Intel Iris vs AMD Radeon R9 M395X

[vmflapem]

I'm currently using a late 2013 13" macbook pro retina and I'm going to order an imac soon. I have very limited knowledge when it comes to graphic cards. Is there a noticeable difference between intel iris 1536MB (currently in my 13" macbook pro) and AMD Radeon R9 M395X?

 

[rapicell]

Intel iris is an integrated graphics chip, so it uses your ram as it's memory resource, so while it gets the job done for everyday things, it's nothing compared to the 395x which is a dedicated graphics card with it's own memory resources and a lot more power

 

[maflynn]

Is there a noticeable difference between intel iris 1536MB (currently in my 13" macbook pro) and AMD Radeon R9 M395X?

first question, what will you be doing? If say, just office apps, or email, or safari, then no, you'll not be noticing much of a difference. If you'll be looking to play games, or have apps that require a GPU, then yes you'll notice.

A discrete GPU will give you the fastest performance over an integrated one, but only on tasks that rely on the GPU

 

[Zarniwoop]

Iris Pro is good enough for normal desktop based applications, such as Office 365 or similar productivity tools. It is not recommended for gaming, but for casual gamer it'll run most games at 1080p with medium or low settings at playable rates. Same goes with video and photo editing; ok for casual user, but Pro user might prefer dGPU.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-5775c-i5-5675c-broadwell,4169-6.html

As mentioned above, Iris Pro will use up to 1.5GB of RAM for graphics. So, for applications there's left 6,5GB out of 8GB.

But actually the question is, do you need 4k or 5k... first one comes with iGPU only. For now, 5k is supplied with dGPU only. And there's a lot of pixels to push...

 

[vapourtrails]

first question, what will you be doing? If say, just office apps, or email, or safari, then no, you'll not be noticing much of a difference. If you'll be looking to play games, or have apps that require a GPU, then yes you'll notice.

A discrete GPU will give you the fastest performance over an integrated one, but only on tasks that rely on the GPU

I use the computer mostly for marking and preparing lessons. I teach highschool Photoshop, Illustrator and some basic video editing and animation.

 

[maflynn]

You should see some benefit from the dGPU with PS and Illustrator, but overall the entire machine will be fast, given the performance increase with the iMac over the 3 year old laptop

 

[Zarniwoop]

I use the computer mostly for marking and preparing lessons. I teach highschool Photoshop, Illustrator and some basic video editing and animation.

You should be fine with iGPU. But, pay attention to the storage. Having SSD (or 2TB Fusion Drive) will give you more boost to you're daily working than any other update there is. 1TB Fusion Drive is a scam (not really the Fusion Drive they introduced, but a 80% smaller SSD cache), and the standard hard drive is just SLOOW!