Apple has a refurbished Retina iMac on their site for roughly $2500. It has 16gb Ram, and a 512 gb SSD. For the same price you can get a new Retina iMac and upgrade the graphics card to the M295X. I currently have a 256gb HDD in my Macbook Pro and I am out of room. I will also be boot camping windows on the iMac, so I know I will need more than 256gb. My instinct would be to go for the bigger SSD, but I know you can always get more storage where as the graphics card can't be upgraded. What would you guys rather pick?
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Refurb Retina iMac vs new Retina iMac
- Thread starter bradonf333
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I'd pick the new one with the M295X. You never know when you might need the extra GPU power.
If you can afford the M295X, go for it.
It's strange that no refurbs with the M295X are showing up, almost suspiciously strange.
Yes, external storage can always be added later. A GPU is more permanent. However, the M290X GPU seems to be powerful enough for most tasks.
Yes, external storage can always be added later. A GPU is more permanent. However, the M290X GPU seems to be powerful enough for most tasks.
I would assume that special orders are a small percentage of sales. Either that, or people are dissatisfied with the base model and are trading them back.
Yet I've seen 1 TB SSDs on there.
If I see one, just one M295X GPU on Apple's refurb store I'll agree with you.
True, I have seen a few minor customized ones up there, but don't remember seeing any with the I7 or M295X.
It would be nice to have a little more variety of refurbished iMacs on Apple's website, but I guess you get what you get. Does anyone how often they update they refurbished stuff? Is it random or every few weeks or something?
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I ordered an i7 refurb iMac last week when they popped up in the online store and even though it said it had M290X graphics, when I booted it up I found my machine had M295X and 4GB video ram.
So there are some upgraded graphics cards available in the refurb pool, it's just luck of the draw at this point...
So there are some upgraded graphics cards available in the refurb pool, it's just luck of the draw at this point...
That's pretty sweet. I hope the same thing happens to me! How long did it take for you to get your refurbished iMac after you ordered it?
Ordered on the 15th and received it here in Toronto on the 19th. It shipped from California.
If I got a new 5K iMac I could probably upgrade 1 thing to stay under the price I want. What do you think would be more important, CPU, Graphics card, or leave it stock and just get apple care?
I recently added the same model that you initially mentioned (512 SSD, 16GB,) and absolutely have zero regrets. It has performed very well when doing any type of heavy work (photo editing, running movies on the half screen, editing film in iMovie, etc.)
Story is the same, for most of us on here the absolute need for the 'most powerful and current' is not there, it's all dependent on what you are going to do with it.
Story is the same, for most of us on here the absolute need for the 'most powerful and current' is not there, it's all dependent on what you are going to do with it.
I bought an Retina iMac with the 295 (and i7). I was afraid that the 295 would be important (I normally don't upgrade the GPU) in this case because Apple has a poor track record with graphics performance on new Retina models.
I don't do anything that needs fast graphics so I don't really know if I make the right decision there. And I agree that the lack of 295s in the refurbished store could mean that there are lots of returns of 290s from dissatisfied purchasers.
I don't do anything that needs fast graphics so I don't really know if I make the right decision there. And I agree that the lack of 295s in the refurbished store could mean that there are lots of returns of 290s from dissatisfied purchasers.
That was a tough decision for me as well. I did see a higher percentage of users happy with the performance of a fully maxed out iMac(i7, 295, 1 TB SSD). At the same time there was issues on that end from fan noise and extremely high GPU temps.
Given that all models suffered some kind of well documented issue it came down to price for me because brand new base models could be purchased for $2300 while the custom max out model would have sent me back $3800. $1500 is incredible difference. The only issue i've had is some lag in finder. The lag isn't a consistent thing either so it's odd. I still believe this can be fixed with software update and I'm willing to gamble that for the price difference. It's not like it's not useable. The computer is actually extremely fast most of the time but the glitches are there no question.
So even while editing video you dont seem to have any problems? I read that the Retina iMac has a harder time pushing all those pixels so if you can afford it then upgrade the graphics card to help push all those pixels. But from your experience you don't have any big issues with the 290X?
My i7 / 295X is laggy when editing large RAW images in Lightroom or Photoshop, work that I do every day. I'm trying to get used to it, but it's very annoying.
I'm talking about grabbing a slider (say, Shadows) and sliding it . . . and waiting for the screen to change. Oops, went too far. Now back up. Wait.
In every other way it's a brilliant screen. I'd suppose that the 290 would be significantly worse.
Perhaps there's some driver help ahead.
I'm talking about grabbing a slider (say, Shadows) and sliding it . . . and waiting for the screen to change. Oops, went too far. Now back up. Wait.
In every other way it's a brilliant screen. I'd suppose that the 290 would be significantly worse.
Perhaps there's some driver help ahead.
I decided to go with a new Retina iMac with a 512gb SSD, and just leave the graphics card as is with the M290X. The refurbished one I wanted was gone or else I would have got that instead. I don't do any way intensive graphic work, besides a little Photoshop every now and then so I think I will enjoy the bigger storage more than the graphics card but we will see how it goes. Thanks for everyone's input!
I haven't noticed anything yet, albeit, I have only done two videos via my GoPro lasting 3 minutes a piece. I didn't purchase the machine to be an intense workhorse, meaning I do not have my own photo business by any means, so I am still extremely pleased.
You made a great choice, just stay confident in it and enjoy the machine when it comes. FWIW, I ordered mine on a Monday and I received it that same Wednesday (California to Michigan)
Probably most returns are people that got the M290X and then realised they wanted/needed the M295X.