UKmacnut Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I have a ATI Radeon 2600 HD in mine, and it runs most things excellently in OS X or Windows (for CAD work). The 8800 looks good I have to say. Has anyone replaced their iMac video card? I'd like to see a NVIDIA Quadro FX in mine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 If the Imac uses MXM cards, then it is completely possible too. However, you have to take into consideration cooling, since Imacs don't have the standard cooling that say a regular laptop gpu would. So it's not known weather or not it would fit right. Which from what I'm reading, they do use MXM cards. Does this mean you could use any mxm based card? No. Even though it is MXM based, it's part of the logic board, so you can't change them out. The good thing about the gpus in Imacs, they may use a mobile socket and tech, but the actual GPU on the board is a desktop gpu. But then the mobile platform cuts performance off somewhat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedfreaK Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 and where do i buy such mxm cards? didn't found any on internet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 You can't do it. The MXM used in the Imac is part of the logic board. You can't replace the video card if you can't take it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedfreaK Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 ooh, i see and if i use my soldering set? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbetts Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Don't risk it. That's all I can say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.ShadowFox Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 is it possible to change the graphics card in an iMac? Because the cards that are shipped with the imacs are really {censored} (and i think the graphics card in the new imacs won't be a high-end one). I like to play games and i want a geforce 8800 in my imac, is that possible? Geez man. You could have bought the iMac 24" and had an 8800. And to be honest, if you had bought the step up from the base 20", you would have gotten a decent ATI 2600. Which is excellent, even for today. Also, if you want to play games on a mac. You shouldn't have gotten the base 20" model. You should have boughten the Macbook, or Macbook pro. Also, please don't come on to this particular board and say the iMac {censored} cause of this or this. It's really pathetic. EDIT: No, the 2600 certainly does not suck. If you're a PC-humper and you live for games, maybe so. But in this case, it's a great card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TurdFergasun Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 for regular desktop use, and movies, the entry level mac cards are just fine, but @ 1650x1080 or 1920-1200 a 2600pro is quite useless in games indeed, that is if you care to play in the realm of clarity and optimal response time @ the native res of your monitor, whichever it is. performance cannot be called astonishing in any way if it only performs well when you're not asking much of it. it really depends tho, if you play strategy games, or first person shooters. strategy games won't need high framerates to be playable, first person shooters do. i'd estimate you'd be getting less than 1/2 the eye candy potential of a game like call of duty 4 with a 2600pro, or even an 8600gt IF you wanted to play at your monitors native res. smoothness from a decent framerate for most people is fairly important as well, basically any game that drops below 25-30 min FPS is going to be like playing a slideshow. you probably wouldn't consider watching an HD movie if it were played at 18 frames per second, don't know why anyone would consider it acceptable for gaming at similar resolutions. If your imac does indeed use an mxm2 slot then in theory you could wander on over to the to the osx86 wiki and find a mobile gpu that has some support. ebay is riddled with mxm2 cards, but beware of the 8600 series of nvidia cards, as the majority of them were built with a major design flaw in the way the substrate of the gpu die reacts to the normal heat levels produced by said gpu's. it is rumored that all 8600's up until the final revision's suffer from eventual heat related issues. i've been running one for 1 year so far with moderate use and it has held up(fingers crossed), but my friends asus laptop was not so fortunate, and was eventually rendered useless, until it was replaced under the last few weeks of warranty coverage. it was a very widespread problem and not one that could be remedied by turning up the cooling fan(s) the material used for the substrate was poorly chosen. there are many legitimate websites that will elaborate on the issue with a quick scan of google. your best bet is probably an 8700m/9600m mxm2 card if you can find one, and if you have an mxm2 slot on your imac's motherboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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