Really interested in the heat / fan noise of an i7 + M395X configuration. I'm just waiting on the benchmarks before ordering my saved basket
I too was concerned about this after reading all the threads re the late-2014 i7 noise issues. But pulled the trigger last week and ordered the new i7 + M395X + 1TB SSD + 8GB RAM (to be upgraded if I decide to keep this machine). it arrived yesterday.
Haven't put it through too much as of yet but in regular usage for me, which is software development (web and mobile apps), I am extremely happy with this purchase.
Point of reference, I am coming from a late-2011 27-inch imac i7 + AMD6970 2GB + 16GB Ram + 256GB OWC SSD + 1TB HDD (factory installed).
In regular usage the new retina iMac is noticeably quieter than my late-2011 iMac, which in itself was already pretty quiet (I had no complaints about it and I am fairly particular about noisy fans and such). It also runs much cooler to the touch (the case of the late-2011 would get HOT even under normal use, although the fans didn't spin up extra, it's just designed that way I guess). the new retina iMac still feels cool to the touch even after running for several hours, again regular usage.
regular usage for me being usually 3 browsers open with average 10 tabs per browser, photoshop open and generally some image or other loaded in (screenshot, mockup etc), software IDE running and/or Xcode, office suite running (maybe word, excel, depending on need), mail running, skype, itunes playing somthing or other. So no video encoding or "heavy" photoshop or lightroom work going on most of the time.
using SMC fan control, the main temp (it doesn't seem to break out component temps on this new machine) hovers around 43 degrees and fan is always around 1200rpm, which at that speed is nearly inaudible to me when sitting in front of the machine using it. I have to go around the back and put my ear close to the vent to hear the fan.
By comparison, my late-2011 27-inch iMac would have fan speed around 1000-1,1100 for same sort of usage but the fan was noticeably MORE audible than the new retina iMacs, even though the new iMac is running at a higher fan speed. Maybe it has to do with an older fan versus a newer fan?
I'm not a big benchmark person, so can't help too much there, but I did run Unigine Heaven on the new machine and at any quality setting (medium, high or ultra), the fan speed remained the same at 1,200rpm, although GPU temp reported by Unigine did go up as high as 98 degrees, but still no audible fan noise (I turned speakers off so I could listen out for that).
Also did run a 1.5GB MP4 convert to MKV handbrake encode job on both the late-2011 and the new retina iMac. in both cases, the fans did spin up quite a bit after a short while, going as high as 2,600rpm on the late-2011 and 2,700rpm on the new iMac. Fan definitely audible at those speeds. The new retina iMac, while the fans did go faster than the late-2011, it completed the job almost 5 minutes faster. It also cooled down much quicker with the fan speed dropping back to 1200 in under 1 minute once the job was done.
The screen is of course, gorgeous, and the main reason why I bought this new machine as I am staring at the screen pretty much all day at lots of text, so crisp, sharp text definition is so much easier on my eyes. I also opted for the new magic trackpad 2 (didn't like the original trackpad, never got used to it) just to try it out, see if would like it. So far, definitely prefer it to the old one, but not sure yet if i wont go back to my trusty logitech laser mouse).
so far, I am very happy with this purchase and have no regrets, but in fairness, it's only been 1 full day of usage and now around another half day of usage.
hope this rather unscientific but layman's experience helps!
