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Is it crazy to buy a 2020 Intel 27" iMac? And if not, how much to pay?

FleetwoodMacintosh

FleetwoodMacintosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 7, 2021
6
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Back in 2020 a friend of mine purchased a VERY nice 27" iMac with processor and graphics card upgrades. Long story short, it's collecting dust and it seems like a shame.

I'd love a new M-processor Mac but it still seems early. So this used Intel option seems to tick several boxes for me ...

a) high performance (espeically video rendering) NOW
b) can dual boot and play PC games (my gaming PC is dying a slow miserable death ... )
c) possibly doing a friend a favor
d) at the same time getting a good deal

questions:

1) How much shorter useful life span do you think a high-end 2020 intel iMac will have vs. M1 or M2, etc.?

2) Let's say it's about a $2,500 Intel iMac (original price). What do you think I should offer?

3) What kind of features do you think it's going to miss out on down the road? (For instance, it doesn't have the new "neural engine.")

This is a little bit of a "WANT" ... but I've been WANTing a new Mac for ever (and with WWDC over and thoughts of 2021 iPP completely gone) and honestly don't mind getting a newer one a couple years down the road.
 
The only modern day equivalent we have the last time Apple did a processor architecture change was from PowerPC to Intel. If we take the last of the PowerPC Macs, which I believe was the PowerBook G4 in late 2005, it was supported with the newest OS until Snow Leopard was released in 2009.

Now that's not saying much, basically the Powerbook G4 got one more version of Mac OS X Support (Leopard in 2006) and it was completely phased out by 2009. So about 4 years.

If we take that same logic, an Intel iMac would stop getting updates around 2023-2024.

However, with Apple still supporting a iPad from 2014 with today's announcement of iOS15. I'd say there is probably a good 5-6 years of life left in that iMac. Especially since Apple is still selling Intel Macs today, and it would be a bad look for them if they pulled the rug out from under all the Intel Mac owners similar to how they did with PowerPC.

TL;DR - I'd start worrying when you see no new Intel based Macs for sale.
 
Nyy8 said:
The only modern day equivalent we have the last time Apple did a processor architecture change was from PowerPC to Intel. If we take the last of the PowerPC Macs, which I believe was the PowerBook G4 in late 2005, it was supported with the newest OS until Snow Leopard was released in 2009.

Now that's not saying much, basically the Powerbook G4 got one more version of Mac OS X Support (Leopard in 2006) and it was completely phased out by 2009. So about 4 years.

If we take that same logic, an Intel iMac would stop getting updates around 2023-2024.

However, with Apple still supporting a iPad from 2014 with today's announcement of iOS15. I'd say there is probably a good 5-6 years of life left in that iMac. Especially since Apple is still selling Intel Macs today, and it would be a bad look for them if they pulled the rug out from under all the Intel Mac owners similar to how they did with PowerPC.

TL;DR - I'd start worrying when you see no new Intel based Macs for sale.
Click to expand...
I appreciate the info ... What would you offer for a $2,500 (original price) 2020 27" iMac? (in my mind, it's lost a disproportionate amount of value this year.)
 
That’s a lot of questions. You’ll drive yourself nuts overthinking it like that. It all ends up in the junk heap, so just choose one.
 
Not knowing the exact specs of the model, I'd try to find a few for sale on Facebook Marketplace or eBay and offer say 5%-10% less for not having to deal with eBay Fees/Shipping it and dealing with possible scummy sellers.
 
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I skipped the new iMac for a lot of reasons that I’m not going to get into here, but I would still choose it over any Intel iMac.
 
FleetwoodMacintosh said:
I hear ya ... but I'm also looking to use it as a Windows machine ...
Click to expand...
I’d buy it then in a heartbeat.

I almost did buy one - and I need Docker and Parallels running x86.

I’m now holding out until next year since I just gave Mr. Cook $2,000 of my hard earned filthy lucre for a new iPad.

Im going to have to decide then what to do with my Docker and x86 Windows needs - it may end up being a cheap Intel box with Linux on it at that point.
 
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pshufd said:
Those features require the Neural engine. Or at least they programmed them that way. This puts me off buying an Intel Mac. Back to considering an M1 until M1x arrives.
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None of these features are game changers ... but the FOMO is real lol ... (This deal -- if it happens — seems like it's going to happen veerrry slowly. None of the selling parties really understands at all what's going on with the Mac landscape right now ... )
 
FleetwoodMacintosh said:
None of these features are game changers ... but the FOMO is real lol ... (This deal -- if it happens — seems like it's going to happen veerrry slowly. None of the selling parties really understands at all what's going on with the Mac landscape right now ... )
Click to expand...

I don't care about those features. It's the features in the next version and the one after that.
 
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wait for the next iMac 27/30. For now, upgrade your gaming PC with some Ryzen stuff.
Or sell the PC and use Geforce Now.
YOLO!
 
FleetwoodMacintosh said:
Back in 2020 a friend of mine purchased a VERY nice 27" iMac with processor and graphics card upgrades. Long story short, it's collecting dust and it seems like a shame.

I'd love a new M-processor Mac but it still seems early. So this used Intel option seems to tick several boxes for me ...

a) high performance (espeically video rendering) NOW
b) can dual boot and play PC games (my gaming PC is dying a slow miserable death ... )
c) possibly doing a friend a favor
d) at the same time getting a good deal

questions:

1) How much shorter useful life span do you think a high-end 2020 intel iMac will have vs. M1 or M2, etc.?

2) Let's say it's about a $2,500 Intel iMac (original price). What do you think I should offer?

3) What kind of features do you think it's going to miss out on down the road? (For instance, it doesn't have the new "neural engine.")

This is a little bit of a "WANT" ... but I've been WANTing a new Mac for ever (and with WWDC over and thoughts of 2021 iPP completely gone) and honestly don't mind getting a newer one a couple years down the road.
Click to expand...

I own an M1 Macbook and M1 iPad Pro but my favorite device in my house is my iMac 2020 and I wouldnt trade it for an M2 iMac 27 inch... because of boot camp.
 
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FleetwoodMacintosh said:
Back in 2020 a friend of mine purchased a VERY nice 27" iMac with processor and graphics card upgrades. Long story short, it's collecting dust and it seems like a shame.

I'd love a new M-processor Mac but it still seems early. So this used Intel option seems to tick several boxes for me ...

a) high performance (espeically video rendering) NOW
b) can dual boot and play PC games (my gaming PC is dying a slow miserable death ... )
c) possibly doing a friend a favor
d) at the same time getting a good deal

questions:

1) How much shorter useful life span do you think a high-end 2020 intel iMac will have vs. M1 or M2, etc.?

2) Let's say it's about a $2,500 Intel iMac (original price). What do you think I should offer?

3) What kind of features do you think it's going to miss out on down the road? (For instance, it doesn't have the new "neural engine.")

This is a little bit of a "WANT" ... but I've been WANTing a new Mac for ever (and with WWDC over and thoughts of 2021 iPP completely gone) and honestly don't mind getting a newer one a couple years down the road.
Click to expand...
Apple did seem to get a little aggressive in culling Big Sur compatible Macs from Monterey support, but, lately, it's been the case that, at least, seven year old Macs are still able to run the latest macOS releases. They may not cull any additional Macs next year (as they don't necessarily drop Macs from support every year). But, usually, when they do, it's because they either no longer have the ability to update the driver of a system component (due to lack of support from the component's manufacturer) or because Apple has made a fundamental change to the OS (e.g. adopting Metal as the graphics subsystem) that requires certain hardware support to be present in the hardware. That said, given that it was one of the last Intel Macs to release, I'd imagine that iMac will be among the last group of Intel Macs to lose support before macOS inevitably becomes Apple Silicon only a la Snow Leopard becoming Intel only.

As for when that iMac loses support? I'd guess that it will be a minimum of two more years and a maximum of four more years before Apple releases a macOS version that requires a T2 Mac. There may be another release thereafter that requires newer T2 Macs instead of older ones (maybe one final dividing line that allows 10th Generation Intel and the 2019 Mac Pro and excludes all other Intel Macs). Hard to say. But that two to four year figure is only for when T2 Macs become the dividing line. It may be many releases thereafter before Intel support is removed altogether (and it's not like a macOS version doesn't have two years of security update support thereafter). The long and short of it is that you'll have time with that iMac. Even if/when that iMac gets the final security update to its final macOS release, you'll surely have support for Windows for a longer time thereafter.

That all being said:

- If you want a Mac that can run x86-64 Windows either natively via Boot Camp or virtualized, an M1 Mac will not do it.

- Video editing and rendering, while comparably fast on an M1 running native software, will still be plenty fast on a 2020 Intel 27" iMac.

- You didn't specify which processor, graphics, SSD size or included RAM. I'd say if the iMac cost new at $2500, and it's your buddy, you could probably ask for $100 off and not be unreasonable. But that depends on the relationship with that buddy.

- As for features that you're missing out on; other than instant-wake and the ability to have mediocre experiences with iOS and iPadOS apps that you'd much rather run on the respective devices that they were originally intended to run on, I'd say that you're not missing too much when compared to M1 Macs specifically. M2 and beyond may be a different story, but that's no different than comparing any Mac to the version of that same Mac one to three refreshes down the line.
 
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Certain features of macOS Monterey are not available for intel based Macs. Going by this, intel based Macs might not get other new features announced in the future. So don't get an intel based Mac. Go for Apple silicon Mac
 
imo Apple achieved perfection with the iMac 2020. It really is the best of all worlds with Windows and macOS in an iMac that can still be ram upgraded. If you care nothing about this, then sure you will probably be happy apple silicon, but don't do it to just get the latest "gadgety and iOSy" OS like Big Sur or Monterrey.. I still use Catalina because Big Sur has not come close to earning my trust.
 
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