Now that we’ve had a good amount of time testing our new high-end 2020 5K iMac, it’s
time to start comparing it to our other machines, like our older high-end 2017 and 2019 iMacs,
our $15,000 Mac Pro, and of course, my base $5000 iMac Pro that I’ve been using daily
for over a year now, and that’s what this video is all about.
Now I know a lot of you guys are wanting to see how our lower-end i7 8-core 2020 iMac
compares to this high-end 10-core model, and we’re working on that video right now, so
click subscribe if you want to see all of those comparison videos!
But before we get into comparing the new high-end iMac to the iMac Pro, I want to show you guys
our brand new Premium Max Tech zip-up hoodie which comes with a small and subtle logo on
the front, and the same Apple product pattern that we have on our Masks on the back of the
hoodie, with various icons like the Mac Pro, the iMac, the Apple Watch and the new iPad
Pro, so definitely check it out in our merch shelf below this video.
I’ll get into the real-world performance differences for things like Logic Pro X, photo
editing and video editing in a minute, but first, let’s compare the differences in
the design, ports, speakers and microphones.
There are three main differences in the design, number one is that the iMac Pro gets the exclusive
space grey color which also comes on the mouse and the larger keyboard which comes with a
numpad unlike the one that comes with the iMac.
Number 2 is that the 2020 5K iMac has a $500 option for the nano-textured glass which basically
gives you a glare-free display without sacrificing the contrast and color quality like other
matte display films do, but we didn’t pay for this upgrade since we didn’t think it
was worth the $500 price.
And Number 3 is the fact that the iMac Pro sacrifices the use-replaceable RAM door in
order to have an upgraded cooling system with dual fans, larger heatsinks and extra exhaust
vents on the back.
The iMac has finally been upgraded with a 1080P webcam, just like the one that comes
with the iMac Pro, so here’s a quick comparison of the microphone and webcam quality.
As you can see, there’s not much of a difference in terms of the webcam, so let’s now compare
the speaker quality.
Let me know if you heard any noticeable differences between both machines down in the comment
section below, so now let’s go ahead and compare the ports.
Both of them get four USB-A ports which are running at a maximum speed of 5Gb/s as you
can see right here in these screenshots, and what’s great this year for the iMac is that
it supports UHS-II transfer speeds with the SD Card reader, just like the one that comes
on the iMac Pro.
The iMac also now finally has an available $100 upgrade option to get a very fast 10gb
ethernet port just like the iMac Pro comes with which is great for using NAS Servers.
Apart from that, the iMac Pro comes with four Thunderbolt 3 ports instead of just two on
the 5K iMac.
So with that out of the way, let’s finally get into performance, but first I want to
show you guys the differences in the specs, and I want to mention that my iMac Pro is
an 8-core, but if you’re buying one new, the base model now comes with a 10-core, so
keep that in mind.
And you’ll also notice that because the iMac has a RAM door, we bought 64GB of RAM
for only $240 on amazon and upgraded it ourselves, giving it an advantage over the iMac Pro which
actually has a larger SSD at the base price, but either way, the 5K iMac is significantly
cheaper.
And with that, let’s get into our performance comparison, starting with a fan noise test
which we ran by using a terminal script to put a 100% load on the CPU, and the fan noise
you’re about to hear is after exactly 5 minutes of this script running on each Mac.
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So let me know what you think about those fan noise differences down in the comments
below, and now let’s get into some benchmarks, starting with Geekbench 5’s CPU test.
In terms of single-core performance, the iMac kills the iMac Pro, so if you’re doing tasks
that only use one core, there will be a huge advantage for the regular iMac.
And in terms of multi-core score, we see basically the same results, with over 20% more raw multi-core
performance using the 10-core CPU on the new iMac.
Now running the Cinebench R20 CPU stress test, the 5K iMac somehow scored 50% higher than
the iMac Pro which is super impressive.
Now let’s get into graphics performance starting with Geekbench 5’s Metal test,
and here, the iMac’s 5700 XT outperformed the iMac Pro’s Vega 56 graphics by just
a little bit.
We then tested Unigine’s Heaven gaming benchmark on the extreme preset and the iMac scored
around 22 more FPS than the iMac Pro, which is definitely more along the lines of what
we were expecting, and we actually played some games on Windows 10 using bootcamp and
it performed very well, so definitely check out our gaming review if you’re interested.
Now since Unigine heaven uses OpenGL, we ran some Metal benchmarks using GFXBench 5.0
In this Aztec Ruins test, the 5K iMac scored around 25 more FPS than the iMac Pro, and
in the Manhattan test, there was a smaller difference since we were almost close to reaching
400 FPS in that test.
Now one thing I do want to mention before we move on is that the 5700 XT in the iMac
comes with 16GB of VRAM compared to 8GB with the Vega 56 on the iMac Pro, but the bandwidth
on the iMac Pro is actually a little bit higher with 400GB/s of bandwidth.
Before we get into our video editing tests with Final Cut Pro X, let’s test everything
from photo editing, Logic Pro X music production and Xcode programming.
We ran the PugetBench Photoshop benchmark, and the 5K iMac actually scored around 35%
higher than the iMac Pro, which is pretty surprising, and we think the difference is
due to the extra cores and the extra RAM.
We then exported 500 RAW 42MP photos in Lightroom Classic, and we saw the complete opposite
result. The iMac Pro actually finished 5 minutes faster than the 5K iMac, even though it was
35% slower in PugetBench for Photoshop.
And then when we created 50 RAW 1:1 previews, the iMac Pro was 16 seconds faster in this
test as well, so it’s definitely the better choice, but this result just doesn’t make
sense considering the raw performance difference.
We did a little bit of digging and we realized that the iMac Pro is actually using 4 channel
memory compared to only dual channel on the iMac, which is allowing it to perform better
even though it has 2x less physical RAM.
Now moving onto the Max Tech Xcode benchmark created by Max Eremenko, which you can find
a link to in the description, the 5K iMac was a little over 20% faster than the iMac
Pro thanks to the extra CPU performance.
Now getting into music production performance, we ran the New Logic Pro X Benchmark 2 which
tests how many tracks the system can handle without getting an overload error message,
and surprisingly, the iMac Pro was able to play 31 more tracks than the 5K iMac before
overloading.
The reason for that is because the iMac Pro uses server-grade Xeon chips that are more
reliable and run at more stable clock speeds, but if you’re not trying to max out the
system with tons of tracks, the 5K iMac should perform just as well for day to day music
production.
And now finally getting into Final Cut Pro X, the iMac was surprisingly over 50% faster
in the Bruce X 5K benchmark, which we think is due to the differences in RAW performance
and the new Navi-based graphics architecture in the 5700 XT.
Then moving on to our 1 minute 4K HEVC stabilization test, the 5K iMac destroyed the iMac Pro by
finishing 4x faster, which didn’t make any sense, but then we dug deeper and realized
that the 5K iMac is using Quicksync to encode, which the iMac Pro doesn’t have because
it lacks an integrated graphics chips.
Moving onto our 5 minute 4K h.264 export test, which is basically the most common format
that YouTubers use, the 5K iMac was 3 seconds faster than the iMac Pro, but it wasn’t
a very big difference.
So this year, we’re adding a new H.264 test to the mix, exporting one of our very own
videos which is 12 minutes long and packs a bunch of the effects and graphs that we
use all the time in our videos, so it’s just about the most real-world test you can
get.
Here, the 5K iMac shows it’s true colors, finishing the export almost a minute and a
half quicker than the iMac Pro, so for regular 4K h.264 editing, the iMac is the better choice,
and for a lower price.
Now what about HEVC editing, which is quickly becoming the new standard? Well, in our 5min
expor test, the 5K iMac was just 3 seconds faster, since both machines are limited by
the encoding speed of the T2 chip which handles HEVC footage.
And I do want to mention that the Navi graphics card in the iMac actually has new encoders
that run at 90 frames per second compared to the T2 chips 60FPS, but Final Cut Pro hasn't
yet been updated to enable these new Navi encoders, but when it eventually does in the
future, the 5K iMac should get even faster for HEVC editing.
Now a lot of you guys have been asking us to edit Canon’s 4:2:2 eOS R5 footage, and
it actually improved with the new Final Cut Pro 10.4.9 update, so if you want more info
on that, Max actually made a video on his channel focusing on that new codec, so I’ll
link to that video in the endscreen at the end of this one.
But I did run a transcoding test on a 30 minute Canon R5 clip, and the 5K iMac finished the
transcode quite a bit faster than the iMac Pro, so there’s that.
Now moving onto Canon C200 RAW footage, the new Final Cut Pro update broke it, so we’re
currently waiting on Canon to release the new RAW plugin, so we ran our 5min export
test using the previous version of Final Cut Pro and 5K iMac finished over 3 minutes faster
than the iMac Pro.
And in terms of playback FPS in the timeline, both of them played the footage at a perfect
60 frames per second, which is very impressive.
Now moving onto RED RAW editing, we ran the new version of Final Cut Pro with the new
RAW plugin, and the 5K iMac easily killed the iMac Pro, finishing our 5 minute 4.5K
export in exactly 5 minutes.
And then moving onto our 5 minute 8K Red RAW export test, the 5K iMac finished a very impressive
4 minutes faster than the iMac Pro, and the new Final Cut Pro update helps a huge amount,
since it used to take over 17 minutes using the previous 10.4.8 version of Final Cut.
And in terms of playing back this 8K footage, the 5K iMac can run it at around 19FPS out
of 24, while the iMac Pro runs it at around 15FPS.
And there you guys go, from all of those tests, we can conclude that the 5K iMac is better
for almost everything, including video editing, programming with Xcode, graphic design with
photoshop and gaming as well.
But the iMac Pro actually performed better for Lightroom Classic photo editing thanks
to the quad-channel RAM, and it handled more tracks in Logic Pro X thanks to the more stable
server-grade Xeon chip.
And thankfully, the port situation has been improved with the iMac now that it has a faster
SD card slot and an option for a 10gb ethernet port, but the iMac Pro still has the advantage
of two extra Thunderbolt 3 ports.
So with all of that said, if we’re looking at the entire system in general, the 5K iMac
is obviously the better choice because it’s more powerful overall, it’s less expensive,
it gets newer technology like the Navi graphics architecture, and it has the RAM door so you
can save a lot of money by upgrading the RAM yourself, especially for those who want to
get 128GB of RAM for $500 on Amazon instead of paying $2,000 for it on the iMac Pro.
So there you guys go, hopefully this comparison video helped you make a decision, and if it
did, go ahead and click that circle above cause we’ve still got a few more very interesting
videos to make with this 5K iMac. And definitely check out our brand new premium Apple Product
zip hoodie down in our merch shelf below. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in
the next one!