Iris Pro vs Nvidia for Heat & Fan

The Nvidia GPU will have a seperate cooler/fan so it'll probably run about the same temperature. The difference in noise will more than likely be negligible.

Yes, the Iris Pro doesn't have a seperate fan. But if you need to do anything in any way graphics-intensive, definitely get the Nvidia chip (which has a fan), it blows any inbuilt graphics chip out of the water.

jabalczar said:

Thank you.

So the 'm' version of NVIDIA GPUs in the iMac has a separate built fan?

And therefore, the base Iris Pro model has one less fan than all the 2013 iMacs?

i.e. the Iris Pro GPU does not have a discreet fan?

In my quiet room I'm very sensitive to fan noise -- the 2012 iMac was too loud even at 1250 rpm. And so I'd rather take a drop in GPU performance if it means one less fan.

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Iris Pro is built into the CPU. The 21.5" comes with only one fan (the base model without Nvidia Graphics), the higher end 21.5" has two fans.

Edit: too late o well

nemesis379 said:

Iris Pro is built into the CPU. The 21.5" comes with only one fan (the base model without Nvidia Graphics), the higher end 21.5" has two fans.

Edit: too late o well

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Very interesting observation. Thank you for pointing that out. I still need to take a closer look at the ifixit teardowns.

Where are people reading that the Nvidia model has two fans? I thought all iMacs since late 2012 were all using one fan in the centre?

Yes, but the fan is bigger and louder than normal because in the model with the Nvidia GPU it cools both the CPU and GPU. There is one fan, connected to two heatsinks - whereas Intel's Iris Pro chip is not connected to any sort of fan, it is merely a glorified video card on the motherboard.

I'm not implying that the iMac is a loud computer; it's really not.

It's just that the OP has stated he is in a very noise-sensitive environment so having a bigger fan might have an impact.