Advice on new iMac purchase?

Hey all, currently running a mid 2012 Macbook Pro for the past 3 years and looking to upgrade.

I use 3D Graphics software quite a lot recently and my Macbook simply isnt fast enough, (16GB Ram - not sure how to check Graphics Card though).

Due to me still being a student for the remaining 2 months, now would be the perfect time to buy so I can still make use of my Apple Education Discount.

I'm looking at an iMac this time - hopefully getting more bang for my buck. And I'll keep my macbook pro for taking it to places.

I'm looking at the 5k Retina iMac with:

-4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
-8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB (will upgrade to 32GB on my own, due to it being very easy to do yourself)
-1TB Fusion Drive
-AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB GDDR5

Opinions on this setup ? Is the 5k display worth the extra price? I know the model is very thin too, is this a negative in terms of build quality?

Any help would be great. It's been 3 years since i've been researching Mac purchases so I'm a little rusty at this.

Thank you.

The machine you chose is a power house and definitely suitable for the work you wish to do with it. And yes, the 5K Retina display is worth every bit of the extra $$$ you'll pay. Don't forget to add the extra Apple Care. ;D

chscag said:

The machine you chose is a power house and definitely suitable for the work you wish to do with it. And yes, the 5K Retina display is worth every bit of the extra $$$ you'll pay. Don't forget to add the extra Apple Care. ;D

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hey thanks so much! I've ordered it now. Silly question, but i'm just ordering my 4 x 8gb ram chips for it now. Will the 5k iMac model i just bought be the mid 2015 version or the late 2014 version ? on my order form it doesnt say so before i spend £120 on the extra ram, i'd rather ask and look silly, than waste my money haha.

I haven't paid much attention to benchmarks on the Fusion drives. Just be aware that while the RAM is easy to replace, the drive definitely is not.

At one time I considered a similar iMac but I was going to get the 512GB flash storage, and use an external drive for mass data (if needed).