What it the best choice between 2014 and 2015 iMac ?

[iamjuju]

Hi everyone ! Since my old iMac 2011 died a few days ago due to GPU issue , I’m planning on buying a used iMac for Christmas, I don’t have enough money for a new one so… I managed to found a 2014 and a 2015 one , and I need help to decide

2014 iMac spec : 3.5 i5 , 16gb 1600Mhz DDR3 , fusiondrive 1.46tb , AMD R9 M290X 2gb

On the other side the 2015 iMac spec : 3.1 i5 , 8gb ram , 1tb SSD , AMD R9 M380 2gb

I use a lot of Logic Pro x , photoshop, and bootcamp for gaming. Also I don’t know if there is some issue relative to their own modal . Hope you can help me to decide

 

[Fishrrman]

GET THE ONE WITH THE SSD.
It will be the superior drive -- for everything.

Are we talking 21", or 27" screen?

 

[iamjuju]

27" for all of them !
Also the sellers told me a mistake , his 2015 27" one has only the 1tb 7200/rpm which in not ssd if I am correct

 

[Hat Tric]

I would go for the 2015 because it´s compatible with Monterey.

Boot from an external SSD connected with USB 3 or Thunderbolt 2.

 

[iamjuju]

Is Monterey really that good compared to big sur ? I used to have High Sierra up to 2021

 

[rpmurray]

See if you can find a cheap 2017 iMac.

 

[mj_]

I agree with @rpmurray. See if you can find a cheap 2017 iMac and run that off of an external NVMe USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 3 SSD. If your budget won't allow for this then definitely 2015 with an external USB 3.0 SSD.

 

[iamjuju]

I managed to found another sale !
For 900 dollars a IMac 2014 with

I7 4ghz
16gb ram
R9 m295x 4gb
500gb SSD

Even if it doesn’t have Monterey do you guys think it’s a better deal than the 2015 one ?

 

[Rashy]

Yeah, both the 2014 and 2015 models suck.
For a little more money, the 2017 versions are far better.
- Huge leap in GPU performance (smallest R570 is faster than biggest R395X)
- GPUs have 2x the VRAM (going from 2-4 to 4-8GB)
- GPUs also run much cooler (28nm Tonga vs 14nm Polaris)
- CPU chip is also better and socked again
- 2400 vs 1867 MHz RAM
- 2x USB-C vs 2x DP ports
- Thunderbolt 3 vs 2
- Bluetooth 4.2 vs 4.0
- Brighter display (500nits)
- (21.5 iMac with dGPUs)


Summary:
2012 and 2013 models are very similar (nVidia GPU, no Retina)
major jump
2014 and 2015 models are very similar and pretty meh.
moderate jump
2017 and 2019 models are very similar and pretty good.
minor jump
2020 models have even better GPUs + 1080p webcams

And no, I would never pay 900 dollars for a 2014 model. And again, those R9 GPUs are hot and noisy, especially the M295/M395/X. Better avoid and look further. 2017 models with SSD sell for around 1000€ here in Germany.

Hint: Albeit a SSD is quite a must nowadays, you can still go for the 2TB Fusion Drive, as this still has a 128GB SSD section (compared to the laughable 32GB of the 1TB Fusion Drive)

 

[iamjuju]

Yeah, both the 2014 and 2015 models suck.
For a little more, the 2017 versions are far better.
- Huge leap in GPU performance (smallest R570 is faster than biggest R395X)
- GPUs have 2x the VRAM (going from 2-4 to 4-8GB)
- GPUs also run cooler and take less power
- CPU chip is socked again
- 2x USB-C instead of 2x DP ports
- Brighter display (500nits)
- 2400 vs 1867MHz RAM
- Bluetooth 4.2 vs 4.0
- (21.5 iMac with dGPUs)

Showdown: Apple's 2015 iMac vs. 2017 iMac | AppleInsider

Apple's 5K iMacs have been extremely popular, especially with content creators, and this year's hardware refresh packs in even more bang for the buck. If you're trying to decide between buying the latest model, or a discounted late 2015, AppleInsider offers a closer look at how they compare.

appleinsider.com

Differences Between Late 2015 and Mid-2017 iMac Models: EveryMac.com

Compares and contrasts all differences between the Mid-2017 iMac models and the Late 2015 iMac models replaced.

everymac.com

Summary:
2012 and 2013 models are very similar (nVidia GPU, no Retina)
major jump
2014 and 2015 models are very similar and pretty meh.
moderate jump
2017 and 2019 models are very similar and pretty good.
minor jump
2020 models have even better GPUs + 1080p webcams

And no, I would never pay 900 dollars for a 2014 model. And again, those R9 GPUs are hot and noisy, especially the M295/M395/X

Thank you for all the details. The 2017 one seems like the the best one to choose. But it is still way ahead of my budget for now , I’ll have to wait a few months if I want to get a 2017 one. Thank for the advice, i will think about it.

And again , i didn’t know that the 2014 has heating issue

 

[nastysailboat]

GET THE ONE WITH THE SSD.
It will be the superior drive -- for everything.

Are we talking 21", or 27" screen?

I dunno I think with logic I’d go for the 16 gb of ram. Plus it’s a fusion drive so you’re still gonna get some speed benefit there.

Also if you’re gonna spend 900 couldn’t you do a Mac mini m1 for less than that. I assume you already have a keyboard and mouse. You could probably find a decent display for 150 if money is tight.

As a fellow logic user the m1 makes all the difference with apple apps.

 

[iamjuju]

I dunno I think with logic I’d go for the 16 gb of ram. Plus it’s a fusion drive so you’re still gonna get some speed benefit there.

Also if you’re gonna spend 900 couldn’t you do a Mac mini m1 for less than that. I assume you already have a keyboard and mouse. You could probably find a decent display for 150 if money is tight.

As a fellow logic user the m1 makes all the difference with apple apps.

I completely forgot about Mac mini M1 ! Just checked on the apple website and they are so cheap… still Since I needed a windows partition for the gaming side idk if the M1 is optimized.. But for sure I will check about those

 

[iamjuju]

The best thing for my budget is the Mac mini for sure, I also heard about the image retention on the Retina display.. I will check on the benchmarks between the M1 and the Intel core/AMD stuff

 

[Zdigital2015]

Hi everyone ! Since my old iMac 2011 died a few days ago due to GPU issue , I’m planning on buying a used iMac for Christmas, I don’t have enough money for a new one so… I managed to found a 2014 and a 2015 one , and I need help to decide

2014 iMac spec : 3.5 i5 , 16gb 1600Mhz DDR3 , fusiondrive 1.46tb , AMD R9 M290X 2gb

On the other side the 2015 iMac spec : 3.1 i5 , 8gb ram , 1tb SSD , AMD R9 M380 2gb

I use a lot of Logic Pro x , photoshop, and bootcamp for gaming. Also I don’t know if there is some issue relative to their own modal . Hope you can help me to decide

2015. That’s it, end of message. Too many advantages to list, the least of which is that it runs Monterey.

 

[Woodstockie]

I would buy only 2015 or newer if you budget can stretch it. For reference: I bought the 2015 27" 2TB/128SSD from a good seller on eBay (Electronicsvalley) in early 2018 for $1300 and is still great so far for what I need.

 

[iamjuju]

2015. That’s it, end of message. Too many advantages to list, the least of which is that it runs Monterey.

And against the 900$ 2014 iMac that I quoted bellow do you still think the 2015 is a better choice ? ( i7 4ghz, 16gb ram, R9 m295x 4gb )

 

[Fishrrman]

Buy the one with the internal SSD (ask if it's a factory-installed SSD or user-installed).

The SSD will make the greatest difference of all in performance.

If it's a 27" iMac, you can add RAM yourself.

 

[circatee]

Side note:
If you do happen to consider the Mac Mini, not sure if you're in the US, but Costco often has them on sale (both Intel and M1). Even if you ask a friend to purchase it for you with their membership...

 

[nastysailboat]

I completely forgot about Mac mini M1 ! Just checked on the apple website and they are so cheap… still Since I needed a windows partition for the gaming side idk if the M1 is optimized.. But for sure I will check about those

I don’t know if you use windows 10 but I found this video.

 

[pshufd]

I managed to found another sale !
For 900 dollars a IMac 2014 with

I7 4ghz
16gb ram
R9 m295x 4gb
500gb SSD

Even if it doesn’t have Monterey do you guys think it’s a better deal than the 2015 one ?

Price seems high.

I'm buying that 2014 tomorrow morning but it has a 1 TB Fusion instead of a 500 GB SSD. It's replacing a 2009 Core 2 Duo iMac 27.

The i7 in the 2014 has a Geekbench 5 multicore score of 3,769 while the i5 in the 2015 scores 2,815 so it's a significant performance improvement.

The OpenCL score on the 2014 is 26,539 vs 21,696 for the 2015.

 

[wilberforce]

Price seems high.

I'm buying that 2014 tomorrow morning but it has a 1 TB Fusion instead of a 500 GB SSD. It's replacing a 2009 Core 2 Duo iMac 27.

The i7 in the 2014 has a Geekbench 5 multicore score of 3,769 while the i5 in the 2015 scores 2,815 so it's a significant performance improvement.

The OpenCL score on the 2014 is 26,539 vs 21,696 for the 2015.

I had a 2014 27" iMac with i7 and 1TB SSD. Pretty good machine.
My only comment is avoid the Fusion drive if at all possible, or get it for a very good price, especially a Fusion drive that is 7 years old. Much slower and prone to failure. Unless you are planning to switch it for an SSD. @Fishrrman is right on this.

Check for image persistence on the edges, if that would bother you. (At least the 2014s don't get pink edges like the 2015s.)

 

[wilberforce]

And against the 900$ 2014 iMac that I quoted bellow do you still think the 2015 is a better choice ? ( i7 4ghz, 16gb ram, R9 m295x 4gb )

2015 27" iMacs are notorious for developing pink edges on the screen. Check it carefully if that would bother you

 

[pshufd]

I had a 2014 with i7 and 1TB SSD. Pretty good machine.
My only comment is avoid the Fusion drive if at all possible, or get it for a very good price, especially a Fusion drive that is 7 years old. Much slower and prone to failure. Unless you are planning to switch it for an SSD. @Fishrrman is right on this.
Check for image persistence on the edges, if that would bother you.

The Fusion drive has a 128 GB SSD which should be fine. I have 5 TB of SSD storage on my NAS.

I have several external SSD drives that I could use too.

 

[pshufd]

This is the system. There's another similar system in my area asking $1,000. It has 24 GB of RAM. I am somewhat surprised at the wide range of asking prices for Macs in general. What I do know is that if the Mac is priced right, it will be gone in an hour. This more expensive system has been sitting for 20 days.

There's a 2015 i5 system with 24 GB RAM and 500 GB SSD for $1,399 too. My seller is selling this model for $750 but it has a 1 TB Fusion drive and 16 GB of RAM. This system was posted five days ago but I expect it to not sell unless the seller lowers the price.

 

[EugW]

Yeah, both the 2014 and 2015 models suck.
For a little more money, the 2017 versions are far better.
- Huge leap in GPU performance (smallest R570 is faster than biggest R395X)
- GPUs have 2x the VRAM (going from 2-4 to 4-8GB)
- GPUs also run much cooler (28nm Tonga vs 14nm Polaris)
- CPU chip is also better and socked again
- 2400 vs 1867 MHz RAM
- 2x USB-C vs 2x DP ports
- Thunderbolt 3 vs 2
- Bluetooth 4.2 vs 4.0
- Brighter display (500nits)
- (21.5 iMac with dGPUs)


Summary:
2012 and 2013 models are very similar (nVidia GPU, no Retina)
major jump
2014 and 2015 models are very similar and pretty meh.
moderate jump
2017 and 2019 models are very similar and pretty good.
minor jump
2020 models have even better GPUs + 1080p webcams

And no, I would never pay 900 dollars for a 2014 model. And again, those R9 GPUs are hot and noisy, especially the M295/M395/X. Better avoid and look further. 2017 models with SSD sell for around 1000€ here in Germany.

Hint: Albeit a SSD is quite a must nowadays, you can still go for the 2TB Fusion Drive, as this still has a 128GB SSD section (compared to the laughable 32GB of the 1TB Fusion Drive)

The reason I bought a 2017 iMac... in 2017... was because of hardware h.265 HEVC support. My 2017 i5 will decode the Sony Nature Camp 10-bit HDR h.265 HEVC video with about 10% CPU usage. Even my 2017 Core m3 MacBook will decode that with about 25% CPU usage.

In contrast, a 2015 Core i7 iMac cannot decode it cleanly even at 100% CPU usage.

And yeah, everything is USB-C + Thunderbolt 3 now. Thunderbolt 2 is essentially dead.

That said, it depends on the needs and usage. In 2021 I bought my elementary school age kid a Broadwell 2015 MacBook Pro and my wife a Broadwell 2017 MacBook Air, and at least at this point they couldn't care less about having hardware HEVC support. As long as YouTube works, they're happy. As for USB-C, so far they don't care about that either.