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SCMedic

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 8, 2008
193
41
I have a mid-2010 27" iMac with 2.8ghz Intel Core i5 processor, 16 GB of Ram, ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB graphics card and a 1TB hard drive. I've noticed lately that it's been struggling with HD video rendering and I'm getting the spinning beach ball on occasion.

I'm considering selling it and picking up one of the new 27" models. Is the performance difference going to be that apparent over what I have? Is it worth the upgrade?

Thanks guys!
 

Ddyracer

macrumors 68000
Nov 24, 2009
1,786
31
I have a mid-2010 27" iMac with 2.8ghz Intel Core i5 processor, 16 GB of Ram, ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB graphics card and a 1TB hard drive. I've noticed lately that it's been struggling with HD video rendering and I'm getting the spinning beach ball on occasion.

I'm considering selling it and picking up one of the new 27" models. Is the performance difference going to be that apparent over what I have? Is it worth the upgrade?

Thanks guys!

Yes. Max it out with 680mx and the i7 3.5. Get the fusion or ssd depending on cost.
 

SCMedic

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 8, 2008
193
41
I'd like to keep the budget around 2k if possible.

Was just weighing the pro's and con's and trying to see if I'd really see a performance upgrade in the newer model that'd be worth the money.

2nd question is this.. Why the increase in spinning beach balls over the last couple months? Hard drive failing? Would like to figure this out before I sell it.
 

B...

macrumors 68000
Mar 7, 2013
1,949
2
Could be that your usages have increased and the processor cannot keep up.
 

thedeske

macrumors 6502a
Feb 17, 2013
963
58
Your 2010 iMac is worth 1000 ballpark. A topped out 2013 is 28-2950 or so. Might fit the 2k budget if you can float the 1000 during the swap.
Buying from a no tax dealer helps ;)
 

SCMedic

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 8, 2008
193
41
Recommend a non-apple dealer?

Floating the 1k doesn't matter too much. I'm going to sell it to a friend for $950.

----------

Or I could have just followed that link... lol

So how about the fusion option... Worth the extra money?
 

mrmarts

macrumors 65816
Feb 6, 2009
1,051
1
Melbourne Australia
I feel the urge to buy a new iMac 2013 with the default i5 3.2ghz, 32gb ram, 2gb graphics, 3tb fusion, to replace my i7 2.8ghz, 8gb of ram, 1tb hdd and 512mb ati card.

Would i do be downgrading with the processor or would it serve me fine for gaming.
 

thekev

macrumors 604
Aug 5, 2010
7,005
3,343
I'd like to keep the budget around 2k if possible.

Was just weighing the pro's and con's and trying to see if I'd really see a performance upgrade in the newer model that'd be worth the money.

2nd question is this.. Why the increase in spinning beach balls over the last couple months? Hard drive failing? Would like to figure this out before I sell it.

Increase in beachballs is almost always hardware. If it's not directly hardware it's typically drivers used by peripheral hardware. Video rendering in most applications has nothing to do with the gpu. It's typically 100% cpu bound. I don't know why people keep spreading fud on that. You don't need a 680mx unless the application doing this both leverages the gpu in functions that matter to you and really sees a true increase in performance from that hardware difference. I would check hard drive and ram first for beachballs. If you've added any new peripheral devices, try it without them. Disk warrior used to reduce hard drive beach balls when I used a Mac that specifically booted from an HDD. If you went for something along the lines of the base 27" you might see rendering complete 20% faster. The beachballing issue might be something that could be solved on your current machine.

This forum generates a lot of bad advice from people who don't know anything, like the 680MX comment.
 
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