IMac 5K Retina & iOS Development

[Helpfixit]

Hi,

I'm considering purchasing the iMac 5k with the following specifications below for the purpose of iOS ( 2d games and educational apps) and web development with PHP / SQL .

• 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
• Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
• 8GB (two 4GB) memory ( will add an additional 16GB after purchase )
• 1TB Fusion Drive1 or 256GB SSD

• AMD Radeon R9 M295X with 4GB video memory

Or

• AMD Radeon R9 M290X with 2GB video memory

So my question is:

Is the Radeon R9 M290X sufficient for building Swift 2d games with Sprite Kit ? I would like to mention that I would not be using the iMac for triple A gaming.

 

[placidity44]

It is very capable of doing what you need it to do. I'd strongly suggest buying refurbished though. You can ask around they are just as good if not better than new machines. They are 14-day returns mostly returned just for the simple reason that it was buyers remorse. Apple then checks absolutely everything and puts it through stress testing and replaces something if it needs replaced. I actually have pretty bad OCD and a ding, scratch, or backlight issues, or any noticeable cosmetic imperfections would drive me up the wall. I will buy nothing but refurbished if I can get the spec i'm after. All my Apple products except for my iPhone are refurbished and I wouldn't have it any other way. They are essentially brand new machines just in a different box. You get the same 14-day return policy, 1 year of support, and you can purchase applecare for them. You get a good bit of savings as well because apple can't sell it as new. The cosmetic condition and function i've gotten from refurbs from apple is absolutely outstanding. For instance apple's ipads they replace the outer shell and battery even if it was returned a day later with no issues. They really have extremely high standards with their refurbs. This isn't dell,hp etc refurbishment process. Only buy refurbs from apple. The model you want is 350 dollars cheaper refurbished. There is no catch with this it is apple's best kept secret. Sometimes you even get a higher spec than what you ordered if apple runs out of stock. I ordered a 2.2ghz i7 rMBP with 256GB ssd and got a 2.6GHz i7 model with 512GB ssd for the price of the lower tier refurb. Got a 2700 dollar machine back in late 2013 for 1700. You have nothing to lose buy going with a refurb if you're not happy you can return it. If you choose to buy new to answer your question it will suit your needs just fine.

 

[Helpfixit]

Thanks placidity44,

I'm able to purchase the iMac from the educational store with 15% discount at the moment but thanks for letting me know about the refurbished products available from Apple, had a look and I'm sure I will use it in the future

 

[placidity44]

No problem! I just like to tell people about it in case they're not aware of it to get a great machine and save some money. Best of luck to you with the retina iMac. Every time i'm near an Apple store or a best buy I go in and play around with them. The display is absolutely unreal. Dell's 5k 27" display alone is 2,499 dollars and for less you get an extremely powerful iMac with the same display. Look forward to hearing about your progress on the forum. You ever release anything on the app store and need constructive feedback just let me know i'd be happy to help. Take care.

 

[Helpfixit]

It's a fantastic display, the text is razor sharp. Agree, considering the price of Dell's 5k the iMac retina is good value.

 

[Helpfixit]

placidity44,

What are the specifications of your retina iMac, also are you using it for iOS development ?

 

[garyrh66]

Hi,

I'm considering purchasing the iMac 5k with the following specifications below for the purpose of iOS ( 2d games and educational apps) and web development with PHP / SQL .

• 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
• Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
• 8GB (two 4GB) memory ( will add an additional 16GB after purchase )
• 1TB Fusion Drive1 or 256GB SSD

• AMD Radeon R9 M295X with 4GB video memory

Or

• AMD Radeon R9 M290X with 2GB video memory

So my question is:

Is the Radeon R9 M290X sufficient for building Swift 2d games with Sprite Kit ? I would like to mention that I would not be using the iMac for triple A gaming.

I bought the same iMac 5K you are getting and upgraded the memory with the additional 16GB and love it. I had no problems at all with it. I don't play games. The Fusion drive is fast and coming from a custom built top of the line PC with SSD drive's in it. I am not disappointed at all with my purchase. It is just as fast as my PC. Good Luck.

 

[Helpfixit]

I bought the same iMac 5K you are getting and upgraded the memory with the additional 16GB and love it. I had no problems at all with it. I don't play games. The Fusion drive is fast and coming from a custom built top of the line PC with SSD drive's in it. I am not disappointed at all with my purchase. It is just as fast as my PC. Good Luck.

Thanks for your reply. I purchased the 27" retina iMac yesterday and decided to go with the 4.0 GHz i7 processor and R9 M295X option with 500GB flash storage. I was unsure if the i5 and R9 M290X would meet my future needs hence the upgraded CPU and GPU plus the student discount was a deciding factor. As I mentioned, I will use the iMac mainly for iOS and Web Development but also will plan on using handbrake for video conversion. I'm looking forward to delivery and setup .

 

[Helpfixit]

As much as I loved retina display I could not justify keeping it as the graphics lag / refresh rate was unsatisfactory when performing basic tasks. I kept this for 3 days and promptly returned it back to Apple. I experienced very intermittent graphics glitches such as font distortion and lag when resizing or switching between applications or finder windows.

I have now replaced this with a refurbished i7 3.5 GHz, NVIDIA GTX 780m, 3TB Fusion and I'm more than satisfied with its performance, though I do miss the sharpness of the retina display.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

As much as I loved retina display I could not justify keeping it as the graphics lag / refresh rate was unsatisfactory when performing basic tasks. I kept this for 3 days and promptly returned it back to Apple. I experienced very intermittent graphics glitches such as font distortion and lag when resizing or switching between applications or finder windows.

I have now replaced this with the i7 3.5 GHz and NVIDIA GTX 780m and I'm more than satisfied with its performance, though I do miss the sharpness of the retina display.

This is a problem with all retina macs and seems to be a software issue in yosemite, the hardware is easily perful enough to run a 5K screen with no issues at all, indeed it will do so in windows. El capitan has supposedly sorted out all of these issues. You have got rid of that great screen because you couldn't put up with a few dropped frames when resizing windows for a few months until El capitan came out, hell you could have installed it this week if it was bothering you that much.

 

[Helpfixit]

This is a problem with all retina macs and seems to be a software issue in yosemite, the hardware is easily perful enough to run a 5K screen with no issues at all, indeed it will do so in windows. El capitan has supposedly sorted out all of these issues. You have got rid of that great screen because you couldn't put up with a few dropped frames when resizing windows for a few months until El capitan came out, hell you could have installed it this week if it was bothering you that much.

A few months wait for EL Capitan but only 14 days for a return or refund from Apple. Unfortunately as much as I would have liked to, I do not have time to install the developers preview of EL Capitan. The GTX 780m is almost as good as the R9 M295 X but the GTX 780m powers a non retina display with much less power 122W vs 250W , I would rather have the GTX 780m based in the differences of the GPU's for my usage. I can live without the retina display and graphics problems. It was not just the lag that influenced the return of the iMac, the other intermittent graphics glitches and fan noise were the other factors. As a new machine I expected better, I did not get a good felling from the machine.