Do I need a Quad Core or the 4850?

[Meever]

I know 300 dollars for a bump from C2D/4670 to a i5/4850 is easily one of the best upgrades Apple has offered in a long, long time.... but would I really need it?

I was primarily going to be using the iMac for everyday stuff (word/browsing/etc) and for games occasionally by others. I don't need everything running on ultra with AA on or anything, just visually comparable to PS3/X360. I will be doing a lot of Photoshop/illustrator things as well and might get into video editing.

I was thinking maybe I could hold out on going quad core for a couple years until Macbook Pro lines get it at a reasonable price then I can just use the iMac as a gorgeous led and media hub in the background as I do my work on the Macbook Pro.

I've seen the benchmarks, but how does it work out in real world situations?

What would having Quad cores do for me except help me handle files/render a few seconds faster here and there? I'm sure it's a tremendous boost in things like encoding but how would it help when it comes to image editing?

Is the 4850 a huge bump in specs compared to the 4670? Is the performance gap similar to going from 9400 to the 9600?

Any inputs would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[DoFoT9]

id say go for the C2D by the sounds of it. but for $300, the upgrade will quite easily last you an extra year or two as a computer! which is amazing value.

my vote is for the i5.

as for rendering: if the programs are multicore, then you can expect processing times to nearly halve!

for 27" there is only a 4850 option.

 

[itommyboy]

If I may be so bold to say that you may not need it, but you know you want it! Pull the trigger on the i5 / 4850 dude!

 

[Carressa]

If I may be so bold to say that you may not need it, but you know you want it! Pull the trigger on the i5 / 4850 dude!

Exactly!

 

[lasuther]

So you are going to do games, photoshop, and video editing and you want to know if the $300 for quad core and a better graphics card is worth it? Do it and get 8Gigs of RAM.

 

[Kuski]

If I may be so bold to say that you may not need it, but you know you want it! Pull the trigger on the i5 / 4850 dude!

+2

 

[i7QuadCoreMania]

do you need it NO, do you want it, probably.

will you make use of the power? or are you buying for bragging rights? it it's for the latter, then dont waste your money.

$300 into the next machine makes good money sense, but if you are going to make use of the extra power then by all means.