Is the 2018 MBP 13" i5 faster than the 2017 iMac i5?

[mortenjensen]

Hi all,
I am going back and forth between the iMac 2017 i5 3.5 (ssd) and the MBP 2018 13" i5 and a LG 5K display. If I buy the iMac, I will need to keep my 2013 MBA i7 - if I go with the MBP, this will be my only mac for office work, home and travel. The cost is approximately the same (the MBP/LG is more expensive, but I will then have a MBA to sell off).
Two things I consider are speed and durability. Unfortunately, I think there is noway around accepting that the iMac is more durable than a MBP, where much more can fail, if you stick to it for a 6-8 years period. On the other hand, I will still have to keep my MBA floating, which in the lifetime of the iMac probably will mean a replacement for travels etc.

But in regards to speed, I am correct in thinking that the 2018 MBP is such a speed monster that there will be no penalty, if buying today? The SSD of the MBP is insanely fast and according to Geekbench, it even has a better multicore performance:
- MBP i5: multi-core 16.500 - single-core: 4.500. https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/10736185
- iMac i5: multi-core 14.800 - single-core: 5.000. https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/406

Of course there are other things to consider (speed of SSD, RAM and much more), but should this not give some kind of indication?
Also: Is it not the multi-core that tells the most, since more or less everything these days is designed to take advantage of multicore?

Morten

 

[jakespeed]

I came from a 2017 15" that scored almost the exact GeekBench (14,800 multi) and compiled my work code base (C++) in about 10:45. While Geekbench is not a true representation of the every day performance of the machine it's a good indicator of CPU intensive tasks. I recently upgraded to a 2018 13" i5 and it can compile my work code base in about 9:30 so a respectable speedup. I feel like now I have all the power I need and a more portable package to go with it.