iMac i5 or MBPr for video editing ?

[MacChat]

Hello everyone,
I am quite confused to decide, so i need your advises please.
I am a student and have been a window guy from the beginning, but as i hear so much good stuffs about mac that its hard to believe, so i want to shift myself from windows to mac.

My purpose- I license my photos and HD videos through stock sites so i need to use photoshop/lightroom, after effects, premier pro and sony vegas kind of apps, may also play some strategy/sims games occasionally. I also use many plugins from video copilot and reg giant etc for after effects and other plugins for photoshop too.

Budget - about 3000-3500$ (so not thinking of mac pro for now)

Now the thing is, i want to get a desktop but in my country only standard iMacs (just i5 which cant be upgraded) are available which are-
(1) 27" iMac (3.2 GHz, quad core i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB (7200 rpm) hard disk, GPU- NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M - 1GB) cost- 2065 $

(2) 27" iMac with Retina 5k display (3.5 GHz, i5 quad core, 8GB RAM, 1 TB fusion drive, AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics processor with 2GB of GDDR5 memory) cost - about 3000$

and finally the top notch laptop that is

(3) 15" Macbook Pro Retina (2880x1800 pixels (Retina) native resolution, 2.5 GHz i7 quad core, 16 GB RAM, Storage- 512GB PCIe-based flash storage, GPU- Intel Iris Pro Graphics + AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB of GDDR5 ) Cost - 3300$

so guys please suggest me which one is good and probably future proof according to my work ? i could have spent a little more for i7 if it was available but unfortunately no upgrade options for iMac is available in my country.
I heard some WWDC 2015 gonna take place soon (on 8th), i am also waiting for something new there, but if nothing comes out from wwdc for me then i have just above 3 options,
so please suggest me which 1 among all 3 optios or i should rather stick to a HP workstation( as it has xenon processors and other top options available with it)


ps- i want to add that i live in hot country and temperature is quite high in general, so my other laptops do become quite hot after some hours of use, not sure about macs. Also my broadband is quite slow , so i may need to keep my laptops on for quite some times when i need to upload video files.
so i also want to know how stable imac or MBPr are against hot temp and some long hours of uses.
Thanking you.

 

[keysofanxiety]

15" rMBP. More power. Flash storage which is ludicrously quick. More RAM.

 

[MacChat]

thanks. I was reading a thread here where the op saying that his new 15" rMBP being underpowered than his old imac with quad core i5...! Is it possible that being a desktop imac with i5 (3.2 GHz) is more powerful than rMBP with i7 (2.5 GHz)?

 

[keysofanxiety]

thanks. I was reading a thread here where the op saying that his new 15" rMBP being underpowered than his old imac with quad core i5...! Is it possible ?

Absolutely no way, the quad mobile i7s in the base rMBP smashes any quad desktop i5 that you can get in the iMacs. Plus with the SSDs in the rMBPs & the 16GB RAM you'll find that it'll excel in light performance, but have enough grunt to handle the heavy work.

All I'd suggest is possibly holding off on the purchase if you can afford to wait, it's likely that Apple will be updating the rMBPs before October this year.

 

[MacChat]

Absolutely no way, the quad mobile i7s in the base rMBP smashes any quad desktop i5 that you can get in the iMacs. Plus with the SSDs in the rMBPs & the 16GB RAM you'll find that it'll excel in light performance, but have enough grunt to handle the heavy work.

All I'd suggest is possibly holding off on the purchase if you can afford to wait, it's likely that Apple will be updating the rMBPs before October this year.

Thanks. Of course i can wait for good. But can you hint me most probably what kind of update can we expect ? sorry i am completely new to mac world and macrumors..

 

[keysofanxiety]

Thanks. Of course i can wait for good. But can you hint me most probably what kind of update can we expect ? sorry i am completely new to mac world and macrumors..

Likely the new Intel Skylake processors. Apple occasionally lower prices too & increase things like base storage. If you're spending that much money it's definitely best to wait so you can get the most for your money. Although they were recently updated with new SSDs and trackpads, the processors stayed the same - it was more a silent update rather than an announced one.

 

[dollystereo]

I would get a refurb imac with an i7 processor.
The imac has a desktop CPU, the MBP has a mobile CPU.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I would get a refurb imac with an i7 processor.
The imac has a desktop CPU, the MBP has a mobile CPU.

Means very little really, unless the refurb has an SSD the real-world performance isn't going to be better.

Plus the new Flash memory on the rMBP is far quicker than the Flash memory on the iMac.

 

[MacChat]

i initially wanted to buy an i7 imac only but as i said in my 1st post, neither i7 imac nor refurbished options available in my country. So my top options to choose are just either i5 imac or i7 MBPr and that too new.

 

[dollystereo]

For your workflow I would take the imac with an SSD. The desktop CPU is indeed faster for single core tasks. The exports are quicker in the MBP, but just that.
Having an SSD is important, and gives the responsiveness of the machine. It doesn't matter if it is fast in the MBP, the imac SSD is plenty of fast. I would recommend a good external thunderbolt drive for media storage (ideally raid 1 for security and redundancy)

 

[Studflower]

Absolutely no way, the quad mobile i7s in the base rMBP smashes any quad desktop i5 that you can get in the iMacs. Plus with the SSDs in the rMBPs & the 16GB RAM you'll find that it'll excel in light performance, but have enough grunt to handle the heavy work.

All I'd suggest is possibly holding off on the purchase if you can afford to wait, it's likely that Apple will be updating the rMBPs before October this year.

Desktop i5 is faster or at the very least on par with laptop i7.
i7 in base rMBP doesn't "smash" any quad desktop i5.

 

[Fthree]

where do you live? my maxed out 2015 15 was 3300 (2.8/1tb)

 

[MacChat]

i am confused now. Need more opinions if desktop i5 is better than laptop i7.
Fthree. I am from India. Where are you from ?

 

[keysofanxiety]

Desktop i5 is faster or at the very least on par with laptop i7.
i7 in base rMBP doesn't "smash" any quad desktop i5.

Wrong. You assume that just because it's a desktop CPU, it's more powerful. The 3.3GHz i5 in the Retina iMac is an Intel i5-4590. That has a CPU passmark of 7253. My 15" 2012 MacBook Pro is just as powerful, as it's got an i7-3615QM which benchmarks almost identically (CPU mark of 7341). And that's a 3-year-old computer.

The 2.2GHz in the 2015 15" rMBP is an Intel i7-4770HQ, which scores 9044. The 2.5GHz model has an Intel i7-4870HQ. And the 2.8GHz model has an Intel i7-4980HQ which benchmarks at exactly 10,000. That's insanely powerful.

So yes, the i7 in the base rMBP does "smash" a quad desktop i5. Probably because the desktop i5 doesn't have hyperthreading.

 

[keysofanxiety]

i am confused now. Need more opinions if desktop i5 is better than laptop i7.
Fthree. I am from India. Where are you from ?

Not an opinion, benchmarks are there. The mobile i7s are more powerful than the desktop i5s, because the desktop i5s don't have hyperthreading. Please don't let studflower's unfounded assumption confuse you.

Also as a rule of thumb you can check the Geekbench scores to get a good idea of which specifications/model are the most powerful: http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

For comparing the CPU performance only, I tend to use: http://cpubenchmark.net

For searching the specific CPU model & other things in an Apple computer, I use: http://www.everymac.com

So back to the original, original point -- yes OP, your best bet would be to get the 15" Retina MacBook Pro.

Hope this helps.

 

[jjhoekstra]

To add to the confusion... Why not consider a second hand old style MacPro? I have 2012 MBP and a 2010 MP and I do quit a lot of video-editing. I strongly prefer the MP for this work. It feels about as fast as the MBP but it doesn't start to huff and puff like the MBP when working on a video. The MBP gets very hot and starts making a lot of noise while 'desperately' trying to cool itself. Whereas in the same situation the MP slightly ups the revs of the fans and keeps on going and going and going... For me the 'pro' monniker doesn't mean that it is the fastest possible but instead that it can handle heavy work without problems for a long time.
In addition it is very easy to change the components of a MP so that it best suits your personal way of working. Add a SSD and a large spinning disk to a old style MP and you have a very nice editing system.

Just my thoughts.

 

[MacChat]

While am leaning for MBPr , i would like hear about its heating issue if any when using for some times. As jjhoekstra saying his old MBP starts getting hot what was exact problem in my older laptops which caused the failure of motherboard and now they are dead while rest all stuffs are quite well. It has i7 (2nd gen) too. As i told earlier i live in the part where temperature is quite high like 35 to 48 degree(in summer) and even being in air conditioner the laptops gets hot while rendering videos or uploading them through my slow broadband which takes so long to upload a 300-500 mb video. Not sure about 2015 retina version of MBP.
Any one can tell me how longest they have run MBPr. While i would love to get a MP but the new is out of my budget at the moment because then i will have to spend on an separate monitor too and there are no 2nd hand MP is available here. Though i trust and hence prefer to buy new products only.

 

[dollystereo]

It also depends what software are you going to use. The imac has Nvidia GPU, so if CUDA is important, the macbook pro is useless there. After Effects does perform better with the imac GPU (you can get the GTX780m).
In single core performance the i5 imac is faster than the base model Macbook pro. Probably you could get one of the older models with the GTX775 for a good price (new).
Anyway, I would wait for the June conference, and decide after. For your workflow the imac is a goos value, it has a really nice screen and you will be really happy with it. Get the SSD or fusion drive, that's a must.
The retina MBP gets really hot:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-pro-and-after-effects.1786840/

 

[MacChat]

heating is really bad, i hate when electronic items get heat while using.. as i said my last laptop died because of heating issue. Really i think i should wait some more time...

 

[Studflower]

Wrong. You assume that just because it's a desktop CPU, it's more powerful. The 3.3GHz i5 in the Retina iMac is an Intel i5-4590. That has a CPU passmark of 7253. My 15" 2012 MacBook Pro is just as powerful, as it's got an i7-3615QM which benchmarks almost identically (CPU mark of 7341). And that's a 3-year-old computer.

The 2.2GHz in the 2015 15" rMBP is an Intel i7-4770HQ, which scores 9044. The 2.5GHz model has an Intel i7-4870HQ. And the 2.8GHz model has an Intel i7-4980HQ which benchmarks at exactly 10,000. That's insanely powerful.

So yes, the i7 in the base rMBP does "smash" a quad desktop i5. Probably because the desktop i5 doesn't have hyperthreading.

For everyday purposes, the desktop i5 smashes laptop i7, no matter the extra hyper threading.
For intensive rendering purposes, the i7 4770HQ is SLIGHTLY better than the i5 4590. About 15%.
Is this what you'd recommend when the OP claims he lives in a country with hot weather? Do you know how hot the rmbp gets with a rendering job hours into the night?

The i7 doesn't "smash" a quad desktop i5. It isn't double or even half the performance. This isn't dual core vs quad core. Also, the cpubenchmark.net is highly inaccurate. If you're going to link sources, at least link a source like anandtech...

 

[keysofanxiety]

For everyday purposes, the desktop i5 smashes laptop i7, no matter the extra hyper threading.
For intensive rendering purposes, the i7 4770HQ is SLIGHTLY better than the i5 4590. About 15%.
Is this what you'd recommend when the OP claims he lives in a country with hot weather? Do you know how hot the rmbp gets with a rendering job hours into the night?

The i7 doesn't "smash" a quad desktop i5. It isn't double or even half the performance. This isn't dual core vs quad core. Also, the cpubenchmark.net is highly inaccurate. If you're going to link sources, at least link a source like anandtech...

No idea where you're getting your sources from. Please quote them. You're doing the OP a disservice with your misinformation.

I've personally encountered the issues with the i5. My old 2.7GHz i5 iMac with 32GB RAM was stuttering on Logic - CPU usage was through the roof. I went back to the 15" MBP which handled that fine.

I don't know what you're trying to argue. Geekbench puts the i7 15" rMBP above the i5 iMac. As does CPU benchmark. My experience confirms this. End-users' experience confirms this. Common sense (i5 isn't hyper threaded) would confirm this.

Your desperate backtracking to try and save face is misinforming the OP, just because you're too proud to indulge a simple Google search.