CTO 20in imac vs 24in imac graphic cards

Hi All, was wondering if anyone knows what kind of difference the video card in the 20in imac vs that of the 24in. I'm looking to upgrade soon and pricing my needs/wants of a new system and what I can actually afford. Basically I'll be using the system for general work, WoW, some photo editing and some video editing (pilot presentations and portfolio reels). I had planned on getting a 20in with the upgraded video card, but I noticed recently that there are 24in refurbs at the apple store (30 day wait). When CTOing the 20in with only the upgraded video card and 2gb ram its around the same price as the 24in refurb. Besides the larger screen size, which is better the upgraded X1600 256mb vram in the 20in or the stock nVidia GeForce 7300 GT 128mb. If the 24in can still out perform the upgraded 20in then it seems like a no brainer. Thanks for any clarification anyone can give.

There is a website that did a comparison of the different core2duo macs. The graphics card on the 24 inch (especially the 7600 GT) outperformed the ati x1600 by a good margin in games. Framerates were well up of the ati cards.
Here is the link: http://www.macworld.com/2006/09/reviews/24inchimac/index.php
Glor

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On an IMac will a 4GB graphics card give a noticeable speed improvement over a 2GB card?

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In terms of Lightroom I'm pretty sure the answer would be "no".

New IMac GeForce 8800 GS Graphics card is really GeForce 8800M GTS

After calling NVIDIA I've finally discovered what this graphics card REALLY is.
This card is NOT the GeForce GS that was recently renamed to 9600 GSO. That card has 384 MB GDDR3 Memory with 550 Core Speed.
The new IMac GeForce is 8800M GTS.
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Pipelines 64 - unified
Core Speed 500 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz
Memory Bus Width 256 Bit
Memory Type GDDR3
Max.Memory 512 MB
Shared Memory No
DirectX DirectX 10, Shader 4.0
Power Consump 35 Watt
Transistors Million
Features 1250 MHz Shader clock, Pure Video technology (H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, WMV9 decoder acceleration), HDCP-capable, PowerMizer 7.0 energy management (dynamic switching between performance and energy saving), HDR (high dynamic-range lighting), designed for Windows Vista, Dual-Link DVI-D exits for resolutions from TFT up to 2560x1600, PCI-E 16x, OpenGL 2.1, Gigathread technology.
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Heres another useful link:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/43pxg/
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS
Owner's Comments:24 inch iMac, 3.06 Ghz C2D, 8800GS 512 DDR3, 2 Gig 800 Mhz Ram, 500 Gig HD
GPU: G92 M Revision: A2
Technology: 65 nm Die Size: 330 mm²
BIOS Version: 62.92.27.00.12 Device ID: 10DE - 0609
Bus Interface: PCI-E x16 @ x16 Subvendor: Apple Computer (106B)
ROPs: 16 Shaders: 64 (DX 10.0)
Pixel Fillrate: 0.0 GPixel/s Texture Fillrate: 0.0 GTexel/s
Memory Type: GDDR3 Bus Width: 256 bit
Memory Size: 512 MB Bandwidth: 0.0 GB/s
Driver: nvlddmkm 7.15.11.6763 (ForceWare 167.63) / Vista
GPU Clock: 0 MHz 0 MHz
Default Clock: 500 MHz 799 MHz 1250 MHz
Overclock: - - -

New IMac GeForce 8800 GS Graphics card questions

I am considering buying a new IMac 3.06 Intel Processor with 500 GB HD, 2GB RAM, Geforce 8800 GS Graphics Card and 24 inch display.
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Also does anyone have any information on this GeForce 8800 GS card? I've tried googling it and keep getting sporadic results of Geforce GTS and Geforce GTX cards but nothing about this GS card!
I want to run Vistas AeroGlass and the games I'm interested in playing are WOW, Oblivion, Battlefield 2142 & COD 4.
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I have the AL iMac 2.4GHz w/ 1GB RAM and the Radeon 2600 w/ 256. Running XP in BootCamp I can run COD4 @ Max and is very playable (not necessarily full throttle) w/ plenty of action on screen. Also the PREY demo works just about as good. If I go to 1600x1200 it will run flawlessly.
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Which is more important for Adobe CS6 and FCX on imac? Processor or Graphics Card?

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I don't have CS6...
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I think this will help...
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Both of them are important for a graphic designer.
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Hi,
I've read many articles on the support communities and other sites regarding the NVIDIA GeForce 7300/7600 card issues with graphical artifacts/freezing video/random lines etc. Having come to wits end dealing with this, and unfortunately not truely realizing a hardware issue until after my AppleCare expired, I've decided to buy a card and install it myself. Unfortunately, this has now turned out to be significantly more difficult than first expected.
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Hi there,
I had exactly the same issue with exactly the same card (7300) on exactly the same iMac. I took my iMac to my local Apple Store here in UK for repair. Before they started the repair, it only took a couple of days for the part to arrive at the store. They fitted it with a 7600 card & all is fine again.
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Imac keeps crashing after graphics card replacement.

lines on screen or grey, but after restart fine. Fully updated and two years old running snow leopard Any suggestions.

Hello,
Have you blown the dust out lately?
Get Temperature Monitor to see if it's heat related...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
iStat Menus...
http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/
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Take a screen shot & view that in Preview, move the Preview window around, if you see double lines it a Video card/VRAM problem, if the lines do not move moving the pic around then it's the LCD or cable.

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At the moment it sounds like you are using file sharing over ethernet - this is not the way to access everything on the iMac's disk & will result in you failing to copy data that you don't have read permission.
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I don't believe it is possible to connect up two Macs via USB to USB so please clarify what you used. You may have been doing the right thing before you switched to ethernet.
EDIT:
Nevermind about the model, 2009 iMacs didn't have Thunderbolt so you will need to use Firewire 800 to Thunderbolt.

My next iMac-- which graphics card; which display size?

Hi all,
I'd like some advice in choosing my next iMac, specifically regarding the graphics card and the display size.
Graphics Card:
I'm not a gamer nor am I doing any 3D animation. Is there any other reason to upgrade the graphics card? I DO want the best possible video playback (QT movies), but I don't know if the graphics card has any bearing on video playback quality.
Display size:
Aside from the obvious differences in resolution, do any of the three displays sizes (17,20,24) have any history of being better or more reliable?
Thanks in advance for any tips

Your needs will better dictate which model is best.
Video playback of QuickTine movies will not be affected by upgrading to the 24" with the nVidia chip.
No 3D gaming or animation means no need for a higher end graphics card. In my case, the x1600 ATi in the original Core Duo 20" is more than sufficient for everything I've thrown at it so far including full resolution "Call of Duty".
For your use, you may not need the extra VRAM but I personally would bump it up to 256MB though. Adding an external monitor will split the total VRAM between the two monitors and with Apple continually moving a lot of Mac OS X's graphical features to the GPU, the extra memory may be a blessing.
Display Size:
I believe that reliability between the three models is pretty much the same.
The advantage to the 24" is, of course, the extra screen real estate and resolution. However The price difference between the 20" and 24" could allow you to go with the 20" model and add an external LCD for a dual screen setup (if space permits).
Weigh your needs - now and the immediate future - and then look at both models in person if possible.

Graphics Card Options on iMac 20 and 24 inch

I hate thelack of consumer graphics cards options for the iMac. I was going to buy the 20" iMac and upgrade the memory to 256MB when I decided to check out the 24".
On the Canadian site, to upgrade the 20" X1600 card to 256MB is $150. On the 24", to go from the Geforce 7300 128MB to the Geforce 7600 256MB is only $90. Ram 'AND' better(slightly?) graphics card upgrade.
Can someone explain as I asked an Apple retailer and they couldn't.
I went into CompuSmart afterwards and they actually had a X1600 card but it had 512MB on it. (For $150, I'd think I'd get an upgrade to 512, not 256).
I guess us consumers don't need more powerful graphics cards.
iMac Core2Duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Let me see if I can explain this to you.
The grahics card in the iMac 20" is an ATI Radeon X1600. It comes standard with 128 MB of VRAM. You can upgrade the VRAM to 256 MB for $75 on the U.S. store. That's $150 on the Canadian store.
The standard graphics card in the 24" iMac is an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128 MB of VRAM. The upgrade option here is not just adding more VRAM, but putting a whole new card in the iMac. The 256 MB VRAM option for the iMac 24" is a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT with 256 MB VRAM. That upgrade is $125 on the U.S. store. That's $90 on the Canadian store.
The only way I can think that this is possible is because, in Canada, ATI's cards might be more expensive than NVIDIA's cards.
There is no option on any iMac to get any graphics card with 512 MB of VRAM in it.
Hope this Helps

IMac with graphical card problems

HiRegards to all.
My problem is the following one.
I had problems in my iMac, like flickering, ghosting, but the more serious thing that was remaining hung and on the screen there were appearing stripes of colors, duplicated images, in short an iMac of which they went out with the fault in the motherboard of factory . I received it one week ago and now after two attempts to execute the return of the product they say to me (after saying to me that today it would have my iMac made) that it will be ended on September 8, thing that will lengthen my order in one month.
Apple charged me the iMac one month ago, and it turns out that I am going to be two months (if there is luck) without iMac, now I do not have computer in spite of wich works what leads me to losing money since all this hanging work cannot continue forward. The most graceful thing is that since they charged it from me only they were late 3 days in making it, more three weeks in the sending. But in the service post sale now they say to me that the return has priority to the manufactures as buy. If that is more time I do not see that has priority on the buys.
In short I am very disappointed with apple after so many years adoring these perfect machines I have met plunged in the disappointment. If they me cannot solve this this week I will proceed the case before service to the consumer of my country to do the pertinent thing. I leave this message because I need to be advised before this problem, of which I do not have fault, but I am the maxium harmed.
Regards

If you have ordered an iMac with the 256Mb graphics card then there is going to be a delay. Everyone who is ordering that model is having to wait. I don't know why but can only guess that they either have a shortage of the graphic card from the supplier or they have more orders than they thought they would. I feel certain that Apple would rather be able to build them quicker also, but sometimes things happen that are beyond our control.
At least they were good enough to replace your defective unit. That is something to be thankful for. I really am sorry you have to wait. Maybe the new one will work perfectly though and you won't have any more problems.
By the way I used to live in Barcelona many many years ago. I love the city and the people there and some day I am going to go back and visit. Barcelona is a great place!

CTO 20in imac vs 24in imac graphic cards

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