Watch: 5K gaming on an iMac Pro

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2020
With a Vega 56 GPU, Apple's iMac Pro is well equipped to handle professional imaging tasks from high-resolution video editing to batch RAW photo processing. That power can also be applied to recreational activities like gaming, as we discovered in this video.





For more reviews, news, tips, features and more, subscribe to AppleInsider on YouTube. And for the lowest prices on an iMac Pro, be sure to visit our iMac Pro Price Guide.


dachar
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    racerhomie3racerhomie3 Posts: 1,264member
    Please don't .
    xzuwilliamlondon
  • Reply 2 of 33
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    But but but "pro" means I can play Fallout 4 at 5K with everything set to MAX and all the horrible graphics mods loaded and get 1337 fps.
  • Reply 3 of 33
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,940member
    racerhomie3 said:
    Please don't .
    Please don't what?
    williamlondondysamoria
  • Reply 4 of 33
    racerhomie3racerhomie3 Posts: 1,264member
    Just buy a used XBox 1 or PS4.
    Its not that hard.
    supadav03williamlondon
  • Reply 5 of 33
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,136member
    racerhomie3 said:
    Just buy a used XBox 1 or PS4.
    Its not that hard.

    Anyone even remotely contemplating getting an iMac Pro means that money isn't the issue, be it for work or *gasp* "gaming".  You may not like someone getting such a machine with the thought of playing games on it, but if that's on their radar, so be it.
    williamlondonchiawatto_cobraboltsfan17dysamoria
  • Reply 6 of 33
    crogerscrogers Posts: 15member
    I shall use mine for gaming, just trying to decide if I should upgrade to the better GPU!
    williamlondonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 33
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    macxpress said:
    racerhomie3 said:
    Please don't .
    Please don't what?
    Say that it’s just a toy?
  • Reply 8 of 33
    crogerscrogers Posts: 15member
    Of course it’s a toy, everything is a toy, some of time, why buy something this powerful and just use it for work, that’s boring!
    williamlondonchiawatto_cobradysamoria
  • Reply 9 of 33
    danvmdanvm Posts: 1,476member
    ajl said:
    All games (applications as well) in Boot Camp can be maxed out to 4K not because Boot Camp drivers, but simply because Windows can manage up to 4K resolution.
    Looks like Windows 10 goes higher than 4K resolution,

    https://www.pcworld.com/article/2900692/microsoft-to-support-8k-video-resolutions-with-windows-10.html

    xzu
  • Reply 10 of 33
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,108member
    cool. as a recovering gamer i like gaming when i have time, even on my macs.

    FYI little issues (wrinkles) are “ironed” out, not wrinkled out. 
    edited January 2018 dysamoria
  • Reply 11 of 33
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,940member
    StrangeDays said:
    macxpress said:
    Just buy a used XBox 1 or PS4.
    Its not that hard.
    Because gaming on an Xbox/PS4 is the same as gaming on a computer. You obviously don't have a clue and are just talking out of your ass. Also, not all titles are available on a gaming console and when they are (such as PUBG), they absolutely suck. 
    Agreed — PC gaming is entirely different than console gaming and IMO much better. Star Citizen doesn’t even exist on consoles does it? Console babies don’t know why PC gaming is better. Mouse support alone is reason enough. 
    When I think of console gaming...I think 10yr olds unless mommy and daddy are rich and can buy their 10yr old a $1500-2000 gaming computer. 
    watto_cobrawilliamlondon
  • Reply 12 of 33
    jmulchinojmulchino Posts: 57member
    I’m confused by all this especially AppleInsider’s heavy coverage (promotion?) of a high end, professional platform from Apple with minimum configuration costing $5k US$ for . . . gaming? I get it that the iMac Pro is a professional system for graphic pros. And if you have the coin to bring this home and game that’s fine. It’s your money. But seriously? After a hard day working on a SuperBowl ad you are going to let off steam with a few hours of gaming on the company deluxe platform? In my company you’d get fired. And if you are a sole contractor you will have to ask yourself why you are risking crucial components on recreation. 

    Meanwhile, we enter the fourth year without any tangible sign from Apple of a Mac Mini upgrade. Simply bizarre. 
    williamlondonxzudysamoria
  • Reply 13 of 33
    VRingVRing Posts: 108member
    Those drivers definitely need some work.

    On a different note, as you have Boot Camp up and running, can see some SPEC workstation benchmarks now? SolidWorks, NX, Maya, Creo, etc.

    https://www.spec.org/benchmarks.html


    crogers said:
    I shall use mine for gaming, just trying to decide if I should upgrade to the better GPU!
    You have to ask yourself if the extra $600 is worth it. Will you benefit from extra VRAM? Both cards are already downclocked.

    Top: iMac Pro 8 core / 32 GB with Vega 64
    Bottom: iMac Pro 8 core / 32 GB with Vega 56 





    Apple Insider saw a 10% throttle for the Vega 56 GPU after 15 minutes at load, that might be even worse for the Vega 64 version.
    Unfortunately there isn't a way for us to check the frequency of the Vega 56 under MacOS, but at the end of our 15-minute test, the last graphics score we received was 1667 with an average 66 frames per second. This is roughly 10 percent lower than the score of 1831 we received when running the benchmark by itself, where the CPU isn't also being maxed at the same time.

    To ensure that this performance loss wasn't due to limited CPU power going to the graphics benchmark, we monitored the percentage of CPU performance Unigine Heaven was receiving. In both the isolated graphics test and simultaneous CPU and GPU benchmarks Unigine was receiving the same 5 percent to 7 percent of processing power, meaning that a 10 percent lower score is likely from the graphics chip throttling itself in order to keep the system from getting too hot. 

    xzuwilliamlondondysamoria
  • Reply 14 of 33
    crogerscrogers Posts: 15member
    Yeah I probably won’t bother just more ram!
    VRing
  • Reply 15 of 33
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,940member
    jmulchino said:
    I’m confused by all this especially AppleInsider’s heavy coverage (promotion?) of a high end, professional platform from Apple with minimum configuration costing $5k US$ for . . . gaming? I get it that the iMac Pro is a professional system for graphic pros. And if you have the coin to bring this home and game that’s fine. It’s your money. But seriously? After a hard day working on a SuperBowl ad you are going to let off steam with a few hours of gaming on the company deluxe platform? In my company you’d get fired. And if you are a sole contractor you will have to ask yourself why you are risking crucial components on recreation. 

    Meanwhile, we enter the fourth year without any tangible sign from Apple of a Mac Mini upgrade. Simply bizarre. 
    What does the Mac mini have to do with this iMac Pro gaming article? Why do people feel the need to try and bitch about the Mac mini in an article that has nothing to with it? You'll get your god damn Mac mini when its ready to be released and I'm sure you won't like it anyways. 
    edited January 2018 watto_cobrawilliamlondonStrangeDays
  • Reply 16 of 33
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,930administrator
    jmulchino said:
    I’m confused by all this especially AppleInsider’s heavy coverage (promotion?) of a high end, professional platform from Apple with minimum configuration costing $5k US$ for . . . gaming? I get it that the iMac Pro is a professional system for graphic pros. And if you have the coin to bring this home and game that’s fine. It’s your money. But seriously? After a hard day working on a SuperBowl ad you are going to let off steam with a few hours of gaming on the company deluxe platform? In my company you’d get fired. And if you are a sole contractor you will have to ask yourself why you are risking crucial components on recreation. 

    Meanwhile, we enter the fourth year without any tangible sign from Apple of a Mac Mini upgrade. Simply bizarre. 
    Two different questions, two different answers.

    1) Because we got asked.

    2) Yeah, it's been a long time for the mini -- but it has never been a good gaming machine, so that's not the answer either.
    VRingwatto_cobradysamoria
  • Reply 17 of 33
    anomeanome Posts: 1,545member
    macxpress said:
    jmulchino said:
    I’m confused by all this especially AppleInsider’s heavy coverage (promotion?) of a high end, professional platform from Apple with minimum configuration costing $5k US$ for . . . gaming? I get it that the iMac Pro is a professional system for graphic pros. And if you have the coin to bring this home and game that’s fine. It’s your money. But seriously? After a hard day working on a SuperBowl ad you are going to let off steam with a few hours of gaming on the company deluxe platform? In my company you’d get fired. And if you are a sole contractor you will have to ask yourself why you are risking crucial components on recreation. 

    Meanwhile, we enter the fourth year without any tangible sign from Apple of a Mac Mini upgrade. Simply bizarre. 
    What does the Mac mini have to do with this iMac Pro gaming article? Why do people feel the need to try and bitch about the Mac mini in an article that has nothing to with it? You'll get your god damn Mac mini when its ready to be released and I'm sure you won't like it anyways. 

    Kvetchers gotta kvetch. You'll find in any article, there's going to be a certain number of comments trying to turn the conversation around to their particular complaint about Apple. Like the people who post on iPhone articles about how they're still waiting for a new Mac Pro, or the people complaining about the iPhone on an article about the Mac Pro.

    To the original post: Two points:

    1. People spend upwards of US$5K on gaming rigs all the time. These people clearly have more money than sense, but just getting the GPUs pushes the cost up substantially. Add to that a high performance monitor and fast disks, you get to US$5K pretty quickly.

    b. One of the complaints about Apple's "Pro" lineup at present is that the GPUs they've chosen aren't high enough performance. One way to prove they have the required performance is to see how they do in high-end gaming, where the ability to animate complex models in real-time is important.

    Oh, and a final point:

    iii. A large number of professionals in the market for this aren't salary workers for a wealthy mega-corporation. A lot of them will be self-employed contractors who need their own gear to do their work. Some of them might want to kick back and play some games after they've just completed a massive contract for someone. It's not really our place to judge them.

    watto_cobramuthuk_vanalingamStrangeDaysdysamoria
  • Reply 18 of 33
    jmulchinojmulchino Posts: 57member
    Hmmm. Disappointed that most of those responding to my post either didn’t read my original post or resorted to personal snarky attacks. Has AI Comments gone the way of YouTube comments? BTW folks, you aren’t employed by Apple so why condescendly tell me what Apple is or isn’t going to do with the Mac Mini? The reason, again, that I posted was that I found it odd that AI would go to great lengths to feature an article on gaming but has consistently given Apple a free pass on the Mac Mini. I am a long time loyal customer of Apple. I know of no serious gamer who would use a Mac for gaming. So, it would have been more interesting to see an article speculating on where Apple is going with the gaming. I suspect no where. The average, I repeat average, 16 year old will not drop 10K on an iMac Pro. 
    I would love to respond to any points but I will not react to the juvenile “haters gunna hate” line of thinking. 
    xzumuthuk_vanalingamwilliamlondondysamoria
  • Reply 19 of 33
    GG1GG1 Posts: 483member
    macxpress said:
    jmulchino said:
    I’m confused by all this especially AppleInsider’s heavy coverage (promotion?) of a high end, professional platform from Apple with minimum configuration costing $5k US$ for . . . gaming? I get it that the iMac Pro is a professional system for graphic pros. And if you have the coin to bring this home and game that’s fine. It’s your money. But seriously? After a hard day working on a SuperBowl ad you are going to let off steam with a few hours of gaming on the company deluxe platform? In my company you’d get fired. And if you are a sole contractor you will have to ask yourself why you are risking crucial components on recreation. 

    Meanwhile, we enter the fourth year without any tangible sign from Apple of a Mac Mini upgrade. Simply bizarre. 
    What does the Mac mini have to do with this iMac Pro gaming article? Why do people feel the need to try and bitch about the Mac mini in an article that has nothing to with it? You'll get your god damn Mac mini when its ready to be released and I'm sure you won't like it anyways. 
    Regarding the Mini: looks like Intel will announce a multi-chip part with Core + Radeon Vega M + HBM2 in one package tomorrow (Monday) at CES. This part has Mini written all over it. Hopefully it has TB3.

    https://www.anandtech.com/show/12220/how-to-make-8th-gen-more-complex-intel-core-with-radeon-rx-vega-m-graphics-launched
    watto_cobrajmulchino
  • Reply 20 of 33
    jmulchinojmulchino Posts: 57member
    Interesting GG1. I was almost thinking that it was time to build a Hackintosh on the side. But I digress. 
    xzu
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