Compare the Specs - late 2012 to early 2019

[deltrotter71]

Hi all

How much faster will my new Mac be that my old one - late 2012 died on Friday so ordered the new one on Saturday. As I am getting older I am spending less and less time keeping on top of processor speeds and the like.

My old late 2012

PROCESSOR 3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
MEMORY 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM-2X4GB
HARD DRIVE 3TB Fusion Drive
GRAPHICS NVIDIAGeFrc GTX 680MX 2G GDDR5

My new early 2019 (should get it April 8-10th)

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display

Hardware:

• 3.1GHz 6-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.3GHz
• 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• Radeon Pro 575X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory

Many thanks

Del

 

[macduke]

Hi all

How much faster will my new Mac be that my old one - late 2012 died on Friday so ordered the new one on Saturday. As I am getting older I am spending less and less time keeping on top of processor speeds and the like.

My old late 2012

PROCESSOR 3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
MEMORY 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM-2X4GB
HARD DRIVE 3TB Fusion Drive
GRAPHICS NVIDIAGeFrc GTX 680MX 2G GDDR5

My new early 2019 (should get it April 8-10th)

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display

Hardware:

• 3.1GHz 6-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.3GHz
• 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• Radeon Pro 575X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory

Many thanks

Del

Your 2012 Geekbench score is 3906 single core and 12859 multi-core. Your 2019 Geekbench score is 5454 single core and 21632 multi-core.

Your GPU is fairly new, but I believe the X is just an upclocked version of the 575. GPUs can be more tricky depending on task, but it looks to be 2-4X faster depending on task.

The Fusion Drive can be difficult to benchmark because it depends on how much you're moving around large amounts of data since it acts as more of a cache. But I think the SSD portion back then was only around 500MB/s, and that lowered when it needed to access more things off the spinning portion. The SSD in your new machine should be over 2,500MB/s. I think my 2TB one gets around 2,800MB/s, but there can sometimes be some variances in speed among different capacities.

I would definitely stick some more RAM into it since the back slot is still user accessible. It's really easy and takes only a couple minutes and helps speed up the overall responsiveness of the system. I ordered my 2019 iMac with 8GB and stuck two 16GB sticks into the remaining two slots, as the other two are filled with 2x4GB. This is the kind you want to order to get full speed. Leave the existing sticks in slots 0 and 2, and insert yours into slots 1 and 3. It starts at $50 for 8GB (2x4GB), $100 for 16GB (2x8GB), and $190 for 32GB (2x16GB): https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-16GBx2-PC4-21300-SODIMM-260-Pin/dp/B071KNKBQ1/. So your total will be whatever you order + 8GB. Mine is at 40GB, but I'm a moderate to high end user. 16GB is plenty for most normal users.

And yes, long gone are the days of 2X performance increases every two years. Moore's law wasn't a law after all—unless maybe you count Apple's chip development—which has mostly been playing catchup to desktops.

 

[deltrotter71]

Thanks Macduke - that is an extremely informative reply and is really appreciated.

I have ordered 64gb of RAM for it.

To be honest, if the fusion drive had not died on me I could have seen myself use that iMac for a long, long time to come.

(I didn't get the drive replaced a couple of years ago when Apple recalled them as it was a real pain for me to get it to a store! Sigh!!).

And also, I know I didn't need to buy a new iMac and could have used an external or tried to replace the drive myself - but what the heck. What a great excuse to get a new Mac though!

The other thing that has changed over the last 5 years is that I only ever really use the computer now for web browsing and some spreadsheet and document work - and I tend to that in iCloud or Google docs, so size of hard drive is not a huge issue to me.

Thanks again.

Cheers

Del

 

[Fishrrman]

OP...
Just to let you know...

If it's ONLY the fusion drive that is "dead" in the 2012, it may be possible to "revive it" and either use it as a spare, or perhaps donate it to someone who needs it.

Because the fusion drive is actually TWO drives (SSD portion and HDD portion), if one of the drives fails, the "fusion drive" appears to be lost -- i.e., apparently "dead").
BUT... if only one drive has failed, the other may still be fine.
You just have to "de-fuse" them to ascertain this.

Example:
IF the HDD portion of the fusion drive has failed, the SSD portion (which I believe is 128gb in that model) could be "split off". One could then revive (erase) the SSD, put a copy of the OS on it, and boot and run the iMac that way. Of course, you'll only have 128gb to work with, but you can easily plug in USB3 external storage to "make up" for the loss of the larger HDD.

This would give the iMac a few more years of life, as a "second Mac" somewhere in the house, or for a friend, relative, etc.

Another way to revive it is to plug in an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, and boot and run it that way.
This is CHILD'S PLAY -- I've been doing it for years and years and even more years.

Congratulations on the new 2019 iMac, but don't toss the old one out yet...

 

[deltrotter71]

Hi fishrrman

Thank you. I am going to give it to my brother and he is going to put an SSD in and then give it to someone in the family so they can make use of it. He is fairly technical minded so I think he will be able to do it.

I am sure there will be a video on YouTube to help as well.

Cheers

Del

 

[Juicy Box]

I have the same Late 2012 iMac, except I have 32GB RAM and only the 1TB Fusion Drive and it is a beast. Still very fast for everything I do.

I have considered getting the 2019 one, mostly because I am worried that it might be the last one with Intel chips. I think I am going to wait and see what the Mac Pro will be like.

I am hoping the new Mac Pro will be like my cheese grater one, but I doubt it will.