NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB 27In IMAC

Hello,

Many high end Apps can use the GPU & VRAM to spped things up as much as ten fold, like Video editing, rendering & such.

Well, Final Cut Pro from Apple, (might be Finan CutX now), & Adobe Premiere.

http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2013/05/improved-gpu-support-in-adobe-premier e-pro-cc.html

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/premierepro/cs/using/WSE04091E3-79C1-4014-B4F5-681A6 5A9AC80.html

imho mostly "future proofing" by buying at the high end. The differences between the 640, 650, 660, 675 and 680 are incremental, not quantum. The quantum difference would be betwen an embedded GPU like the Intel HD Graphics 4000 in the low end MacBookPro vs. any of the discrete GPU's.

It's also hard to tell exactly what the differences are because it also depends on how the vendor (Apple in this case) integrates the GPU into the overall system (you can't just assume that what nVidia says are the differences is exactly what the real differences are in a computer where it's used).

That said, all of the discrete GPUs in the current iMac lineup are great video processors. If you are using apps that take advantage of the GPU (Final Cut Pro X, Photoshop, Aperture, Premiere, etc) you wlll see an improvement in performance with some functions (RT effects & rendering come to mind).

And I'm thinking, the 2 GB of VRAM only available on the 680 is a pretty big possible difference when rendering Vide, what's your take?

Motion 5 to be included.

The VRAM makes a bigger difference than the differences between the GPUs, at least in this lineup. But the key is how will the user take advantage of the extra VRAM.

If you're only doing family videos once in awhile in iMovie, Final Cut or Premiere, 256 or 512 Mb VRAM is plenty, 2GB is overkill. At least in the sense of "are you getting your money's worth out of your purchase." If you're using the Mac for video editing every day, doing lots of projects on short deadlines, doing compositing, motion, etc. then you will definitely benefit from extra kick of the 2GB VRAM.

If you have Photoshop Elements and are only doing basic cropping & adjustments to occasional photos, again 256 or 512 Mb VRAM is plenty. If you're using Photoshop CS6 editing 50MB images all day long for your business, then 2GB VRAM makes sense because it will make a difference in the time you spend overall.

Thanks! 🙂

Thanks! 🙂

In Boot Camp, Windows should run full speed, as a comperble PC, so... go full bore! 🙂

Yes, running Windows will have the same exact problems/risks/neds for protection as running on a PC.

Yes. It's Windows.