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We’ve made a total of 14 videos covering the 2020 5K iMac spanning everything from
our Buyer’s guide to various comparison videos, trying to figure out the value of
this year's iMac, and we think we’re finally ready to close the case and wrap everything
up in this review.
The main goal I want to reach in this review is to help you make an informed decision on
whether you should actually buy this iMac or skip it, and the answer changes based on
what you personally care about.
So let’s dig deep into various topics like Apple switching to their own custom Silicon
chips, why it makes sense for some people to just buy this Intel iMac right now, which
upgrades are actually worth it for certain workflows, and I’m gonna talk about my very
important discovery about how to configure your RAM correctly for the most performance,
so let’s get started.
We purchased and tested two different models of the iMac, the high-end base model with
the 8-core and the 5500 XT GPU, and we also got a top-end model with the 10-core CPU and
the best 5700 XT graphics card option.
When we first started comparing the 2020 iMac to other machines like the iMac Pro, we quickly
realized that for most people, the iMac is definitely a better choice, especially now
that it comes with a faster SD card slot, a 1080P webcam with upgraded microphones and
an option for 10gb ethernet, which all used to be huge reasons to choose the iMac Pro
instead.
There was also the T2 chip which helped the iMac Pro do a great job with a lot of common
video editing tasks, and now the 2020 iMac has the same T2 chip, but on top of that,
it also gets a couple of bonuses like quick sync encoding support and Navi graphics hardware
accelerators.
One of the other major downsides of last year’s 5K iMac was that even the expensive Vega 48
graphics card was still the major limitation for a lot of tasks, and now the iMac can be
configured with the 5700 XT graphics card which greatly improves graphics performance.
This new card gave us almost 50% better FPS in the Unigine Heaven Gaming benchmark, about
50% higher timeline FPS for playing back R3D RAW 8K video, and we also got perfect 60FPS
for playing back Canon C200 RAW footage compared to around 45 with last year’s iMac top-end
iMac.
But the biggest difference is thanks to Apple T2 chip, specifically for encoding HEVC footage,
now being over twice as fast as before.
We then compared these new iMacs to the 16” MacBook Pro, and this year, we’re finally
recommending the iMac over the MacBook Pro because it's now a much better bang for the
buck, especially since it gets a much better cooling system due to the much larger size.
We finished off our comparisons pitting the 10 core iMac against our $15,000 Mac Pro which
has the 12-core CPU with Vega II graphics and a massive 192GB of six-channel RAM.. and
we found some very interesting results.
For a lot of common tasks, like for video editing, there really wasn’t that big of
a difference, at least when comparing the price points of each Mac.
The HEVC stabilization test ended up being much faster on the iMac because it’s also
utilizing the integrated graphics chip that’s in the processor, which the Mac Pro doesn’t
have.
We also exported our 12 minute How much RAM for Mac in 2020 video, which is packed with
many of the effects that we use on a daily basis, making it just about the most real-world
test in terms of what we edit every day, and the Mac Pro finished exporting it only 9 seconds
faster.
And that’s because the encoding for this type of footage is taken care of by the T2
chip, which is identical on both of these Macs.
By far, the biggest advantage for the Mac Pro was for processor-heavy tasks that depend
on RAM and stable processor performance.
The Mac Pro has a massive advantage of having 192GB of six-channel ECC RAM compared to only
64GB of dual-channel RAM on the iMac, so this lead to almost triple the performance in Pugetbench
for Photshop, and finishing almost twice as fast in our 500 RAW 42MP Lightroom Export
test, and being able to build 1:1 previews almost twice as fast as well.
And then thanks to the more reliable server-grade Xeon chip with 12 cores, the Mac Pro was able
to handle almost 100 more tracks in Logic Pro X for music production.
And the programming results were very impressive in Xcode as well, but the truth is that not
very many people can justify the $15,000 price tag of the Mac Pro to take advantage of those
gains, and even though it’s upgradable, the future is still in Apple Silicon, which
will likely require you to sell the Intel Mac Pro for an ARM-based Silicon model down
the road.
And for the price tag of $3,200 for the iMac, the performance is actually quite good, especially
compared to the previous iMacs and basically every other Mac you can get right now.
However, the most important piece of info that we discovered is that the 10-core i9
upgrade for $400 isn’t worth it, even for those who only want to use it for processor-heavy
workloads.
But before I get into the results between those two CPUs, I want to touch on the absolute
best way to configure your RAM to maximum performance, so I ran a few tests that are
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Back to the iMac, we quickly found that if you want 64GB of RAM, you get better performance
by having four sticks instead of two as Geekbench 5 jumped to over 10,000 points and our Lightroom
Classic Export finished a minute and 40 seconds faster as well.. which we didn't expect.
Now there’s also the question of mixing Apple’s factory 8GB of RAM with let’s
say 32GB of aftermarket ram for a total of 40gigs. This instantly resulted in memory
speed dropping to 2133Mhz which in turn dropped multi-core performance down to around 9300
points, as well as slowing down our Lightroom Classic export to over 29 minutes.
We then moved the sticks around so that the 16GB sticks were at the top and the two 4GB
were at the bottom as some suggested to do.. and that did finally get the ram back to running
at the full 2667Mhz speed, but then multi-core performance TANKED down to 7700 points and
our lightroom export took a massive 42min and 30 seconds!
We discovered that by moving the aftermarket RAM sticks next to each other, it actually
forced the RAM into single-channel mode.
So there are three lessons we can learn from these tests. If you know you won’t be upgrading
to more RAM down the line, just fill all 4 RAM slots to maximize performance, but be
careful not to mix and max different RAM sizes like keeping the factory RAM because it can
actually slow down performance.. And whatever you do.. Do not configure your RAM in single-channel
mode.
Now with that, let’s get into why the 10-core i9 CPU upgrade isn’t worth the extra $400.
Based on all of our testing, we quickly figured out that the 10-core processor wasn’t worth
the price for a lot of the tests that we ran, even the ones that greatly rely on processor
performance. We tested photoshop and Lightroom Classic photo editing, and in both of those
tests, the 10-core wasn’t worth it.
We tested Logic Pro X music production, and the 10-core barely helped at all, only handling
6 more tracks before overloading the system.
Xcode programming performance barely improved either, only saving 12 seconds compared to
the 80core i7 while building our Max Tech Xcode project.
And then for video editing in Final Cut Pro X, we quickly realized that the 10-core was
doing nothing for performance, it was simply the $500 graphics upgrade that led to any
performance gains, and we even found that in some tests that were processor dependent,
the 8-core was actually slightly faster because it runs at faster clock speeds under load.
Now I do want to mention that it's not that the 10-Core i9 is underwhelming, in fact,
it's faster than our Mac Pro’s 12-core in terms of the reliable Cinebench R20 stress
test. It’s just that this year's base 8-core i7 is extremely fast, over 20% faster than
last year's 8-core i9, which you had to pay $400 extra for.
So how in the world is that possible? Well, Apple seems to power limit the i9’s but
not the i7’s and to prove that… the 2020 8-core hits 161 watts under load compared
to 120 watts last year, and the 10-Core can use up to 151 watts, still less than this
year’s 8-core.
So please don’t waste your money and just stick to the i7, which makes the 2020 iMac
an incredible value as it provides 10-core i9 performance for the price of last year's
6-core i5.
And to make things even better, not everyone needs the $500 5700XT graphics, which in turn
brings the price down even more, from $3200 for the top-end spec all the way down to $2300,
so let me explain why not everyone needs the better graphics.
For starters, graphics does nothing for processor-heavy tasks like photo editing, programming and
music production.
And for video editing with common 4K formats, the 5500XT has the exact same hardware decoders
and encoders as the highest-end graphics, and it also has enough raw power for most
people editing h.264 and hevc footage.
The $500 5700XT graphics card upgrade was really only worth it for 3 different things
that we tested, video editing with RAW codecs like C200 and R3D RAW footage, 3D graphics
rendering, and gaming where it was almost 50% faster.. So for those tasks, the $500
upgrade can actually be worth the price, unlike the 10-core CPU upgrade.
But if you’re not doing any of that, then the $2300 iMac model with the 8-core CPU and
the 5500 XT graphics gives you the most bang for the buck we’ve ever seen in an iMac.
In fact, this year.. We’ve decided to keep that exact model for our daily video editing
needs instead of the top-end model that we usually keep.. because that $2300 iMac is
only slightly slower than the 10-core 5700 XT model while being a massive $900 cheaper,
and that says a lot!
So now that we know all of that, there’s only one question that remains, do you buy
this Intel iMac or do you wait for the future Apple Silicon models?
Well, once again, I think the answer really depends on what you personally care about.
There are some people that are upset with Apple for not redesigning the iMac for the
past 8 years, and there are others who don’t really care. The latter are more focused on
the performance, the feature-set and getting their work done faster, more reliably and
more conveniently.
And for those kinds of people, this new iMac is great, offering excellent performance at
a much better value than we’ve seen in years, and now Apple has finally packed in some long
awaited features like a faster SD card slot, 10gb ethernet for only $100 more, a 1080p
webcam with better microphones, SSDs at the base price and hardware accelerators with
Apple’s T2 chip and AMD’s Navi graphics that make a huge impact on real-world performance.
So if you care about those things, you can’t go wrong by buying the 2020 iMac.
The biggest issue with the future Apple Silicon models is that we have no way of knowing how
well third-party apps will run on them due to using the new ARM-based architecture, and
we don’t know how long it could take for those apps to get fully optimized.
We already know that running the full version of Windows using bootcamp is not happening
on Apple Silicon, so this question is a no-brainer for those who need that functionality.
And on top of that, we don't know when the Apple Silicon iMacs will actually get released.
Most leaks and rumors are pointing to the first Arm-based iMac getting released early
next year, but that’s only for the 24” model which isn’t focused on high-performance.
The larger model which will replace the 27” Intel iMac is actually rumored to be coming
in the second half of 2021, and that’s a long time to wait for those who really need
a fast and value-packed iMac right now.. which is quite literally why we bought this Intel
iMac.
But in defense of Apple Silicon.. I’m very confident in a few different things.
Apple’s chips are gonna run using less power, they’ll run cooler and the fan noise will
be going down.
And in terms of performance, I am extremely confident that all of Apple’s native apps
like Final Cut and Xcode are gonna run extremely fast because Apple has been optimizing them
for their custom Silicon for a long time now.
Apple also mentioned that they’ve been working with Microsoft and Adobe to get all of their
apps running natively on Apple Silicon as well, so that’s pretty reassuring for people
who use those apps.
And I have a feeling that Apple is gonna be packing their chips with hardware accelerators
which will greatly improve performance without requiring a lot of raw power, just like we
saw in the video editing results between the 5500 XT and the 5700 XT graphics cards.
So my honest advice to all of you guys is that if you don’t care about bootcamp, if
you don’t rely on third-party apps and if your current computer will be just fine for
another year, then I would definitely recommend waiting for the Apple Silicon iMacs.
But if you don’t really care for the Apple Silicon transition, or if you doubt the performance
matching up to the current Intel models, then just go for this 2020 iMac and enjoy reliable
performance right now.
And you can eventually switch to an Apple Silicon Mac a couple of years down the road
when everything has been optimized and all of the apps that you use are confirmed to
be working well on the new custom Apple chips.
But if we disregard that and just look at the 2020 5K iMac for what it is.. It’s a
fantastic machine with much better value and way more performance than ever before, while
also fixing most of our previous complaints at the same time.
So there you guys have it, if this review was helpful, go ahead and Tap the Like button
and click the circle above to subscribe, and you can check out our full 2020 iMac playlist
to see all of your previous comparison videos right over there. Thanks for watching, and
we’ll see you in the next one!