Late 2013 27" iMac first impression

Hey everyone!

Yesterday i was lucky enough to receive my new late 2013 27" iMac from Apple, i went for the following configurations:
• 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
• 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB
• 1TB Fusion Drive
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5

As some of you asked when i said i had ordered it to give my thoughts on it when it arrived i thought i would do so, this may also help anyone out who was also wishing to purchase the recent spec refreshed slimline iMac

As you would expect from the new 3.5GHz Haswell Quad core i7 the speed of this machine is incredible, coupled with the new faster fusion drive the start up time when you turn it on is literally a few seconds. I am yet to run any real benchmark software however using 'Blackmagic Disk Speed Test' the new fusion drive from Apple boasts a very healthy Write speed of 320.0 MB/s and a truly amazing Read speed of 715.0 MB/s

Once I Bootcamped and installed Windows Ultimate 7 to make use of the new GTX 780m I ran the Windows Experience Index and was happy to see that the Processor scored 7.7, the RAM also scored a 7.7 and both the graphics received 7.9 (out of a maximum of 7.9) in fact the machine is only let down by the HDD as Windows does not recognise the fusion drive so ignored the 128GB SSD and simpley only uses the 5400-RPM HDD (which only gets a poor 5.9)

As for the GTX 780m ive been able to play some pretty intense graphical games (Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Dead Island, Saints Row 4, Outlast) on full 2560x1440 resolution on 'High' graphics and some even maxed out, when the resolution is put down to 1920x1080 it has no problem playing them on 'Maximum' or 'Ultra' settings, I feel this will be similar with most new games also (i will be buying newer games at the end of the month so i guess this will be put to the test)

The iMac also stays a lot cooler than my previous Mid 2011 21.5' iMac even under intense gaming for long periods of time, the 27" display is crisp and clear, the colours are rich and deep, in fact the only thing i could possibly say at this point that I'm not 100& happy with (if i was to try and find a problem) is that the display seems to have slightly more ips glow/backlight bleeding that my other iMac did, BUT how often are you sat in a dark room staring at something black on the highest brightness?

All in all so far this iMac is worth every penny i paid and i am over the moon with it and its performance so far, i will run some bench marks in the near future and post some results for you all

Good deal. Love seeing someone happy with a new rig. Think I'd like one of those myself, but just can't bring myself back to the point of being willing to tie myself to a desk again. And, I'd still like to see them put the desktop version of the GPU in it.

I think they are stuck with mobile GPUs the whole time they are using this all on one design as there is limited room for air circulation for the heat.

As some of you asked when i said i had ordered it to give my thoughts on it when it arrived i thought i would do so, this may also help anyone out who was also wishing to purchase the recent spec refreshed slimline iMac

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Thanks for the review. Now I'm even more jealous.....

pibolar said:

All in all so far this iMac is worth every penny i paid and i am over the moon with it and its performance so far, i will run some bench marks in the near future and post some results for you all

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Congrats on receiving and setting up your new 27" iMac! And thanks a bunch for the first impressions!

- Nick

pibolar said:

I think they are stuck with mobile GPUs the whole time they are using this all on one design as there is limited room for air circulation for the heat.

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A boy can dream!

have been playing the beta of Battlefield 4 (via bootcamp) the last two days, the iMac has no problem playing it on full 2560x1440 with everything set to high apart from the texture quality,filtering, lighting and post process which are set to ultra.

The game also visually runs fine with everything set to ultra but the fans become pretty loud, i did try running 'Fraps' but no matter what settings i had the game it stayed around the same average of 35fps, im guessing this is due to the game only being in a beta form, there is no way that any gpu would be getting the same fps on low as it would be in ultra so i will ignore the fps until the game is fully released

Still struggling to find anything 'wrong' or negative to say about the machine

pibolar said:

im guessing this is due to the game only being in a beta form...

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I was thinking the same possibility. Wait for the final product.

pibolar said:

Still struggling to find anything 'wrong' or negative to say about the machine

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STOP TRYING!!!

- Nick

Thanks for the report.

Great to read, in your initial post, that it stays cooler than your prior machine.

Enjoy!

I have the 2012 version with the 675mx graphics. Like yours it runs very very cool. ice cold to the touch at all times. the 2013s look like nice machines but im happy with my machine so i will see what 2014 will bring.