So wanted a 21.5" retina iMac....but I guess I am stuck with a Windows PC for another year as a 27" would not fit in my workstation....sigh. 
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
First Hands-On Impressions of 27-Inch Retina iMac: Sharp Image Quality, Great Viewing Angles
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
So excited
I've been holding out for a couple of years to buy an iMac. Never any justification other than wanting a nice looking desktop to replace my 2008 HP Touchsmart. Having such a beautiful display is just the reason I needed to make my purchase. I'll wait for reviews to come out from people who know a little bit more about computers than I do before I purchase though. From reading my worries is that the lifespan won't be long with the computers internals, mainly GPU. I plan to get into video editing within the next couple of years. So I need to make the right purchase! Still excited..
Was this post long enough??
I've been holding out for a couple of years to buy an iMac. Never any justification other than wanting a nice looking desktop to replace my 2008 HP Touchsmart. Having such a beautiful display is just the reason I needed to make my purchase. I'll wait for reviews to come out from people who know a little bit more about computers than I do before I purchase though. From reading my worries is that the lifespan won't be long with the computers internals, mainly GPU. I plan to get into video editing within the next couple of years. So I need to make the right purchase! Still excited..
Was this post long enough??
I have a question about something that I don't see Mac people talk about very much.
I have a 27" iMac that has served me very well since 2010. I've never had any other desktop for this long.
But here's a problem I'm having. I don't see the text very well most of the time.
If I'm at 2560 x 1440 and looking at something that can be zoomed (like most Web pages with text), I'll zoom in two or three times to be able to read as easily as I want. This also applies to annoying HTML mail in size 10.
If I'm looking at something that cannot be zoomed, then I'll switch to 1920 x 1080 and that usually does the trick, but of course it's not as crisp and clean looking as the native resolution.
So here's my stupid old man question: With this new 27" Retina display, how can I be sure I'll be able to see and read text easily?
When I have the resolution set to be optimized for Retina display, what is the equivalent resolution?
Before I dump three grand or more on one of these magnificent screens, I want to be sure that I can use it for what I do *most* of the time. And I do a *lot* of it...if it works right, I'm sure a Retina display on a 27" iMac would help tremendously.
Thanks very much for any help you can provide.
You shouldn't be zooming at all man ! Let's earn you some comfort:
A - With CMD + "+" and CMD + "-" you can set your level of zoom in your browser as you like it to be (Firefox).
B - Or simply go to "Preferences" In Screen properties you can manually select your resolution and lower it so things will appear bigger and easier to read.
If you can't see the tiny details, no need for a sharp resolution and even less need for a 5K screen !!!
I have to admit that I'd love to get one of these, but just for emotional reasons and to play around with it.
Rationally seen I don't understand the market for that. Professionals don't buy iMacs for various reasons and for a consumer product I'm afraid that the market for a 3.500$ desktop (including the required upgrades) is very limited.
And 600$ for an upgrade from mediocre 8GB to 32GB? Is this a joke? And a magnetic disk in such an expensive device, really?
I better spend my money on a nice vacation with my kids.
Rationally seen I don't understand the market for that. Professionals don't buy iMacs for various reasons and for a consumer product I'm afraid that the market for a 3.500$ desktop (including the required upgrades) is very limited.
And 600$ for an upgrade from mediocre 8GB to 32GB? Is this a joke? And a magnetic disk in such an expensive device, really?
I better spend my money on a nice vacation with my kids.
Just wait for Anandtech to do a proper review including some gaming performance, and the droves of people saying that it shouldn't be used for games as Mac aren't for gaming when the results aren't that great.
I'd like to be proved wrong but if this GPU is only 45% quicker but with a massive increase in resolution, when the old GPU struggled with gaming at 1440p I don't hold much hope for decent gaming performance at 5K.
For every day tasks, and photo editing it will be great however.
so APPLE, where is now our god damn 5K 27" inch CINEMA DISPLAY ???? WHERE?!
Dell will soon sell you the exact same display, at the exact same price. They just leave the computer out.
Dell's (higher quality) Ultrasharp displays always used the same panels as Apple's, but were 1/3 cheaper, better calibrated, had much better connectivity and non-glare coating. They didn't look as nice, though.
So you're complaining about wanting to use an old version of an application that is no longer maintained on a cutting edge new screen? And you somehow think this scenario apples to all applications? Have you ever used a retina macbook pro? EVERY application I use looks better.
This makes absolutely no sense given there are 15" retina screens and now a 27". There will be a 4k 21" iMac next year. People don't buy the smaller iMac for portability its because not everyone has a huge desk or needs that much space.
Told one of my Apple-hating friends about this new iMac. I said "I know you're not a fan of the Mac but just pretend it's a Lenovo, don't you think the hardware and price are impressive?".
About two hours later he text me saying "I've found something wrong with the 5K display". I said "I'm not interested. I knew you would." He's an anti-fanboy.
About two hours later he text me saying "I've found something wrong with the 5K display". I said "I'm not interested. I knew you would." He's an anti-fanboy.
Mac Pro cannot power 5k display with weak Display Port 1.2.
No mac can power 5k so ZERO chance of 5k Thunderbolt display coming.
I'll have to keep on enjoying my Thunderbolt display then and wow the new Yosemite OS looks stunning!
The majority of professionals using Apple products are using MBP's and iMacs. So I don't really know where you are getting that professionals don't buy iMacs.
And sometimes they had more bleeding than Apple's. Dell's Ultrasharps do not trump Apple displays necessarily on the picture quality department.
----------
They are not 5K ready for gaming. For everything else, they are more than enough. And even on the PC enthusiast circles, 5K gaming is a bit of stretch right now using quad SLI Titan's.
so APPLE, where is now our god damn 5K 27" inch CINEMA DISPLAY ???? WHERE?!
You can't drive it, that's why it's not there. If you can't do it with TB2, and you can't do it with HDMI2.0, it's not coming anytime soon. The only way to provide a working usable 5k screen is to build it into an all-in-one, and then the interface between graphics card and screen can be custom-built. That's why Apple can put a 5k screen in there, but neither them nor anyone else can provide a useful 5k screen that you can plug into a Mac Pro or some other box.
It's a very clever solution to an interface specification problem. Avoid it.
One day, we'll all use 5k screens or better. Until then, this is the answer.
Sure they can. Dell's 5K works with double DP 1.2 cables or a single DP 1.3.
Apple can do the exact same. Use two TB 2 outputs until TB 3 arrives.
Well I'd heard the rMBP can emit a full 4K signal via HDMI. Is this not true? I only use it for web browsing, Netflix and Lightroom. I'm not going to be gaming or doing 3D work on it.
The MBP can run its internal display, two 2560x1600 TB displays, and an HD HDMI display. That adds up to pretty much the same number of pixels as the 5k Retina. It runs them fine. Sure, you're not going to be able to play modern games at 5k resolution, but I don't think anyone's pretending you will (nor would really notice it if you did).
For general computing use, managing windows and stuff, the 2012 rMBP is more than capable of running that number of pixels. The iMac will do it that much better because of its way better GPU.
RAM question
Hi guys, quick question as I'm not too clued up on this.
The standard comes with 8GB Ram (2x4GB)
If I was to buy this then purchase 2x8GB from crucial, in theory as theres 4 slots this would add to 24GB. Is this possible? Or does it have to be 4x4gb or 4x8gb?
Is the extra £160 expensive to upgrade to 16GB?
Thanks
Hi guys, quick question as I'm not too clued up on this.
The standard comes with 8GB Ram (2x4GB)
If I was to buy this then purchase 2x8GB from crucial, in theory as theres 4 slots this would add to 24GB. Is this possible? Or does it have to be 4x4gb or 4x8gb?
Is the extra £160 expensive to upgrade to 16GB?
Thanks
Running 4k on MST is already a dog's breakfast, what with monitors failing or half-failing to wake up from sleep and all sorts of other issues getting them to run at 60Hz reliably. How messy is it going to be to be running double TB2 cables? A fudge is not the right solution, and DP1.3/TB3 is not here.