My 2014 5k iMac is the best Mac I've ever owned. I never thought I would use it as my professional workstation for almost 6 years! In the past I've upgraded every 2-3 years. As an Adobe user, I decided to jump on the last Intel iMac because 1) Adobe is incredibly slow-moving and I have no idea what to expect from them when Apple Silicon arrives, and 2) Adobe apps use so much RAM that I wanted one more Mac I could upgrade myself. I can't imagine paying Apple $1,000 for 64 GB of RAM.
Performance
I work with some huge Photoshop files (2 GB plus) and sometimes batch process images, and this thing is blazing. My 2014 was no slouch, and these were the only tasks that really bottlenecked it, but I'm glad to be on this side. All the little things are much faster in Photoshop and InDesign. I was hoping for more of a boost in After Effects. It's definitely faster, but I'm still waiting on RAM preview in complex or 3D animations. Maybe I need to tweak my settings. It's just frustrating that hardware hasn't caught up to make editing instantaneous like it is for still images in Photoshop.
Noise
Whisper quiet like my 2014, only hear the fans when doing the same intensive things I did on the old machine.
Speakers are much improved, it's nice to have!
Display
My old iMac display looks washed out compared to the richness of the new one. It's just what I expected from Apple.
I know the design is dated, but it's the display I care about. It's a tool. It sits in my office and I'm one of the only people who sees it. I would've loved a new design, but this thing is practical and has everything I need to do great work for a fraction of the cost of a Mac Pro / XDR.
One more note - my old iMac didn't have usb-C or TB3 ports - I was able to plug in my usb-C Time Machine drive and couldn't believe how fast the setup went. Like 20 minutes. We all know the feeling of years past when you'd get a new Mac, go to set it up with a backup drive, and see the 3-hour estimated time to finish.
Really happy with the purchase. I have a feeling I'll be purchasing an AS iMac in about 2 years, but this one will make one of my kids really happy when the time comes.
Performance
I work with some huge Photoshop files (2 GB plus) and sometimes batch process images, and this thing is blazing. My 2014 was no slouch, and these were the only tasks that really bottlenecked it, but I'm glad to be on this side. All the little things are much faster in Photoshop and InDesign. I was hoping for more of a boost in After Effects. It's definitely faster, but I'm still waiting on RAM preview in complex or 3D animations. Maybe I need to tweak my settings. It's just frustrating that hardware hasn't caught up to make editing instantaneous like it is for still images in Photoshop.
Noise
Whisper quiet like my 2014, only hear the fans when doing the same intensive things I did on the old machine.
Speakers are much improved, it's nice to have!
Display
My old iMac display looks washed out compared to the richness of the new one. It's just what I expected from Apple.
I know the design is dated, but it's the display I care about. It's a tool. It sits in my office and I'm one of the only people who sees it. I would've loved a new design, but this thing is practical and has everything I need to do great work for a fraction of the cost of a Mac Pro / XDR.
One more note - my old iMac didn't have usb-C or TB3 ports - I was able to plug in my usb-C Time Machine drive and couldn't believe how fast the setup went. Like 20 minutes. We all know the feeling of years past when you'd get a new Mac, go to set it up with a backup drive, and see the 3-hour estimated time to finish.
Really happy with the purchase. I have a feeling I'll be purchasing an AS iMac in about 2 years, but this one will make one of my kids really happy when the time comes.
