brain_stew said:
Dell sell a 2560x1440 monitor with the same IPS panel used in the iMac. Costs a grand though:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&sku=224-8284&redirect=1
Using non-native resolutions isn't quite such a big deal these days so long as you enable your GPU's (very decent) built in hardware scaling or use a HDTV with a decent scaler. Even 720p looks fantastic on my set because of the excelelnt scaler included. Obviously you want to stay far, far away from the monitor's internal processing and only ever want to feed that thing 2560x1440 content but so long as you enable GPU scaling 1080p should look pretty damn fantastic. Not as good as 1080p on a native display sure but not a million miles away either. I doubt you'd be disappointed.
The GPU in the iMac is terrible compared to desktop cards and won't play anything more taxing than Half Life 2 at native resolution. Don't buy one for gaming. If you're a resolution whore that Dell monitor is pretty damn appealing and SLI GTX 470s can be had for quite cheap (less than $600 with a Steam copy of Mafia 2 to keep and one to sell) and should do a very decent job of feeding it.
I certainly wouldn't step up to that resolution if you're using anything less than a GTX 470. Note that I'm not recommending a standard 5870 or 5970 here because a 1GB framebuffer really isn't enough for this resolution. You're going to want more than 1GB of VRAM if you want this setup to last, so SLI GTX 460s are out as well.
I'd say 1080 is starting to become the "standard" PC gaming resolution (and resolution for everything infact), yes. Its by far the fastest growing resolution in Steam's stats and since so many PC gamers are now hooking up their PCs to their HDTV (why aren't you!?) its an obvious choice. Most single card setups run modern PC games fantastically at that resolution and it provides great image quality without an disproportionate decrease in performance. Its right at the peak of price/performance/quality after which you start seeing diminishing returns.
Ok, brain, nice info. I didn't know about the hardware scaling.
I really have to think this through. The display you posted is really, really nice. I wonder why on earth it does now show up everywhere on newegg and other places! I could see myself trying to get 2 of those Dell 27''s down the road if I went with a custom rig PC.
The Imac still really speaks to me though. I saw people running MW2 and L4D2 on youtube with everything cranked to the highest at 2560x1440, but still, 2,800 dollars is a lot and I want to use it for a long time, so it really might be outdated relatively soon.
The all-in-one solution is just so appealing, instead of giant ass desktop in my face. I need to use it for video editing and processing, and I spent over a grand on the complete Adobe Package CS5 for Mac only, so I am a bit sad that I cant use it, but my I know people who might wanna buy it, so it's not the end of the world.
The way I understand it, the card in the Imac(5750m) is a down clocked version of the 5770, which I have heard - Is the fastest 128-Bus card from ATI. The way I understand it, it's this 128 Bus that limits the card. It has the power, but not the bus to really shine through and that will be a problem.
FFXIV, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, Guild Wars 2. I guess I can write those games off being able to run off well, at 2560x1440?
When I purchased my Imac in 08 with a 8800 GS, it was Crysis on low/medium, but it was still okay in CPU using games. Total War ran pretty good I thought.
The thing is that gaming is like 50% of it for me - The other 50% is important work stuff. I'm a big Windows 7 fan as well, so it's not that.
Shit, I'm still a bit lost, but thanks Brain. I have some more to think about now.
The lack of graphics gaming benchmark on the new Imac is probably a bad omen, hehe!
I have vsync and triple buffering on via D3DOverrider and it works like a charm. Mind you I've never played a game with vsync before, I've been a console gamer for like well since the xbox 1 came. 
