iMac 2020 Reviews And Benchmarks - The Last Intel iMac

[Azrael9]

Finally 8-core 5700. You get the same result in Unigine with 5700 in Windows as 5700 XT in Mac.

It's refreshing to hear that an iMac can game. And this one can.

..and...

Well. Yes. You'll be able to game in HD or QHD in Bootcamp. Depending on the settings and game the fans may engage somewhat.

These are powerful machines. 8/10 cores. 5700/5700XTs. But the trade off will be eg. the gpu is down clocked 10% or some such.

No hardship on this particular GPU. It's a worthy gpu. A year out of date. But still worthy for an iMac. Hard to argue with the performance. A long time coming in an iMac.

Azrael.

 

[ninja2000]

It's refreshing to hear that an iMac can game. And this one can.

..and...

Well. Yes. You'll be able to game in HD or QHD in Bootcamp. Depending on the settings and game the fans may engage somewhat.

Azrael.

Yeah when I was playing war zone the fans were really audible, still nothing like a razer blade laptop for example.

plying fortnite or dota was pretty quiet.
I am going to tweak the cpu in throttlestop and see if I can improve the noise as it is the cpu and not the gpu that really ramps the fans up

 

[Azrael9]

A comment about 5700 from Max Tech's previous video:

View attachment 946501

That is a point of view. One that I had considered. It's fair comment. In the main the 5700 is transformative. As is the RDNA1 in an iMac...any tier. Especially if you're coming from 2012. As I was. 5300....5500XT...5700. All worthy. You'd notice them. 8 gigs of VRAM should 'do' for quite a few years yet. And in most HD or QHD instances...you'd be pushed to really tell the playability difference between the 5700 and XT.

But the iMac. It's hard to upgrade it after. And that 16 gig if VRAM was hard to resist.

That's half my system RAM.

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

Yeah when I was playing war zone the fans were really audible, still nothing like a razer blade laptop for example.

plying fortnite or dota was pretty quiet.
I am going to tweak the cpu in throttlestop and see if I can improve the noise as it is the cpu and not the gpu that really ramps the fans up

That was the conclusion I'd come to. That the culprit was the cpu and not the gpu. The BTO gpu seems clearly down clocked compared to the Tier 1-3 gpu options. The current iMac seems to be the limit as far as Intel cpus goes. 10 core, though. I wouldn't have had that in my mind's eye in 1997...but if you tax the cpus the fans will kick in. And it just depends on how hard you push them.

That said, I think in Unigine...the 5700XT gradually climbs from...52 to 93. And then the fans kick in...with a low key whrrrr.

Azrael.

 

[ninja2000]

That was the conclusion I'd come to. That the culprit was the cpu and not the gpu. The BTO gpu seems clearly down clocked compared to the Tier 1-3 gpu options. The current iMac seems to be the limit as far as Intel cpus goes. 10 core, though. I wouldn't have had that in my mind's eye in 1997...but if you tax the cpus the fans will kick in. And it just depends on how hard you push them.

That said, I think in Unigine...the 5700XT gradually climbs from...52 to 93. And then the fans kick in...with a low key whrrrr.

Azrael.

Actually that was the same with my 5700, but it was only feint. Same with the time spy and fire strike benchmarks, they were silent for half of the test and it slowly ramped up towards the end but still nowhere near max.

 

[Azrael9]

I agree with what he said. Max Tech' is on the money.

The gaming benches are pretty conclusive. HD. High FPS. QHD. Still impressive FPS. 4k. In some instances can surprise. 5k. You'll have to turn those settings down and see where it gets you on FPS.

That pretty much matches my own experiences so far.

Fans 'low whrrrr' (he calls it a 'whisper...').

Mac or PC. This can game. Probably a good idea to get an external gaming monitor for the higher refresh and save your iMac screen for 'creative' work.

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

Actually that was the same with my 5700, but it was only feint. Same with the time spy and fire strike benchmarks, they were silent for half of the test and it slowly ramped up towards the end but still nowhere near max.

ninja2000,

Yes. They stayed quiet for most of the test and only ramped up towards the end of the test. No where max, though.

I think Apple (despite the lazy approach to cooling...wot...no iMac Pro cooling?) did a sound job with the performance of this iMac.

It's a fitting 'end' to the Intel iMac.

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

But the thing with 1440p is that it has the same sharpness as the native 2880p so your image won't get worse like 1080p or other non-native resolutions.

This iMac throws the QHD around the bedroom just fine. You get that 'bit more' sharpness as you say than HD.

But if super high refresh is important and you have a super high refresh external monitor...for those 'twitch' gaming experiences...the HD performance is off the charts.

I'm finding it hard to believe the gpu performance of this iMac.

The last time I was this impressed by a gpu in an iMac? It was the 680MX.

Azrael.

 

[ninja2000]

ninja2000,

Yes. They stayed quiet for most of the test and only ramped up towards the end of the test. No where max, though.

I think Apple (despite the lazy approach to cooling...wot...no iMac Pro cooling?) did a sound job with the performance of this iMac.

It's a fitting 'end' to the Intel iMac.

Azrael.

Yes I completely agree with you. I have been waiting for damn ages for apple to update the iMac to at least a 5500 gpu so ordered on the first day with the 5700 (I couldn't justify the extra £200 for the 5700XT as I knew it would only be about 10% extra performance).
I have been chugging along with a top tier base 2019 model (i5 and 580x) but man was that 580 showing its age, I was just lucky enough to get it cheap enough that I can recoup my costs on it now I have the 2020 model.

 

[Azrael9]

I completely agree with this. The £200 premium for the XT over the standard 5700 just doesn’t make sense... unless you absolutely must have the extra 8gb of RAM. Some tests have the XT at a mere 8% faster than the 5700!

In the main, no. The 5700 will be mighty fine.

But with such things...you're just buying 'seconds.' Eg. The Tier 1 -3 are just 'fine.' Depends on where you are coming from iMac wise.

An extra 8-10% performance (when gpu and cpu returns have been incremental at best in the last ten years...) can mean a lot to some people.

And it's only £200 extra. For all that lovely extra VRAM. Yes. For some, you gotta want it. You can save yourself quite a bit of money not getting the ten core or the XT. Or even getting 5700 at all. And just going with the Tier 3 which I think is the sweet spot on value bar bumping up the SSD to 1TB.

I only tend to buy when the jump is significant over what I have.

I'm going 400%+ on cpu.
I'm going 1000% on gpu.

16 gig of VRAM. Puts my creative workloads beyond doubt.

(I remember doing 3D scenes back in 2000 on an Athlon with an ATI card. And I system ram and gpu ram was simply not enough to do what I wanted. I guess that memory stayed with me. Pun intended.)

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

Yes I completely agree with you. I have been waiting for damn ages for apple to update the iMac to at least a 5500 gpu so ordered on the first day with the 5700 (I couldn't justify the extra £200 for the 5700XT as I knew it would only be about 10% extra performance).
I have been chugging along with a top tier base 2019 model (i5 and 580x) but man was that 580 showing its age, I was just lucky enough to get it cheap enough that I can recoup my costs on it now I have the 2020 model.

Well done. The art of the deal.

Bang for buck should never be discounted. (Pun.)

The 2020 model iMac is a sweet deal. And if you need extra performance? That option is finally BTO.

But the bang out of the box is compelling.

Azrael.

 

[ninja2000]

In the main, no. The 5700 will be mighty fine.

But with such things...you're just buying 'seconds.' Eg. The Tier 1 -3 are just 'fine.' Depends on where you are coming from iMac wise.

An extra 8-10% performance (when gpu and cpu returns have been incremental at best in the last ten years...) can mean a lot to some people.

And it's only £200 extra. For all that lovely extra VRAM. Yes. For some, you gotta want it. You can save yourself quite a bit of money not getting the ten core or the XT. Or even getting 5700 at all. And just going with the Tier 3 which I think is the sweet spot on value bar bumping up the SSD to 1TB.

I only tend to buy when the jump is significant over what I have.

I'm going 400%+ on cpu.
I'm going 1000% on gpu.

16 gig of VRAM. Puts my creative workloads beyond doubt.

(I remember doing 3D scenes back in 2000 on an Athlon with an ATI card. And I system ram and gpu ram was simply not enough to do what I wanted. I guess that memory stayed with me. Pun intended.)

Azrael.

I do agree with you, I also wanted that extra 8gb of vram but when configuring anything in Apple world the price can just keep going up and up. I gave myself a budget of £2500 and tried to get the best I could for that. I got the 8 core cpu, 5700 and 1tb. Then upgraded the ram myself. I am pretty pleased with my config but as always I am sure there will be that nagging feeling of should I have just plumped up that extra £200 😂

 

[jobinhosyntax]

I do agree with you, I also wanted that extra 8gb of vram but when configuring anything in Apple world the price can just keep going up and up. I gave myself a budget of £2500 and tried to get the best I could for that. I got the 8 core cpu, 5700 and 1tb. Then upgraded the ram myself. I am pretty pleased with my config but as always I am sure there will be that nagging feeling of should I have just plumped up that extra £200 😂

But with AS just around the corner that feeling may not last for long

 

[ErikGrim]

Can highly recommend a 144hz gaming monitor. No hacks required, does 144hz out of the box with a usb3.1 to DP1.4 cable in both macOS and Windows. It's downright glorious. Here's Deus Ex MD in 3340x1440 at Ultra settings. Strangely dipping into low, medium, high has very little impact on the FPS. 60-80 is comfortably smooth for me, but YMMV. Also this is while running all my work apps at the same time without any noticeable impact on performance or fans.

 

[wilberforce]

This is a well-known marketing trick.
By providing a middle option that is apparently relatively poor value, you are sucked in to paying "just a little more" ($200) for the top option. If no middle option were provided, less people would opt for the top option, as it would be perceived as a bigger (single) price increment ($500) over the base option.
Which is fine, as long as you realize what is going on

An extreme example of the psychology of option pricing

 

[Yoichiro.I]

Does anyone know PCIe Lane Width of 5500XT and 5700
I found
5300 = ×8 and 5700XT =×16...

and now looking for 5500XT and 5700 specs

 

[mlykke]

Can highly recommend a 144hz gaming monitor. No hacks required, does 144hz out of the box with a usb3.1 to DP1.4 cable in both macOS and Windows. It's downright glorious. Here's Deus Ex MD in 3340x1440 at Ultra settings. Strangely dipping into low, medium, high has very little impact on the FPS. 60-80 is comfortably smooth for me, but YMMV. Also this is while running all my work apps at the same time without any noticeable impact on performance or fans.

View attachment 947254

Nice monitor But a 144hz monitor doesn't really provide any benefit unless you can run the games with a matching framerate.

 

[sco]

and now looking for 5500XT and 5700 specs

 

[Azrael9]

Can highly recommend a 144hz gaming monitor. No hacks required, does 144hz out of the box with a usb3.1 to DP1.4 cable in both macOS and Windows. It's downright glorious. Here's Deus Ex MD in 3340x1440 at Ultra settings. Strangely dipping into low, medium, high has very little impact on the FPS. 60-80 is comfortably smooth for me, but YMMV. Also this is while running all my work apps at the same time without any noticeable impact on performance or fans.

View attachment 947254

The name and make of the monitor? Just curious. Looks nice in curved/widescreen. How much?

3340x1440 is sound going. 60-80 on Ultra in Deus. Very impressive. usb3.1 to DP1.4.

This iMac really does kick az.

Is that a Marshall amp I spy?

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

But with AS just around the corner that feeling may not last for long

It's tech'. Nothing lasts 'for long.'

This last 'great' Intel iMac is just that. The current iMac 'King of the Hill.' (And for those, like me, that had a 'dead Jim' iMac? An impressive choice.)

...before a new road begins with AS. Which is going to be exciting. But it's not here yet.

Azrael.

 

[Voyageur]

Well. I can get through to the game screen. I've had to a do a hard reboot about 5-6 times.

But each time I load? The load bar hangs. Very clunky. Like most Blizzard games. Heavy on system resources. And that's with 32 gigs of Ram it hangs.

You'll have to be abit more candid about how what faction, tournament, PVP. How to actually do SCII. As I have 'no idea.' . Seems very involved.

Ie. This is this start. Press this. Do this training. Go with this faction. Click this button. Wait for this to load. etc.

No start button and just get blasting then?

At least with Streets of Rage...you can just get in there and start 'smacking'.

Azrael.

Sorry for missing.

It's a pity to hear that there are some problems with the launch.

If the game is still installed and the question is relevant, then you can start either the multiplayer mode and start the first qualifying rounds in any match settings.

Or it will be easier to start a single player campaign of the game and just watch, then in the game itself there will be tips on what and how to do. Who knows, maybe you will be drawn in and interested?

 

[Azrael9]

Sorry for missing.

It's a pity to hear that there are some problems with the launch.

If the game is still installed and the question is relevant, then you can start either the multiplayer mode and start the first qualifying rounds in any match settings.

Or it will be easier to start a single player campaign of the game and just watch, then in the game itself there will be tips on what and how to do. Who knows, maybe you will be drawn in and interested?

Hello Voyageur,

Strange. I've tried the single campaign tutorial. And even the progress bar on that hangs. (If it's loading any more patches...it gives no indication of this...I can't even alt tab to the rest of the Mac OS.)

So. Single player campaign.

Drawn in? . My heart lies elsewhere.

But I will try to bench it for you...if(!) I can get it to load.

Azrael.

 

[Voyageur]

Hello Voyageur,

Strange. I've tried the single campaign tutorial. And even the progress bar on that hangs. (If it's loading any more patches...it gives no indication of this...I can't even alt tab to the rest of the Mac OS.)

So. Single player campaign.

Drawn in? . My heart lies elsewhere.

But I will try to bench it for you...if(!) I can get it to load.

Azrael.

Hi Az! Ok and thank you again

As for the alt-tab, there may be a different layout setting within the game. Somewhere in the settings there were options for how to use the command letter

 

[Azrael9]

Hi Az! Ok and thank you again

As for the alt-tab, there may be a different layout setting within the game. Somewhere in the settings there were options for how to use the command letter

Even click on 'options' the game froze.

I don't know what the problem is. But the game keeps hanging.

Azrael.

 

[ErikGrim]

Nice monitor But a 144hz monitor doesn't really provide any benefit unless you can run the games with a matching framerate.

* anything above 60fps

Also at 34” you have basically two 1440 displays side by side with no frame between them. So you have the option to have the games you play look as nice as you want or as smooth as you want or any balance between them you choose.