5

with the above settings, will I be able to play both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 on the highest settings with the best framerate?

Thank you in advance. whatever help you guys can give me would be much appreciated. Also, I am sorry if this topic has already come up.

I have that exact spec. Apart from the memory. I'd recommend that you get the minimum memory and then buy additional RAM from somewhere else. You'll save a lot of money and the installation is pretty simple. Apple overcharge for the memory by a lot.

I've found that the FPS are a little unpredictable, sometimes when I log on, the game runs great; 1080p, 60fps with everything on high. Sometimes however, it only manages 20-30 fps with everything on high - I've not yet worked out why it is, but it could be to do with server problems at Blizzard's end (don't ask me how that manages to ruin FPS).

Recently I've been playing with the full 27" resolution of 2560x1440, which you can run with medium settings for a solid 30fps, or with everything on low I can get 60FPS. I don't really care about everything running on low at native resolution and 60fps, it plays nice.

You have to remember that even though this is the top end iMac, the graphics card is still a mobile graphics card.