Any Graphic Designers?

[Jamiednm]

Are there any designers here who are knowledgeable about the iMacs technical specifications and relevant software such as Adobe CS6?

From what I can see, I expect the base 27" 2012 iMac to cope perfectly fine with InDesign CS6, Illustrator & Photoshop CS5 (all with files open at the same time).

Is there any reason why I should go for the high end 27" model instead - or is that just future-proofing myself a little bit more?

I've got absolutely no desire to mess around with upgrading it myself, I won't be using it for gaming. Just professional graphic design work as well as general home use.

 

[dlewis23]

No real reason to go higher end unless you want the more powerful GPU for say games.

I would just upgrade the ram to at least 16GB. But Don't buy it from Apple.

 

[brock2621]

Are there any designers here who are knowledgeable about the iMacs technical specifications and relevant software such as Adobe CS6?

From what I can see, I expect the base 27" 2012 iMac to cope perfectly fine with InDesign CS6, Illustrator & Photoshop CS5 (all with files open at the same time).

Is there any reason why I should go for the high end 27" model instead - or is that just future-proofing myself a little bit more?

I've got absolutely no desire to mess around with upgrading it myself, I won't be using it for gaming. Just professional graphic design work as well as general home use.

Depends on whether you are using GPU utilizing AE plugins... If so, you might want to opt for the 27" and get the max 2gb MX option.

 

[goodlittlesquid]

Are there any designers here who are knowledgeable about the iMacs technical specifications and relevant software such as Adobe CS6?

From what I can see, I expect the base 27" 2012 iMac to cope perfectly fine with InDesign CS6, Illustrator & Photoshop CS5 (all with files open at the same time).

Is there any reason why I should go for the high end 27" model instead - or is that just future-proofing myself a little bit more?

I've got absolutely no desire to mess around with upgrading it myself, I won't be using it for gaming. Just professional graphic design work as well as general home use.

I'm in the exact same boat. Graphic designer/Illustrator, no video editing or animation, or 3D rendering, zero interest in games. If I make anything moving it's gonna be a GIF. I was really wondering if I needed an i7 because I like to have several photoshop files open at once with lots of layers, while still using itunes, web browsing, etc. After researching and posting my own query on here, I'm convinced the i5 ivy will be more than enough processing power. Going for the low-end 27". Gonna get 16 GB RAM which in a lot of ways is more important for having multiple applications going than the processor. Only thing I'm torn about is fusion drive vs. 768 flash SSD. It will depend of the price of the 768 SSD.

Don't worry about 'future proofing'. Get what you need now. In 4-5 years iMacs will have 2 terabyte flash drives, HDDs will be dead. They will have Skylake processors. The display will be retina, and the web will be starting to catch up to retina. Who knows what the requirements for CS8 will be or what it will be capable of or how it will change your work and thus your requirements. If you're worried about resale value, the best you can do is get a 27" so the RAM is accessible, and spring for the fusion drive.

 

[Jamiednm]

I'm in the exact same boat. Graphic designer/Illustrator, no video editing or animation, or 3D rendering, zero interest in games. If I make anything moving it's gonna be a GIF. I was really wondering if I needed an i7 because I like to have several photoshop files open at once with lots of layers, while still using itunes, web browsing, etc. After researching and posting my own query on here, I'm convinced the i5 ivy will be more than enough processing power. Going for the low-end 27". Gonna get 16 GB RAM which in a lot of ways is more important for having multiple applications going than the processor. Only thing I'm torn about is fusion drive vs. 768 flash SSD. It will depend of the price of the 768 SSD.

Don't worry about 'future proofing'. Get what you need now. In 4-5 years iMacs will have 2 terabyte flash drives, HDDs will be dead. They will have Skylake processors. The display will be retina, and the web will be starting to catch up to retina. Who knows what the requirements for CS8 will be or what it will be capable of or how it will change your work and thus your requirements. If you're worried about resale value, the best you can do is get a 27" so the RAM is accessible, and spring for the fusion drive.

In my studio, we use Mac Pros with 2.8GHz processors and 8GB RAM. Used 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for production graphics with CS5/CS5.5 - absolutely smooth and seamless the whole time.

I don't know if its a fair conparison as they are obviously different machines, but the base 27" is very similar in terms of processor speed and RAM. Don't know what the graphics card the Pro uses though, will have to check.

 

[MoreAwesomeDanU]

i5 with lots of ram and SSD will give u way more performance improvement than going for a high end i7