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After 5 or 6 years, I'd consider my late 2013 iMac as ready for a replacement. But when I compare my 3.1 GHZ 4-core i7 chip to the latest offering in the current 21.5" iMac: a 3.2GHZ 6-core i7, I'm not feeling compelled to upgrade. When I look at some Geekbench scores my old iMac doesn't seem all that bad. Am I alone in thinking this? Or am I ignorant?
iMac 21.5", macOS 10.14
When I look at some Geekbench scores my old iMac doesn't seem all that bad.
It's not.
Am I alone in thinking this? Or am I ignorant?
No. You're the opposite of ignorant. Use your Mac until it no longer does what you need it to do. That's at least another year or two away, minimum. The quad core i7 is a very capable CPU and it was wise of you to choose that upgrade over the base model.
When I look at some Geekbench scores my old iMac doesn't seem all that bad.
It's not.
Am I alone in thinking this? Or am I ignorant?
No. You're the opposite of ignorant. Use your Mac until it no longer does what you need it to do. That's at least another year or two away, minimum. The quad core i7 is a very capable CPU and it was wise of you to choose that upgrade over the base model.
Benchmarks don't always reflect real world performance. As long as the machine meets your needs, that is what is important. There are other new features that may be important to some users. You have 10Gb/s Thunderbolt ports on the 2013 machine, the new 2019 machines have 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 ports, making backup copies of data up to 4 times faster may be important to some.
Also, the 2013 can "simultaneously support two external displays up to 2560x1600 via Thunderbolt" but the new 2019 models "can simultaneously support the internal display at full native resolution and up to one 5120x2880 (5K) external display at 60 Hz with support for one billion colors; two 3840x2160 (4K UHD) external displays at 60 Hz with support for one billion colors; or two 4096x2304 (4K) external displays at 60 Hz with support for millions of colors. It supports both extended desktop (second workspace) and video mirroring (internal display duplicated on the external display) modes."
Those additional features might matter to some, might not to others.
Performance tests were just published today, please look at:
https://www.macrumors.com/2019/03/28/2019-imacs-geekbench-benchmarks/
Should provide you with all the information you need, the 2019's are much quicker than your 2013 however without knowing how you use your computer it's impossible to state whether you would benefit or not. In addition, if you get a 21.5" model only purchase with16GB or greater RAM and a SSD, otherwise it won't matter much.
Finally, the article states if you are considering upgrading from a 2017 iMac then performance increase is not that great. What that means to me is to search for an Apple Refurbished iMac which has zero downside. They have an identical warranty to a new Mac, are eligible for AppleCare, are identical to new, can be returned to Apple for ANY reason within 14 days of purchase and can save hundreds of $. If you are not familiar with them visit Apple.com navigate to the bottom of the page and look for the refurbished link. If you don't see what you want then check often as inventory changes VERY fast.
Your iMac is one year newer than mine was and I replaced it for two reasons: 1) my wife's mini should have been replaced several years ago but she needed a computer that ran High Sierra and 2) I wanted to reclaim some desk space by replacing two 22" displays with a single ultra wide display that I'd hang on the wall.
In other words, I wasn't really feeling the need to replace mine because it wasn't doing the job for me. I could have kept it a year or two longer. That said, one thing did concern me: would Apple cut the late 2012 iMac when it upgraded the Mac OS to 10.15? I may run 1 version behind at work I really don't want to do so at home. But that shouldn't be a concern for you for another 1 1/2 years.
Thanks. I bought my last 2 iMacs and the eMac before that through Apple's Refurbished. Saved so much $$.
I'm thinking of upgrading my HD to an SSD. That would mitigate the risk of a 6 yr drive failing soon and would probably eliminate some of the spinning beachballs when I'm opening/saving files.
My last 3 Mac (iMac, MBA, & MM) have all been Apple Refurbished.
If you decide to upgrade to a SSD, please only use an www.macsales.com SSD. They simply work, I see too many horror stories with other brands to consider them. We just installed a 2TB SSD in our MM a couple of weeks ago and it works perfectly right out of the box.
I agree with the MacSales recommendation and Crucial Tech is the second I can highly recommend. Take a look at the macsales installation video, an iMac upgrade is a little, uh, interesting. An alternative is putting the SSD in a USB 3 enclosure. It won’t be quite as fast as an internal installation but if connected directing to your iMac and not a hub it is much faster than a healthy rotational drive.
Great feedback from the last 2 comments.
Hmm... I was reading good things about the Western Digital Blue 3D NAND 1TB PC SSD and the Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SATA III 1TB Internal SSD. I'll scratch those from my list based on these last 2 comments.
I've opened PCs many times (super easy) and a 2007 iMac once (uh... tough). Will I be able to do the swap myself or should I take it somewhere to get it done?
Thanks for your time in responding!
Did you watch the video? It isn’t like upgrading the typical PC tower but it isn’t hard, just tedious. I’ve opened, my last thin iMac after screwing up reattaching the display twice (crooked, just the least bit but I’m OCD about such details. ) should there be a next time I’ll let someone else do it. But finding that someone else is getting harder and harder as Apple kills of independents.
Watched the video. I don't feel great about the adhesive around the screen part.
I'm like you. If it's not lined up perfectly when I'm done I'm not going to be happy at all. We've got good local independents. I will find one to install. Many thanks!
I've opened PCs many times (super easy) and a 2007 iMac once (uh... tough).
If you thought working on a 2007 iMac was tough, you're really not going to like working on yours. Pre-2012 models are easy in retrospect. Macs older than that were like diesel locomotives by comparison.
Locate an Apple Authorised Service Provider in your area.
performance comparison of my iMac vs new
