Gaming on the iMac Pro - How bad can it be?
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Despite its "pro" marketing, the iMac Pro still has a Vega 56 inside - Can it possibly hope to drive that beautiful 5K display? And can we do better? Get iFixit's Pro Tech Toolkit now for only $59.95 USD at ifixit.com Buy the Thermaltake P90 Tempered Glass Edition case on Amazon: geni.us Learn more about the Thermaltake P90 Tempered Glass Edition case at geni.us Buy an iMac Pro on Apple.com: geni.us Buy a Titan Xp from NVIDIA: geni.us Buy a Radeon RX Vega 56 From Amazon: geni.us From Newegg: geni.us Discuss on the forum: linustechtips.com Our Affiliates, Referral Programs, and Sponsors: linustechtips.com Linus Tech Tips merchandise at designbyhumans.com Linus Tech Tips posters at crowdmade.com Our production gear: geni.us Get LTX 2018 tickets at ltxexpo.com Twitter - twitter.com Facebook - @LinusTech Instagram - @linustech Twitch - twitch.tv Intro Screen Music Credit: Title: Laszlo - Supernova Video Link: youtube.com iTunes Download Link: itunes.apple.com Artist Link: soundcloud.com Outro Screen Music Credit: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High youtube.com Sound effects provided by freesfx.co.uk
The video examines whether gaming on the iMac Pro is feasible by contrasting the stock setup with more aggressive, custom configurations. It starts by acknowledging Apple's fastest GPU in the iMac Pro, a Vega 56, which is arguably a bottleneck for a true 5K gaming experience. The host outlines a structured approach: compare a base-model iMac Pro to a high-end custom build using similar base components, and then test a budget-optimized alternative focused on gaming performance. They summarize the key questions driving the experiment: cost parity with the base model, whether the custom setup improves performance, and whether a $5,000 budget can be optimized without sacrificing iMac Pro features. The first build sticks closely to Apple’s specs, noting the absence of a Vega 56 variant that aligns perfectly for apples-to-apples comparison, and sets up the reference frame for subsequent comparisons. The second build relaxes some constraints by replacing the GPU and CPU with more gaming-oriented parts, such as an i9 7900X and a Titan Xp, at the expense of some workstation and premium features. Across both builds, the video foregrounds high-resolution display performance, RAM scalability, and the potential gains from professional driver optimizations, while hinting at throttling under sustained loads. The core takeaway emerging from these setups is that gaming on the iMac Pro is not terrible but falls short of being a compelling gaming platform, especially for sustained or demanding titles. The host then pivots to practical alternatives, including external GPUs via Thunderbolt 3 and streaming options, to deliver better gaming experiences without sacrificing the iMac Pro’s elegance, and notes that continued improvements in GPU availability could change the equation in the future.
Topics · computing · gaming · hardware · macos · gpu-accelerated
Questions answered
- Can the iMac Pro realistically run current games at high settings given its Vega 56 GPU and 5K display?
- The video suggests that while the iMac Pro can run games, the experience is not optimal, especially at 5K and under sustained load, due to throttling and GPU limitations.
- Does using an external GPU with the iMac Pro significantly improve gaming performance?
- External GPU options via Thunderbolt 3 can provide some gains, but the performance is generally worse than an internal PCIe setup, making it a trade-off between cleanup and raw fps.