New iMac - Blown away!

[candyman]

I agree with the OP.

I had a 2013 27” iMac that I had to replace. Picked up the 2019 5K 27” 3.6 with the 580X, upgraded to the 1TB SSD and bumped it up to 40GB RAM. It is super fast and I attest a lot of that to the SSD.

My old machine had the 1TB Fusion drive which I thought was nice, but all SSD is so much nicer.

Although I’m sure the i9 iMac is a beast, it was past what I wanted to spend, plus I don’t game and do very little video editing.

For my graphic design use, primarily PS and AI, it has been awesome to this point. The 5K screen is gorgeous. Chalk me up as also satisfied with this upgrade.

 

[fathergll]

Oh really, I didn't know that. Can I play Starcraft 2, or LoL, or total war warhammer on it. For the matter of fact, can I play any game on the xbox without needing another display but my iMac screen? Or can I play with it and a mouse and keyboard without breaking my back as the console is hooked to the family TV which is on the living room without a proper table for the keyboard and mouse?

Everyone know about consoles, and them being cheaper usually than dedicated GPU's so pointing them out on an iMac forum is even less helpful than pointing people to a gaming PC instead of an iMac as they are even further away from what people might need. Why don't we point people to a Nintendo Switch so they can play in bed or the toilet (I have one btw and it's awesome )

It's fascinating when people misinterpret comments and then go into a 150 word snarky reply.

 

[Jamers99]

LOOOOONG time member here. I just purchased the 2019 iMac 3.7 i5 w/512gb SSD. I just have to say this thing absolutely flies! It's replacing my 2015 5k iMac (the first 5k iMac) and it just runs through everything I throw at it. I edit video and photos and I've never seen it so fast. The SSD I'm sure is the main reason but it's just a much faster machine. I know we see a lot of complaints but just want to mention that I'm happy with it!

Did you use the MAC O/S Time Machine to restore your 2015 backup onto your 2019 or did you load everything fresh?

 

[kaintxu]

If you want to upgrade just for getting some better fps for gaming then just realize the following....you can buy a Xbox One X for cheaper than the upgrade to the Vega 48.

It's fascinating when people misinterpret comments and then go into a 150 word snarky reply.

Hi, Could you let me know how I misinterpreted your message, as if I have, I would be happy to apologise.

From my reading you drop into the conversation, letting us know we can get consoles for the price of the vega, which is something everyone here probably knows and has discarded it if they are commenting and thinking how to upgrade. So if you could please explain me my misunderstanging and what your post's intention was and the use of it, that would be great.

Cheers

 

[dwd3885]

Did you use the MAC O/S Time Machine to restore your 2015 backup onto your 2019 or did you load everything fresh?

I used timemachine

 

[rychencop]

I got my 19,1 last Friday and although I did not opt for the SSD, I too am blown away by the performance. I did upgrade the RAM with 32Gb of OWC, so I'm at 40Gb. I keep my electronics for a long time. My last Mac was a 2007 MBP, so that should tell you. And it was still going strong, just slow compared to my iPhone. lol Loving this iMac!!

 

[AlexMaximus]

My current machine is still too good for the garbage. I have invested to much to get it where it is. However I have to admit, this years iMac is the very best package I have seen in decades. There was never a better iMac. Really surprising to me, I never thought Apple would pack so much punch in the consumer iMac. There will be serous iMac Pro canibalisation going on, that's for sure. If I would need a new machine anytime soon, which I don't, -I would certainly join the iMac forum for sure in the future. Lucky you for such a great package!

 

[BuCkDoG]

It is fantastic. My only complaint is that I wish the Vega 48 were a little faster for playing games on Steam but an eGPU can always fix that if I want to max out the settings. It's not bad though by any means. Otherwise my i9 is blazing fast for an all in one and quieter than the 2017 i7. I basically consider it a cheaper base iMac Pro with a slower GPU, faster CPU, upgradable RAM, no jacked up T2 chip and missing a couple features I don't personally care about like 10Gbps ethernet and UHS-II card reader (already have an adapter).

How much faster and cooler are you noticing with the 3.6 8 core and the Vega 48 compared to the 4.2 i7 and Pro 580? I have the 2017 version with the 4.2 i7 and Pro 580 and was thinking about upgrading but I am hesitant.

 

[macduke]

How much faster and cooler are you noticing with the 3.6 8 core and the Vega 48 compared to the 4.2 i7 and Pro 580? I have the 2017 version with the 4.2 i7 and Pro 580 and was thinking about upgrading but I am hesitant.

I had the 2017 for about six months at work before switching jobs so I didn’t use it for gaming. Like I said the i9 is so much quieter. That i7 would start spinning up fans when I wasn’t even doing anything intensive and I would get confused and annoyed. As for speed I’m not sure if I pushed either enough yet but working with huge files is better on the newer one and I think it’s faster at rendering videos out but I have only done some smaller tests. I don’t do stuff with video as much but my new boss wants me to get into video editing more once I’m done redesigning the website so I’m sure I’ll be doing more with that at home too. She’s trying to order me an iMac Pro right now for work! I think the i9 has more headroom to last a long time, but if I had purchased a 2017 I wouldn’t have upgraded now. I just don’t upgrade Macs that often. My last home machine was a 2012 rMBP.

 

[MasConejos]

Also chiming in. I bought an i5/512GB/Vega to replace my 2010 iMac and I couldn't be happier. I haven't stress tested it yet but it's so quiet and fast for normal activities. I've really only tried borderlands 2 on it with all settings maxed at 1440p. While my old iMac struggled a bit with this game, the new one plays it effortlessly, and the thing that amazes me the most is that it doesn't heat up at all. I could have cooked an egg on my 2010 iMac during gameplay.

 

[evilmurries]

I've had my new iMac set up for a couple days now (3.7gHz i5, 580x, 40gigs RAM), but today was the first day I have been able to do some programming on it. Wow what a wonderful experience! The screen real estate is nice and drastically improved my workflow after being stuck on a 13" mbp for the last couple of years. It should get even better when I hook up my second 4k monitor. So far it has been a very solid investment, and a great introduction to the Mac desktop computer experience.

 

[BuCkDoG]

I had the 2017 for about six months at work before switching jobs so I didn’t use it for gaming. Like I said the i9 is so much quieter. That i7 would start spinning up fans when I wasn’t even doing anything intensive and I would get confused and annoyed. As for speed I’m not sure if I pushed either enough yet but working with huge files is better on the newer one and I think it’s faster at rendering videos out but I have only done some smaller tests. I don’t do stuff with video as much but my new boss wants me to get into video editing more once I’m done redesigning the website so I’m sure I’ll be doing more with that at home too. She’s trying to order me an iMac Pro right now for work! I think the i9 has more headroom to last a long time, but if I had purchased a 2017 I wouldn’t have upgraded now. I just don’t upgrade Macs that often. My last home machine was a 2012 rMBP.

Ya most people don't think its a worthy upgrade especially considering selling the current machine and then buying a new one the cost compared to performance increase generally isn't worth it. Much appreciated though for your input!

 

[orbital~debris]

LOOOOONG time member here. I just purchased the 2019 iMac 3.7 i5 w/512gb SSD. I just have to say this thing absolutely flies! It's replacing my 2015 5k iMac (the first 5k iMac) and it just runs through everything I throw at it. I edit video and photos and I've never seen it so fast. The SSD I'm sure is the main reason but it's just a much faster machine. I know we see a lot of complaints but just want to mention that I'm happy with it!

Thanks for sharing this impression. This spec is what I ended up ordering (after much toing and froing!). Very glad to hear it's a good Mac.

If it flies for you - coming from a 2015 model - I'm not sure how i'm going to describe my experience as I'm upgrading from the mid-2010 iMac…!

 

[SkiHound2]

Thanks for sharing this impression. This spec is what I ended up ordering (after much toing and froing!). Very glad to hear it's a good Mac.

If it flies for you - coming from a 2015 model - I'm not sure how i'm going to describe my experience as I'm upgrading from the mid-2010 iMac…!

That's what I ordered too, though I did splurge for the 1TB SSD. Scheduled to arrive sometime between Wednesday and Friday.

 

[orbital~debris]

That's what I ordered too, though I did splurge for the 1TB SSD. Scheduled to arrive sometime between Wednesday and Friday.

Yeah… I kept almost going for either the 1TB SSD or the i9 upgrade, but couldn't afford either upgrade right now, so neither won out!

My order still has a wide delivery window of 17-23 April. Getting impatient.

 

[drewaz]

I'm coming from a late 2015 iMac with a 2TB fusion drive. My 3.7 i5 580x with 2TB SSD arrived Friday. I did a fresh install, added another 16 gig RAM and can really tell an all around improvement in speed, especially with photoshop. Subjectively, it seems like everything is about twice as fast.

 

[Mark_EL]

I've upgraded from a 2011 21.5 inch iMac (quad core I7 2.8ghz / 20GB RAM / Samsung 840 EVO SSD) to a 2019 27" iMac with the I9 processor, 500GB SSD, 580X and 40GB RAM. In general, this machine is feels a lot faster, as expected. However my Adobe Lightroom still feels pretty darn slow unfortunately. I wonder if it is time to ditch Lightroom and move to Capture One, because if this computer is not fast enough for Lightroom, I don't know what is....

 

[SkiHound2]

Yeah… I kept almost going for either the 1TB SSD or the i9 upgrade, but couldn't afford either upgrade right now, so neither won out!

My order still has a wide delivery window of 17-23 April. Getting impatient.

I wanted to run my Lightroom catalog, cache, and a reasonable number of working files off the internal SSD. I felt that would probably offer a bigger practical benefit for me than the i9. And I felt that trying to do that on a 512gb drive would be workable but would require a lot more micromanagement on my part. So I decided that would be my splurge.

 

[fisherking]

i just replaced my 2015 macbook pro with my first imac (2019; 21", 3.2 i7, 16gb ram); mostly logic pro x, some FCPX.

love this thing. (so far) no issues; handles complex mixes with ease. can run cypher 2 (lol; my MBP didn't do well with that synth). am looking forward to some final cut work this summer with the imac too.

 

[BigBoy2018]

LOOOOONG time member here. I just purchased the 2019 iMac 3.7 i5 w/512gb SSD. I just have to say this thing absolutely flies! It's replacing my 2015 5k iMac (the first 5k iMac) and it just runs through everything I throw at it. I edit video and photos and I've never seen it so fast. The SSD I'm sure is the main reason but it's just a much faster machine. I know we see a lot of complaints but just want to mention that I'm happy with it!

Its the ssd vs the fusion drive of the 2015 imac.
Thats whats making all the percieved difference.

The rest of the machine is not a big differentiator.

If you had spent $250 on a sata 1tb ssd and a little time installing it on your 2015 imac, you would have been ‘blow. away’ just the same... and woukd have twice the ssd storage as well!

 

[dwd3885]

Its the ssd vs the fusion drive of the 2015 imac.
Thats whats making all the percieved difference.

The rest of the machine is not a big differentiator.

If you had spent $250 on a sata 1tb ssd and a little time installing it on your 2015 imac, you would have been ‘blow. away’ just the same... and woukd have twice the ssd storage as well!

the screen is glued on..

 

[BigBoy2018]

the screen is glued on..

Its taped on, and relatively easy to remove and upgrade the drive to an ssd. I’ve done it on 3 different 2015-2017 imacs.
iFixit sells the tools and replacement tape and gives you the instructions.

They list the difficulty level as 'moderate': https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+Retina+5K+Display+Hard+Drive+Replacement/30522

 

[Dave245]

Did you guys not want to wait for the new design? (possibly in 2020). I have a 2012 iMac, it's not even a retina display but with a redesign likely going to happen, it's hard to pull the trigger and buy now.

 

[arisd]

I am very happy with my new 2019 as well.

Only issue I have so far is that the fan will go loud at random times - perhaps I need to do that controller reset by removing the plug.

Otherwise I am blown away as well ! A huge change from my old 2012 iMac.

 

[kaintxu]

Did you guys not want to wait for the new design? (possibly in 2020). I have a 2012 iMac, it's not even a retina display but with a redesign likely going to happen, it's hard to pull the trigger and buy now.

I just received my 2019 i5 Vega 48, and really happy I pulled the trigger.

IF there is a redesign next year (nothing is confirmed), there are many things that we don't know what will happen. Will it be the new ARM processor? Will it have the T2 chip? Will it be able to have bootcamp no longer being an intel chip? Is it going to have any problems?

Taking all of the above into account, I rather have a secure good working machine that I know will last me through all the changes, and once the redesign hits the ground and stablishes, then I might think about changing.