Hi and Merry Christmas!
These are the two iMac configurations I am considering purchasing.
21.5 iMac
3.1 i7
1 Terabyte Fusion Drive
16 Gigabytes of Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 1GB video memory
21.5 iMac
2.7 i5
1 Terabyte Fusion Drive
16 Gigabytes of Ram
Intel Iris Pro Graphics
I currently only use the computer for surfing the internet, checking my email, and downloading photos. It's been about 4 years since I have done any video editing in iMovie, used handbrake, or encoded music or dvds.
Obviously, the i7 is overkill for what I do today, but this is what I am unclear about.
Even though the benefit of the i7 is for applications that use hyper-threading, will the faster i7 processor in addition to the better graphics card most likely take me farther into the future for everyday use before the machine starts to feel slow vs. the i5? And if so, how much farther, 1, 2, 3 years?
I've noticed that when Apple updates it's operating systems, it blankets all machines within their categories made during certain years as eligible for the upgrade disregarding different speeds or processors made within that time. For example, the minimum requirements for Yosemite are iMac (Mid 2007 or later). In the future all 2013 iMacs will probably not be eligible for an upgrade down the road regardless if they have an i7 or i5 processor. However, if I am stuck on the last possible OS upgrade, would it benefit me to have the i7 setup? Although the difference in setups will not make much of a difference in speed with basic tasks today, is it likely that it will in the future when the OS is more demanding?
I would like to use my current iMac as an example. It is a core duo from 2006. I noticed about the time Snow Leopard came out, surfing the web was slower, and the machine was slower overall. Surfing pages full of flash or gifs would cause a slow down where sometimes web pages would briefly freeze when scrolling through them. In other words, my web surfing experience was no longer smooth. So I wonder if given the option to get a better iMac in 2006 would have made my experiences while surfing the net with Snow Leopard snappier? And if so, would the i7 with hyper-threading capabilities plus the better better graphics card provide a better experience while surfing the web 3 or more years into the future than the i5 setup?
Also, I do remember that once 1080P movies for iTunes came out, my system was unable to play them well. I just looked up the minimum requirements and they require a 2.4 Core 2 Duo. In mid 2007 Apple had two 20 inch iMac models released, the 2.0 and 2.4 ghz. I guess this would make a case that getting a higher end mac would have enabled me to watch 1080P videos more pleasantly up until today.
So in a nutshell, I understand that I will not notice much of a speed difference between the i7 and the i5 for basic tasks today, but I am uncertain that in the future, if the same basic tasks, especially surfing the internet, will benefit from the i7 setup which in turn will afford me the opportunity to enjoy the computer for a longer period of time.
These are the two iMac configurations I am considering purchasing.
21.5 iMac
3.1 i7
1 Terabyte Fusion Drive
16 Gigabytes of Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 1GB video memory
21.5 iMac
2.7 i5
1 Terabyte Fusion Drive
16 Gigabytes of Ram
Intel Iris Pro Graphics
I currently only use the computer for surfing the internet, checking my email, and downloading photos. It's been about 4 years since I have done any video editing in iMovie, used handbrake, or encoded music or dvds.
Obviously, the i7 is overkill for what I do today, but this is what I am unclear about.
Even though the benefit of the i7 is for applications that use hyper-threading, will the faster i7 processor in addition to the better graphics card most likely take me farther into the future for everyday use before the machine starts to feel slow vs. the i5? And if so, how much farther, 1, 2, 3 years?
I've noticed that when Apple updates it's operating systems, it blankets all machines within their categories made during certain years as eligible for the upgrade disregarding different speeds or processors made within that time. For example, the minimum requirements for Yosemite are iMac (Mid 2007 or later). In the future all 2013 iMacs will probably not be eligible for an upgrade down the road regardless if they have an i7 or i5 processor. However, if I am stuck on the last possible OS upgrade, would it benefit me to have the i7 setup? Although the difference in setups will not make much of a difference in speed with basic tasks today, is it likely that it will in the future when the OS is more demanding?
I would like to use my current iMac as an example. It is a core duo from 2006. I noticed about the time Snow Leopard came out, surfing the web was slower, and the machine was slower overall. Surfing pages full of flash or gifs would cause a slow down where sometimes web pages would briefly freeze when scrolling through them. In other words, my web surfing experience was no longer smooth. So I wonder if given the option to get a better iMac in 2006 would have made my experiences while surfing the net with Snow Leopard snappier? And if so, would the i7 with hyper-threading capabilities plus the better better graphics card provide a better experience while surfing the web 3 or more years into the future than the i5 setup?
Also, I do remember that once 1080P movies for iTunes came out, my system was unable to play them well. I just looked up the minimum requirements and they require a 2.4 Core 2 Duo. In mid 2007 Apple had two 20 inch iMac models released, the 2.0 and 2.4 ghz. I guess this would make a case that getting a higher end mac would have enabled me to watch 1080P videos more pleasantly up until today.
So in a nutshell, I understand that I will not notice much of a speed difference between the i7 and the i5 for basic tasks today, but I am uncertain that in the future, if the same basic tasks, especially surfing the internet, will benefit from the i7 setup which in turn will afford me the opportunity to enjoy the computer for a longer period of time.
