iMac i9 or Vega 48

[therocksome]

Hello. I am in the market to buy an IMac 2019. Aside from the normal office work, I will be doing the following


1. Photography for my business and freelance work. Shots are on a Panasonic S1R.

2. Video editing for free lance and business - less extensive. S1R 8bit 4K 24fps. Includes Motion, DVR, APP, FCPX

3. Various graphic design work.

4. Bunch of tabs open

5. Logic Pro X


I am upgrading the ram and drive to 512. My question is should I upgrade from the 9600k to the 9900k or the 580x to the 48.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Hello. I am in the market to buy an IMac 2019. Aside from the normal office work, I will be doing the following


1. Photography for my business and freelance work. Shots are on a Panasonic S1R.

2. Video editing for free lance and business - less extensive. S1R 8bit 4K 24fps. Includes Motion, DVR, APP, FCPX

3. Various graphic design work.

4. Bunch of tabs open

5. Logic Pro X


I am upgrading the ram and drive to 512. My question is should I upgrade from the 9600k to the 9900k or the 580x to the 48.

I would encourage you to check out this website for some insight as to GPU versus CPU - https://macperformanceguide.com/blo...PU-much-for-AdobeCameraRawEnhanceDetails.html - and this one - https://macperformanceguide.com/blo...-much-for-raw-conversions-AdobeCameraRaw.html - which shows how dependent certain things are on CPU versus GPU. Hopefully, you see tasks you do in these two articles.

Also, here are some benchmark tests for the Vega 48 versus the 580X at Barefeats - https://barefeats.com/imac-2019-580x-gpu-vs-vega-48.html and Core i9 versus older Macs, which may or may not be relevant to you - https://barefeats.com/imac-2019-i9-versus-pro-macs.html

I have been debating this myself, but I keep coming back to the fact that I can always put in a Core i9-9900K into the iMac later down the line since the CPU is socketed, but I cannot upgrade the GPU from the 580X to the Vega 48 as it is soldered. That said, depending on your workload, Logic benefits from more cores on the CPU, photography is workflow dependent and video editing is more GPU dependent for editing, but compression is CPU bound. See here - https://larryjordan.com/articles/video-compression-speed-test-imac-vs-mac-mini/

Don't get me wrong, the 580X is certainly a fine GPU and will work well with Apple's apps. However, the Vega 48 BTO is $450 USD, which is a bit expensive and doesn't seem to be as big a benefit as the extra 2c/4t of the 9900K if your workload can benefit from that.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[kazmac]

I would encourage you to check out this website for some insight as to GPU versus CPU - https://macperformanceguide.com/blo...PU-much-for-AdobeCameraRawEnhanceDetails.html - and this one - https://macperformanceguide.com/blo...-much-for-raw-conversions-AdobeCameraRaw.html - which shows how dependent certain things are on CPU versus GPU. Hopefully, you see tasks you do in these two articles.

Also, here are some benchmark tests for the Vega 48 versus the 580X at Barefeats - https://barefeats.com/imac-2019-580x-gpu-vs-vega-48.html and Core i9 versus older Macs, which may or may not be relevant to you - https://barefeats.com/imac-2019-i9-versus-pro-macs.html

I have been debating this myself, but I keep coming back to the fact that I can always put in a Core i9-9900K into the iMac later down the line since the CPU is socketed, but I cannot upgrade the GPU from the 580X to the Vega 48 as it is soldered. That said, depending on your workload, Logic benefits from more cores on the CPU, photography is workflow dependent and video editing is more GPU dependent for editing, but compression is CPU bound. See here - https://larryjordan.com/articles/video-compression-speed-test-imac-vs-mac-mini/

Don't get me wrong, the 580X is certainly a fine GPU and will work well with Apple's apps. However, the Vega 48 BTO is $450 USD, which is a bit expensive and doesn't seem to be as big a benefit as the extra 2c/4t of the 9900K if your workload can benefit from that.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Thank you so much for posting this. You just gave me my answer (CPU).

 

[Zdigital2015]

Thank you so much for posting this. You just gave me my answer (CPU).

You’re welcome! Glad the articles had the info you needed to make your decision.

 

[mcsey2k1]

I would encourage you to check out this website for some insight as to GPU versus CPU - https://macperformanceguide.com/blo...PU-much-for-AdobeCameraRawEnhanceDetails.html - and this one - https://macperformanceguide.com/blo...-much-for-raw-conversions-AdobeCameraRaw.html - which shows how dependent certain things are on CPU versus GPU. Hopefully, you see tasks you do in these two articles.

Also, here are some benchmark tests for the Vega 48 versus the 580X at Barefeats - https://barefeats.com/imac-2019-580x-gpu-vs-vega-48.html and Core i9 versus older Macs, which may or may not be relevant to you - https://barefeats.com/imac-2019-i9-versus-pro-macs.html

I have been debating this myself, but I keep coming back to the fact that I can always put in a Core i9-9900K into the iMac later down the line since the CPU is socketed, but I cannot upgrade the GPU from the 580X to the Vega 48 as it is soldered. That said, depending on your workload, Logic benefits from more cores on the CPU, photography is workflow dependent and video editing is more GPU dependent for editing, but compression is CPU bound. See here - https://larryjordan.com/articles/video-compression-speed-test-imac-vs-mac-mini/

Don't get me wrong, the 580X is certainly a fine GPU and will work well with Apple's apps. However, the Vega 48 BTO is $450 USD, which is a bit expensive and doesn't seem to be as big a benefit as the extra 2c/4t of the 9900K if your workload can benefit from that.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Thanks Zdigital2015 -

Your response helped me as well. I just brought an open box i9/64gb/575x/1TB fusion for $2699 (I will use an Samsung X5 TB drive for external boot. My workflow is similar to "therocksome" except just 90% still photography 5-10% video edit- I was concerned with the 575X, though the 580X is better as well as the Vega, but the latter two will be an over kill for my needs. I can always add an eGPU down the road if needed.

Thanks for your help!