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Decision time i7 vs i9 for new 2020 iMac?
- Thread starter BasilFawlty
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Check out this post. If "10Gbase-T" is available in the dropdown menu, you have 10Gb Ethernet:
verifying you have the 10GB Ethernet interface
1) Go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Network 2) Click on Ethernet > Advanced... > select the 'Hardware' tab 3) Configure: Manually > click on 'Speed' drop down menu 1 Gbps = 1000baseT 2.5 Gbps = 2500base-T 5 Gbps = 5000base-T 10 Gbps = 10Gbase-T
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Thanks very much for that.....I do have 10Gb EthernetCheck out this post. If "10Gbase-T" is available in the dropdown menu, you have 10Gb Ethernet:
verifying you have the 10GB Ethernet interface
1) Go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Network 2) Click on Ethernet > Advanced... > select the 'Hardware' tab 3) Configure: Manually > click on 'Speed' drop down menu 1 Gbps = 1000baseT 2.5 Gbps = 2500base-T 5 Gbps = 5000base-T 10 Gbps = 10Gbase-T
Can we tell, that the i9 is better for Virtualizations? I imagine that the added 2 cores can power one more VM more "easily". Even in over-commited enviornments.
I have the i7 + 5700XT and just finished my first 4K project in Final Cut. It wasn’t a complicated edit, but it was demanding enough to surprise me that I never saw ambient temps go above 43 C, and the fans never spun up above idle speeds even during the final render.
It’s the same story with Adobe Bridge. My 2019 & 2017 iMac fans (and all my previous MacBook Pros) would always spin up when loading tons of new image previews. The 2020 iMac stays silent.
Whether 8 core or 10 core, you really can’t go wrong with these models. But if you have to choose between adding 2 more cores to the CPU, or double the video memory to the GPU, the 5700XT is definitely the bigger upgrade.
It’s the same story with Adobe Bridge. My 2019 & 2017 iMac fans (and all my previous MacBook Pros) would always spin up when loading tons of new image previews. The 2020 iMac stays silent.
Whether 8 core or 10 core, you really can’t go wrong with these models. But if you have to choose between adding 2 more cores to the CPU, or double the video memory to the GPU, the 5700XT is definitely the bigger upgrade.
I had to make an account - enough is enough!
I have the i7 +5700XT too... my fans are on all the time, even when I'm doing very little! I'm not complaining - but I've seen many comments about how it's "silent"... it isn't! I've seen the fan arrangement, I don't see how it's possible to keep the i7 cool under load and "silent" at the same time!
My post was a 100% factual account of my experiences. I said the fans stayed at idle speeds (i.e. 1200 rpm) throughout my Final Cut edit last night and this morning. My head is usually 40 inches or more away from the display so I rarely ever hear the fans at idle. Sorry your experience has not been the same and you felt you had to make an account to call me a liar? Alrighty then.
Not calling you a liar, chill (like your i7!) - my i7 is hot 😜. I meant, enough lurking from the shadows, I want to share my experience too!
The fans are on the back on the iMac - can you hear them when you go round there? Do you have music on? I'll do a Final Cut export later and see if mine are at around 1200 rpm too. The fan noise doesn't bother me at all to be honest, I hope it's not (and I'm sure it won't be) audible during my voice recordings though.
Mine is VESA mounted too!
About fan noise, I'm coming from a mid-2014 MacBook Pro. When idle, I think my MBP was quieter than my iMac. But under the same load, the iMac is definitely quieter because things that maxed my MBP's CPU are barely using the CPU on my iMac, and thus the fans aren't needed as often. So this makes the iMac much better for live-streaming without background noise.
Sure, it might not be the most efficient or silent cooling, but I think it'll work for me for years to come without causing trouble or reducing my audio quality with background noise.
Sure, it might not be the most efficient or silent cooling, but I think it'll work for me for years to come without causing trouble or reducing my audio quality with background noise.
My new iMac (i7/5700XT) came today. I imagined upgrading from my fully spec'ed Late 2014 5K (i7 4.0Ghz/M295X 4GB) to a '20 model would be like going from Tylenol to Morphine, but so far, it feels more like going from Tylenol to Gel-coated Tylenol 😕
Sorry to hear that. Maybe some reassurance: In the first hours/for first day it may still be doing a lot of work in the background, for example processing you Photo library as it syncs down from iCloud.
I'm a few days in myself (i9/5700XT), coming from a 2015 15" MacBook Pro (2.2 Quad-Core i7, 16GB ram/1600, Intel Iris, 500GB SSD) and compared to it – so far – seems like a solid improvement over that for the more intensive things I've tried throwing at it. But also the new iMac is relatively clean of any "junk" which may be slowing things down as I did a fresh install, no backups. (That said, I reset that laptop fresh within the calendar year.) Note: I plan to sell this one.
Also seems zippier comparing to my "newer" but similarly spec'd work-provided laptop: 2019 13" Touchbar MacBook Pro (2.8 Ghz Quad-Core i7. 16GB ram/2133, Intel Iris Plus, 250GB SSD).
How does the ram compare to the two? In my case I can see a few factors giving me the perceptive of speeding things up:
- 2TB SSD (Much bigger SSD from my old machines, and a bigger SSD = faster machine.)
- I have substantially more RAM on my iMac than the others. How does yours compare 2014 vs 2020?
- For my comparison, no more laptop heat constraints bottlenecking performance. You are coming from another iMac with similar cooling.
- A non-Intel laptop quality GPU.
Yeah, maybe a lot of indexing was going on the in the background. First day chore of transferring files, installing stuff, clicking around doesn't feel and different. Then later that night I had a chance to fire up the main application I work with, Lightroom, and saw about a 0.02 second better responsiveness (the same improvement you get when you clean install everything over again). But then again, that application is notorious for balking at any computer horsepower you throw at it. I should note that I'm working on a project that involves culling a quarter million photos and maybe it's just not designed to handle a catalog that big.
To answer your q's..
1) 1TB Fusion vs 1TB SSD
2) 32GB vs 64GB
4) AMD M295x 4GB vs AMD 5700XT 16GB
Dude, going from a MBP to an iMac is night and day. You get desktop-class CPU, semi-desktop-class GPU, better thermals, etc
The answer is Yes, about 10% because the I9 multi core performance is somewhat better than the I7. The number of cores isn’t relevant. If you e.g. configure Parallels to use 4 cores for a VM client on a 10 core host, the VM client will use max. 40% of each of the 10 physical cores (load is equally spread over the real cores). If the client uses less than 40%, the surplus will be available for MacOS. I hope this helps. Disclaimer: don’t yet know how Vmware Fusion does it.
additional note:
I think I discovered why the I7 is rated as 5.0 and not max. 5.1 GHz. The 1st core runs max 5.0 , the second core 5.1 .
Intel has a tool to read and modify many of the CPU settings. That’s how I found out.
Unfortunately most settings cannot be changed for the iMac (blocked).
So I guess it’s marketing (I7 max 5.0 and I9 max 5.1).
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