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iMac 2011 Sandy Bridge CPU vs iMac 2010 CPU Summary Charts

I think the overclock multipliers are wrong because iMacs do not use K-series CPUs and thus the multiplier is locked. You wouldn't be able to OC it anyway so that might just add confusion.
 
Hellhammer said:
I think the overclock multipliers are wrong because iMacs do not use K-series CPUs and thus the multiplier is locked. You wouldn't be able to OC it anyway so that might just add confusion.
Click to expand...

Definitely non K CPUs so I'll remove that column.
 
I am confused, so which i5 to go, the 2.7GHz or the 3.1GHz? As the 2.7GHz seems to be faster in Turbo mode. And what is TDP?
 
Very helpful :) thanks!
Pretty awesome that 2 external monitors can be used!
signature_silverapple2.jpg
 
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KennyKW said:
I am confused, so which i5 to go, the 2.7GHz or the 3.1GHz? As the 2.7GHz seems to be faster in Turbo mode.
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Unless you want/need the better GPU, just go with the 2.7GHz. Turbo makes the difference smaller and in real world the difference is probably negligible.

And what is TDP?
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Thermal Design Power. It's a number that tells you how hot and how much power the chip needs. Not something that you should worry about though.
 
Which iMac 27"

2.7 i5 Intel Core i5-2500S vs 3.1 i5 Intel Core i5-2400

The 2.7 i5 has a higher turbo speed than the 3.1!! Should I get that one?

It depends and let's forget about the better graphics card in 3.1 i5 for a moment. Despite the higher max turbo speed of the 2.7 i5, the 3.1 i5 is faster in most real world uses. The only times the 2.7 i5 is faster is in archiving (zip, winrar etc) and audio encoding - the differences are hardly noticeable (a couple of seconds). The 3.1 i5 beats the 2.7 i5 in all other uses, including rendering, video encoding and gaming.
 
need some advice...

I have a June 2010 15" MacBook Pro. 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 (dual-core). 4 GB of memory. NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M w/ 512 MB of memory.

Thinking of selling and picking up the new low-end 27" iMac. 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 (quad-core). 4 GB of memory. AMD Radeon HD 6770M w/ 512 MB of memory.

How would these two machines compare performance wise?

Things I do...

-edit HD footage in Premiere Pro and also do motion graphics with After Effects
-edit 21MP photos in Lightroom
-graphic work in Photoshop

The 27" screen would be AWESOME for all this, just wondering if I would see a noticeable performance bump?
 
iMac2011cpubenchmarks.png


can someone help me figure out how to even read this... or understand what it means... haha...
 
I think that the smaller the number the better the performance.

It's a great help. Thanks.
 
Hellhammer said:
I think the overclock multipliers are wrong because iMacs do not use K-series CPUs and thus the multiplier is locked. You wouldn't be able to OC it anyway so that might just add confusion.
Click to expand...
The K Series goes higher. There are a few extra Turbo bin multipliers that you can use to "overclock" the locked processors and the usual 4-7 MHz on the clock generator.
 
Wow, that's pretty cool. OP could you provide the same benchmarks for the 2010 iMac lineup? I do wonder how my base i3 21.5" scores against the new processors. I'm just curious, I am not gonna upgrade. Thanks in advance!
 
Gherkin said:
need some advice...

I have a June 2010 15" MacBook Pro. 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 (dual-core). 4 GB of memory. NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M w/ 512 MB of memory.

Thinking of selling and picking up the new low-end 27" iMac. 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 (quad-core). 4 GB of memory. AMD Radeon HD 6770M w/ 512 MB of memory.

How would these two machines compare performance wise?

Things I do...

-edit HD footage in Premiere Pro and also do motion graphics with After Effects
-edit 21MP photos in Lightroom
-graphic work in Photoshop

The 27" screen would be AWESOME for all this, just wondering if I would see a noticeable performance bump?
Click to expand...

Your chip scores about 2.4 points, the iMac scores 4.49 in a Cinebench 11.5 (Multi-threaded) benchmark. What does that mean? Clearly the iMac is a lot faster. Yes, you would see a noticeable performance bump.

Cinebench:

CINEBENCH is a real-world test suite that assesses your computer's performace capabilities.

MAXON CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winning animation software, CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation.

MAXON CINEBENCH runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances.

The benchmark application makes use of up to 16 CPUs or CPU cores and is available for Windows (32-bit and 64-Bit) and Macintosh (PPC and Intel-based).

The resulting values among different operating systems are 100% comparable and therefore very useful with regard to purchasing decision-making. It can also be used as a marketing tool for hardware vendors or simply to compare hardware among colleagues or friends.
Click to expand...
 
What are the handbrake scores based on? Is that seconds to encode something? If so, what?
 
Ya know what would help? Adding these into a comparison with 2010 iMacs. I'm interested in seeing how mine stacks up in the benchmarks.
 
imahawki said:
What are the handbrake scores based on? Is that seconds to encode something? If so, what?
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Seconds to transcode from mpeg2 to H.264. I am guessing a video clip ;) and they don't mention what the clip is or how long it is.
 
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