As usual Apple have not gone overboard with their graphic cards. I have always preferred nVidia but don't have a choice. In the UK to upgrade to the M395 is around an extra £130 ($200), and for the M395X (with 4GB) another £200 ($300) on top. Is this worth it I ask myself. Pls note I am a part time gamer for such advanced (!!!) games as WoW and Diablo 3.
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Graphics card option
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Thanks for reply. Thought you might say that! Gut feeling says you are right. I do not do much if any photo/video editing just pretty basic gaming but I guess it is best to future proof. I tend to keep my Macs for around 5/6 years. Problem I have my current iMac has blown it's video card so need to act now.
Thanks again for giving me an answer I did not want to hear!!
Let's be honest here guys.. Computers have gotten to a point where processor power for your use simply doesn't matter anymore...
I do photo processing on my spare time, Ux design for a living (photoshop, illustrator etc) and I got my a mid tiered 27 i5 iMac in 2011. After upgrading the HDD to ssd and throwing some more ram in there, the thing is still more than capable today. Heck I even play Starcraft and Diablo on it every now and then. The only reason I'm thinking about upgrading is because of the Retina display.
Will a top specced iMac be futureproof? Sure... Is it overkill? Definitely, because a mid tier will be just as future proof.
I do photo processing on my spare time, Ux design for a living (photoshop, illustrator etc) and I got my a mid tiered 27 i5 iMac in 2011. After upgrading the HDD to ssd and throwing some more ram in there, the thing is still more than capable today. Heck I even play Starcraft and Diablo on it every now and then. The only reason I'm thinking about upgrading is because of the Retina display.
Will a top specced iMac be futureproof? Sure... Is it overkill? Definitely, because a mid tier will be just as future proof.
Is there a big difference between M395 and the M395X in performance? I agree with MoreAwesomeDanU and I think most configurations may be good enough for most people and in the future. My 2012 rMBP is running PS and Lightroom and its faster then my SP3.
I haven't owned a 5K iMac yet. I am upgrading from the late 2013 maxed iMac so I haven't experienced it. I did read that the 5K screen did use some resources to run so if that's true the extra GPU might help drive the screen.
It's a tough call if you have the money I say just max it out and get it over with. I didn't plan on upgrading myself but I got a baby on the way and pretty soon my funds will be toast so I am going all out and upgrading everything while I can since it maybe awhile before I can afford to upgrade in the future.
The upgraded GPU will come in handy when doing 4K video editing also. Yes you can get by with most programs and daily use but why limit your self later on down the line. My Sony 4K camcorder does a GIG per minute I can tell you my current iMac 2013 maxed can handle it but it's a bit choppy at times. My vote is get the better GPU
Thanks everybody. I have a head versus heart problem. Guess I need a cold towel and a darkened room! Fortunately I can afford the outlay every 5/6 years or so. One last question. I believe the graphic card is no longer integral with the MCB (as it is with my mid 2009 iMac), but is it slotted and therefore relatively easy (?) to replace or is it soldered? Or have Apple ensured that it cannot be replaced!!
Exactly right. You are buying a new computer for the future. Even today, importing and converting large numbers of 42 megapixel raw stills from my Sony A7RII takes a long time on my top-spec 2013 iMac 27. Editing 4k can be choppy and multicam 4k requires using a proxy workflow. Applying effects to 4k can be agonizingly slow.
Anyone planning on serious 4k video editing or taking lots of raw stills from new high-megapixel cameras needs the fastest computer they can possibly afford. Typically that means the fastest available CPU and GPU. An SSD boot drive helps a little but even 1TB is way too small to put much material on it. 3TB FD is bigger but you don't want high bandwidth 4k files on the boot drive. Hence in a way the boot drive doesn't matter, but since you can't put much on it you may as well get SSD and get those benefits.
Our newer 200 mbps 4k cameras record 1.5GB per minute. If we shoot a 30 min. three-camera interview, that's 135GB, and multicam editing requires transcoding to proxies so that balloons to at least 220GB, not including scratch files, optical reflow files, render files, etc. If transcoding to optimized ProRes media is required, this can be 10x the size or 1.35 TB -- for 30 min. of material.