What iMac Specs Do I Need?

[Shennaniah]

Oh dear, thank you for the link but I'd better not look at it! Because then I'll get all caught up in the details of the different iMac models again, and we'll be back to square one. Frightening....

Just knowing that the iMacs scored twice as much as the Macbooks is reassuring.

I guess the graphics shouldn't be an issues. My uncle (an ex-techy and very computer savvy... unfortunately he's uncontactable right now, otherwise it'd be him whom I bug with all my questions, hehe!) said that the Nvidia cards in the MBPro line are all far more powerful than my MBBlack's graphics. And these iMac cards are even better.

Nick, everything you've posted on here has helped. Thanks!

 

[s2odin]

s2odin:
Okay, gotcha on the GPU. And yeah, looks like I don't need more than 4 threads. I keep my number of open apps more or less to a minimum. I was aghast when I saw that some people have like 10 heavy apps (plus another 10 "lighter" ones) running at once. :O

"It's natively a quad core so things that run well with quad cores will run a little bit better. Other than that they are almost the same. The Quad has all 4 core/threads available at all times. The dual only has the 2 cores available at all times until the hyper-threading kicks in."
Yeah, I kinda figured as much. But just to check- HT will kick in by itself when it can or needs to, right? It's not something that I'd have to configure or toggle on and off?
Correct, it auto hyper threads
How will a dual i5 hold up compared to a quad i5, a few years from now?
Dual cores still hold a good amount of the market share right now and are still popular. I think dual cores will probably cease to exist in probably 3 years. Quad cores are still kinda new (about 2 yearsish) for laptops at least. Quad cores will be the standard for the average desktop for probably 5 years+.

I guess the graphics shouldn't be an issues. My uncle (an ex-techy and very computer savvy... unfortunately he's uncontactable right now, otherwise it'd be him whom I bug with all my questions, hehe!) said that the Nvidia cards in the MBPro line are all far more powerful than my MBBlack's graphics. And these iMac cards are even better.
Yep the MB's + MBP's use integrated chips. iMacs use dedicated cards. It's like the difference between a ferrari and a honda. One will get you there, one will get you there 100x faster. You want the dedicated cards for the best performance.

Red .

 

[Snowleopard]

I would definitely say as above any new iMAC will be more than enough, i got mine last year and is more than enough for me, now u can get i3's, any i3 core iMAC system will be enough they all come with good graphics adapters and lost of ram, i also bought a MacBook Pro this year to satisfy my Laptop needs and i am very happy with that purchase, performance wise it is on par with the speed of my iMAC surprisingly.

 

[Shennaniah]

Snowleopard- Hi! Thanks for your input. Just curious, could you tell us the specs of your iMac and MBP? What sort of work do you do on them?

s2odin-
Forgot to ask you earlier: If 5670 has "newer technology, so it's a DX11 card with lower power consumption, it's GDDR5 instead of GDDR3... just means it's faster overall. And it's memory bandwith is larger meaning better performance." Then why does it still have a slower pixel and texture fill rate than the 4850?

Physically speaking, will the quad core out-last the duo? I'm not exactly sure how these things work, but what I'm wondering is basically whether the quad will stay fast for longer than the duo. Like, as the hardware starts to get old and wear down, do the extra cores keep the quad going more strongly? Or do they wear down at the same rate regardless of how many cores there are?

I wonder how much shorter than "Red." you can go.

 

[pigoo3]

Physically speaking, will the quad core out-last the duo? I'm not exactly sure how these things work, but what I'm wondering is basically whether the quad will stay fast for longer than the duo. Like, as the hardware starts to get old and wear down, do the extra cores keep the quad going more strongly? Or do they wear down at the same rate regardless of how many cores there are?

Electronics really don't "get old & wear out" the way you seem to be describing. I have 25 year-old computers that are working just fine.

Yes...things like:

- CRT monitors
- hard drives
- optical drives
- power supplies

...do "get old & wear out" the more they are used (more hours used & because they have mechanical components in them)...but electronic components like CPU's (in the overwhelming number of cases)...only fail if they are exposed to:

- levels of heat that they are not designed to handle (including the cooling systems of a computer getting filled with dirt & "fuzz")...reducing the cooling systems capacity to cool the computer.
- electrical spikes or surges
- if liquids are spilled on them

Again...thinking about this computer purchase in wayyyy too much detail!

- Nick

 

[s2odin]

Snowleopard- Hi! Thanks for your input. Just curious, could you tell us the specs of your iMac and MBP? What sort of work do you do on them?

s2odin-
Forgot to ask you earlier: If 5670 has "newer technology, so it's a DX11 card with lower power consumption, it's GDDR5 instead of GDDR3... just means it's faster overall. And it's memory bandwith is larger meaning better performance." Then why does it still have a slower pixel and texture fill rate than the 4850?
The fact that is GDDR5 makes it faster, and it has a higher memory bandwith allowing it to perform better. It's still better than the 4850, trust me The fact that it is DX11 and more games convert to DX11 makes it a much smarter choice as well, as the 4850 only supports DX10
Physically speaking, will the quad core out-last the duo? I'm not exactly sure how these things work, but what I'm wondering is basically whether the quad will stay fast for longer than the duo. Like, as the hardware starts to get old and wear down, do the extra cores keep the quad going more strongly? Or do they wear down at the same rate regardless of how many cores there are?
They "degrade" at the same rate, regardless. As far as degrading goes, it just means they get older, they dont ever slow down. It's your choice tho man, I had a C2Q Q9000 in my last laptop (2.0ghz) and it was plenty fast enough for me. This current C2D 2.26 on my MBP is also fine for what I do. The iX series are more furtureproof and the i7 is obviously the most futureproof, but the i3 and i5 are also good.
I wonder how much shorter than "Red." you can go.

Red .

 

[Shennaniah]

pigoo3-
Haha! Must be something to do with being an artist; detail-oriented and all that. But also the tug-of-war between my stinginess and greed for power. ;P

So, seriously. There's no other advantage to the i5 quad other than it has 4 threads available at all times, while the i5 duo only sometimes has 4?

s2odin-
Oh no! You brought back that magic phrase, "future-proof".

Guys, quick, tell me that i5 is sufficient future proofing!


And one more question now: 21.5" or 27"?

I've been to the store to check out the sizes in real life, and I've made the cardboard cutouts, etc., and still can't quite decide. I know this has been discussed in many other threads (most of which I've read); the only reason I'm asking here is because I've come to value your opinions and would like to hear your thoughts on it.

So, what's your preference and why?

Me, when I went to the store (3 times), the 21.5" felt more immediately comfortable. I do like the 27", but I'm quite concerned about the ergonomics.

Thanks!