This year's iMacs vs. last year's MacBook Pros

[Gherkin]

I'm linking to the two 27" models that Best Buy sells. Both Core i5 (3.1GHz vs 2.7GHz), the higher end one has the 1GB graphics card and the other has the 512.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ductString=1218343209949*1218343208681&catId=

How will these machines compare to my Core i7 MacBook Pro from June 2010? Even though these two iMacs are i5, they should be significantly faster due to Sandy Bridge, correct? Specifically I use Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere Pro A LOT, and I'm thinking of selling my MBP for the faster performance and larger screen for design work.

thoughts?

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Have you checked the geek bench score?

I find that helps in at least giving a baseline to compare and start with...

 

[OptyCT]

Using the Geekbench results browser, your MBP scores around 6,000. The i5 2.7 scores around 8,000, while the i5 3.1 scores around 8,700. FWIW, the i7 3.4 scores around 12,000.

 

[TMRaven]

Geekbench won't give you real world results, which is what the OP is after, I'm afraid.

I wouldn't call the change in computer a significant upgrade, but you will have a nice bit of speed boost if you're rendering with any advanced codec like x264/h264 with lots of filters in adobe premiere pro. Photoshop is more of a memory hog than a cpu hog. In any instance with lots of large images, an SSD and lots of ram will help you moreso than the cpu. The 27 inch screen is definitely nice for multimedia workings.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Geekbench won't give you real world results, which is what the OP is after, I'm afraid.

I wouldn't call the change in computer a significant upgrade, but you will have a nice bit of speed boost if you're rendering with any advanced codec like x264/h264 with lots of filters in adobe premiere pro. Photoshop is more of a memory hog than a cpu hog. In any instance with lots of large images, an SSD and lots of ram will help you moreso than the cpu. The 27 inch screen is definitely nice for multimedia workings.

True... But it at least is something to start with, but is probably more useful to someone like me. The GB scores for the macs in my house (that all still run) are 435, 718, 2433 and 2951. But yet i know that my 17" MBP with the GB of 2951 runs circles in some areas around the mini with a 2433 - because of the GPU.

But dang, I start to foam at the mouth when pondering the new numbers!

In the OPs shoes I'd probably be apt to wait another generation to get a bigger boost for the money.