2019 8600 vs 9600K iMac

[kaintxu]

Hi all,

Currently looking into getting one of the new iMacs after a while waiting for this update. My plan is to upgrade with external RAM but I will be getting the 512GB SSD.

My doubts come wether to get the mid tier 8th Gen i5 8600 or the 9th Gen i5 9600K. they both are 6 cores, so is the difference in performance noticeable?

After the SSD upgrade the 8th gen one comes at £2219 and the 9th gen £2339, but it also means I will get a pro 580x rather than a 575, which for just £120 seems really good. Any thoughts on processor performance?

I will wait a bit to see some reviews on noise and heat as the 8600 is 65W while the 9600K is 95W and we all know what happened with the 2017 i7's

 

[Apple Mac Daz]

Until reviews come out n we see if they throttle like the 2017 i7’s did it’s gonna be hard to guess

 

[kaintxu]

Until reviews come out n we see if they throttle like the 2017 i7’s did it’s gonna be hard to guess

Oh yes, totally agree. My only doubt is if there is a big performance difference between the 8th and 9th 6 core i5 or they are quite similar?

 

[SkiHound2]

Oh yes, totally agree. My only doubt is if there is a big performance difference between the 8th and 9th 6 core i5 or they are quite similar?

Benchmarks are just that and they may or may not well represent your specific uses but the site that follows suggests only about a 10% difference. Both are 6 core and have fundamentally the same architecture. My issue with the mid-level model with the 8600 is that at least in the US, once you upgrade the storage, any price differences between the 9600k/580x model vs the 8600/575x model largely become moot. Standard drive on the mid-tier model is a 1TB fusion with a 32 gb SSD. Standard drive on high tier model is 2TB fusion which has a 128gb ssd. Storage upgrades on the mid-tier model are more expensive, so price differences largely disappear. Here's a link to a benchmark comparison:

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-8600-vs-Intel-Core-i5-9600K/m477251vs4031

 

[Bohemien]

I wonder if the mid-tier 2019 iMac might be the solution for the ones wanting a really "cool" system. Looking at the Geekbench values (yes I know, they're based on not too many samples yet):

The i5-8600 (mid-tier) iMac has single core score 5445 and multi-core score 21565 having a TDP of 65W
The i5-9600K iMac has single core 5723 (5.1% better) and multi-core 22283 (3.3% better) with a TDP of 95W

So, price-wise, it's a no-brainer taking the i5-9600K model over the mid-tier one, if you add a 512GB SSD, because the price difference is only 70€ (in Germany), plus you get the 580X instead of the 575X.

On the other hand, the mid-tier model does not seem to have significantly less computing power (on short bursts, I guess-wonder how longer-running tests will compare), but might produce much less heat due to the processor drawing less power. Or did I miss anything?

 

[SkiHound2]

I wonder if the mid-tier 2019 iMac might be the solution for the ones wanting a really "cool" system. Looking at the Geekbench values (yes I know, they're based on not too many samples yet):

The i5-8600 (mid-tier) iMac has single core score 5445 and multi-core score 21565 having a TDP of 65W
The i5-9600K iMac has single core 5723 (5.1% better) and multi-core 22283 (3.3% better) with a TDP of 95W

So, price-wise, it's a no-brainer taking the i5-9600K model over the mid-tier one, if you add a 512GB SSD, because the price difference is only 70€ (in Germany), plus you get the 580X instead of the 575X.

On the other hand, the mid-tier model does not seem to have significantly less computing power (on short bursts, I guess-wonder how longer-running tests will compare), but might produce much less heat due to the processor drawing less power. Or did I miss anything?

The 8500 and 8600 should run cooler than the 9600k. I know that quite a few folks opted for the middle tier of the 2017 model because it ran cooler and quieter. The 9th generation chips have a different thermal design and the early returns are that that they are not causing problems. As I said above, I just the pricing on the mid tier is inconsistent with the highest and lowest tier configurations. As soon as you change the storage the prices between the middle and upper tiers get really tight.