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Trade off: faster graphics card vs ssd/fusion drive?

vapourtrails

vapourtrails

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 18, 2016
207
76
I'm trying to make a choice between getting the top spec iMac with the 580 card/fusion drive vs the mid tier iMac with an upgraded 512 ssd. They both come out to about the same price and financial pain point. Which would be the better long term option? I do photoshop, premiere and some basic After Effects.
 
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It's not so much that you compare the difference between the video card and the hard drive. You should be comparing the difference between the 2 harddrives and the 2 video cards.

IMHO, upgrade to the 512 SSD.
 
SSD all the way. You don't always use the video card to it's full potential. Apple seems to be using the fastest Samsung SSDs out there now and the read/write speeds are mind-blowing
 
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In general terms, a faster processor will shave off seconds of time for executed tasks, which in the long run shouldn't really make much difference to quality of life in the grand scheme of things. I would go with the larger storage.
 
I would get the high-end model over the mid-tier with SSD any day.

1. 512GB is way to small (for me)
2. High-end model has faster CPU, good 2TB fusion drive (the one with 128GB SSD) and faster graphics.

I think it is way better deal than the upgraded mid-tier model with upgraded SSD.

Unless you absolutely need SSD-only due to your utilisation profile (most people won't).
 
mpe said:
I would get the high-end model over the mid-tier with SSD any day.

1. 512GB is way to small (for me)
2. High-end model has faster CPU, good 2TB fusion drive (the one with 128GB SSD) and faster graphics.

I think it is way better deal than the upgraded mid-tier model with upgraded SSD.

Unless you absolutely need SSD-only due to your utilisation profile (most people won't).
Click to expand...

Well you seem to be the lone voice in the wilderness but I'm leaning towards your perspective. My problem is 512GB is probably already too small for me and I have an external 256GB SSD which I can use as a video scratch disk.
 
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