The 'late 2015' iMac 5K:
Four CPU Shootout
Posted October 29th, 2015 by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
The 'late 2015' 27" iMac 5K can be ordered with either Core i7 or Core i5 processors. We compare three options and add last year's top Core i7.
GRAPH LEGEND
L15 iMac 5K 4.0 i7 = 'late 2015' iMac Retina 5K 4.0GHz Quad-Core i7; Radeon R9 M395X GPU (4G GDDR5); 16G RAM; 1TB flash storage
L14 iMac 5K 4.0 i7 = 'late 2014' iMac Retina 5K 4.0GHz Quad-Core i7; Radeon R9 M295X GPU (4G GDDR5); 16G RAM; 1TB flash storage
L15 iMac 5K 3.3 i5 = 'late 2015' iMac Retina 5K 3.3GHz Quad-Core i5; Radeon R9 M395 GPU (2G GDDR5); 8G RAM; 2TB Fusion Drive
L15 iMac 5K 3.2 i5 = 'late 2015' iMac Retina 5K 3.2GHz Quad-Core i5; Radeon R9 M390 GPU (2G GDDR5); 8G RAM; 1TB Fusion Drive
(RED graph bar means FASTEST)
(RED graph bar means FASTEST)
INSIGHTS
The 'late 2015' iMac 5K (and 'late 2014' iMac 5K) with the Core i7 is the clear winner on the CPU intensive tests that use multiple cores. However, when a single core is in play, the Core i5 iMacs nip at the heels of the Core i7s.
If your requirements are simple, you might consider spending the extra $$ on a faster GPU or Flash storage.
(Big mahalo to PowerMax for providing test units.)
WHAT'S NEXT? Some 5120x2880 GPU results.
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