So going to be getting a high end iMac Pro for work…I have a separate gaming PC but I am wondering how WoW will run on my new iMac Pro:
3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
64GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC memory
Radeon Pro Vega 64X with 16GB of HBM2 memory
2TB SSD storage
----- Just wondering at 5120X2880 (5k) with all settings on Ultra/maxed out and what kind of FPS I will see? Never used an Apple product for WoW so very curious.
Will run wow with no issues at all, though I don’t run at 5k, kinda never saw the pint of stressing our machines that much. I run at about 2k on my iMac, I get a solid 60
FPS in raids.
I use an iMac Pro (base configuration with 32GB Ram and 8 core Xeon). I run WoW retail at 2650x1440 and have all settings maxed at 10 except shadows, which I keep low. I actually prefer the look of those shadows and shadows are a huge drain on resources. I get 60 fps pretty much everywhere in retail, and in Classic easily 100 FPS. This system plays WoW very well.
Please be aware that performance on a PC is likely to be better due to better graphics driver support.
Apple is not known for great graphics driver support. Nor is it known for it’s gaming support. You may find that you prefer gaming on the PC.
Most Mac users don’t have a PC to compare against it side by side to notice the difference while gaming.
You’re not going to be running WoW at 5K. Cross that off your list now. You’ll be running it at half resolution.
I ran this exact configuration for quite a while with WoW. To echo an earlier poster you’re likely to get very good results as long as you lower the Shadow quality. I’m honestly not sure why the Shadow quality made such a huge difference but going from high > good made a double-digit FPS difference for me pretty consistently.
For what it’s worth.
I have a hackintosh system and have the ability to dual boot into macOS or Windows 10. When I built the system, I played WoW on Windows for a few days, maybe a week, to see if there was any difference.
I used the same graphic settings on both Windows 10 and macOS. There was no noticeable difference to me. Switching to Windows just isn’t worth giving up all the macOS things I am accustomed to.
I have had the luxury of dual booting since inception. Over the years it was evident that there were graphical issues on the Mac that didn’t exist on the PC side. All driver related.
Over the years the graphics cards have varied… my latest one has many graphics issues in WoW under OSX but not in Windows. Again, driver issues. I can’t fix the problems on the Mac side, neither can Blizzard, but I can avoid them under Windows if I so choose.
The OP was a long time PC user. They will notice the issues more readily than someone who just dabbles in it from time to time. Unless of course it’s a massively obvious glitch, like mine is, in which you learn to live with.
Mileage will vary. There are ample examples of graphics issues in these forums from a plethora of system configurations… all of which are Apple problems to fix, not Blizzard. Most will never be fixed.
This has been my experience too, both with a 5700XT in my hackintosh and now with the Vega 56 in my iMac Pro. WoW runs near identically under macOS and Windows.
I think experience varies a lot with the hardware being used though, for instance back when my hackintosh was still running High Sierra with a 980Ti I regularly had problems under macOS that didn’t exist under Windows. Not too much of a surprise though because at that point I doubt the mac Nvidia web drivers were getting much in the way of quality control.