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Mid 2011 i7 vs late 2015 i5 3.3 Ghz

E

ehouli

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 30, 2012
10
0
North of South America
Hi there,

Besides the obvious difference because of the 5k retina screen, how would a late 2015 i5 3.3 GHz fare against my actual i7 3.4ghz mid 2011?

My use is for photography, I don't use final cut or do anything cpu intensive. I live abroad so upgrading my mid 2011 is an option only if I do it myself but not too keen on the hassles to open it and add an ssd an a faster and bigger platter HD.

Suggestions accepted.
 
It will be slightly faster, yet not really something you can meassure in your day to day work.

If I were you I'd just upgrade it with an SSD. WAAAAY cheaper then buying the 2015 model, and it will be nearly as fast as the modern machine in day to day work (If we are comparing it to an SSD model). You can get Apple store to do the upgrade for you, if you don't like opening it youself.

Really, an SSD will breathe way more life into you machine. Don't even consider adding a larger HDD to it, unless you add it as a second drive next to an SSD, due to the 2 SATA ports in the 2011 iMac.
 
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T'hain Esh Kelch said:
It will be slightly faster, yet not really something you can meassure in your day to day work.

If I were you I'd just upgrade it with an SSD. WAAAAY cheaper then buying the 2015 model, and it will be nearly as fast as the modern machine in day to day work (If we are comparing it to an SSD model). You can get Apple store to do the upgrade for you, if you don't like opening it youself.

Really, an SSD will breathe way more life into you machine. Don't even consider adding a larger HDD to it, unless you add it as a second drive next to an SSD, due to the 2 SATA ports in the 2011 iMac.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the insight about the upgrade, yes I would add a bigger HD as a second drive, and make the ssd the Bootable HD.

Apple doesn't have stores in here, so probably I will get ready to open it myself. What ssd brand would you suggest?
 
Any modern brand really. SATA3 drives are as good as they can get, and practically all of them are so mature that there are no firmware issues.
 
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I highly recommend upgrading to an SSD; you'll notice a huge improvement, and the 2011 iMac can use a SATA 3 drive.
 
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toddzrx said:
I highly recommend upgrading to an SSD; you'll notice a huge improvement, and the 2011 iMac can use a SATA 3 drive.
Click to expand...
Thing is that where I live I have to do the upgrade myself, that's what holds me back on the upgrade, as I have the intention to replace the original HD with a bigger one and adding an ssd as the main drive.

Seeing the OWC video is not really mesmerizing
 
T'hain Esh Kelch said:
It will be slightly faster, yet not really something you can meassure in your day to day work.

If I were you I'd just upgrade it with an SSD. WAAAAY cheaper then buying the 2015 model, and it will be nearly as fast as the modern machine in day to day work (If we are comparing it to an SSD model). You can get Apple store to do the upgrade for you, if you don't like opening it youself.

Really, an SSD will breathe way more life into you machine. Don't even consider adding a larger HDD to it, unless you add it as a second drive next to an SSD, due to the 2 SATA ports in the 2011 iMac.
Click to expand...

toddzrx said:
I highly recommend upgrading to an SSD; you'll notice a huge improvement, and the 2011 iMac can use a SATA 3 drive.
Click to expand...

Well, after making some maths and thinking, I decided to order a 1TB SSD to make it the primary drive and a 2tb HD for internal storage, I'm going to open my mac but decided to make it good at once. 5K retina display can wait, I'm reading some about some issues so let's wait for that.

Thanks for your input guys!
 
ehouli said:
Besides the obvious difference because of the 5k retina screen, how would a late 2015 i5 3.3 GHz fare against my actual i7 3.4ghz mid 2011?
Click to expand...
Either an internal or external SSD ( as boot drive ) will provide immediate obvious speed improvements for this machine and also allow it to run the latest OS X ( El Capitan ) without noticeable wait times.

However, if your 2011 iMac GPU hasn't failed yet, please be aware that many of these do fail ( mine did ) after 4 to 5 years of use. If you're opening the iMac anyway, it might be prudent to replace( or have it checked ) the GPU too or at least consider the potential future cost in the analysis vs. a new i5 iMac.
 
briloronmacrumo said:
Either an internal or external SSD ( as boot drive ) will provide immediate obvious speed improvements for this machine and also allow it to run the latest OS X ( El Capitan ) without noticeable wait times.

However, if your 2011 iMac GPU hasn't failed yet, please be aware that many of these do fail ( mine did ) after 4 to 5 years of use. If you're opening the iMac anyway, it might be prudent to replace( or have it checked ) the GPU too or at least consider the potential future cost in the analysis vs. a new i5 iMac.
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing the GPU issue, did it happen suddenly or it gives some clues before happening?
 
ehouli said:
Thanks for pointing the GPU issue, did it happen suddenly or it gives some clues before happening?
Click to expand...
In my case it was a combination of a failing hard drive and GPU. The hard drive failed gradually, was more insidious and in my case undetectable. The GPU failure manifested suddenly with strange screen artifacts in the Finder. I made an Apple Store appointment thinking only the GPU was failing but diagnostics proved both the GPU and HD were culprits.
 
briloronmacrumo said:
In my case it was a combination of a failing hard drive and GPU. The hard drive failed gradually, was more insidious and in my case undetectable. The GPU failure manifested suddenly with strange screen artifacts in the Finder. I made an Apple Store appointment thinking only the GPU was failing but diagnostics proved both the GPU and HD were culprits.
Click to expand...

I don't know if mine has the GPU already replaced, I bought mine refurbished from Apple at the end of 2012.
 
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