New 27" iMac with quad i5 or better i7 ?

[viento]

I´m gonna get a new 27" quad iMac to run Photoshop, Lightroom , Nikon NX2 and evtl. Aperture to work on my photos.
I never play games. (Now I have a 24" 2,4 Ghz iMac with 4GB RAM +1,5TB HD)

Two questions:
Would you suggest the new imac to have 512MB graphics or better 1GB?

Would -with the same graphics - an i7 quad CPU be remarkably better than an i5 one? I know, the bars in the charts are a bit longer, but would the surcharge be worth spending?

Thanks
for sharing you experience
and your advice!

 

[Hellhammer]

For your use, it sounds like the base 27" will be sufficient. The extra money is better spend on more RAM and maybe an SSD down the road.

 

[penduboy]

I was in the same boat a week or so before and have exact same requirements as OP does. I choose 27 i7 over base i5. There is a difference of $500 between these to machines but you will get a much better CPU and GPU and hyperthreading with i7. Even if you don't need those at this moment but in my opinion you will be a happy customer down the road.

But again ultimate choice is yours, if you can afford go for i7 otherwise buy base i5 which is not a bad machine at all.

Thanks, Pendu

 

[aliensporebomb]

Thinking....

My thinking is the i7 will give you more "oomph" per dollar than the i5 though the i5 isn't a bad processor - it's just the i7 will be more to your liking for doing the high end work you are doing.

 

[viento]

I guess I´ll be in for an i7. I´m going to try for a refurb one so I can upgrade it with the saved money with more RAM -at least 8GB- or even a SSD. The latter are somewhat high priced though...

Thanks for your advices!

 

[Papanate]

Two questions:
Would you suggest the new imac to have 512MB graphics or better 1GB?

Would -with the same graphics - an i7 quad CPU be remarkably better than an i5 one? I know, the bars in the charts are a bit longer, but would the surcharge be worth spending?

The i7 is faster...I'm not sure 'remarkedly' faster..but it handles the information it receives more efficiently than a i5.

My answer to you is that if the costs are not an issue (meaning you can afford to get either...but just want to save money if you can) is to spend the money on the high end Graphics, Processor and more Ram. You will be happier with the rendering/processing times than if you didn't. And the screen resolution on the better graphics cards are incredible...when editing photos you want this to be as best as possible and you will be happier with the results.