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New iMac - worth it over 2019 version?

C

crashwins

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 11, 2009
145
1
I had a 2018 27" iMac 5K with a pretty capable GPU and felt like it wasn't up to snuff powering all those pixels. I ended up selling it and opting for an i9 15" MBP from last year. The reality is I don't need the portability and would prefer the screen real estate for video and photo editing, which is my 50% side hustle from teaching.

The new iMac seems to be working with a new glass of GPUs and the 27" model is super expandable for RAM! I'm thinking this model will be worth shelling out full price over the 2019 version. What do you think for the above usage? Thanks!
 
If you need the extra GPU power the 2020 version is definitely better. The 2019 version also has expandable RAM so that doesn't really make a difference. Personally I'd potentially go for a 2019 refurb when they come in stock on the Apple website but it would depend on the discount. I don't need the GPU power though, all CPU power for my workflow.

The 2019 iMac for you would probably only be worth getting if you can get one with the RX 580 as that has a very similar amount of power as the 5500 XT that you can get on the 2020 model.
 
The question:
"New iMac - worth it over 2019 version?"

The answer:
Unless you have money to toss away... probably not.

I would PREFER the 2019 version because it DOESN'T HAVE a t2 chip...
 
I would not bother buying a 2019 refurb over a 2020 iMac. I picked up with the i7 with the 5500 XT for my partner who is starting school and have been using it for the past day and a half to try it out and there is quite a bit of a difference. I have a 2019 i5 with the 580x GPU. The 2020 iMac is fair bit faster the GPU is noticeably faster for what I do. I build mobile apps, do web development and graphic design.

But the biggest reason to get the 2020 is the fan noise. When I build an app to run in the simulator on my 2019 all 6 cores go to 80+% and the fan ramps up right away. On this 2020 iMac that does not happen the CPU usage is much lower and fans do not ramp up at all it stays silent. When in Photoshop it is the same.

Go with the 2020 for the little bit more its worth it.
 
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Here are the biggest differences from the 2019 (and previous) generations, that you can pick from to see if its worth it:

- 10th generation Intel CPU's all with HyperThreading and larger cache, higher Turbo Boost speeds
- Latest generation AMD Navi architecture 7nm GPUs with large performance improvements over previous generation
- T2 chip which handles encryption and decryption on the fly, video encoding/decoding (for specific codecs), improved FaceTimeHD camera quality, improves audio output, and more
- Bluetooth 5.0 over 4.2
- Fast Flash based SSD storage as default, lowering cost to upgrade to larger all flash storage sizes
- 1080p FaceTime HD camera
- 3-mic array (vs 1 on the 2017-2019 models)
- True Tone display
 
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I’m contemplating the same. The only benefit of the 2019 is the ability to upgrade the ssd in the future if it were to fail. The 2020’s have no upgradeability.
 
2020 iMac all the way. As CheesePuff pointed out, there are lots of internal differences and upgrades that would make it worthwhile over the 2019 but it also comes down to what you feel those would be worth to you.

The 2019 models are probably floating around at the retail level at some places and at some savings. There's also the refurbished 2019s that pop up at times on the Apple web store. Compare the prices being offered relative to the cost of the 2020 configuration you would want and see if the premium is worth the spec differences. If it's just a stock 2020 configuration you'd be interested in, those are already being discounted through different retailers right now.
 
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