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Recommendations on iMac

J

JeepTech

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2020
7
5
Hey everyone, Yet another tread on someone asking for recommendations on which iMac to buy! lol In all seriousness I'm in need of getting some input on which iMac to purchase.

So what will I be using this computer for? Well I plan to do some editing in 4K video and photos. (Drone Footage) Also I'd like to play Farming Simulator 19 ( I'm a dork... I know)

I've already made up my mind on the 2020 27" higher end model
i7 Processor
2GB SSD
OWC 64GB Memory

What I'm torn on is which GPU I need for what I'm going to be doing with it. Any input on which of the three cards I'd need would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Congratulations on your first post on MacRumors :D and don’t you worry, we’re all some variation of dork, geek, nerd, etc. on here - it’s a good thing!

I think 2GB might be a bit small for an SSD; The OS can’t even fit on there :p - Joking aside, sounds good - I have a very similar configuration myself, with the 5700XT as the GPU.
I’m very, very happy with the performance of the 5700XT, but I’ve suffered under some of the graphical glitching that’s also been reported on here, though it does seem purely software so will likely be fixed, but is a tad annoying.

I’d probably recommend going with the 5700 or if you dare live with potential graphical glitching (though there was that update to Catalina that supposedly fixed it on there - doesn’t seem to have corrected it on the Big Sur beta yet) maybe even jump to the 5700 XT.
I think the 5500 could work for you use-case and that you’d be happy enough with it, but you could be hitting at the edges of what it’s capable of at times depending on how you treat your footage and what other games and whatnot you want to throw at it. - What I’m saying is, the base will work for you, but I think you’d be more happy in the long run going a step up. Of if you feel the budget can carry it, and you’re willing to tolerate potentially still existing software glitching for a bit, two steps up - But aside from the added VRAM which might give you 0 benefit at all, the jump from 5700 to 5700 XT is not as big as from the 5500 XT to the 5700 which will get you most of the raw speed
 
JeepTech said:
Hey everyone, Yet another tread on someone asking for recommendations on which iMac to buy! lol In all seriousness I'm in need of getting some input on which iMac to purchase.

So what will I be using this computer for? Well I plan to do some editing in 4K video and photos. (Drone Footage) Also I'd like to play Farming Simulator 19 ( I'm a dork... I know)

I've already made up my mind on the 2020 27" higher end model
i7 Processor
2GB SSD
OWC 64GB Memory

What I'm torn on is which GPU I need for what I'm going to be doing with it. Any input on which of the three cards I'd need would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would skip the 2020 iMac and instead watch the apple refurb store for a 2019 8-care model. The performance would be almost identical to the 2020 8-core model but at a massive savings in price.

From time to time plenty of configs show up. I recently got an 8-core refurb with Vega 48 graphics for $2379. I replaced the spinning part of the fusion drive with a 4tb sad and upgraded the ram from 8gb to 64gb mad now I have just about as badass an iMac as any out there for about 3/5 the price if I paid for a 2020 with those same specs BTO
 
Nicole1980 said:
I would skip the 2020 iMac and instead watch the apple refurb store for a 2019 8-care model. The performance would be almost identical to the 2020 8-core model but at a massive savings in price.

From time to time plenty of configs show up. I recently got an 8-core refurb with Vega 48 graphics for $2379. I replaced the spinning part of the fusion drive with a 4tb sad and upgraded the ram from 8gb to 64gb mad now I have just about as badass an iMac as any out there for about 3/5 the price if I paid for a 2020 with those same specs BTO
Click to expand...
Excepting the improved HEVC encoding by the T2 chip?
 
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JeepTech said:
Hey everyone, Yet another tread on someone asking for recommendations on which iMac to buy! lol In all seriousness I'm in need of getting some input on which iMac to purchase.

So what will I be using this computer for? Well I plan to do some editing in 4K video and photos. (Drone Footage) Also I'd like to play Farming Simulator 19 ( I'm a dork... I know)

I've already made up my mind on the 2020 27" higher end model
i7 Processor
2GB SSD
OWC 64GB Memory

What I'm torn on is which GPU I need for what I'm going to be doing with it. Any input on which of the three cards I'd need would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'm going to echo a suggestion that someone else had in here: look for a refurbished 2019 model. Boot Camp, if that's something you want to do, will be easier on a 2019 model (given that you will have more options as to how you install Windows thanks to not having the T2 chip). Otherwise, I'm sure that any of the three GPU options on the current model will do just fine. Maybe go with the middle option to be safe.
 
I am probably going to jump for similar in the next couple of weeks. The 5700 looks like a good middle option, are there any comparison reviews between the 5700 and 5700XT. Otherwise i am thinking of

27 inch
i7 Processor
1TB SSD

Top up with Crucial 32RAM
 
wilberforce said:
Excepting the improved HEVC encoding by the T2 chip?
Click to expand...

Meh, a minor issue IMO. Plus the T2 chip and lack of internal SATA connection would have meant I would not have been able to replace the spinning drive with an affordable 4tb sata SSD. And before you start with the read/write benchmarks, I can tell you from experience that the real world speed experience between that and the apple SSD's is negligible. All SSD's have virtually zero access times, and that's where the real difference is felt.
Do I lose a half second on some transfers? I'm sure. Do I notice it? Absolutely not.

Oh, and then theres wonderful tidbits of news like this that seem to keep coming out about your beloved T2 chip:
www.macrumors.com

Apple's T2 Chip Has Unpatchable Security Flaw, Claims Researcher [Updated]

Intel Macs that use Apple's T2 Security Chip are vulnerable to an exploit that could allow a hacker to circumvent disk encryption, firmware...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
 
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Nicole1980 said:
Meh, a minor issue IMO. Plus the T2 chip and lack of internal SATA connection would have meant I would not have been able to replace the spinning drive with an affordable 4tb sata SSD. And before you start with the read/write benchmarks, I can tell you from experience that the real world speed experience between that and the apple SSD's is negligible. All SSD's have virtually zero access times, and that's where the real difference is felt.
Do I lose a half second on some transfers? I'm sure. Do I notice it? Absolutely not.

Oh, and then theres wonderful tidbits of news like this that seem to keep coming out about your beloved T2 chip:
www.macrumors.com

Apple's T2 Chip Has Unpatchable Security Flaw, Claims Researcher [Updated]

Intel Macs that use Apple's T2 Security Chip are vulnerable to an exploit that could allow a hacker to circumvent disk encryption, firmware...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
Click to expand...

I don't think "a beloved" relationship to the T2 was expressed. Just pointing out that the 2019 and 2020 models do have differences that can be significant. The HEVC capabilities of the T2 are fairly meaningful.
As for security, that's a way of circumventing *some* of the additional security provided by the T2. Computers without the T2 are just not protected by what this vulnerability sidesteps in the first place. It's a security vulnerability regardless, but arguing that it's better to not have the T2 because of it is like saying it's better not to have a locked door at all, because lock picks exist.

And T2 aside, while Vega 48 is an amazing compute GPU it is actually not very good in its geometry pipeline so it can depending on workload be very limited compared to the RDNA based GPUs in the 2020. How fast they are relative to each other very much depends on the workload

Nobody's trying to take away from you that your 2019 iMac is a good device and a great value; But the 2020 also has value
 
Thank you everyone for your input. I pulled the trigger tonight and ordered it. Also ordered a OWC 64gb memory kit. Should be a very nice machine for me.

266F53F0-CAF2-4B2A-B560-128B3CC6B60A.png
 
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