You may have gotten a good deal on your 2019 27", and I'm still "happy" with my tricked out 2017 27" i7, but no, the Intel i9 is not close to the performance of an M1-based machine.
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Will there ever be a new 27-inch iMac?
- Thread starter Mimiron
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The 2019 i9 is about 10% faster on Geekbench 5 multicore compared to the base M1 machines so performance should still be quite good in terms of getting work done. The single-core on M1 is a lot faster so it's more responsive but I find Geekbench 5 to be a good representation of what I can get done on Macs and PCs.
I have a base iMac Pro and it's easier to use than my M1 mini 512/16 as it has more RAM and storage and the GPU performance is 3 or 4 times that of the base M1 CPUs. I imagine the 18-core version of the iMac Pro would smoke the base M1 systems and perform more closely with the M1 Max Studio.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I believe Mr. Wheeler has the answer to the thread question... just sub in the thread title for the little girl's question and you will hear the very likely answer...
That shared though, I very much expect an iMac "bigger" (probably 30"-32"), tagged PRO and priced sky high accordingly... much more like the last iMac tagged PRO (pre-(enhanced) inflation pricing)...
Now if the question is actually: will we get an iMac "Bigger" at the old "starting at..." pricing below $2K, I see 0% chance of that since Apple was able to strip out the entire Mac + Keyboard + Mouse, rebrand what was left as ASD and get the full iMac 27" price for only the monitor portion. ASD now sets the "starting at" bottom to which to then add in the cost of a whole Mac + Keyboard + Mouse to get towards the new "starting at..." price for a bigger iMac.
My best advice: go separates with Mac Mini or Studio... or MB doubling as desktop in clamshell mode... or PC... and an any-size monitor of your own choosing. Among many other benefits, when that computer ages out or is arbitrarily vintaged by the Corp, you can replace just it and continue with the same monitor.
iMac is generally good value going in but terrible at the end, when any one part fails or is made obsolete and then it's a "throw baby out with the bathwater" proposition. As a long-term iMac user myself, I'd never buy another at just about any price. Separates is better value over time and you can get whatever you want in screen sizes NOW. I went from 27" iMac to 40" ultra-wide and could never go back to the nearly square iMac screen.
I also needed full Windows, so that choice included multiple inputs so that both a Mac and a PC could share it without having to swap cables each time.
Now if the question is actually: will we get an iMac "Bigger" at the old "starting at..." pricing below $2K, I see 0% chance of that since Apple was able to strip out the entire Mac + Keyboard + Mouse, rebrand what was left as ASD and get the full iMac 27" price for only the monitor portion. ASD now sets the "starting at" bottom to which to then add in the cost of a whole Mac + Keyboard + Mouse to get towards the new "starting at..." price for a bigger iMac.
My best advice: go separates with Mac Mini or Studio... or MB doubling as desktop in clamshell mode... or PC... and an any-size monitor of your own choosing. Among many other benefits, when that computer ages out or is arbitrarily vintaged by the Corp, you can replace just it and continue with the same monitor.
iMac is generally good value going in but terrible at the end, when any one part fails or is made obsolete and then it's a "throw baby out with the bathwater" proposition. As a long-term iMac user myself, I'd never buy another at just about any price. Separates is better value over time and you can get whatever you want in screen sizes NOW. I went from 27" iMac to 40" ultra-wide and could never go back to the nearly square iMac screen.
I also needed full Windows, so that choice included multiple inputs so that both a Mac and a PC could share it without having to swap cables each time.
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Honestly, this is a great deal, I need to dish out 3800 Eur (imported from the US, but still cheaper than here in EU) for the M2 Ultra and another 1600 Eur for the 5K Apple Studio Display...I believe Mr. Wheeler has the answer to the thread question... just sub in the thread title for the little girl's question and you will hear the very likely answer...
That shared though, I very much expect an iMac "bigger" (probably 30"-32"), tagged PRO and priced sky high accordingly... much more like the last iMac tagged PRO (pre-(enhanced) inflation pricing)...
Now if the question is actually: will we get an iMac "Bigger" at the old "starting at..." pricing below $2K, I see 0% chance of that since Apple was able to strip out the entire Mac + Keyboard + Mouse, rebrand what was left as ASD and get the full iMac 27" price for only the monitor portion. ASD now sets the "starting at" bottom to which to then add in the cost of a whole Mac + Keyboard + Mouse to get towards the new "starting at..." price for a bigger iMac.
My best advice: go separates with Mac Mini or Studio... or MB doubling as desktop in clamshell mode... or PC... and an any-size monitor of your own choosing. Among many other benefits, when that computer ages out or is arbitrarily vintaged by the Corp, you can replace just it and continue with the same monitor.
iMac is generally good value going in but terrible at the end, when any one part fails or is made obsolete and then it's a "throw baby out with the bathwater" proposition. As a long-term iMac user myself, I'd never buy another at just about any price. Separates is better value over time and you can get whatever you want in screen sizes NOW. I went from 27" iMac to 40" ultra-wide and could never go back to the nearly square iMac screen.
I also needed full Windows, so that choice included multiple inputs so that both a Mac and a PC could share it without having to swap cables each time.
I bought my iMac Pro for $800 so I'd say it's a great value going in. I'm casually shopping for another one too.
...but the question is, how does that compare power/spec-wise to the $5000 iMac Pro? That's an almost impossible question given you're comparing 2023 Apple Silicon tech with 2017 Intel tech - however - as I keep pointing out - a M1 Studio Max (with the GPU upgrade) plus a Studio Display cost about the same as the top-of-the-range non-pro i9 iMac (to which the Studio was the direct successor in 2022) did - once you added an Apple-provided upgrade to 32GB RAM to the iMac.
($2200 + $1600 = $3800 for the M1 Max Studio setup, $2999 + $600 = $3600 for the 32GB iMac - since GPU performance is likely to be the M1's Achilles Heel, I've added the $200 "better GPU" option to the Studio but not the iMac). Yes, that's skewed by Apple charging $600 for 24GB of bog standard DDR5 RAM sticks for the iMac but any hypothetical Apple Silicon iMac would rule out cheap DIY RAM upgrades. This is Apple who stuck $100 onto the price of a MBP Max when it went from 32 to 36GB...!
So, i9 iMac vs. M1 Max Studio gives you 10 cores vs. 10 cores, 8940 vs. 12420 on GeekBench 5, two TB3 ports sharing a 40Gbps controller vs. four TB4 ports with independent controllers, Gigabit Ethernet vs. 10 GB Ethernet... On top of that, the Studio offers near-silent cooling, the regular iMac... not so much! The Studio Display is marginally better quality than the iMac display. So, in many ways, even the M1 Max Studio studio beat out the 2020 i9 iMac and - insofar as the comparison makes any sense - more aligned with the iMac Pro.
If you're going to pay for the 20/24-Core M1/M2 Ultra Studio then you really have to look to the higher-end iMac Pros for comparison - the 18 core iMP started at $7400 (with 64GB RAM) which leaves you plenty of change to add a nice screen to your $4000 Mac Studio Ultra.
...and all that ignores the possibilities of getting cheaper and/or better 3rd party displays (or even hunting down an offer on the Studio Display independent of where you buy your BTO Mac), let alone the parallel universe where you bought a "separates" system in 2017 and already have a perfectly good display...
For $800 it's a fricking bargain, given you can buy an 18-core CPU for 170$ on eBay and an additional ram for 68$ per 64gb stick and easily max it out. I bought the iMac pro 8-core for 1400 Eur but it was laggy so I returned it.
Mine sits next to a Mac Studio so I run heavy stuff on the Studio and office and 4k video editing on the iMac Pro. I wouldn't mind two of them. My wife loves the 5k iMacs and son could use it for his work too. 8 cores is all I need for what I do on it right now.
It's awesome that these machines are still powerful enough even though they're 7 years old.
I got a second iMac Pro this week, 18-core, Vega 64, 64 GB memory and 2 TB storage. No accessories and no box.
But I brought a flight case with me, for transport. Was a long trip, just over 200 miles, or 330 km one way.
It was worth it. I am very pleased with it.
Paid 7500 Sek ($735).
It does seem to get hotter than my base iMac Pro. So I will open it and clean out any dust, and apply new thermal paste to the CPU and GPU.
I downgraded from Sonoma to Monterey. And had no issues doing that
But I brought a flight case with me, for transport. Was a long trip, just over 200 miles, or 330 km one way.
It was worth it. I am very pleased with it.
Paid 7500 Sek ($735).
It does seem to get hotter than my base iMac Pro. So I will open it and clean out any dust, and apply new thermal paste to the CPU and GPU.
I downgraded from Sonoma to Monterey. And had no issues doing that
Nice job. It sounds like fun - though it should only generate the additional heat if you're really pushing it. That's an insanely great price for it. Something like that would be $2,000 - $3,000. There's one for sale for about $3,000 in New York City right now.
Picked up a Studio Display and it is amazing. I cannot recommend enough, add a Studio Mac and you are in business.