Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Which Radeon Pro for 2020 iMac?

B

Bechi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 3, 2020
13
6
Hi!

I'm currently looking at either the i7 or i9, (leaning towards the i7), 64GB of third-party RAM, and 1TB SSD. But really don't know what sort of benefit I might see from the various Radeon Pro options. I'm not a gamer, and do not do any heavy video editing, but do like to take advantage of maximum display resolution. The new 27-inch Retina 5K displays are 5120‑by‑2880 resolution with support for one billion colors, and I want to connect my old 30" Cinema HD Display which gives 2560-by-1600 resolution via dual-link DVI. Given I'm more spreadsheets, surfing, and streaming than Final Cut, PhotoShop, and MS Flight Simulator 2020, will I even notice a difference with the higher-end cards or should I save my money and stick with the base (5300 or 5500 XT)? I tend to hang on to my systems for as long as possible.

Thanks!
 
pldelisle said:
I saw this game nearly require the 5700XT to be "barely" acceptable. I might be wrong, but this game is very demanding. But I'm no gamer at all.
Click to expand...

Well the OP said that as part of the things he/she doesn't really do

OP;
I honestly don't see why you'd even consider the i9 with your usage. Or 64GB of RAM for that matter, 32 would probably be way more than enough for your needs, but I guess if you're buying it third party, it's still not hyper expensive to go 64 anyway.
For some lesser threaded workloads, the i7 can even be faster than the i9 actually.

In any case, on point with the GPUs;
There is a way more significant performance difference between the GPUs than between the i7 and i9; Though your usage doesn't sound like it'd really benefit from it, honestly.
Honestly I might just suggest getting one of the base models aside from potential storage needs and third-party RAM and then taking the money you would've spent on upgrades and putting it in a "next iMac" pile. I would not advice buying more powerful hardware for future proofing, because, for one thing, Apple Silicon will kill off Intel software support eventually irrespective of speed, and also the fact that what you might pay for 20% extra performance today, is a lot more than you'd pay in five years for 200% more performance.

If you want the upgrades because you want a better computer here and now;
I would probably advice the 5500XT+, the + meaning "or anything higher". If you want to throw more money into it, I'd advice upgrading the GPU before going to the i9 honestly. Even if you rarely utilise GPU performance as much as you do the CPU, the performance difference between the i7 and i9, unless you're running tasks that are threaded in the right way, will be minimal, and the GPU upgrades represent more significant jumps in performance, so any code that does offload computations to the GPU will benefit a great deal more.
The 5500XT should be fine for running a regular desktop with all your pixels though; As should the 5300XT honestly, though the 4GB of video memory might get pushed if you max out the display output with a 6K Pro Display XDR + the 5K. And if you want 2 6K displays + the 5K you do need a 5700+
But really you should be more than fine with anything, honestly
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bechi and iemcj
pldelisle said:
I saw this game nearly require the 5700XT to be "barely" acceptable. I might be wrong, but this game is very demanding. But I'm no gamer at all.
Click to expand...
and that's the PC version of the card. The Pro version is underclocked to fit in the challenging thermal constraints imposed by the imac.

meanwhile:

 
Running Flight Simulator 2020 High-End at 1440p gets a solid 50fps for me on the 5500XT on iMac 2020. I even can run it on Ultra albeit 25-30 fps and some drops. I think I'm going to upgrade to the 5700. From what I have seen on some comparison videos is a 30fps jump with the 5700 and only an extra 10 or so more with the 5700XT.
 
Casper,

Thank you so much for the advice! I've been pretty certain that I have no need of a high-end GPU, but really don't know enough about them to dismiss those "but what if" doubts. I'll stick with the 5500XT for what I do, which includes some occasional AutoCAD, but that doesn't seem like it would be an issue. And two displays is my maximum (5K Retina + the 30" ACD); any more and I'm giving myself a stiff neck as well as running out of desk space.

I KNOW i want high-end processing power and an abundance of RAM (whether or not I really need it is a different story!). I have no patience whatsoever waiting for a machine to "catch up" and usually have multiple browsers running with far too many tabs open, along with numerous spreadsheets, .pdfs of construction drawings and specs, and a handful of applications. I know I can get by with less processing muscle and memory, but have never regretted it. I had originally considered the i9, but after looking deeper, believe I'll get more performance out of the i7. And I always keep things until I'm forced to move on. I'd still be using my 2011 MacBook Pro if the video card in it hadn't just **** the bed, leaving me to rely solely on the onboard Intel Graphics, which won't support a second display! Not to mention the Powermac G5 Quad still bowing the floor in my office...

I appreciate your time given to help me out. Thanks,
 
  • Like
Reactions: pldelisle and KrazyKanuck
Bechi said:
Casper,

Thank you so much for the advice! I've been pretty certain that I have no need of a high-end GPU, but really don't know enough about them to dismiss those "but what if" doubts. I'll stick with the 5500XT for what I do, which includes some occasional AutoCAD, but that doesn't seem like it would be an issue. And two displays is my maximum (5K Retina + the 30" ACD); any more and I'm giving myself a stiff neck as well as running out of desk space.

I KNOW i want high-end processing power and an abundance of RAM (whether or not I really need it is a different story!). I have no patience whatsoever waiting for a machine to "catch up" and usually have multiple browsers running with far too many tabs open, along with numerous spreadsheets, .pdfs of construction drawings and specs, and a handful of applications. I know I can get by with less processing muscle and memory, but have never regretted it. I had originally considered the i9, but after looking deeper, believe I'll get more performance out of the i7. And I always keep things until I'm forced to move on. I'd still be using my 2011 MacBook Pro if the video card in it hadn't just **** the bed, leaving me to rely solely on the onboard Intel Graphics, which won't support a second display! Not to mention the Powermac G5 Quad still bowing the floor in my office...

I appreciate your time given to help me out. Thanks,
Click to expand...

You're very welcome. CAD software would definitely be helped by GPU power, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's worth the higher end GPUs unless you live in CAD software with high levels of detail and such; The 5500XT is quite a good GPU.

And yeah I had the issue with the 2011 GPUs as well. Very annoying.

Cheers
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bechi
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back