iMac 2012 i7 VS iMac 2015 i5

[Eazy Kamikaze]

Hi! Please HELP!

Here's my little story...

I had an:
iMac Late 2012
Display of 2560x1440
3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Fusion Drive 3TB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX with 2GB of GDDR5
4 x 8GB of RAM for a total of 32 GB, 1600 MHz
Model: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i7-3.4-27-inch-aluminum-late-2012-specs.html

I wanted to upgrade my system because, although editing video with Premiere Elements with proxies (smaller videos) was going well, when I tried with the 4K footage, it was very hard... which was normal. I was very satisfied with the performance of this 2012, even producing music, but I thought I'd upgrade it anyway with an Extreme SSD 2 TB from OWC to put inside instead of the 3 TB Fusion. But I ended up breaking the display! Yeah. That's me.

So I finally bought a used:
iMac Late 2015 (Retina 5K)
Display of 5120x2880
Quad Core 3.2 GHz Intel "Core i5" processor (6500)/Skylake
256 GB "Blade" SSD (there was no SATA drive in it)
AMD Radeon R9 M390 graphics processor with 2 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory
4 x 8 GB of RAM for a total of 32 GB, 1867 MHz.

Model: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...-inch-aluminum-retina-5k-late-2015-specs.html

(From the benchmarks that I saw, although it's a 3.2 i5 in the 2015 one, it's supposed to be faster than the 3.4 i7 from the 2012 one.)

So I made the technician put my 2 TB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD that I just bought in it instead...

I was supposed to have a better/faster machine... (on paper... and it also cost me like 1000$

- Better CPU: i5 2015 instead of i7 2012
- Better drive: SSD 2 TB Extreme instead of 3 TB Fusion
- Better display: Retina 5K instead of 2560x1440

The PROBLEM IS... it's WAY not better. Not for video that's for sure... What I had no problem doing in Premiere Elements, editing with small videos (640X360), I'm not even able to do it on my new iMac... when I press the space bar to play or stop the video playback, it takes like 5 seconds to react... if it reacts at all... sometimes I play the video and I just can't stop it... I have to force-quit Premiere... and this is with all the low-quality settings. Even with the 4k footage, my 2012 iMac wasn't that bad! On my new one, when I open Activity Monitor, the CPU in Premiere tops at 130%. (all the screen captures that could be relevant are below...).

So what's happening...

• Is it the CPU (i5 vs i7)? Yet the benchmarks are showing that the newest i5 is better/faster
• Is it the NVIDIA vs the Radeon?! (which seemed to be around the same level in my searches...)
• Is it the difference in the display resolution? 5120x2880 (2015) VS 2560x1440 (2012)?

The last information that could be relevant is... when the tech installed my SSD in it...

• He didn't use the AdaptaDrive and plugged the SATA cable directly from the motherboard to my new SSD, saying that the AdaptaDrive was useless and simply added another connection.
• The 256 GB SSD "blade" attached to the motherboard is still there, but he formatted it as if it was another little drive to put some stuff on.

Sorry for the long story, I want to thank everyone for their answer and support!

Cheers,

EK

 

[maclogon789]

Hi,

Speculating on a possible cause - there is something incorrect in the setup that is confusing the system due to the SATA drive being the main drive.

The blade should be faster than the SATA SSD so not sure you have the optimal setup anyway.

if you can borrow an external SSD that has a USB3 interface (Eg Samsung T5 or T7) and try using that as a boot drive it may help isolate the issue. If it is not faster than the internal drive then something else is the issue.

Good luck

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

Your SATA drive or its set up has issues.

 

[Eazy Kamikaze]

Hi,

Speculating on a possible cause - there is something incorrect in the setup that is confusing the system due to the SATA drive being the main drive.

The blade should be faster than the SATA SSD so not sure you have the optimal setup anyway.

if you can borrow an external SSD that has a USB3 interface (Eg Samsung T5 or T7) and try using that as a boot drive it may help isolate the issue. If it is not faster than the internal drive then something else is the issue.

Good luck

Thanks... yeah a tech at OWC told me to try making a Fusion drive with my blade and my SATA SSD... that it could be faster... so I did this and it's a little bit better... but I finally bought an Intel i7 4.0 to put it in... I was wrong about the i5 3.2 2015 being faster than the i7 3.4 2012. My i7 3.4 2012 with 3 TB Fusion drive had no problem running Premiere with low-resolution clips... and now with the i5 3.2 2015 with 2 TB Fusion drive (2 SSDs) it's lagging and not responding... so it's really the CPU that can't follow... I'm still at 110% working in Premiere... no problem with the drives or with the RAM... I can't wait to get this i7!

I'll keep the Fusion with the blade and the SATA SSD 2 TB Extreme.

Thanks!

EK

 

[maclogon789]

I'll keep the Fusion with the blade and the SATA SSD 2 TB Extreme.

Hi,

Just to clarify, your new iMac has a 256GB NVMe SSD drive. The Fusion is Apple‘s branding of pairing the NVMe with a hard drive and managing files so that the ones uses most are kept in the SSD (“blade”)

Unless you have a lot of programs you run, it maybe faster to use the SSD as your main drive and the hard drive as your Documents or data storage drive.

Some of the Blades are as small as 24GB so they have to be managed in combination with a hard drive (I.e. Fusion), but 256GB enables a different approach. What is the size of the Blade in your 2012 iMac?

Best regards

 

[Eazy Kamikaze]

Hi,

Just to clarify, your new iMac has a 256GB NVMe SSD drive. The Fusion is Apple‘s branding of pairing the NVMe with a hard drive and managing files so that the ones uses most are kept in the SSD (“blade”)

Unless you have a lot of programs you run, it maybe faster to use the SSD as your main drive and the hard drive as your Documents or data storage drive.

Some of the Blades are as small as 24GB so they have to be managed in combination with a hard drive (I.e. Fusion), but 256GB enables a different approach. What is the size of the Blade in your 2012 iMac?

Best regards

Thanks for your answer, you're exactly right my Sir... and that's what I did... for an unknown reason, the store had a lot of iMac 2015 27'' with JUST the NVMe SSD drive. Since I'm running Logic Pro and FCP X. doing music and video, I needed more than 256 gb... but it"s perfect to put the system and the apps on it! And the blade is really fast... compare to the SSD I added (see pictures) and that SATA SSD is like the fastest for doing what I do... Mercury Extreme Pro 6G... and it's not even close to the Apple blade... I'm thinking maybe just replace that blade with a NVMe SSD drive of 2 T or something...? My Intel i7 4.0 GHz is on the way... Poor tech who's going to have to change the chip soon

Have a great one!

EK