What's the REAL difference between M290x and M295x?

[hojoon0724]

I don't feel like reading all 16 pages and sift through useless speculations and arguments based on just numbers.

What's the real difference between M290x and M295x?

Yes, 2gb is smaller than 4gb and more memory is for the most part better. But what's a real world difference? Is it that there will be crazy lag while using safari? Or will it be slow while running Lightroom? Or will it be running at its limit while using an external Thunderbolt display? Will it blend? (OK, maybe not that last part).

Does anyone even have a side by side comparison? Or are we just talking out of our asses without using it in the actual world?

 

[inhalexhale1]

I don't feel like reading all 16 pages and sift through useless speculations and arguments based on just numbers.

What's the real difference between M290x and M295x?

Yes, 2gb is smaller than 4gb and more memory is for the most part better. But what's a real world difference? Is it that there will be crazy lag while using safari? Or will it be slow while running Lightroom? Or will it be running at its limit while using an external Thunderbolt display? Will it blend? (OK, maybe not that last part).

Does anyone even have a side by side comparison? Or are we just talking out of our asses without using it in the actual world?

Oh, it'll blend.

Other than that, you'll probably have to wait a little longer to get a real idea of how much better the card is. The m290x is ranked just below the 680mx from the 2012 iMac (according to notebookcheck). I would expect the 295 to rank higher than the 780m in the non-retina iMac.

 

[azure247]

295x is based on the new tonga GPU and the 290x is just a rehashed 7870

 

[lcseds]

I don't feel like reading all 16 pages and sift through useless speculations and arguments based on just numbers.

What's the real difference between M290x and M295x?

Yes, 2gb is smaller than 4gb and more memory is for the most part better. But what's a real world difference? Is it that there will be crazy lag while using safari? Or will it be slow while running Lightroom? Or will it be running at its limit while using an external Thunderbolt display? Will it blend? (OK, maybe not that last part).

Does anyone even have a side by side comparison? Or are we just talking out of our asses without using it in the actual world?

Since you don't want to do all that reading and just want solid results, let me add this........

 

[DerekS]

The difference is about $250.

 

[marcel500]

295x is based on the new tonga GPU and the 290x is just a rehashed 7870

So, would you go for the 295 since it is a newer chipset?

 

[tillsbury]

The 290 is fine for everyday use of the computer on its own. If you are wanting to do any of:

(1) run an external display as well as the internal retina
(2) play more modern games
(3) do things that will unload processing to the GPU (e.g. FCPX, any form of heavy duty engineering calculations, video, or intensive graphics editing)

...then you will appreciate the extra power of the 295.

 

[theSeb]

The real differences are that the m290x is slower and cheaper. If you were bothered to read some of the threads around here, then you might learn a bit and be able to make these deductions yourself.

 

[5iMacs]

Here's a benchmark, I'm not a gamer so I don't know what it's worth:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/20222048/

 

[hojoon0724]

The 290 is fine for everyday use of the computer on its own. If you are wanting to do any of:

(1) run an external display as well as the internal retina
(2) play more modern games
(3) do things that will unload processing to the GPU (e.g. FCPX, any form of heavy duty engineering calculations, video, or intensive graphics editing)

...then you will appreciate the extra power of the 295.

Awesome, thanks.

 

[marcel500]

The real differences are that the m290x is slower and cheaper. If you were bothered to read some of the threads around here, then you might learn a bit and be able to make these deductions yourself.

Obviously it's slower and cheaper - if you would read our question carefully than you wouldn't have made such a comment.

----------

The 290 is fine for everyday use of the computer on its own. If you are wanting to do any of:

(1) run an external display as well as the internal retina
(2) play more modern games
(3) do things that will unload processing to the GPU (e.g. FCPX, any form of heavy duty engineering calculations, video, or intensive graphics editing)

...then you will appreciate the extra power of the 295.

Thanks

 

[xgman]

also think of the resale value...

 

[yus]

Patiently awaiting a comparison as I need to decide which one I want to get

Think I'm gonna go for the i5+295 at the mo but going to wait and see how much better the 295 is compared to the 290 first

 

[Serban]

the upgrade between 770M and 780M is 150$
the upgrade between 290x and 295x is 250$ so it must be something

 

[AirThis]

If you want a concrete answer, here's mine: the base model with Radeon R9 M290X suffers from lag (even with Apple's recommended resolution). If you ask me, it's totally unusable.

This reproduces precisely what I experienced with the base configuration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7b6vSWMtQ

If you don't believe me, go demo it and form your own opinion...

 

[LuvD]

If you want a concrete answer, here's mine: the base model with Radeon R9 M290X suffers from lag (even with Apple's recommended resolution). If you ask me, it's totally unusable.

This reproduces precisely what I experienced with the base configuration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7b6vSWMtQ

If you don't believe me, go demo it and form your own opinion...

This issue does not only affect the 5k iMac, but also a lot of other Macs under Yosemite (see this forum or the comments of that video) - it's more of an OS bug.

 

[jbuk1]

The M290x doesn't seem to have any problems updating my screen at best for retina so I'd say it's more a software issue in that previous video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBmXA693DoQ

The fans sure do spin up on this thing though after a while in Rome total war II. It is quite distracting and I ended up putting on my headphone.

I may return this anyway and get the m295x though as I realised I can get an educational discount. I hope it's not too much louder.

 

[5iMacs]

I'm looking for some more comparisons, too, I think it's interesting. We have the Unigine Valley Benchmark which was performed on a variety of other systems. In addition I posted the luxmark OpenCL benchmark (M290X) which is pretty valid for GPU compute tasks. (very easy to download and run: http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxMark hint, hint)

Others have generously contributed lots of gaming results (resolution/FPS) but understandably those have all been M295X so no points of comparison yet.

 

[FredT2]

I may return this anyway and get the m295x though as I realised I can get an educational discount. I hope it's not too much louder.

It's probably just as loud. It may take more to make the fans ramp up, or it may ramp up faster because it generate more heat. Mine behaves very much like my 2.6 i7 Mac Mini, and sounds about as loud. This just from CPU load.

 

[AirThis]

This issue does not only affect the 5k iMac, but also a lot of other Macs under Yosemite (see this forum or the comments of that video) - it's more of an OS bug.

I've tested both iMac GPU variants side by side... One lags massively the other mostly doesn't. As I said, try for yourself...

 

[jbuk1]

I've tested both iMac GPU variants side by side... One lags massively the other mostly doesn't. As I said, try for yourself...

Rubbish. I have a machine with the 290 and it doesn't lag at all let alone massively.

What the hell are you talking about?