i9 vs i5 iMac for Software Development?

[nemoryoliver]

Hi everyone! I'm trying to decide which iMac to get. The 3.7GHz 6-core 9th-gen i5 or the 3.6GHz 8-core 9th-gen i9?

80% of my usage will be for software development.15% gaming and just 5% for video editing. I have the budget anyway but I'm trying to be practical as well. I want my machine to work well until 7-10 years from now. Will someone help me decide, please?

 

[Mikael H]

This is one of those "how long is a string?" questions again. The best choice for now depends entirely on what you do, and the best choice for 7-10 years from now depends a lot on factors you can't control.

There's about a 15% difference in sticker price. Is the more expensive CPU 15% better for your use case? Or will it add 15% to the computer's longevity? Only you can tell - the answer is mostly based on whether or not your workload makes good use of all cores. If you have good return policies where you live, you could even try the computers out one after the other for a couple of weeks each and compare them running typical-for-you workloads.
(But my gut feeling is that most people would be just fine with the i5 currently. How it will look in 7-10 years is anyone's guess.)

 

[mrvo]

Just got my i9 for light web dev / photo editing. Runs cool with the Vega 48 combo. i9 for longevity!

 

[kis]

i9 + Vega and SSD, base RAM and upgrade the latter yourself. Anything else is a rip-off. The i5 models are way overpriced in terms of bang for the buck

 

[jerwin]

Depends on what sort of programming you plan on doing.

If you want to do machine learning, the Vega helps. Compilation speed is a combination of SSD speed, and cores available. If you need to have virtual machines running, the i9 will help, but so will memory.

A 7-10 year lifespan is probably better served by dividing your budget in half, and buying new in 3--5 years.

 

[nemoryoliver]

Depends on what sort of programming you plan on doing.

If you want to do machine learning, the Vega helps. Compilation speed is a combination of SSD speed, and cores available. If you need to have virtual machines running, the i9 will help, but so will memory.

A 7-10 year lifespan is probably better served by dividing your budget in half, and buying new in 3--5 years.

Thanks a lot! I got the Radeon Pro 575X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory instead because I will only be using this iMac for programming mostly and a few games I thought it would be enough already. Also a good idea to divide my budget in half and upgrade maybe next 5 years.
[doublepost=1562306887][/doublepost]

Just got my i9 for light web dev / photo editing. Runs cool with the Vega 48 combo. i9 for longevity!

great for you. I got the Radeon Pro 575X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory instead because I will only be using this iMac for programming mostly and a few games I thought it would be enough already.
[doublepost=1562307099][/doublepost]By the way. I've already decided and got the i9! But I made a mistake choosing the Fusion Drive thinking I could upgrade to SSD myself but it cannot get as much speed as Apple's Blade SSD.