Hi. I'm considering buying either the high-end 27" iMac with the 3.4Ghz i7, or the base 27" machine with the 2.7 i5 CPU. Where I live, the price difference between the two is a little over $600. Currently, the main thing keeping me from the cheaper base i5 machine is concern about its GPU.
The most-intensive things I would be using the computer for include some heavy-duty Photoshop work (not at the level of professional photographers and digital artists, but maybe approaching that -- image sizes of 200MB+ and such). I would also probably be watching movies or TV (either streaming or via hard drive) while working on photos or other documents. I'm not much of a gamer, but there's a chance I might get back into WoW or some FPS in the near future.
Thanks to many of the discussions here, I think that the 2.7Ghz i5 would be sufficient for my needs. It may be a few seconds slower than the i7 in some everyday tasks, and perhaps upwards of 30 seconds slower in some intensive Photoshop tasks, but I can live with that -- it's still better than my current machine.
However, I know almost nothing about VRAM and graphics cards. Will the half-gig GPU in the base 27" hinder any of the above tasks on that mammoth display?
Thanks much for any help.
(BTW, I know I could compromise and get the high-end 27" with the 3.1 i5 CPU. However, that's $300 less than the i7, and if I'm going to spend upwards of $3000 for a computer, anyway, I figure I might as well spend a little more and get the best...)
The most-intensive things I would be using the computer for include some heavy-duty Photoshop work (not at the level of professional photographers and digital artists, but maybe approaching that -- image sizes of 200MB+ and such). I would also probably be watching movies or TV (either streaming or via hard drive) while working on photos or other documents. I'm not much of a gamer, but there's a chance I might get back into WoW or some FPS in the near future.
Thanks to many of the discussions here, I think that the 2.7Ghz i5 would be sufficient for my needs. It may be a few seconds slower than the i7 in some everyday tasks, and perhaps upwards of 30 seconds slower in some intensive Photoshop tasks, but I can live with that -- it's still better than my current machine.
However, I know almost nothing about VRAM and graphics cards. Will the half-gig GPU in the base 27" hinder any of the above tasks on that mammoth display?
Thanks much for any help.
(BTW, I know I could compromise and get the high-end 27" with the 3.1 i5 CPU. However, that's $300 less than the i7, and if I'm going to spend upwards of $3000 for a computer, anyway, I figure I might as well spend a little more and get the best...)
