Really interesting, as I am sitting in from of a 2015 21.5 i7 and thinking about pulling the trigger on a new 27". I understand that you wanted to compare like with like, but in specifying a new machine, especially for use with FCP, Logic, etc, an internal SSD and plenty of RAM is a must and possible as/more important than the processor. I would start with 32Gb RAM and a 1TB internal SSD and then worry about the rest.
thanks for this comparison review. i'm in the same boat. i currently have top spec i5-7600k 2017 iMac with maxed out ram and highest GPU for this gen and was thinking of upgrading to the 2020 but the price for the specs i want just doesn't justify for the work i do. I'm not a full time professional creator. its just my 2nd job side hustle i do. If i did it full time then i would buy the best of the best. I most likely just upgrade my cpu to the i7-7700k and call it a day and hope it lasts me another 6-8 years lol
Have you tried optimising your clips before editing them ? I find that when I import the footage I right click and then optimise the files into ProRes. It basically it converts/decompresses the original highly compressed files into uncompressed ProRes ones. Once you have done this you can use the full view in real time with no lag or issues. On my FS5 I don't really need to do it at 1080p but my 4K drone footage I need to do it. So I just optimize all the footage in one go. Unless you have a really fast iMac Pro and even then if your shooting 4K your pushing it you can't decompress the original files in real time to get the experience your after. Try it on your next import and you will be able to then edit in real time in better quality mode, see all the details, some transitions will need to be rendered individually on the timeline to become realtime clips in FCPX depending on the complexity of the Effect or Transition :)
It is recommended an SSD NVID and an i9 for 4k edition, if it is edited in an external SSD I prefer an SSD NVID with thunderbolt 3 40Gbps, more than anything by the bottleneck. Then you could take a computer or do it yourself put the mvme ssd as main disk and an i9 if it is a Mac 5k:)
Great review, although I'm not doing your kind of creative work very often, but mostly slide presentations and text. But this kind of tests are much more interesting that those who barely read and compare the tech specs. BTW I found this review because I'm sitting with a iMac 2015 but with a SSD. I'm missing a better graphics for those few games I play, but that's not very often anyway. I will stay with the iMac 2015 until a new iMac with SSD and very good graphics come some day in the future. Thanks.
I recently got the 2020 27" iMac and it wipes the floor with my old one. I've been meaning to make a comparison video but I haven't done it yet. The graphics and CPU performance from the off-the-shelf i7 one is off the charts better :). Final cut has been a dream compared to before. If you have the SSD in your it will no doubt be a better experience than my old 2015.
How much VRAM and what GPU is in your 2015 iMac? I have the 2 GB card and the VRAM is almost always full. I need to run AE alongside FCPX almost all the time and that REALLY taxes the GPU and VRAM.
So I’ve been going back and forth on going refurbished or getting 2019 iMac right now with 16GB and 256 SSD is it really worth the price tag? I won’t be shooting in 4K. Mostly regular 1080p. Real question is going refurbished the better move?
I have concerns over putting an i9 in this chassis. I have an up-specced 2015 i7 and it runs HOT. Now getting GPU issues and think the main board needs some remedial attention, which is kind of a pain
Hi, thanks for the great review, I'm looking to switch from windows to apple just for FCPX as I believe it is the simplest editor to use, what were base clock speeds of your old and new machines please?
Basically, both machines were the best spec off the shelf i5 models. If you look up Late 2015 iMac and 2018 iMac you'll find all the specs. These are the models that you can find right in the store without any customisation.
Good to know, still have my 2015 model (late) and it seems fine, although struggles sometimes, not sure why with 16GB! My last mac I had was almost 7 years old I think in the end when I sold it and still worked great too!
I ordered an external ssd of 1t in a pcie box, with data (tests on the internet) lower than thunderbolt but still 950 in writing and 1000 in reading. I think I will already see a difference in the treatment, in the end I hope higher than the fusion drive!
I stumbled onto this video and when I saw Shane start talking, I thought I'd hit the wrong thumbnail and was waiting to hear some bitchin' blues guitar lick, HA! Nice to find your tech channel. Cheers!
Looking to upgrade from a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 2.4 x 8 core with 26gb ram. I’ve loss sleep editing 4K footage on it. I’m looking to upgrade to a refurbished 2019 iMac 6 core 3.0 i5 with the 4gb GPU. Something is telling to me to hold out for a i7 equivalent spec iMac, but Black Friday is approaching and my budget won’t grow that fast. Would I be a fool to purchase that machine.
Id recommended 16GB of ram at a minimum for the type of videos you push out. Idk how i9s deal with thermal throttle with the iMac design, but it might give you that edge.
Geeky Nerdy Techy yeah, I was thinking about buying a new computer but I chose a new 335 with Bigsby/varitone. My guitar addiction is just far greater.
i bet youd see better performance in the new final cut update which utilizes GPU accelerated rendering. and i have the 8core i9 iMac, it was totally worth it. i can edit 4k with full res preview seamlessly, no problem.
Hello there and thank you so much for uploading the comparison video. I was wondering , if when you bought the 2019 Mac did you have to purchase another license with all the software ? or were you refunded or compensated when you returned the Mac after it failed to meet your needs as expected. ( sorry for the long question )
Congratulations on the video and channel. See if you can help me decide what to buy. The purpose is to shoot a non-professional photo and video, but let it be as God commands. I have these two second-hand models at the same price and I don't know which one to decide on: IMAC 21 "retina 2019 Intel i5 3ghz 6 cores Ram ddr4 8ghz 2666mhz Radeon pro 560 4gb Fusion drive 1tb IMAC 27 "retina late 2015 Intel i5 3.3ghz 4 cores Ram ddr3 8ghz 1866mhz AMD r9 395 2gb Original apple 512gb ssd disk Which do you think can go better? big screen with ssd from 2015 or newer with fusion drive? Which one do i stay with? Thank you in advance!
The bigger screen is always going to be advantageous. Get the 512GB SSD as well it makes enough of a difference to warrant the upgrade :) The fusion drive stock high end i5 with the 8gb graphics card is more than enough for most projects. An off-the-shelf one would do the job fine for you too :)
Screen quality the same??? Probably is. Just double checking. I have 21.5 inch iMac 2015. I direct/edit music videos on it using final cut pro. Thank you.
Wow. nice video. Iam facing the same issues on 2019 iMac. So what would you suggest . Replacing Mechanical drive with SSD. or also replacing i5 with i9.
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) CPU: 3.3 GHz Qual Core Intel Core i5 RAM: 24 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 Graphic: AMD Radeon R9 M395 2 GB Storage: 2TB Fusion Drive Should I upgrade my iMac? It hurts that I can't do any type of 4k streaming while having such good machine, whilst my iPad Pro does a better job when it comes to streaming... I'm not a graphic designer or sth, just a normal desktop user... What should I do?
Hi brother from bangladesh 🇧🇩 i don’t know about imac i use pc for my work so basically i work on blender, after effect , illustrator , photoshop, adobe xd , adobe indesign and also i do programming for mobile app or web development so i use my pc to use those software my pc configuration is 16gb ram i5 8th gen intel processor no graphic card so I really suffer to much problem to doing those work in pc so I decided to make another pc but there have little bit confusion i hear imac is better for me not the pc because if you build pc it will give you power for some month after some month it will laggy i mean doing crashes sometimes so that’s why i want a opinion from you sir i have buy a imac 17 or 19 model or what spec i need to run my those requirements please guide me to buy a Mac because I don’t want to build a pc so i want to buy imac but i need spec details for my work I run 5/6 soft at a time pleace pleace give me a opinion thank you sir
@@GeekyNerdyTechy I see.. So is the fusion drive doing fine for your work? I've ordered the same with fusion drive so I wanted to get inputs from others
@@GeekyNerdyTechy Thanks! I think in that case the 2015 27 inch 5k is a pretty good deal now since you can't even buy a 5k monitor for the price that it's selling for used nowadays.
I only run amplitube and guitar rig into reaper for practicing so I can record without bothering the wife. I was hoping for a redesign this year and was waiting for it before upgrading. Little disappointed that Apple didn't give us that. Will see if I can get another year. Don't want to go back to PCs.
No different in timeline because i5 9600 in this imac is KF !!! 9600KF!!!! Without iGpu and quick video synh!!!! Defective cpu in new imac !!!! What a big surprise.... Linus told about this nuans. I very sad about it. The i9 9900 also KF mode without iGpu.
@@spacebb Indeed, there is an iGPU from Intel inside these machines. I know it first hand because I saw VideoProc using it for hardware acceleration in some video conversions that I did. By the way, thanks to this iGPU the iMac is much less stressed during such operations (much lower CPU usage and temperature).
Interesting. Old vs. new so which is more optimal? One would think that it depends on what you want both systems to do more and less of, right. Personally, with almost anything in life, new is always better.
For an 2019 iMac... Go for 27in and always custom build it... - Processor: i9 9th GEN, SSD, 8GB RAM - Add 32GB RAM (total 40GB) from Amazon or where ever With 8GB today, I doubt you can even efficiently browse the web. I have seen chrome take just as much :D Avoid after market upgrades because the screen is glued to the chassis and opening it is always a risk of breaking the most expensive component of it.
Thank you for the video ! question i want to buy Intel Core i5 (3.7 GHz) 8 Go Fusion Drive 2 To LED 27" AMD Radeon Pro 580X 8GB , i will be making videos on my chanel!!!!!! i have cooking chanel . What do you thing ?
Good info. I only export in H.264 from FCPX so sounds like it does an ok job on that.
Honest answers gets thumbs up. Question if you had upgraded to 128gb with external SSD like me would that have helped?
Thanks for the review. Just saved me a chunk of change!
You're welcome. If you work in a similar way to me its not enough of an upgrade.
Really interesting, as I am sitting in from of a 2015 21.5 i7 and thinking about pulling the trigger on a new 27". I understand that you wanted to compare like with like, but in specifying a new machine, especially for use with FCP, Logic, etc, an internal SSD and plenty of RAM is a must and possible as/more important than the processor. I would start with 32Gb RAM and a 1TB internal SSD and then worry about the rest.
thanks for this comparison review. i'm in the same boat. i currently have top spec i5-7600k 2017 iMac with maxed out ram and highest GPU for this gen and was thinking of upgrading to the 2020 but the price for the specs i want just doesn't justify for the work i do. I'm not a full time professional creator. its just my 2nd job side hustle i do. If i did it full time then i would buy the best of the best. I most likely just upgrade my cpu to the i7-7700k and call it a day and hope it lasts me another 6-8 years lol
Feels so weird seeing you talk about computers after years of watching your guitar and pedal videos!
Great review! What i needed to hear. Thanks
Have you tried optimising your clips before editing them ? I find that when I import the footage I right click and then optimise the files into ProRes. It basically it converts/decompresses the original highly compressed files into uncompressed ProRes ones. Once you have done this you can use the full view in real time with no lag or issues. On my FS5 I don't really need to do it at 1080p but my 4K drone footage I need to do it. So I just optimize all the footage in one go. Unless you have a really fast iMac Pro and even then if your shooting 4K your pushing it you can't decompress the original files in real time to get the experience your after.
Try it on your next import and you will be able to then edit in real time in better quality mode, see all the details, some transitions will need to be rendered individually on the timeline to become realtime clips in FCPX depending on the complexity of the Effect or Transition :)
Yes, I compared the difference between the clips pre-rendered and regular in here.
The SSD makes a huge diference when editing, the footage will be much smother.
I edit off external SSD's all of the time but haven't tried the SSD operating system drive experience yet. Cheers for the heads up :-)
It is recommended an SSD NVID and an i9 for 4k edition, if it is edited in an external SSD I prefer an SSD NVID with thunderbolt 3 40Gbps, more than anything by the bottleneck. Then you could take a computer or do it yourself put the mvme ssd as main disk and an i9 if it is a Mac 5k:)
Internal ssd is always faster than external. Doesn’t need to pass information through wires that are generally limited in their transfer capaacity
@@dawfurby internal ssd is still connected via wires lol
Great review, although I'm not doing your kind of creative work very often, but mostly slide presentations and text. But this kind of tests are much more interesting that those who barely read and compare the tech specs. BTW I found this review because I'm sitting with a iMac 2015 but with a SSD. I'm missing a better graphics for those few games I play, but that's not very often anyway. I will stay with the iMac 2015 until a new iMac with SSD and very good graphics come some day in the future. Thanks.
I recently got the 2020 27" iMac and it wipes the floor with my old one. I've been meaning to make a comparison video but I haven't done it yet. The graphics and CPU performance from the off-the-shelf i7 one is off the charts better :). Final cut has been a dream compared to before. If you have the SSD in your it will no doubt be a better experience than my old 2015.
Hey I’m wanting this 2015 iMac computer do you think it’s worth it?
Thanks for this video mate. Last minute purchases for EOFY haha
Hey its the guy from the @intheblues channel, that filler music definitely gave it away ;)
How much VRAM and what GPU is in your 2015 iMac? I have the 2 GB card and the VRAM is almost always full. I need to run AE alongside FCPX almost all the time and that REALLY taxes the GPU and VRAM.
So I’ve been going back and forth on going refurbished or getting 2019 iMac right now with 16GB and 256 SSD is it really worth the price tag? I won’t be shooting in 4K. Mostly regular 1080p. Real question is going refurbished the better move?
Same question and hesitant to pull the trigger for a i7 16gb ram 256ssd 2017 27..
I have concerns over putting an i9 in this chassis. I have an up-specced 2015 i7 and it runs HOT. Now getting GPU issues and think the main board needs some remedial attention, which is kind of a pain
Hi, thanks for the great review, I'm looking to switch from windows to apple just for FCPX as I believe it is the simplest editor to use, what were base clock speeds of your old and new machines please?
Basically, both machines were the best spec off the shelf i5 models. If you look up Late 2015 iMac and 2018 iMac you'll find all the specs. These are the models that you can find right in the store without any customisation.
@@GeekyNerdyTechy What is the gigahertz on the 2019 processor vs the 2015?
Imovie is more simple and way better than Windows Movie Maker
It’s amazing that Apple is not offering i7 processors as standard on the iMac or even the ”top of the line 27” imac ” without options
Maybe it's not really necessary either or it would be too expensive. I imagine the screen alone costs 500 bucks.
Good to know, still have my 2015 model (late) and it seems fine, although struggles sometimes, not sure why with 16GB! My last mac I had was almost 7 years old I think in the end when I sold it and still worked great too!
Hello from France!!! Great vidéo! Is there a great difference betwen i5 and i9 in final cut, whith the 580x?
You might find it will background render slightly faster with the i9 but the difference will be in the SSD and video card upgrade.
I ordered an external ssd of 1t in a pcie box, with data (tests on the internet) lower than thunderbolt but still 950 in writing and 1000 in reading. I think I will already see a difference in the treatment, in the end I hope higher than the fusion drive!
thanks for you answers!
I stumbled onto this video and when I saw Shane start talking, I thought I'd hit the wrong thumbnail and was waiting to hear some bitchin' blues guitar lick, HA! Nice to find your tech channel. Cheers!
Looking to upgrade from a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 2.4 x 8 core with 26gb ram. I’ve loss sleep editing 4K footage on it. I’m looking to upgrade to a refurbished 2019 iMac 6 core 3.0 i5 with the 4gb GPU. Something is telling to me to hold out for a i7 equivalent spec iMac, but Black Friday is approaching and my budget won’t grow that fast. Would I be a fool to purchase that machine.
Very good video. I really appreciate!
Id recommended 16GB of ram at a minimum for the type of videos you push out. Idk how i9s deal with thermal throttle with the iMac design, but it might give you that edge.
Absolutely. I left the test apples for apples rather than giving either machine an upgrade advantage.
Geeky Nerdy Techy yeah, I was thinking about buying a new computer but I chose a new 335 with Bigsby/varitone. My guitar addiction is just far greater.
@@yestoES355 Great decision! 😀
i bet youd see better performance in the new final cut update which utilizes GPU accelerated rendering.
and i have the 8core i9 iMac, it was totally worth it. i can edit 4k with full res preview seamlessly, no problem.
Hello there and thank you so much for uploading the comparison video. I was wondering , if when you bought the 2019 Mac did you have to purchase another license with all the software ? or were you refunded or compensated when you returned the Mac after it failed to meet your needs as expected. ( sorry for the long question )
Congratulations on the video and channel.
See if you can help me decide what to buy.
The purpose is to shoot a non-professional photo and video, but let it be as God commands.
I have these two second-hand models at the same price and I don't know which one to decide on:
IMAC 21 "retina 2019
Intel i5 3ghz 6 cores
Ram ddr4 8ghz 2666mhz
Radeon pro 560 4gb
Fusion drive 1tb
IMAC 27 "retina late 2015
Intel i5 3.3ghz 4 cores
Ram ddr3 8ghz 1866mhz
AMD r9 395 2gb
Original apple 512gb ssd disk
Which do you think can go better? big screen with ssd from 2015 or newer with fusion drive? Which one do i stay with?
Thank you in advance!
The bigger screen is always going to be advantageous. Get the 512GB SSD as well it makes enough of a difference to warrant the upgrade :) The fusion drive stock high end i5 with the 8gb graphics card is more than enough for most projects. An off-the-shelf one would do the job fine for you too :)
Geeky Nerdy Techy Thank you!!!!🙂🙂
I am up to buying a 21.5 inch iMac late 2015 model. I will mostly work on photoshop and illustrator. is this a good buy? please help
Yea
Screen quality the same??? Probably is. Just double checking. I have 21.5 inch iMac 2015. I direct/edit music videos on it using final cut pro. Thank you.
How are these iMacs with the fusion drives with file management, like large amounts of pictures and videos?
I hated the fusion drive in my 2015, as soon as the warranty was up I sliced off that display and installed an SSD kit from OWC. So much faster.
Wow. nice video. Iam facing the same issues on 2019 iMac. So what would you suggest . Replacing Mechanical drive with SSD. or also replacing i5 with i9.
veeresh chinna SSD
Fusion drive is terrible compared to the SSD.
@@origin8studios Does it affect the playback preview on the video editing software?
Viktor Koleda I would imagine depending on your file sizes it can effect it.
Great question. I have a 24gb ram 2015 27” I’m looking at. I want it but it’s i5 processor so I’m hesitant
How much RAM are you using?
It was an off-the-shelf model loaded with 8gb. I wanted to keep the test apples to apples. :-)
@@GeekyNerdyTechy I have a 2015 and the 8gb of RAM was super sluggish. I ordered 32 from crucial and I am flying.
Jake Zabler That was my question. I’m looking at a 24ram but it’s the i5 will it still fly?
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
CPU: 3.3 GHz Qual Core Intel Core i5
RAM: 24 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphic: AMD Radeon R9 M395 2 GB
Storage: 2TB Fusion Drive
Should I upgrade my iMac? It hurts that I can't do any type of 4k streaming while having such good machine, whilst my iPad Pro does a better job when it comes to streaming... I'm not a graphic designer or sth, just a normal desktop user... What should I do?
Hi brother from bangladesh 🇧🇩 i don’t know about imac i use pc for my work so basically i work on blender, after effect , illustrator , photoshop, adobe xd , adobe indesign and also i do programming for mobile app or web development so i use my pc to use those software my pc configuration is 16gb ram i5 8th gen intel processor no graphic card so I really suffer to much problem to doing those work in pc so I decided to make another pc but there have little bit confusion i hear imac is better for me not the pc because if you build pc it will give you power for some month after some month it will laggy i mean doing crashes sometimes so that’s why i want a opinion from you sir i have buy a imac 17 or 19 model or what spec i need to run my those requirements please guide me to buy a Mac because I don’t want to build a pc so i want to buy imac but i need spec details for my work I run 5/6 soft at a time pleace pleace give me a opinion thank you sir
Will you upgrade your fusion drive to ssd?
When the time comes I get another iMac I will for sure. I'll also get the i9 CPU.
@@GeekyNerdyTechy I see.. So is the fusion drive doing fine for your work? I've ordered the same with fusion drive so I wanted to get inputs from others
What the specs for 2015 model?
Is this the 21,5 inch? The one with fusion drive & Radeon 560 4GB?
27" off the shelf best i5 model.
where can we see your projects ?
Here's one of them - th-cam.com/video/BVM1rm54bLk/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the honesty..
Hi, I went to the states last year, Where is your accent from? It sounds familiar.
Is there a difference in screen quality?
They are exactly the same from what I could tell. I think the iMac Pro has the brighter screen but I never use my iMac on full brightness anyway. :)
@@GeekyNerdyTechy Thanks! I think in that case the 2015 27 inch 5k is a pretty good deal now since you can't even buy a 5k monitor for the price that it's selling for used nowadays.
I'm still rocking my '07 iMac. 12 years strong. I think I should probably upgrade.
haha! Man, that's getting old as but if it works, it works!
I only run amplitube and guitar rig into reaper for practicing so I can record without bothering the wife. I was hoping for a redesign this year and was waiting for it before upgrading. Little disappointed that Apple didn't give us that. Will see if I can get another year. Don't want to go back to PCs.
No different in timeline because i5 9600 in this imac is KF !!! 9600KF!!!! Without iGpu and quick video synh!!!! Defective cpu in new imac !!!! What a big surprise.... Linus told about this nuans. I very sad about it. The i9 9900 also KF mode without iGpu.
They are not kf, they are k models. Linus was talking out of his ass lol
@@spacebb Indeed, there is an iGPU from Intel inside these machines. I know it first hand because I saw VideoProc using it for hardware acceleration in some video conversions that I did. By the way, thanks to this iGPU the iMac is much less stressed during such operations (much lower CPU usage and temperature).
That’s the exact reason why I got a 2015 27” iMac in 2020.
For what you explain you do, you should consider buying an iMac Pro
Thanks I do same work so you answered my questions
Hold on! You look like the blues guitar player Shane do you have another channel on guitar and Amp?
Yeah, dang you are blues guitarist and a geek too? Wow!
@@kuang01 haha yep. I used to be a tech guy ;-)
Apple: Let’s make everything look the exact same
Interesting. Old vs. new so which is more optimal? One would think that it depends on what you want both systems to do more and less of, right. Personally, with almost anything in life, new is always better.
For an 2019 iMac... Go for 27in and always custom build it...
- Processor: i9 9th GEN, SSD, 8GB RAM
- Add 32GB RAM (total 40GB) from Amazon or where ever
With 8GB today, I doubt you can even efficiently browse the web. I have seen chrome take just as much :D
Avoid after market upgrades because the screen is glued to the chassis and opening it is always a risk of breaking the most expensive component of it.
@HlddenTalent I didn't know they have an i7 upgrade. At least not in the website. It was the i5 or i9.
i'm watching this on 4K even know my display is only 720P
Thank you for the video ! question i want to buy Intel Core i5 (3.7 GHz) 8 Go Fusion Drive 2 To LED 27" AMD Radeon Pro 580X 8GB , i will be making videos on my chanel!!!!!! i have cooking chanel . What do you thing ?
Haha, should have gotten an i9 CPU :) i5 is still an i5.
Yep! I'll be doing that coming up. I ended up taking this one back
Geeky Nerdy Techy what about a 2015 24gb RAM? Does the ram help the speeds?
@@GeekyNerdyTechy what drew said
@@GeekyNerdyTechy is it worth buying a 27inch iMac i5 3.3ghz 24ram and how much u think is a good price thanks
iMac 2015 21 Inch late is too slow awful