Thinking About Upgrading from a 2017 27 inch iMac to a 2020 27 inch iMac

[MistrSynistr]

I disagree, its the first iMac update in 5 generations (2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019) that has major improvements. Others have always been small spec bumps.

A 5k screen is not a small spec bump.

 

[CheesePuff]

Presentations on your 27” iMac? 😬Sounds like a niche scenario.

Presenting your screen, while on video, on a computer is commonplace...

 

[CheesePuff]

A 5k screen is not a small spec bump.

I was referring to each iteration of the 5K iMac, I was mistaken that it came out in 2013, it was 2014.

 

[o_s]

Interesting discussion!

I thought I'd hi-jack the thread a bit as I'm also contemplating the difference between 2017 and 2020. I'm not able to figure out which would be the best bang for the buck and would love some insight into the CPU and GPU difference. I will upgrade the RAM later. For the same price I can get;

Year 2017
CPU Intel QuadCore i5 3,8 GHz
RAM 8 GB
Storage 2 TB Fusion
GPU Radeon PRO 580 (8GB)

vs

Year 2020
CPU Intel 6-core 10th-generation i5 3.1GHz
RAM 8 GB
Storage 256 SSD
GPU Radeon Pro 5300 (4GB) of GDDR6

I'm a professional and will use it mainly for graphic design, but I want to be able to do some animation, photo editing, 3D. I also play the occasional game but nothing too heavy.

Would you recommend to go for 2020 or does the higher clockrate and vram skew the performance towards the 2017 model?

 

[krazzix]

Unless you do a lot of H.265 encoding (which the T2 excels at) don't do it.

 

[filmgirl]

Interesting discussion!

I thought I'd hi-jack the thread a bit as I'm also contemplating the difference between 2017 and 2020. I'm not able to figure out which would be the best bang for the buck and would love some insight into the CPU and GPU difference. I will upgrade the RAM later. For the same price I can get;

Year 2017
CPU Intel QuadCore i5 3,8 GHz
RAM 8 GB
Storage 2 TB Fusion
GPU Radeon PRO 580 (8GB)

vs

Year 2020
CPU Intel 6-core 10th-generation i5 3.1GHz
RAM 8 GB
Storage 256 SSD
GPU Radeon Pro 5300 (4GB) of GDDR6

I'm a professional and will use it mainly for graphic design, but I want to be able to do some animation, photo editing, 3D. I also play the occasional game but nothing too heavy.

Would you recommend to go for 2020 or does the higher clockrate and vram skew the performance towards the 2017 model?

Honestly, it’s pretty close. I would probably lean towards the 2020 myself (and I say this as someone who had a 2017 iMac with a faster CPU and the same GPU until last week), because those extra cores will be useful. The Radeon Pro 580 is a better perfo by clock and for gaming, but for video exports — in addition to the T2 — the 5300 is better, even with the VRAM. And it is a much newer card.

It sucks Apple doesn’t let you upgrade the GPU unless you step into Tier 3.

 

[o_s]

It sucks Apple doesn’t let you upgrade the GPU unless you step into Tier 3.

Yeah I was actually leaning towards the 2017 because of the GPU as it's maybe a better long-term option for gaming. I plan to stick with this iMac for a couple of years and maybe there'll be a future game I want to optimize for. I need to read up on T2 to see if that could sway me but glad to hear it's close so I wont make a mistake either way.