Imac 2017 4.2 i7 with 580 8GB or Imac 2019 i5 with 570 4GB?

[ayhanay]

Hey everyone, it is my first post here. I hope this question is in right place.

I have both these imacs and I am about to update one of them with 970 evo NVMe. I just wanted to make the right choice.

What do you think, which one is worth updating and using 3-4 years more.

I use mostly Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop for picture editing. And I use Final Cut Pro x for video editing.

In paper 2017 looks better, but I just don't like the fan noise when I work on Adobe Lightroom Classic. I still didn't test the iMac 2019.

Please advise!

Thank you in advance.

 

[wilberforce]

I think the 2019 i5 is 6-core, whereas the 2017 i7 is 4-core. (i7 vs i5 marketing names are only meaningful when comparing within the same year). i7 uses hyperthreading, but that is not as important as number of cores.
I think both are 14nm, so heat is probably similar?

LR and PS are CPU-intensive, whereas FCP is GPU intensive.

So I suspect 2019 is better for LR and PS, and 2017 better for FCP.
I guess you need to test them both.

btw, having had 27" iMacs since 2014, I suggest vacuum along the bottom edge (with the machine OFF!). There is a screen grate about 1" above the slots at the bottom edge which clogs with dust. Look inside with a flashlight. Cleaning this can reduce fan speed a lot.

Also carefully check the edges of the screens for discoloration and image persistence (easiest way is to bring up launchpad and see if there is a shadow of the menu bar).

 

[CWallace]

I had the 2017 with the 4.2GHz i7 (4 cores/8 threads) and the 580 until this September when I replaced it with a 2020 model (I WFH and need native Intel Windows support) and it served me well as a general-use computer.

The fan does spin hard when all 4 cores are pushed since it is a 90W TDP chip. The 2019 i5 is a 65W TDP so it will run cooler, as will the 575, but when pushed there may be fan noise.

There are probably plenty of online benchmarks showing the performance differences between them.

 

[Fishrrman]

Get the 2019.
It's two years "further along"...