2017 iMac 5K 575 vs 580 GFX (Urgent!)

[waring192]

Urgent as my NUS card expires tomorrow for the discount so I need to order today!

Just wondering how much of a difference there is between the two iMacs, the Mid and the High spec:

• Radeon Pro 575 with 4GB video memory
• Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB video memory

I will mainly be using it for music production, general browsing and some photo editing but I might want to run bootcamp and play games from time to time, not very often and I could always get a EGPU at a later date.

So for my uses, if there a huge difference or not really? Its £2,241.60 vs £2,348.40 as I will be upping the CPU to a i7 4.2GHz and the HD from 2TB Fusion to 512GB SSD.

Cheers.

 

[EugW]

For games, big difference with the 580, but for most other stuff you mention, not really.

I betcha about 95% of people who casually mention eGPUs for gaming in the future as a possibility will never buy an eGPU.

For music production, propower will be able to answer you better, but you should note that the i7 will be superior for music apps by a long shot, but it is also much louder. Is fan noise coming out of your iMac going to affect your music production? If not then great, then go with the i7. If it will bother you though, then you might want to think twice.

 

[waring192]

For games, big difference with the 580, but for most other stuff you mention, not really.

I betcha about 95% of people who casually mention eGPUs for gaming in the future as a possibility will never buy an eGPU.

For music production, propower will be able to answer you better, but you should note that the i7 will be superior for music apps by a long shot, but it is also much louder. Is fan noise coming out of your iMac going to affect your music production? If not then great, then go with the i7. If it will bother you though, then you might want to think twice.

Cheers for the tips. Just realised the NUS card (friends) doesn't expire till tomorrow but next year (11/08/18) so not in a massive rush.

I think I'm going to go with the iMac like as I mentioned before I can still use my 2013 Retina MacBook Pro while out and about and also saves be having to purchase a LG 5K display for the 2017 MacBook Pro. Or I might actually use my iPad Air 2 that I was given a couple of years ago and sell the MacBook and pop the money towards a second 27" display like the LG 5K or sell the iPad and MacBook and get a iPad Pro (big one) and use duet display etc. Spoilt for choice!

 

[Significant1]

There is a comparison here:
https://www.techwalls.com/amd-radeon-pro-570-575-580-comparison/

 

[imac2017mm]

I bought the mid tier model, i7 512ssd for the same reason, music production and web design work. Should be great for you

 

[waring192]

Cheers for the help everyone. Decided in the end to pay the extra £106.80 and went for the top spec with upgraded CPU to 4.1GHz and 512 SSD.

Roll on Wednesday next week!

I didn't realise that with the education discount you got a set of Beats headphones! I don't need them as already have some nice studio monitor headphones so will pop the Beats Solo3 on eBay and put the cash towards 32GB of RAM.

 

[propower]

For me - my audio use has both a DAW and a mirrored monitor chain. This is small power for the DAW and ~40W for the GPU. On todays very small session I let the Turbo stay on (4GHz) - 4 tracks - a Drum Vi - a great Reverb - 96kHz - maybe a dozen plugins. The session was ~25% - 28%% load on my 3.8 and was hitting ~65 to 68degC on the CPU. (runs exactly the same with Turbo OFF and stays ~60degC). The i7 would be 5 to 10 degrees hotter from my experience with it. If I ran without the GPU extra load there would be a 10degC overall reduction - But not an option for me. Since I could reasonably keep my sessions in an i5 I decided it was the right one for me. If I truly needed the cores I would not hesitate to get the i7. My aversion to fan noise is large though and if I needed more power - I would keep my Hex MP. .