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worth getting late 2015 iMac?

S

snowboardpunk

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 28, 2013
109
5
Hey guys, I currently bought the new 2016 rMBP 15" base model. I've been looking at external monitors for my my Mac but a 4k 27-28" cost at least 500 dollars while a 5k monitor cost around 1000 and the lg one costing 1300. But can buy refurbished 2015 iMac around the same price as a 5k monitor. I did hear I can't use the iMac as a external monitor so I was wondering how the iMac will run compared to my new Mac.

I was thinking of buying the 2015 iMac with a i5 3.2 quad core and the radeon r9 m390. Would upgrade the fusion drive to a ssd and upgrade to 32gb of ram. Currently I have the base model with the i7 2.6 quad core, radeon 450, and 16 gb of ram. I know I'm doubling my ram but how does the cpu and gpu compare between the two. Will be using adobe stuff (mainly illustrator and indesign) and architect programs (auto cad, 3ds max, and revit)

Also, does changing the hard drive and ram void AppleCare?
 
I would recommend the 3.3 i5, M395 model with pure SSD.

This is is what I have and it is fantastic for day to day use.

Much better than a little laptop screen.
 
snowboardpunk said:
Hey guys, I currently bought the new 2016 rMBP 15" base model. I've been looking at external monitors for my my Mac but a 4k 27-28" cost at least 500 dollars while a 5k monitor cost around 1000 and the lg one costing 1300. But can buy refurbished 2015 iMac around the same price as a 5k monitor. I did hear I can't use the iMac as a external monitor so I was wondering how the iMac will run compared to my new Mac.

I was thinking of buying the 2015 iMac with a i5 3.2 quad core and the radeon r9 m390. Would upgrade the fusion drive to a ssd and upgrade to 32gb of ram. Currently I have the base model with the i7 2.6 quad core, radeon 450, and 16 gb of ram. I know I'm doubling my ram but how does the cpu and gpu compare between the two. Will be using adobe stuff (mainly illustrator and indesign) and architect programs (auto cad, 3ds max, and revit)

Also, does changing the hard drive and ram void AppleCare?
Click to expand...

Absolutely yes it is worth it...
Now if you asked about the early and mid 2015 models then no I wouldn't recommend buying one. The late 2015 is a wonderful machine, has wider color gamut and doesn't suffer from the heat problems than the two previous versions.

I got the best deal I could find, from eBay a 2Tb fusion m395 8gb ram i5 for $1700 that includes Apple care until October 2018!!
 
5K monitors are indeed quite expensive right now but no doubt over time will come down in price and have a wider choice from other manufacturers as more computers are shipped that can actually support them. To be honest you won't go wrong with a 4K monitor and prices have come down significantly over the last year. It just seems a bit strange that you've recently purchased a 15-inch MacBook Pro and you're now considering an iMac might be a better choice.

An iMac is certainly worth it, but because your MacBook Pro comes with an SSD, I would strongly advise building a custom configuration on the Apple Online Store and swapping the mechanical drive for a pure SSD (not a fusion drive) because you'll already be used to the speed and performance solid-state storage offers.

That's not to say an iMac with a mechanical drive is inherently slow and terrible - I have one and it's great - but an SSD does significantly increase start up, shut down and application launch times, and any apps which are I/O heavy.
 
bbnck said:
5K monitors are indeed quite expensive right now but no doubt over time will come down in price and have a wider choice from other manufacturers as more computers are shipped that can actually support them. To be honest you won't go wrong with a 4K monitor and prices have come down significantly over the last year. It just seems a bit strange that you've recently purchased a 15-inch MacBook Pro and you're now considering an iMac might be a better choice.

An IMac is certainly worth it, but because your MacBook Pro comes with an SSD, I would strongly advise building a custom configuration on the Apple Online Store and swapping the mechanical drive for a pure SSD (not a fusion drive) because you'll already be used to the speed and performance solid-state storage offers.

That's not to say an iMac with a mechanical drive is inherently slow and terrible - I have one and it's great - but an SSD does significantly increase start up, shut down and application launch times, and any apps which are I/O heavy.
Click to expand...


Well if its a fusion drive, I would upgrade the mechanical drive to a ssd and keep the small ssd. If I just get the mechanical I would upgrade to a ssd. The fact that I can have 32 gb of ram is great and I needed to buy a laptop for school. It still needed to be fast enough to run my architect programs in class. I want a desktop because I want a workhorse that just renders all night long and need a larger screen. I was eventually going to build a hackintosh but figured this would be so much easier and sleeker. But I wanna make sure the gpu and cpu that comes with this iMac like the 3.3 and 395x isn't a downgrade to my current rmbp (i7 2.6 and radeon 450). And hoping its quite a upgrade because it is a desktop.
 
I have a Late 2015 iMac and as much as I love it at this point it is a mixed bag if I where to buy one now.

Who knows how much worse the next iMac will be based on the changes to the MacBook Pro. The current iMac might be the one to get in that regard but the price is high for a machine that is over a year old.

The golden age of Macs it seems is gone as the company loses touch with reality and continues to decline. I would kill for another PowerMac/Mac Pro tower with two processors and dual graphics with internal expansion.

In terms of your question I would buy a 4K monitor and run it at 1440P.
 
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snowboardpunk said:
Well if its a fusion drive, I would upgrade the mechanical drive to a ssd and keep the small ssd. If I just get the mechanical I would upgrade to a ssd. The fact that I can have 32 gb of ram is great and I needed to buy a laptop for school. It still needed to be fast enough to run my architect programs in class. I want a desktop because I want a workhorse that just renders all night long and need a larger screen. I was eventually going to build a hackintosh but figured this would be so much easier and sleeker. But I wanna make sure the gpu and cpu that comes with this iMac like the 3.3 and 395x isn't a downgrade to my current rmbp (i7 2.6 and radeon 450). And hoping its quite a upgrade because it is a desktop.
Click to expand...

Computationally, your MacBook Pro is faster than all current iMacs except the Intel Core i7-6700K configuration, which is available as a build-to-order on the higher two 27-inch models. You should do some research on the following processors, as these are the ones Apple use in the MacBook Pro you have and the Late 2015 iMacs:
PassMark scores are not very representative of real world use but can help give you a base guideline to work from.
 
Last edited:
EnderBeta said:
Who knows how much worse the next iMac will be based on the changes to the MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...
Very good point. I've been thinking the same.

EnderBeta said:
The golden age of Macs it seems is gone as the company loses touch with reality and continues to decline. I would kill for another PowerMac/Mac Pro tower with two processors and dual graphics with internal expansion.
Click to expand...
It's true. It doesn't seem like they value putting out a quality product all that much.

It would be great to see a top end Mac Pro put out but they haven't updated the line in years.

I agree the current iMac may be "better" than what follows. That is another reason why I bought last year.
 
bbnck said:
Computationally, your MacBook Pro is faster than all current iMacs except the Intel Core i7-6700K configuration, which is available as a build-to-order on the higher two 27-inch models. You should do some research on the following processors, as these are the ones Apple use in the MacBook Pro you have and the Late 2015 iMacs:
PassMark scores are not very representative of real world use but can help give you a base guideline to work from.
Click to expand...

Hmm ok thanks. Well I was gonna build a hackintosh with the i7-6700k but it's pretty cheap for the iMac with i5-6600 but maybe I'll wait it out. I'm not in desperate need for a new computer but do want a larger screen. Especially since I'm going to get similar speeds
[doublepost=1487050380][/doublepost]
EnderBeta said:
I have a Late 2015 iMac and as much as I love it at this point it is a mixed bag if I where to buy one now.

Who knows how much worse the next iMac will be based on the changes to the MacBook Pro. The current iMac might be the one to get in that regard but the price is high for a machine that is over a year old.

The golden age of Macs it seems is gone as the company loses touch with reality and continues to decline. I would kill for another PowerMac/Mac Pro tower with two processors and dual graphics with internal expansion.

In terms of your question I would buy a 4K monitor and run it at 1440P.
Click to expand...

Why would you run it at 1440p? Wouldn't it just be cheaper to get a 1440p monitor?
 
Also I know target display mode doesn't work with macs but can I build a desktop and use it as an external monitor? Or is that the same thing target display mode with my rMBP
 
snowboardpunk said:
Also I know target display mode doesn't work with macs but can I build a desktop and use it as an external monitor? Or is that the same thing target display mode with my rMBP
Click to expand...
Target Display Mode just means that the computer can be used as a display for any computer. So in short, no the 5k iMac cannot be used as a display for another desktop (or any computer). Rumor has it that it will be possible again in the next version but time will tell whether that materializes or not.
 
snowboardpunk said:
Hmm ok thanks. Well I was gonna build a hackintosh with the i7-6700k but it's pretty cheap for the iMac with i5-6600 but maybe I'll wait it out. I'm not in desperate need for a new computer but do want a larger screen. Especially since I'm going to get similar speeds
[doublepost=1487050380][/doublepost]

Why would you run it at 1440p? Wouldn't it just be cheaper to get a 1440p monitor?
Click to expand...
The image is sharper on 4k at 1440p then on a 1440p monitor. That is what apple is doing with the 5K monitor to call it retina. Plus if you do this the monitor looks closer to the same as the screen on the iMac.

1440P monitors would probably also be fine but I was also thinking about future proofing.
 
What bbnck was getting at is probably best, your MBP is already basically as fast as an iMac. You'd be better off just getting an external 4k monitor to connect to your laptop. Performance would be about the same as a whole new iMac anyway. Who wants to copy work between two computers? Then you have two screens, the laptop plus a 4k external screen at the same time with one powerful computer.
 
MadDane said:
Target Display Mode just means that the computer can be used as a display for any computer. So in short, no the 5k iMac cannot be used as a display for another desktop (or any computer). Rumor has it that it will be possible again in the next version but time will tell whether that materializes or not.
Click to expand...

ah ok thanks for that. Ill probably hold off until the next iMac or just build a hackintosh. Waiting for cryorig to release their new cases that look more modern.

EnderBeta said:
The image is sharper on 4k at 1440p then on a 1440p monitor. That is what apple is doing with the 5K monitor to call it retina. Plus if you do this the monitor looks closer to the same as the screen on the iMac.

1440P monitors would probably also be fine but I was also thinking about future proofing.
Click to expand...

ahhh ok thanks for that! Ill probably hold off for the lg 27ud 68 or 88 to drop in price a little. Preferably the 88 so I can just use usb-c.

InlawBiker said:
What bbnck was getting at is probably best, your MBP is already basically as fast as an iMac. You'd be better off just getting an external 4k monitor to connect to your laptop. Performance would be about the same as a whole new iMac anyway. Who wants to copy work between two computers? Then you have two screens, the laptop plus a 4k external screen at the same time with one powerful computer.
Click to expand...

yea I guess that would be better to have two screen vs one. no point in spending that money for same performance.
 
InlawBiker said:
ahhh ok thanks for that! Ill probably hold off for the lg 27ud 68 or 88 to drop in price a little. Preferably the 88 so I can just use usb-c.
Click to expand...
It is a bit different though. 1440p HiDPI running on 5K displays is pixel perfect, since doubling 1440p in both dimensions is exactly 5K. On 4K displays, it is being scaled down to 4K after being rendered at 5K, similar to the options of scaled resolution in your MacBook Pro.

It would still be noticeably sharper though, and it is a non-issue if scaled resolution has never bothered you in any way.
 
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