PC to Mac Switcher - Which iMac?

[jb609jb]

Hi,

I am looking to buy the base model iMac and I wanted to be sure that I wasnt making a mistake not spending the money for the next step up in graphics card.

I plan on doing some photo editing and a little bit of video editing but nothing crazy.

Does a good GPU help make a program like Photoshop work better/faster? Or is that all pure CPU power?

Thanks in advance.

[Hellhammer]

Photo editing is mainly RAM intensive and little bit CPU so just get enough RAM (8GB) and you'll be fine

[aiqw9182]

Wait for the next iMac refresh as the 21.5" iMacs will be getting a nice bump in both processor and graphics performance.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iMac

[Philscbx]

I plan on doing some photo editing and a little bit of video editingTake a camera memory card with you to the Apple Store with loaded RAW images, along with firewire or USB card reader and take the system for a test drive.

Using Aperture, convert the RAW images to say 1200 x Jpegs, then have the Activity monitor up and watch the torture begin.

If it can process, and not beach ball, and peg the processors to the wall, then it might be the machine for the job.

With RAW image in Apertures adjustment, grab the sharpness slider.
Drag it to 80%, then drag it back to where it started.
If the machine struggles, then you need to upgrade to next model.

You will be frustrated to the max if you settle for anything less.

If you don't have RAW images loaded on Compact Flash or SDHC with images ready to use, go to camera Shop, purchase a card, load it in their camera, and shoot away in Raw & jpeg mode right in the store.

Any machine can alter Jpegs, that's no challenge.
Setting the camera to RAW & Jpeg mode lets you see Jpegs just incase you don't have a RAW convertor on current machine to view them.

Now you have a card to sample in the iMac.
Good Luck, & have fun on tour.

[talmy]

Yep, I was quite "impressed" to find Aperture using all 8 (4 real 4 hyperthreaded) cores in my i7 iMac. And good advice about taking images into the store. I commandeered an 27" iMac for over an hour putting it through picture and some video paces before buying my i7.

[jb609jb]

Thank you all. Great and helpful points.