IMac graphics card

Is it possible to upgrade the graphics card in any mac? I've had a couple of apple people tell me this isn't possible. But come on!!! How can they possibly not allow you to upgrade a graphics card?
Does anyone know if this is possible if it is taken apart and a new one is put in? Yes I know it would void the warranty if it was still under warranty, I'm just curious. Because when it's not under warranty anymore, I very well may try to upgrade the graphics card. I have a Nividia 256MB graphics cards.
I've had some family tell me I would NEVER need a 512MB graphics card, but then some friends of mine that are gamers tell me they had like a 700MB graphics card and are about to upgrade to a 1GB graphics card.
any ideas on this? WoW looks pretty good on my 256MB graphics card, I just don't know if I'd ever run into any problems.
Message was edited by: Brad87

Brad87 wrote:
ok awesome, thanks for all the info. anyone know why this other guy said I could? haha...oh well not important.
so the mac pro is upgradeable?!? sweet! I've always liked the idea of having no tower and having everything built in. Then again, if the mac pro is as upgradeable as a PC, that would be awesome...would anyone consider it just as upgradeable as a PC? ex. HD, graphics card, processor, etc.
If you wanted a higher-performing graphics, why didn't you buy the iMac with the upgraded graphics option? Have you tried any specific games that don't perform well on the iMac? Or are you just listening to your PC friends that claim you need a 1GB graphics card just so you can sound cool? Most are overkill and not needed. If you are happy with how the game performs, then you don't need a new graphics card.
The Mac Pro is a standard tower computer. One that is quite large and quite heavy. Yes, you can replace or add graphics cards because they have expansion slots. You can replace the HD in both the iMac and Mac Pro. The Mac Pro has room for additional hard drives, the iMac does not. The CPU is socketed in the Mac Pro, but there aren't any processors available that exceed what is already installed. Some people have upgraded the CPU in their 2006 Mac Pros, only because the 2008 Mac Pro offers a newer CPU. Be ready to drop $2,500 for the Mac Pro, without a monitor.
I prefer the iMac since it is very fast with the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. I don't want a large tower taking up space and adding additional noise to the room.

Similar Messages

IMac graphics cards

I just received my iMac and I love it! With that said, I was curious if there are more advanced graphics cards to which I can upgrade. Yes, yes, I know ... Macs and gaming don't necessarily go hand-in-hand ... but does ATI have a higher-end card that will work with the iMac besides the HD2600 Pro that it comes with?
Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer.

Hello,
The imac graphics card can't be upgraded and HD2600 Pro is best available right now for iMac.
I tryed to play lots of games on my iMac and all seems ok. In World of Warcraft, if i put multisapling at 4x or more the framerate drops down but at 1x an 2x at 1680x1050 the game run at about 60 fps that i think is not so bad...
Well... is all about tunning the settings.
^^

Upgrading your iMac Graphic Card??

Hello,
I have been looking around for an answer with no hope to find one for my question!!
Why I can't update my iMac Graphic Card to something better? Why this option was not given?
A big company like Apple should have a solution to this issue, you have to....
Any thoughts!!

Please tell us the year/specifications of your iMac so we can determine whether it is worth/compatible with an upgrade.
While it is more than possible to upgrade an iMac's GPU, (people say its soldered to the mb, trust me its not as I have taken mine apart for myself).
However most iMac users will never perform an upgrade such as this for 2 reasons:
1: The mere process of scouring the web for a specially flashed Mobile MX A/B sized card suitable for installation.
2: The cost, it is expensive and will most likely be more than half the price of the original cost of the unit.
However if you really want to tinker with it, i would take a look over iFixit teardowns/guides to see if you feel comfortable enough dealing with the insides of your machine.
I personally will be saving money for a better speced computer, rather than forking out a fortune for a minor GPU upgrade, and depending on your budget/age of your machine you should probably too.
Thats just the way it is! Sorry

27" iMac graphics card, do I need the upgrade?

I'm intending to purchase my first iMac, which I hope to use for recording and editing video gameplay via a PS3, and in some cases games played on the iMac as well. Most games I'll be playing aren't going to be triple-A games, so I'm not sure if I need to invest in the more powerful graphics card (about 70% of the games will be via PS3 anyway), so is the additional cost really worth it? Same question goes for the processor, I was planning to upgrade to the 3.4 GHz i7, but is this really going to pay off over the course of my computer's lifespan?

I can't quite buy into throwing down the extra $140.
Depends on the App & the future, but how may hours a year doing video editing would it take to amortize $140?
Not the iMac model, but...
http://www.evga.com/about/pressrelease/default.asp?id=149
http://www.evga.com/articles/00730/

IMac, graphics card and Final Cut Studio

I have an iMac, Intel Core Duo 1.83G, 1 GB 667MHz RAM. I finally made the plunge and bought and tried installing FCStudio 2 but it wants a different graphics card. Can my CPU support FCP and if so, what graphics card is recommended and what sort of RAM do I really need to run this well? Or am I better off getting a different computer? Thanks for your advice

... what graphics card is recommended ...
AFAIK you cannot upgrade your graphic card in any iMac. Did you check the system requirements for FCS?
Alberto

IMac graphics card going nuts

We use Archicad as a CAD program to a high level on our 20" intel based iMac's. when in the 3D window of archicad for a period of time, our graphics cards are, to put it technically, crapping out.
we loose all visual graphics content, however all menus and alike work. We get yellow triangles all over the screen.
If this works, see the imbedded screen shots I took on my last escapade.
the only way to fix each time is to log out and log back into the computer.
/Users/karl/Desktop/Picture 1.png
/Users/karl/Desktop/Picture 5.png
/Users/karl/Desktop/Picture 2.png

The links appear to point at your local disc (Hard Drive) and consequently don't work. At least not from my point of view they don't.

IMac graphics card availability?

I have an iMac circa 2008 and am told it needs a replacement graphics card. However it appears that a low spec cheaper card is not available and I need to replace with more expensive higher spec card. The price difference is well over £100 pounds. I'm not sure I need the high spec card and I can't really afford it. Is the computer still worth the investment and why are there no cheaper low spec cards available .

You cannot replace the GPU in those models if they are soldered to the board. If the GPU is socketed you cannot use another GPU because the rest of the hardware would lack the design to support it. Plus you could only use a chip that also used the same socket configuration.

New iMac Graphic Cards

Yes I am a multimeida major in college and I am thinking of buying the new iMac I have an older G4 Powerbook that works ok but it will not run the new iMoive. So I am thinking in time the G4's will be a thing of the past. My question is, I don't play much games at all but if I did get into playing games is the iMac good for games or no? I mean i've heard the graphics card is not that great but I don't know much about graphic cards. Any help would be great.
Tony

We just bought a new aluminum 20 inch iMac. The only game my family plays is the Sims 2. Imagine our shock at discovering that our sparkly new computer won't play this game. Aspyr (the company that makes the Sims 2 for Mac) tells me that at this time they cannot support any of their games on the new iMacs because of the ATI 2400/2600. They are working with Apple to try and fix the problem, but there is no timeline as to when this might happen.
We love our new computer, but if we had known about this issue in advance we would not have purchased it.

Is iMac graphics card sufficient for Photoshop CS6

I'm considering purchasing a new 21.5-inch iMac that comes equipped with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory. Will this graphics card be sufficient to run Photoshop CS6?

Your query has an answer in more details here: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cs6-gpu-faq.html. If you see this section which says
Tested video cards for Photoshop CS6
nVidia GeForce 8000, 9000, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 series .
Hence 650M will fall under this range and is supported to run Photoshop CS6.

Imac Graphics cards with Premiere Pro cs6

Hello
I just changed over to Premiere Pro cs6 from avid and fcp 7/x. I am already sure i made the right decision. I love the interface, i really love it! and cant wait to get stuck into it properly.
I just bought a brand new, all singing all dancing 27 inch imac full spec 32gb RAM with a NIVIDA Geforce GTX 680MX 2048mb card. However pro cs6 by default is using the “Mecuary playback engine sofware only” instead of the “Mecuary playback engine Acceleration [CUDA] and i cant change it. Does it cs6 not support this card and if so will it in the future?
Any help would be greatly apericated!
Kind regards
Philip

Hi Paul
You mention last week that you had the same problem as me with your new iMac and graphics card with cs6.
I was just onto Adobe and they told me that they could not assist.
Can you tell me who you death with?
I am really keen to get this card running!
R
Philip

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

MBP vs iMac graphic card performance

I perform heavy image and video editing on my Windows XP machine....my imac G4 is used by wife for email and browsing but can't use for my purposes....would like to get a new machine....portability is not a major concern but performance is.

If you already have a good display with your WinXP box why not look at the Mac Pro? The Quad 2.8GHz MacPro is the same price as the Dual 2.8GHz iMac and for a little more you can have the superior graphics card.
mrtotes

What's the difference in current iMac graphics cards

I'm not really "up" on graphics cards, assuming that $++ = better performance what I'm wondering is how and when that difference becomes useful and noticeable.
As we're shopping for a couple of new iMacs and are only interested in the 21.5" models would it make a difference to our workflow* to go for the more expensive option (discounting the .2ghz in processor speed).
* Workflow being typical graphic design oriented tasks, indesign, photoshop, dreamweaver etc, no heavy video work or gaming.

you would not notice a difference in .2 GHz. Since you can not upgrade the graphics cards, it seems like you would benefit from a better one for the use you describe.

Imac graphics card upgrade

i want to buy a 27inch 3.1ghz imac but i want the best graphics card, do i have to order online for this or can i buy from an apple store?

Online...
Graphics
Your iMac features a next-generation graphics processor — the AMD Radeon HD 6970M. It comes with 1GB of dedicated GDDR5 video memory for superior graphics performance. For even better graphics response, configure your iMac with the AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 video memory.
Learn more (Graphics)
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1GB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5 [Add $100.00]

Updating iMac graphics card.

I've never updated my graphics card and I think its about time I did so. Does anyone know how I can go about this? I tried updating through "about this mac" but that doesnt update anything. If somone can point me in the right direction that would be great. Also if somone could tell me how I can find out what my graphics card is I need to know that.

A graphics card is a piece of hardware. Usually the drivers for that hardware are never updated, not explicitly anyway.
The card type can be found under  About this Mac > More Info > Hardware; Graphics.
MacPros have removable cards that are potentially upgradable but with iMacs they are fixed and cannot be changed.

IMac graphics card

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for