Advice for a colleague between two models

[decafjava]

Hi all, a colleague of mine is seeking to upgrade from his 2009 iMac and is looking at the following models:

Both 27 inch but:

3.4GHz processor
8GB RAM
1 TB fusion drive
Radeon Pro 570 with 4GB of VRAM

Or:

3.5GHz
8GB RAM
1 TB fusion drive
Radeon Pro 575 with 4GB of VRAM

The price in CHF (and dollars actually) is 200 more for the middle option he wants to sue it mostly for office applications internet and storing photographs. No games.

Besides the processor the main difference is the graphic card - what are the differences between the two?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

The 1TB fusion drive is fairly rubbish it only has 32gb of flash storage, either change the option to a 2TB fusion drive (this gives 128gb ssd) or a full ssd option. Your use case will make no use of more ram or more powerfull processors but a decent amount of flash storage is a must for fast computing at any level.

 

[Glmnet1]

For his needs the first GPU and CPU are fine.

I suggest you get either pure SSD or at least 2TB fusion drive though. The 1TB fusion have only 32GB of SSD and quickly become slow.

 

[decafjava]

Interesting, I have had my 2015 model iMac just over a year now with the 1 TB fusion drive and have not noticed any slowdown even running X-plane 11.

I can see the two processors are practically identical for purpose, but what is the difference between the two graphic cards?

 

[fb3]

Don’t go fusion! I hate spinning drives with a passion - and the current ssd is amazing! Go for maximum ssd you can afford

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

I suggest option 2 above... BUT...
DO NOT get the 1tb fusion drive. DO NOT GET IT!

Instead, spend $100 (US) more and get the 256gb SSD.
It will be a "world of difference" faster than the fusion drive, and it will keep running that way over the life of the iMac.

If your friend needs more storage, plug in a USB3 hard drive (cheap), or even a USB3 SSD (a little more money).

Spending the extra money for the SSD will be THE BEST ADVICE YOU EVER GIVE to your friend re the iMac.

You have to special-order the SSD-equipped iMacs through Apple's "build to order" page. It's just about the only way to get them.
But... the wait will be WORTH IT!

 

[pier]

Hi all, a colleague of mine is seeking to upgrade from his 2009 iMac and is looking at the following models:

Both 27 inch but:

3.4GHz processor
8GB RAM
1 TB fusion drive
Radeon Pro 570 with 4GB of VRAM

Or:

3.5GHz
8GB RAM
1 TB fusion drive
Radeon Pro 575 with 4GB of VRAM

The price in CHF (and dollars actually) is 200 more for the middle option he wants to sue it mostly for office applications internet and storing photographs. No games.

Besides the processor the main difference is the graphic card - what are the differences between the two?

An SSD will make more of a difference in normal use than going from the 3.4 to the 3.5.

 

[csurfr]

Not that it truly matters with your use case, but the 3.4ghz iMac can only be upgraded to 32gb of RAM, whereas the 3.5ghz can be upgraded to 64gb. I only mention this for future resale value.

 

[kschendel]

Caching (fusion) drives exhibit very unpredictable slowdowns, which is largely why they are unloved here; and the 1 Tb moreso than the 2/3 Tb because of the smaller front-side SSD. For your colleague's usage, and if he's willing to be patient every now and then, the 1 Tb Fusion is probably OK. I have to admit I wouldn't buy one that way; if I needed the 1Tb or more storage at lowest cost, I'd probably get the 2 Tb Fusion.

For his usage, the CPU / GPU difference will be essentially zero. The 575 has better shader/texture performance than the 570, if I remember right on the order of 20%. Unless you are a gamer or into GPU based number crunching, I can't imagine that you would notice the difference even on two machines side by side.