Is it time to upgrade iMac?

[stevescivic]

Hello folks, been many many years since I've posted!

I have a conundrum that I'm hoping the MR community can provide insight to help me decide on whether or not I should buy a new mid 2020 iMac or wait for the new AS versions of the iMac to come out.

What I run today is the following:

2010 27" iMac i7 upgraded to 24 GB of RAM + 1TB SSD and 5 TB WD Black series drive. Running the stock Radeon 5750 graphics wth 1GB of memory.

I also have a a late 2016 matchbook pro Touch Bar i7 2.6Ghz, 16GB of ram with Radeon graphics/intel integrated graphics.


The machine I'm considering is:
27" mid 2020 iMac i7 w/8 GB RAM, 5700XT graphics and 2TB SSD and possibly the 10 g-bit upgrade.

I do a decent amount of work in final cut pro as a hobbyist. Nothing pro at all and certainly nothing that I would even remotely require me to have that kind of processing power - i just want a new iMac to make my photo editing and video workflows a little more bearable.

I COULD use the MacBook pro as a desktop replacement and it has served me very well up to this point. I'm looking to buy b/c I've got the itch but I'm trying to restrain myself from getting a new iMac b/c its super expensive, AS iMacs are going to ultimately be the future, AND the MacBook Pro admittedly isn't being utilized as much as I'd like to admit - wife argues this last point as she says the MacBook pro is plenty powerful still for everything I want it to do.

I'm a bit ignorant on the geekbench scores and I want to hear from others that have similar computers to what I currently own and give me feedback on how much better the mid 2020 iMac is compared to the older machines. When I ran geekbench on my 2 macs I was actually kinda disappointed that the late 2016 MacBook pro's scores weren't significantly better than the 2010 iMac. I believe I read that doubling of the score is essentially doubling the theoretical performance.

Do I buy now and take advantage of apple's promos to get a nice set of AirPods or do I wait for at least 2 years for apple to release an properly ironed out AS iMac?

I love my 2010 iMac - been the best mac I have EVER owned. Totally upgradable and a workhorse. It does everything I need it to do but its just getting a little long in the teeth.

I'm sure there are PLENTY of other members here that are in the same dilemma.

Feedback is appreciate, apologies for any typos and grammatical errors - rushing out the door to drive the kids!

 

[pmiles]

Well it appears as though even the new 2020 27" iMac isn't even properly "ironed out"... plenty of issues have been popping up all over the web.

What is it that you are unable to do today on your current set up... as in, incapable of doing? A lot of folks get so hyped by the press that they really overlook the fact that they don't necessarily need to upgrade right this minute. It's one thing if your CPU just died, it's another thing if the latest shiny just caught your eye. The next shiny will do the same, only next time, it will be on an entirely different architecture than what's available now.

If you went through the PowerPC to INTEL transition you should remember how quickly that transition actually occurred. It's likely to transition even faster this time around because technology moves pretty fast.

If you are indeed looking for performance, your best bet is to wait it out a little longer. You've been happy with a 2010 machine for 10 years... had they not just announced a new iMac, would you still be in the market for a 2019 iMac?

Pretty sure 2021 will be a flurry of ARM related stuff... stuff that is likely to get you even more hyped to replace your computer than the 2020 iMac has.

And... lest we forget, you will still be able to buy the 2020 iMac next year.

 

[stevescivic]

thanks for the reply pmiles. Admitted there is nothing the old 2010 iMac and the 2016 MacBook pro CAN'T do for me. The old iMac is very very well equipped with tons of onboard storage which is what I love about it. When editing 1080P video it does so just fine albeit exporting just being slow. The MacBook Pro has ZERO issues doing anything I throw at it sans the fact that its just merely a PITA to have an external drive attached to it anytime I want to edit video or photos. Back when I bought the MacBook pro it was already silly expensive so I couldn't afford to stretch my budget to buy a model that had more internal storage. Both computers otherwise work just fine for my daily uses.

You're absolutely right in saying that something shiny and new is comes that people are inclined to want to buy. There are several reasons why I want a NEW iMac.
1. Can run windows on it via bootcamp - Its rare that I do run windows but when I do it is a nice convenience of not having to have a separate windows machine in the home.
2. The mid 2020 iMac is going to be the last of the intel machines made. I'm still shocked and saddened that intel got dumped. They've been in practically every computer I've ever owned and have given me no grief. There is no apple silicon to compare the intel machines to which is why I'm teetering on the fear that the AS machines won't be as good for at least several iterations.
3. New iMacs obviously run nice and smooth and can handle the latest operating systems which means better security and the plethora of other new features that the latest machines will support.
4. AirPods promo! Nice to get a freebee from apple.


But... after what you've pointed out I guess I will have to just suck it up and not spend my hard earned dollars on a new machine just yet.... my macs have plenty of life left in them so I guess I will keep plugging away with them until my machine bites the dust and forces the hand to buy a new machine.

Thanks for that feedback.

 

[pldelisle]

I'm teetering on the fear that the AS machines won't be as good for at least several iterations.

The first iteration will be break even I think. But the second one will be over anhything Intel could have produce to the date by it will be released. It certainly won’t take several iterations.

AirPods promo! Nice to get a freebee from apple.

Educational discount. I don’t know if you qualify for..

I’d say if your MBP can be used as desktop replacement, keep it. it has plenty of power to do everything you need, I’m pretty much convinced.

 

[stevescivic]

The first iteration will be break even I think. But the second one will be over anhything Intel could have produce to the date by it will be released. It certainly won’t take several iterations.


Educational discount. I don’t know if you qualify for..

I’d say if your MBP can be used as desktop replacement, keep it. it has plenty of power to do everything you need, I’m pretty much convinced.

Yep I would definitely qualify for education discount so in total I'd save/gain the equivalent of probably $600 in savings.

That being said by next fall they will have a similar promo and education discount too. Bah, why can't apple just release an AS iMac now for us to do a comparative test to show how good their CPUs really are!

 

[pldelisle]

Yep I would definitely qualify for education discount so in total I'd save/gain the equivalent of probably $600 in savings.

That being said by next fall they will have a similar promo and education discount too. Bah, why can't apple just release an AS iMac now for us to do a comparative test to show how good their CPUs really are!

They still don’t have a high power cpu yet in its final state. They will likely start with laptops and maybe a 24 inch low-power iMac this fall, but nothing tomcompete with a full blown 10 cores Intel. This will happen next year.