Thinking of converting to a MAC

anarchus1

I am thinking of buying a iMac 27in 5k and i have a couple of question for the MAC community

i5 3.8 or i7 4.2 processor is the £180 worth it?

What is ESO like to play on a MAC as i am thinking to convert from PC to MAC but reluctant to if i can play games like ESO on it

thanks
Miles

Lady_Scorp72

First, more important than the processor will be getting one with the AMD graphics card, as I don't believe ESO will play well on Intel graphics. I've had no trouble playing ESO on both of my older Macs (both with Nvidia cards), so a newer one should be even better. I've had them for a few years now, and don't feel I need to upgrade them, but when I do, I'll probably spring for the better processor to future proof it as long as possible. Also, since Macs can run Windows, you can play any PC game not avail. for OS X. It's like having two machines for the price of one, BUT you may need to purchase a full version of Windows if you don't have one with a license you can transfer.

I've yet to find a game I can't play with the dual boot system, and I love it. I'll never go back to PC, but Macs aren't right for everyone...I don't think any Mac can rival a totally souped up Windows gaming rig. That said, it's more than adequate for me (it surprised me how well some games play!):

iMac 21.5 2.9 i5 with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 1GB and 16GB ram
- ESO is installed on the internal hdd, plays on High-Med settings for most PVE, but needs to be set to all Med for PVP or group dungeons. Trials I had to turn down off some graphics options like rays, bloom etc. and then the fps stayed solid.

- With bootcamp I can play heavily modded Skyrim SE, Fallout, Mass Effect 2-3, etc., all on Ultra with little to no lag.

Macbook Pro Retina 2.3 i7 with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1GB and 8GB ram
- ESO is installed on an external thunderbolt drive, and plays just as well as the iMac except I can't usually get to High without serious frame rate drop. Could be because it's on an external.

- bootcamp games generally play as well as on the iMac, though some lag on Ultra or High, so I have to customize/lower some of the settings. Again, likely due in part to all my games being on the external.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have other questions.

SuomiPerkele94

Running on a base model 2017 5k iMac myself I have to say the game runs great on ultra/high.
The only thing I would recommend is an upgrade to your ram or assets tend to load in sluggishly.

henrycupcakerwb17_ESO

anarchus1 wrote: »

I am thinking of buying a iMac 27in 5k and i have a couple of question for the MAC community

i5 3.8 or i7 4.2 processor is the £180 worth it?

What is ESO like to play on a MAC as i am thinking to convert from PC to MAC but reluctant to if i can play games like ESO on it

thanks
Miles

see for yourself, I have been enjoying eso on iMac / imac 5k all these years not to mention all these great games like Fortnite / unreal tournament / heroes of the storm and countlesss great indie games on steam ! Mac aren't good for games are just a myth made up by those stupid Microsoft fan boys because they don't want people to leave their cult... srsly.. wtf would want to be a Microsoft fan boy except those whole bunch of stupid nerds? lol

I have even bought an imac pro just for gaming last week

Nightfall12

i know i play an a 3 year old iMac plays fine, i also use my mac book pro when on the road, that however runs very hot, so not as good for any long play but good to get mails, train horse and do writs though.

monsewerb14a_ESO

I'm playing on a MBP, mid-2014... well, I play when it actually launches, which is only after several reboots.

I've reset my SMC, my Wi-Fi, and reinstalled. After reinstall, my audio doesn't work properly and it still doesn't launch properly.

I regularly play on a PC without problems. Well, maybe once every six months when they put out a Launcher that doesn't correctly connect to the game servers, but that gets fixed within a day. I'm trying to play on my Mac because I'm visiting my parents for a week.

I've spent hours trying to troubleshoot this issue on my own and nothing, nothing, has fixed it. I have a twenty year career in IT and networking, and I'm no dummy when it comes to computers (OSX, Linux, BSD, Windows), but this is a frustrating experience, to say the least.

If playing regularly without issues is your goal, I suggest staying with a PC. To be honest, I use my PC more for all the creative bits I used to use my Mac for. The only advantage MacOS brings to the table, for me, is Messenger and maybe Time Machine. But, TM brings a whole new set of problems sometimes.

Vapirko

I don't think theres any advantage to switching over to a Mac for gaming. If you're switching for other reasons and are just curious about what to expect then fine.

I have a nearly brand new MacBook Pro 2017 2.8ghz i7 with 16gb ram and the Radeon Pro 560 4GB and honestly I have to play with a pretty low view distance usually medium textures and I only keep a few special effects on in PvE. In PvP I turn off all the special effects. I like keeping my frame rate up over graphics. I kind of expected a little more out of this computer, but I get macs for work, gaming is just a side thing. Definitely considering an external GPU enclosure at some point given they can "plug and play" now.

ningauble_7b14_ESO

Been running ESO on my 2.6Ghz 2016 15" MBpro now as my main computer for a little over 2 months now. I took the 1080 GTX from my desktop PC and put it in a Razer Core v2. Nvidia isn't officially supported in boot camp or MacOS for egpu usage, but it's what I had to work with, and replacing it with vega isn't cost effective for the foreseeable future.

At any rate, in bootcamp the game runs pretty well at 4k Ultra settings, the only fps issues are in large pvp fights and in the middle of major cities, where it drops to 30-40ish fps and feels stuttery. This is due to cpu bottlenecking.

In MacOS, and this may be due to the current state of Nvidia 10 series drivers, the game does not run well. I have to drop resolution from 4k to 1440p, and drop settings from ultra to medium, and I'm still getting 30-40fps max vs 30-40fps min in windows.

Vega with official MacOS egpu driver support might provide a better experience. I'm waiting to see the official EGPU support rollout this spring before I replace any hardware.

j.frank.nicholsb14_ESO

Then there is still the boxed cursor issue.