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iMac benchmarks and review say it's a beast

by Mike Schramm Nov 17th 2009 at 9:00AM

People have had their chances to put their grubby hands on those "incredible" iMacs that got released a few weeks ago, and the results are in. And they're great, apparently. First up, MacRumors has a collection of a few sets of benchmarks on the new machines, and the Core i7 processor (a $200 upgrade from the still very powerful Core i5) especially kicks up the speed to a place where it's competing with even the Mac Pro. In fact, in the second comparison, when pitted up against the single CPU Mac Pro, the iMac is virtually identical. Not only is it slightly cheaper depending on options, but you get that nice monitor for free.

Electronista has a much more qualitative analysis, but they still love the new machine. Their "biggest" problem (aside from the usual complaints about the glossy screen and a lack of easy-to-reach ports) seems to be just the size of it. The 27" iMac is a big machine no matter how thin it gets. But they agree: with the i7 in there and all of the extra options, the iMac is a monster, matching up to the Mac Pros sitting in the lower atmosphere.

Good stuff. I'm not personally in the market for a new computer, but man -- if I was ready to spend $2000 on a quality machine, it's tough to consider anything else a better purchase than the new iMac.

UPDATE: Chart graphic is from Timon Royer, we regret the omission.

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People have had their chances to put their grubby hands on those "incredible" iMacs that got released a few weeks ago, and the results are...
 

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biddlebubbly

New Quad Cores perform better than year-old Dual Cores, news at 11.

November 17 2009 at 8:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jwoltman42

My own small opinion: my new 21.5" iMac (with 1TB HD, Radeon HD 4670) is wonderful! I'm upgrading from a PowerPC G5 20" iMac and man this thing screams along. Dual-booting into boot camp lets me play L4D at native resolution, and it looks great. I also have a C2D MBP (late 2007, not unibody) from work and now the laptop seems dull in comparison. I think that for most people, the 21.5 is a much better value if you don't want a "TV replacement" sized all-in-one computer.

November 17 2009 at 6:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought the Apple commercials said they didn't have these problems like a PC. "Trust Me"

November 17 2009 at 5:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Eric's comment
robogobo

problems?

November 18 2009 at 4:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
frogbat

i need a new mac but i've encountered too many probs with various imacs and apple displays to go for this

once again apple.. a nice plastic tower with similar specs to the top of the range imac with at least space for 2 3.5" drives and you'll see growth in your desktop segment!

or maybe a small slab of aluminium?

November 17 2009 at 4:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
canyonblue

@mindflayer: sadly i know about this because my brand new imac i7 is affected. to see exactly what my stock 10.6.2 i7 imac looks like look no further than this video: http://vimeo.com/7442566 and everyone reporting this has the same issue. the issue is *very* real and not a small %.

November 17 2009 at 11:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mindflayer

@canyonblue Re: the return rate - make a friend at  who will tell you what the real deal is. Those forums are often filled with people that have done something stupid, like, say, wiping the HDD and reinstalling with retail Snow Leopard media. Now, if they did something silly like that, then there would be a driver issue which would cause flickering and other screen issues.

Do your research with some sense.

November 17 2009 at 11:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to mindflayer's comment
Mr Lizard

That's right. Problems with Apple products are the fault of the user.

It's fanboys like you that give us a bad name.

November 17 2009 at 5:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kelmon

Hopefully I will be getting one of the new i7 systems next year as a replacement (well, to run in parallel with) of my old C2D MacBook Pro. Fingers crossed that Apple hits a home run with the new version of Aperture to give with new iMac.

November 17 2009 at 10:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
robogobo

Well, my Mac Pro 1,1 is finally a dinosaur. Luckily these benchmarks mean little in the real world, and I can still be happy about my storage and memory capacities. Another year without a replacement, whew.

November 17 2009 at 9:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to robogobo's comment
Mike

This pretty much solidifies my decision to get the i5 model in the Spring.

Is there anywhere that has such side-by-side comparison scores of all makes and models? I want to see how it compares to my current early 2009 MacBook (2.0 GHz, unibody) which replaced my late 2007 iMac (2.4 GHz). Plan is to go with a two-computer setup once again.

November 17 2009 at 9:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Mike's comment
Chris McDonald

One comparison but, of course, it's just one benchmark:

http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/mac-benchmarks/

November 17 2009 at 7:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
canyonblue

sorry about the link to the apple forum, it was in error, try this:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2212682

November 17 2009 at 9:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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