iMac: i5 vs i7, and ATI vs Nvidia

[Benjamin J 751]

Sometime in the future, I will buy a new computer. Now, first of all: my options are very limited, since I'm getting myself an iMac. Whether that's better or not than a Windows PC is not relevant, so I ask you to please not start some sort of Mac vs Windows war, okay? Anyway, my choice is between the Intel i5 and i7 processor. I used to have (or still have, actually) a Intel Core2 Duo. While I know the i7 will give the best performance, how good will the performance be with an i5 processor? How big is the difference, and is it worth it to spend the extra cash to get an i7 processor?The next point is this; iMacs traditionally come with an ATI card. From what I know and heard, ATI and FS don't play well together, although my previous iMac had a Radion 1600X and there was no problem whatsoever. In the new iMac I can choose between: ATI Radeon HD 4670 or ATI Radeon HD 4850. How does FS (2004 and X) play with either one of these cards? Is the ATI Radeon HD 4850 really better than the 4670? And if so, how big will the performance gain be?Those that have a recent iMac with 27" screen will have these cards and processors, so to you guys: how do FS2004 and FSX generally run on your machine?By the way, I have noticed some threads about these things, but they were filled with stuff I really have no idea about, so I elected to just make a new thread. I just ask you, please do not refer to other topics: I most likely have seen/read them without too much result or new understanding.

[Benjamin J 751]

Been doing a bit mroe reading, and it seems Core i5 seems to be good enough. When running it with a ATI HD4870 it seems to be giving pretty good performance. Now, I will have a 4850 at the most, but the question is, then:Combined with the Core i5, how good would performance be with the 4670, instead of the 4850?I actually think I'll eventually just drop the extra cash and bget the i7 with the 4850, which seems the most future-proof solution. Whatever hapopens, though, I will wait until Apple comes with an update for their iMac line, hopefully giving more for less after the update.Still, even though I have been reading some more and getting a fair impression of what's what, extra advice is still pretty helpful, so please, if you have anything to share on this subject, please do so. It'd be truly appreciated.

[FSP532 1]

1- tho not a mac owner i do see some advantages in the apple platform, im not a a really excited user of any side.2- MacOS always runs faster than windows using the same specs, however you will be wanting to fly MSFS so you have to bootcamp to windows, right?I'm on the same boat too except that ill only be using windows and my priority will be clock speeds which im beggining to believe an i5 661 could "easily" achieve 4.4 on air with a 150

[Benjamin J 751]

Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks for taking the time to give some advice! What exactly do you mean with "4.4 on air with a 150€ board"?And I will indeed use Bootcamp. As a matter of fact, my current laptop is a Macbook Pro. I use it for FS by using Bootcamp and it works very well. It's like having two computers on one, basically.

[Guest paul1]

Those that have a recent iMac with 27" screen will have these cards and processors, so to you guys: how do FS2004 and FSX generally run on your machine?

I am running FSX on a recently purchased iMac/27"/i7/quad-core/ATI Radeon 4850/Windows 7. It runs very well with only one issue: FSX would crash if I tried to use its menu bar after 10 minutes of flight. I think I've found a solution though, at bottom of this thread:http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums...26-f2ed6fbeae97good luck