iMac 27" i5 vs. i7

[SwissGuy93]

Hej guys,

Got a question about the new iMacs and their CPUs. I am a student (so I am on a budget) and I was looking into buying the new iMac 27" 5K. Now, I am studying software engineering and we mostly use Java and php and we have a lot of designing to do with Sketch. Other languages I will want to use and look into are Swift, Pearl and Python. Now, the difference between the base model 27" with i5 and the 27" i7 is over 600 swiss francs (equivilant to 620 USD). Is that worth it? I will upgarde the RAM by myself, so that shouldn't be an issue. What would you advise?
To clarify; I do some RAW image editing on the side, and I have an occasional 4K to quickly edit. But I will not use it for Motion, After Effects or stuff like that. MAYBE some light VR stuff but we have a great VR lab in school and there are no courses yet for VR, so that is by far not my main focus. And as I gather the VRAM is more important when it comes to VR. But maybe I got that wrong.

 

[KnoeSS]

Not really sure how much horsepower you'll need for those programming languages, but I can tell you the 600 swiss franc difference is also in the GPU and the storage.

Even if you'll want do a little VR and some 4K here and there my guess is you'll be better of with high end model with Pro 580.

 

[SwissGuy93]

Not really sure how much horsepower you'll need for those programming languages, but I can tell you the 600 swiss franc difference is also in the GPU and the storage.

Even if you'll want do a little VR and some 4K here and there my guess is you'll be better of with high end model with Pro 580.

Yeah, that is true. I get an upgrade from Radeon Pro 570 to 575. But both have 4GB of VRAM. As I said, maybe some VR stuff but not heavy and for sure not developing VR. And the high end 27" is definitly out of reach for me.

 

[valhopkins]

What model did you end up purchasing, and has it lived up to your expectations?

Yeah, that is true. I get an upgrade from Radeon Pro 570 to 575. But both have 4GB of VRAM. As I said, maybe some VR stuff but not heavy and for sure not developing VR. And the high end 27" is definitly out of reach for me.

 

[lali]

SSD as opposed to fusion drive is more important to me than i5 vs i7