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iMac 5K (Late 2015) vs Mac Pro: Photoshop Filters
Related: 4K and 5K display, computer display, filters, iMac, iMac 5K, Mac Pro, Macs, memory, Other World Computing, Photoshop
Get iMac 5K at B&H Photo and see also MPG’s computer gear wishlist.
See also diglloyd-recommended performance packages for iMac at OWC.
Save money on 32GB or 64GB OWC memory (about $400 savings vs Apple!)
MPG recommends this iMac 5K: 27" Retina 5K Display, 4.0 GHz Intel Core i7 (Skylake), 1TB Flash, 8GB memory, AMD Radeon R9 M395X GPU (4GB GDDR5) + 32GB or 64GB OWC memory.
The machines tested here are the fastest possible models for this type of work. The iMac 5K as tested here edges into low-end Mac Pro pricing territory, at around $4K as configured with 64GB OWC memory.
A note on the 8-core 3.3 GHz Mac Pro
Apple offers a 3.0 GHz 8 core (slower than 3.3 GHz), and it would be a bit slower than the 3.3 GHz 8-core Mac Pro tested here. However, since Photoshop generally utilizes fewer than 8 cores (or even 6), it is likely that the 3.5 GHz 6-core Mac Pro would perform similarly to the 8-core Mac Pro tested here, since the 3.3 GHz 8 core and 3.5 GHz 6-core CPUs have nearly identical turbo boost behaviors.
Photoshop filters
These tests are not sensitive to the amount of memory and are thus pure CPU/GPU tests.
The late 2015 iMac 5K sometimes beats the 3.3 GHz 8-core 2013 Mac Pro, sometimes is neck and neck, and sometimes beats the Mac Pro. It’s an impressive performance for the iMac 5K.