iMac - new 24" 2.93 vs. older 24" 3.06

[SonOfA]

Looking into purchasing my first iMac. Wondering which is better (has the faster processor, better graphics, etc.) for video editing. Anyone have info or know of a good site with comparisons of these two?

 

[RemarkabLee]

Looking into purchasing my first iMac. Wondering which is better (has the faster processor, better graphics, etc.) for video editing. Anyone have info or know of a good site with comparisons of these two?

barefeats.com will have benchmarks up soon

 

[Hellhammer]

The difference is minimal. Biggest are faster RAM and better GPUs. If you go for 2.93GHz take nVidia GT130 or ATI 4850.

 

[Floris1994]

I am guessing around the same but check out the benchmarks.

 

[iyacyas]

I tested both...

I went to the Apple store last night to purchase my new 24" 2.93GHz iMac with 4G of 1066Mhz DDR3 ram and 640GB SATA. When I got their they had both the new model listed above and the old model (2.8Ghz CPU, 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 ram and 320Gb SATA). So I thought I'll test them myself before I make the purchase. Ok so here we go, now my testing may not seen all that indepth or even accurate but it does raise some serious questions for me that maybe someone else can answer. I rebooted both models, waited about 3 minutes after reboot just to make sure that all software was stable (probly not necessary). I then opened iMovie 09 on both machines (I assumed both had all apple updates, I forgot to check) and selected their preinstalled sample movies which are identical on both models. Then I went to share and exported both to the documents folder in the exact same format, I think quicktime. I then had my beautiful assistant/president (AKA my wife) start one at the same time I started the other. The results with about 3 minutes of their video, on the old iMac took about 5 minutes to complete... And the new iMac model took just at 3 minutes longer to complete the exact same process under the same conditions and starting at the same time. I also opened iPhoto and selected a randem album that they had, again same album on both machines. I opened the edit mode in full screen. Then I simply held the right arrow key down to scroll thru the pictures, you would not believe how much faster the old model seemed blaze thru the pics compared to the new model. Again this may not be a true bench mark but I urge you to go test for yourself. The verdict for me, Well I walked out with a brand new 2.8GHz previous model for $1400. Sure hard to beat that as it was $1800 on Monday. I set it up last night and WOW I should have got this a year ago. If anyone has insight as to why the new model may have seemed so slow please tell me now so I can take this back and exchange...

 

[godspeed]

I believe this is a case (which has been seen in the past) of apple not having matured drivers for Nvidia cards. ATI cards seem to have more matured drivers and perform better with Apple applications. Pretty poor IMO if this is the case.

 

[trip1ex]

Macworld tested the models and did not find the 2.93ghz model slower than the old 2.8ghz model.

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

Either will be fine. I got such a fabulous deal on mine that I simply can't believe it. The current 3.06 is about £1,600. I got the old one for £1,100.

A great machine. Loving it.