Buying a new iMac

[Mannheim62]

I have a late 2013 - 27" iMac that is running Catalina but can't be upgraded to Big Sur and is running fine. At what point will I know it's time to buy a new iMac?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[chscag]

At what point will I know it's time to buy a new iMac?

Whenever your current iMac no longer meets your needs or when it breaks and becomes too expensive to repair.

As you know by now, Apple is switching architecture to its own ARM silicon driven machines. So that's something you need to keep in mind when you decide you're ready to purchase a new iMac.

I intend to keep my iMac (2017 27") at least until the second round of the new architecture machines is announced by Apple. That will likely be several years from now.

 

[Mannheim62]

Whenever your current iMac no longer meets your needs or when it breaks and becomes too expensive to repair.

As you know by now, Apple is switching architecture to its own ARM silicon driven machines. So that's something you need to keep in mind when you decide you're ready to purchase a new iMac.

I intend to keep my iMac (2017 27") at least until the second round of the new architecture machines is announced by Apple. That will likely be several years from now.

I understand what you're saying ... if it ain't broke don't fix it. I appreciate your reply, thanks again.

 

[pigoo3]

Some other reasons to know it's time for a newer computer:

- When it seems to be very slow (too slow for you)...and nothing you do to solve it helps.
- When you can't upgrade to an OS version you want or need to run.
- When you want or need to run newer software..but the hardware specs of the computer or the OS version's it can run do not meet the new software's minimum requirements.
- etc.

And as Charlie mentioned...when the current computer doesn't meet your needs. This probably doesn't apply...but one way is if someone has a desktop iMac...and they now need a portable Apple computer (MacBook Air or MacBook Pro).

- Nick

 

[Mannheim62]

Thanks for replying Nick, much appreciated. All of the reasons you and Charlie mentioned make sense, thank you. I had the passing thought of switching to a Mac mini but remembered it didn't have a GPU so it may not work well with importing and post processing my photos using Photoshop and Lightroom.

- Mike

 

[pigoo3]

Hey Mike.

Yes...having a dedicated GPU can definitely come in handy with some computing tasks. The difficult part with GPU's (or a computers graphics capabilities)...is getting benchmarks can be difficult. There are sites out there that can compare the performance of an integrated or dedicated GPU to other integrated or dedicated GPU...to give you a relative performance comparison. What you don't know is how they will perform inside of a specific computer configuration (this info is harder to find).

Thus if you compared the graphics abilities of a 2013 27" iMac dedicated GPU to a 2018 Mac-Mini's integrated GPU...you never know...because of the 5 years in-between...the Mac-Mini could be faster.

But for example...even if the 2018 Mac-Mini had 2x faster graphics. If it takes your 2013 iMac 48 seconds to import some photos...and with the 2018 Mac-Mini it took 24 seconds (2x faster)...that still may not be enough to warrant the purchase of the Mac-Mini. And hey...with the 2013 iMac...you got that super awesome 27" display!!!

- Nick

 

[Mannheim62]

Hey Mike.

Yes...having a dedicated GPU can definitely come in handy with some computing tasks. The difficult part with GPU's (or a computers graphics capabilities)...is getting benchmarks can be difficult. There are sites out there that can compare the performance of an integrated or dedicated GPU to other integrated or dedicated GPU...to give you a relative performance comparison. What you don't know is how they will perform inside of a specific computer configuration (this info is harder to find).

Thus if you compared the graphics abilities of a 2013 27" iMac dedicated GPU to a 2018 Mac-Mini's integrated GPU...you never know...because of the 5 years in-between...the Mac-Mini could be faster.

But for example...even if the 2018 Mac-Mini had 2x faster graphics. If it takes your 2013 iMac 48 seconds to import some photos...and with the 2018 Mac-Mini it took 24 seconds (2x faster)...that still may not be enough to warrant the purchase of the Mac-Mini. And hey...with the 2013 iMac...you got that super awesome 27" display!!!

- Nick

Hey Nick,

Thanks again, I appreciate your wisdom . As we used to say many years ago ... I'll run it into the dirt then buy a new one. Hopefully the 2nd Gen ARM silicon driven machines will be out ... I hope.

- Mike