iMac 5k vs iMac 27 Help please.

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iMac 5k vs iMac 27 Help please.

Hello everyone,

I looking for a little help or guidance on a purchase that I recently made. I purchases iMac 27 with the 3.5 ghz Intel Core i7, 16 GB Memory and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096. I just got it last week and of course they release the 5K, my question is, in short, is it worth returning for the new 5K and pay the extra $300 - $400 bucks. I bought the new one for work, gaming and to start doing photos. I do play a lot of games such as FFXIV, WOW, and a couple of first person shooters and did install boot camp. I know everything is new and I'm not the best computer literate person when it comes to internals so any advice would be great. I had my old iMac for almost 8 years and want to be able to keep the new one for the same or longer knowing i'm not going to have to upgrade. Thanks again in advance.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)

Posted on Oct 23, 2014 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 23, 2014 2:13 PM in response to Cambycis

This really is down to what they're going to be used for primarily. If photo editing, I'd say probably yes. If gaming having a 5K display isn't going to be that important, it'd be nice, but not essential (Although WOW would look pretty cool in 5K).

It's also down to if you can afford to spend the amount of money it would cost for a 5K model with the same specification as your current non-Retina models.

Thanks,
Ollie

Apple Certified Macintosh Technician

Apple Certified Associate - Mac Integration 10.9

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Answer 2

Dagok

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Oct 23, 2014 5:54 PM in response to Cambycis

I would personally stick to the machine you have. The 5k machine is more for photo/video editing of extremely high res stuff. For gaming, you are not going to have the power to play comfortably at 5k so you'll end up scaling down anyway. Also Windows doesn't handle 4k or 5k very well at the moment either so imo its actually a downgrade for your specific needs. So unless you NEED 5k for your photo work, I wouldn't get it just yet.

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Answer 3

Oct 25, 2014 8:12 AM in response to Cambycis

YES IT IS! You'll be sorry if you don't.

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Answer 4

Oct 25, 2014 8:22 AM in response to Cambycis

The Retina 5K screen is GORGEOUS. However, it also has 4x as many pixels as the standards 27" iMac. If you're gaming and playing first person shooters and refresh time is critical, the new iMac is going to be slower. It's simple physics.

Personally, I don't play many games, but I've used a MacBook Pro with Retina display for a couple years, so I've gotten spoiled with the clarity of everything, and with how GREAT it is for photography. I'd been waiting for 2 1/2 years for something as good on the desktop. The minute the Retina 5K iMac was introduced, I ordered it, and I got it yesterday. SO HAPPY 🙂

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Answer 5

Oct 25, 2014 12:36 PM in response to William Lloyd

William- which configuration did you get?

Can you tell me what date did you order yours? Want to have a more precise idea of how long it will take to get mine.I got a maxed out version, ordered on the 22nd.Today it begun the new status of "preparing for shipping".My given estimation was 5-7 business before they'd start shipping , with arrival between nov 5-7th.But I'm hoping to get it a few days sooner, due to an upcoming trip exactly around that delivery estimation . Looking forward to see how the iMac 5K will compare to my current iMac late 2012.

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