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10 Core 5700 XT Benchmarks

BuCkDoG

BuCkDoG

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 13, 2013
643
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Hey everyone,

So I am interested in upgrading from my 2017 5k iMac with the following specs of 4.2 quad core i7, 40 Gb Ram 512 SSD, Radeon Pro 580 to the new 2020 model with 3.6 10 Core i9, 128 GB Ram, 2 TB SSD, and 5700 XT. I was able to somewhat find scores on the CPUs for comparison but I can’t find any scores for the 5700 XT model. Does anyone out there feel this is a worthy upgrade? I mainly play WoW with the machine, I know mac isn’t for gaming etc, but gaming at 5k is too good to pass up.
 
It will definitely be faster than your current iMac but IMO not enough to warrant an upgrade to a dead end technology. If you don't need a new one right now i'd wait it out for AS. I have a 2015 5K iMac and the incremental, anemic improvements over the last 5 years have been quite unimpressive each time. I wish they had updated the iMac Pro with next gen xeon processors, but since they have not I am just going to wait it out until AS.
 
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Rene Ritchie does appear to benchmark the 5700XT in his video. Look at 7:33. It shows a metal score of 57,524. Beyond this, I haven't seen much. That's about a 40% better metal score that I'm getting with the 5500XT. But compared to the 580 or 580x this may be a little misleading since there are some meaningful improvements in the architecture.

 
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BuCkDoG said:
Hey everyone,

So I am interested in upgrading from my 2017 5k iMac with the following specs of 4.2 quad core i7, 40 Gb Ram 512 SSD, Radeon Pro 580 to the new 2020 model with 3.6 10 Core i9, 128 GB Ram, 2 TB SSD, and 5700 XT. I was able to somewhat find scores on the CPUs for comparison but I can’t find any scores for the 5700 XT model. Does anyone out there feel this is a worthy upgrade? I mainly play WoW with the machine, I know mac isn’t for gaming etc, but gaming at 5k is too good to pass up.
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Also, i9 10-core and 128GB of RAM mainly for WoW? Or should I be reading this as when you are able to peel yourself away from your demanding work you tend mostly to play WoW on the iMac? 😀
 
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Oh the 10 core and 128 ram is COMPLETELY overkill for sure. My theory is just making out the machine to last me many many years s it’s probably the last Intel iMac we are going to get and I don’t want to deal with AS right off the bat. But yes I completely agree it’s beyond overkill 😂.
pldelisle said:
I can’t see how this new iMac would game at 5K while a 2080Ti still have pain to play at 4K on Windows.
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Its not true 5k god no. I play at 2560x1440 right now render scale with the screen size being set to 5k but ya we’re not gaming at true 5k lol. That’s literally not possible.
 
If you're just strictly talking about gaming, then the i9 is a bit of overkill compared to the i7. You shouldn't see a notable difference between the two. Most of the heavy lifting will be done by the GPU. If you'll also be doing some heavy duty video editing where you need something that will chew through the load, then yes, get the i9. Otherwise I'd suggest the i7 and use the extra cash for a bigger SSD for, say, a bigger Bootcamp partition.
 
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This is what I am eagerly awaiting on. Mostly benchmarks for the 5700 XT. If I was to bump up, I would go 8 core/5700 XT, but awaiting to see how much of an improvement the 5700 XT is over the Vega 48 in gaming. The 2019 would go to my parents which would replace their 2009 iMac to ride out the transition.
 
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BuCkDoG said:
None of those benchmarks show the 5700 XT in regards to Unigine Heaven Benchmark which is what a lot of us are wanting along with thermals etc.
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Okay. didn't know you were specially looking for Unigine results. Max Tech is going to run it when he gets his on 21th Aug.
 
Homy said:
Okay. didn't know you were specially looking for Unigine results. Max Tech is going to run it when he gets his on 21th Aug.
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No problem and yup i am waiting for his review as well. I mean so far this machine is really rocking some solid internals.
 
Your current iMac is so good, if you’re not having any issues with it for your workflow you should just spend a fraction of the cost of a new iMac on a gaming PC that will out perform the new iMac.

You can build a PC that will play games better than the best current iMac for $1000 or less.

Also, you don’t really need anything if you really do just play WoW, the new iMac won’t be much different.
 
Cookie18 said:
Your current iMac is so good, if you’re not having any issues with it for your workflow you should just spend a fraction of the cost of a new iMac on a gaming PC that will out perform the new iMac.

You can build a PC that will play games better than the best current iMac for $1000 or less.

Also, you don’t really need anything if you really do just play WoW, the new iMac won’t be much different.
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Well I’m maxing our the processor on the GPU playing WoW and I can’t stream in Discord but I’m already taxing it too much so I need to move and I don’t really care for an egpu setup plus this is the last intel
iMac for sure so I’m thinking I will just take the dive and be a lot more solid for many years to come.
 
MBHockey said:
It will definitely be faster than your current iMac but IMO not enough to warrant an upgrade to a dead end technology. If you don't need a new one right now i'd wait it out for AS. I have a 2015 5K iMac and the incremental, anemic improvements over the last 5 years have been quite unimpressive each time. I wish they had updated the iMac Pro with next gen xeon processors, but since they have not I am just going to wait it out until AS.
Click to expand...

The 2020 iMac is capable of things that an ARM based Mac will not be. The obvious one for gamers is running Windows using Bootcamp. For developers its Kubernetes and Docker with x86 Docker images and/or x86 Linux VMs.
 
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ADGrant said:
The 2020 iMac is capable of things that an ARM based Mac will not be. The obvious one for gamers is running Windows using Bootcamp. For developers its Kubernetes and Docker with x86 Docker images and/or x86 Linux VMs.
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Yeah, tons of gamers buy iMacs to run their games in boot camp.

I'm not saying it's not a use case. It's just not a common one.
 
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MBHockey said:
Yeah, tons of gamers buy iMacs to run their games in boot camp.

I'm not saying it's not a use case. It's just not a common one.
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I agree that gaming is definitely not the sole majority of people buying an iMac or a Mac in general. No one is going to argue that point. I just prefer to use an all in one that has a beautiful 5k display and the hardware is good enough to run everything I want rather than to have a separate windows PC and a desperate monitor to play games. The games I play, mainly WoW and CS GO, are not anywhere near demanding enough to warrant me spending additional money on building a separate windows PC but I do understand where you are coming from for sure in regards to the vast majority of the market when it comes to Mac gaming.
 
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BuCkDoG said:
Oh the 10 core and 128 ram is COMPLETELY overkill for sure. My theory is just making out the machine to last me many many years s it’s probably the last Intel iMac we are going to get and I don’t want to deal with AS right off the bat. But yes I completely agree it’s beyond overkill 😂.

Its not true 5k god no. I play at 2560x1440 right now render scale with the screen size being set to 5k but ya we’re not gaming at true 5k lol. That’s literally not possible.
Click to expand...

My take. There's nothing wrong with wanting the latest and greatest. As a photographer I know about GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). But in terms of "value" I think the idea of buying to "future proof" is mostly a fool's errand. The speed difference between the 8 core i7 and 10 core i9 is probably pretty trivial and then only meaningful for folks who are routinely running cpu intensive applications that fully exploit the additional cores/threads. Think about rendering a video that would take 60 minutes on the i7 and 50 minutes on the i9. If you're running that kind of stuff all day for work, the difference is likely worth it. If you're doing it once a month, just go get a refill on your coffee. In a couple of years, both the i7 and i9 versions will still be very viable computers, and both will be somewhat obsolete. And I don't think any difference in resale value at the end will make up for the comparatively steep upfront price difference. It's also hard for me to think that many folks "need" 128gb of ram. Since ram is user upgradeable it's always easy to add more later. I'd probably buy 2 32gb sticks and then you can add more late if you actually need it. The upgraded video card might give you the most value. But if you're buying all this tech for gaming, it's probably not the best platform. Just my thoughts. Again, if you want the i9 with 128gb and all the bells and whistles and can afford it, go for it. But if money is an object it's probably not the best value.
 
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BuCkDoG said:
I agree that gaming is definitely not the sole majority of people buying an iMac or a Mac in general. No one is going to argue that point. I just prefer to use an all in one that has a beautiful 5k display and the hardware is good enough to run everything I want rather than to have a separate windows PC and a desperate monitor to play games. The games I play, mainly WoW and CS GO, are not anywhere near demanding enough to warrant me spending additional money on building a separate windows PC but I do understand where you are coming from for sure in regards to the vast majority of the market when it comes to Mac gaming.
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Yeah, i totally get it. nice to have one machine do it all, for sure.
 
SkiHound2 said:
My take. There's nothing wrong with wanting the latest and greatest. As a photographer I know about GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). But in terms of "value" I think the idea of buying to "future proof" is mostly a fool's errand. The speed difference between the 8 core i7 and 10 core i9 is probably pretty trivial and then only meaningful for folks who are routinely running cpu intensive applications that fully exploit the additional cores/threads. Think about rendering a video that would take 60 minutes on the i7 and 50 minutes on the i9. If you're running that kind of stuff all day for work, the difference is likely worth it. If you're doing it once a month, just go get a refill on your coffee. In a couple of years, both the i7 and i9 versions will still be very viable computers, and both will be somewhat obsolete. And I don't think any difference in resale value at the end will make up for the comparatively steep upfront price difference. It's also hard for me to think that many folks "need" 128gb of ram. Since ram is user upgradeable it's always easy to add more later. I'd probably buy 2 32gb sticks and then you can add more late if you actually need it. The upgraded video card might give you the most value. But if you're buying all this tech for gaming, it's probably not the best platform. Just my thoughts. Again, if you want the i9 with 128gb and all the bells and whistles and can afford it, go for it. But if money is an object it's probably not the best value.
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Well RAM is the one thing you can upgrade on these iMacs. I hope no one is buying it from Apple. Everything else is not.

Also I have to use slow crappy computers at work but someone is paying me to do that. I see no reason to waste my personal time with a slow machine.
 
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SkiHound2 said:
As a photographer I know about GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). But in terms of "value" I think the idea of buying to "future proof" is mostly a fool's errand. The speed difference between the 8 core i7 and 10 core i9 is probably pretty trivial and then only meaningful for folks who are routinely running cpu intensive applications that fully exploit the additional cores/threads.
Click to expand...

GAS? Never heard of it o_O But yeah, I've been going back and forth on whether to spend the additional $360 to make the jump from 8 core i7 to the 10 core i9 (I get the military discount). As much fun as it would be to have the i9, I will probably end up with the i7 but will go all the way on the graphics card. I think I would more likely buy the nano-texture screen for $400 since I'm a semi-serious amature photographer and want to get more into video too.

SkiHound2 said:
It's also hard for me to think that many folks "need" 128gb of ram. Since ram is user upgradeable it's always easy to add more later. I'd probably buy 2 32gb sticks and then you can add more late if you actually need it.
Click to expand...

As long as the memory is user upgradable there is no way I would buy more than the minimum 8GB from Apple. My plan is to add two more 32GB sticks (OWC) for a total of 72 which will likely be as much as I'll ever need (well, never say never).
 
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