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Help! A few questions about upgrading!

FrankySavvy

FrankySavvy

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 4, 2010
1,691
872
Long Island, NY
Some background:

I have a 2011 27" iMac w/ Intel Quad Core i7 3.4Ghz (Sandy Bridge), 16GB Ram 1 TB Hard Drive and AMD Radeon 6970M w/ 2GB VRAM.

I am a graphic designer who uses the Adobe Creative Suite a lot, Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. I also game on occasion.

The following questions are to determine if I should upgrade my 2011 27" iMac to the new Retina iMac.

I am unfamiliar with the way Intel classifies their processors and clock speeds so bear with me. I am also unfamiliar with AMD video cards and how VRAM factors in, all i know, is more is usually better.


Question 1:

My existing iMac has an Intel Quad Core i7 with a 3.4GHZ clock speed. Since I was thinking of purchasing the new Retina iMac, it has the Haswell Quad Core i5 with a 3.5GHZ clock speed.

On paper it seems like a minor jump in clock speed, can someone explain, is it a much faster processor, will I see a massive jump in CPU power?

Question 2:

I currently have the AMD Radeon 6970M w/ 2GB VRAM in my iMac, would an upgrade to AMD Radeon R9 M290X with 2GB VRAM, be much of an improvement? Would I need to double the VRAM to 4GB to really notice a difference?

Help Me!
 
FrankySavvy said:
Some background:

I have a 2011 27" iMac w/ Intel Quad Core i7 3.4Ghz (Sandy Bridge), 16GB Ram 1 TB Hard Drive and AMD Radeon 6970M w/ 2GB VRAM.

I am a graphic designer who uses the Adobe Creative Suite a lot, Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. I also game on occasion.

The following questions are to determine if I should upgrade my 2011 27" iMac to the new Retina iMac.

I am unfamiliar with the way Intel classifies their processors and clock speeds so bear with me. I am also unfamiliar with AMD video cards and how VRAM factors in, all i know, is more is usually better.


Question 1:

My existing iMac has an Intel Quad Core i7 with a 3.4GHZ clock speed. Since I was thinking of purchasing the new Retina iMac, it has the Haswell Quad Core i5 with a 3.5GHZ clock speed.

On paper it seems like a minor jump in clock speed, can someone explain, is it a much faster processor, will I see a massive jump in CPU power?

Question 2:

I currently have the AMD Radeon 6970M w/ 2GB VRAM in my iMac, would an upgrade to AMD Radeon R9 M290X with 2GB VRAM, be much of an improvement? Would I need to double the VRAM to 4GB to really notice a difference?

Help Me!
Click to expand...

Q1:
You'd actually see a decrease in power when it comes to hyper threaded tasks, because the desktop i5s don't support hyper threading. Via Geekbench, the i7-2600 in your 2011 iMac actually outperforms the i5-4670 of the retina iMac by a bit.

Q2:
Considering the amount of pixels the retina iMac has to push, 2GB of R9 M290X may be a bit tight. I'd highly recommend you go for the 4GB R9 M295X.
 
Wow, I'm surprised, so the CPU in my four year old machine is just as powerful, if not better?

And the two AMD gpu's are fairly comparable unless I double the ram?

That's disapointing.......


Edit: good for my wallet
 
well part of the issue is a lot of the improvements in processors in the last few years have been making them better at some things, not necessarily making them faster plus comparing a newer i5 to an older i7, means the i7 is built to do some things that the i5 isn't. If you want to read the comparisons, you can read here:
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/576/Intel_Core_i5_i5-4670K_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-2600K.html

Likewise, I've read that the next processors will not see a lot of improvements other than if you have a laptop, because they are working on things like power consumption, heat output and overall size. Basically, intel processors are good and a lot of improvements will be refinements rather than large jump in speeds.

And with the video cards, 290 vs 295 is deceiving but the video card, beyond memory, is a large jump between each other.
 
Yes, it's bad.
Why do all the 15" MBP get i7 and the 27" starts with i5???

They should give all 27" iMacs i7 CPUs!!!!


FrankySavvy said:
Wow, I'm surprised, so the CPU in my four year old machine is just as powerful, if not better?

And the two AMD gpu's are fairly comparable unless I double the ram?

That's disapointing.......


Edit: good for my wallet
Click to expand...
 
leenak said:
well part of the issue is a lot of the improvements in processors in the last few years have been making them better at some things, not necessarily making them faster plus comparing a newer i5 to an older i7, means the i7 is built to do some things that the i5 isn't. If you want to read the comparisons, you can read here:
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/576/Intel_Core_i5_i5-4670K_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-2600K.html

Likewise, I've read that the next processors will not see a lot of improvements other than if you have a laptop, because they are working on things like power consumption, heat output and overall size. Basically, intel processors are good and a lot of improvements will be refinements rather than large jump in speeds.

And with the video cards, 290 vs 295 is deceiving but the video card, beyond memory, is a large jump between each other.
Click to expand...

So the CPU is basically a wash - unless I build the Retina to the new i7 standard a $225 upgrade. But is the "Haswell" i7 4Ghz vs the "Sandy Bridge" i7 at 3.4ghz, that big of an improvement?

I am astonished that a Core i7 from generation to generation in four years has't progressed that much.

And your saying the AMD video card is an improvement even without comparing VRAM?

I am just trying to justify buying a $2500 iMac or holding out a little longer and staying with my 2011 iMac.
 
FrankySavvy said:
So the CPU is basically a wash - unless I build the Retina to the new i7 standard a $225 upgrade. But is the "Haswell" i7 4Ghz vs the "Sandy Bridge" i7 at 3.4ghz, that big of an improvement?

I am astonished that a Core i7 from generation to generation in four years has't progressed that much.

And your saying the AMD video card is an improvement even without comparing VRAM?

I am just trying to justify buying a $2500 iMac or holding out a little longer and staying with my 2011 iMac.
Click to expand...

I would just hold onto your current iMac but yes the AMD card is an improvement without the 4GB vram.
 
leenak said:
I would just hold onto your current iMac but yes the AMD card is an improvement without the 4GB vram.
Click to expand...

I was now thinking of waiting until next year.

Reasons being:

1) Lower Funds Currently, just bought a 6 Plus ;)

2) Broadwell/Skylake next year? - Bigger Improvement?

3) Price may go down in Next Gen Retina iMacs - Maybe?
 
matrix07 said:
You may want to read this a bit. From someone who decided to buy it now. heh! heh!
http://www.marco.org/2014/10/16/retina-imac-vs-mac-pro
Click to expand...

I agree with some of your points but honestly, I don't see any reason for most people (unless they do a lot of video editing) to upgrade to 32gb RAM. Also, since the RAM is user upgradeable, many people can choose to go with 8gb and upgrade later. I chose 16gb myself but I'd be hard pressed to go to 32gb.

And like you mention, broadwell is a small improvement for performance. The biggest thing with broadwell seems to be that it is now at a stage where it can be used in tablets which has no impact on iMacs. Laptops will benefit the most from broadwell.
 
leenak said:
I agree with some of your points but honestly, I don't see any reason for most people (unless they do a lot of video editing) to upgrade to 32gb RAM. Also, since the RAM is user upgradeable, many people can choose to go with 8gb and upgrade later. I chose 16gb myself but I'd be hard pressed to go to 32gb.

And like you mention, broadwell is a small improvement for performance. The biggest thing with broadwell seems to be that it is now at a stage where it can be used in tablets which has no impact on iMacs. Laptops will benefit the most from broadwell.
Click to expand...

So really processors won't get much better next year, I just might have the benefit of the price going down on the Retina iMac ;)
 
FrankySavvy said:
So really processors won't get much better next year, I just might have the benefit of the price going down on the Retina iMac ;)
Click to expand...

You could but I doubt the price will go down. I don't think there is a reason to upgrade unless you really want to.
 
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