Back story on this. My eyes are terrible and getting worse. With glasses I correct to 20/200 (legally blind). I have issues seeing the screen on my current PC. My eye doctor recommended I take a look at a Mac as their screens are apparently easier to see. So I took a look at one (few weeks ago before we all got the stay at home).
So sure enough that 5k screen was immensely easier for me to see than my 4k PC screen. Ok that pretty much sealed it. WoW and the couple other games I play are on Mac as well. So all good there.
So I’m planning to pick up the 27" i9 with the Vega 48. And here comes the advice I need. Will that be enough of a GPU to run WoW? Or should I pick up an eGPU box with a Vega VII?
Any advice would be appreciated.
I would have said wait for the refreshed macs that have Navi based AMD refresh that’ll support things like RTX, VRS, etc that wow 9.0 also supports, but with supply constraints do to world going to crap so far this year, it’s hard to say when that’ll be now.
Vega is obsolete though and it’ll feel bad to buy a new mac now and then have graphics sliders in wow 9.0 say “sorry this feature is only supported on newest macs” and thats not a software thing that’s a hardware forever thing. Non Navi macs will never supports RTX or VRS. now RTX is a beauty feature but VRS is a performance one and bigger deal.
Waiting isn’t really an option. I have to lean way into my current screen even with new glasses. I am well aware of the VRS and RTX I have a 2080 Ti in my current rig.
My real question is the Vega48 going to be enough now to run it well. I can get an eGPU and pup in a Radon Vii and a Big Navi later once they are out and we get OSX Drivers for them. I would rather wait to get one since already doping about $4k on the iMac if i can put off another $800 ish till later I would like that. If I can’t I will sang the Razer eGPU and a Radeon VII.
You’d be better advised to check out other “PC” displays first before plunking down that much money for a major downgrade. Your 2080 Ti can drive any display Apple’s hardware can, only better. Hell, for what you’d pay for an iMac pro you might as well just keep your rig and get a good IPS display.
You failed to say anything about either your current system other than the GPU or your current display, which would give us a reasonable assessment of what to tell you (whether to go with the iMac Pro or just get a base model Mac Pro and an XDR/LG UltraFine 5k display).
I’ve got bad eyesight too, which is why I have a 46" TV as my display (which conveniently lets me have smoothing on video content for that juicy soap opera effect). We need more info from you.
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On a side note. I have a Hackintosh with Radeon VII. I’m not sure if this the same as a Vega VII. Anyway, there a few quirks with it that are driver related. Mainly, I have to play in fullscreen window mode. Ohterswise, frame rates drop and performance is very choppy.
Hello,
If you’r thinking about buying an eGPU, stick to the base GPU in the iMac and save money for the eGPU down the line.
Current iMacs with the base GPU can handle current WoW with no problem in any case.
Here’s my current specs
CPU i9-9900k
Mobo MSI MEG Z390 Godlike
RAM: 32Gb DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance Pro
GPU GeForce RTX 2080Ti Founders Edition
Monitor ASUS PG27UQ 4k IPS
I’m very familiar with a high resolution PC monitor don’t have to go look at them I have one. I have to be less than 6 inches from it to read it. In the other hand the iMac screen I can read from about 2 feet away which is a huge difference.
Again my only question is is the Vega 48 enough for wow or should I snag an eGPU and put the Radeon VII in it?
If this is in Windows, you’ll likely find the iMac’s display, which is the same size as the one you have, just as hard to read. You’re likely seeing the HiDPI effect of Retina scaling in OS X on the iMac (this is not the default in Windows as Windows is not “Retina” aware, but does have HiDPI settings, which if you looked into I bet you’d be able to read your display just fine. There is zero physical reason you would be able to read the iMac’s display better than the ASUS display other than the Retina scaling (HiDPI mode), because both displays are identically sized yet the iMac Pro’s display is 5k, which at native resolution, unscaled would be harder to read with your eyesight.
Before you go spending a ton of money, you might want to give this a read regarding HiDPI and Windows: http://www.kynosarges.org/WindowsDpi.html
I can pretty well guarantee you that if you were to use Windows on that iMac Pro you’d run into the exact same problems. OS X hides it by using Retina scaling/HiDPI modes. Basically, it’s running 1440p on the 5k display and pixel doubling it, which is why it’s “easier” to read and is so clear.