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Aluminum iMac Q&A - Published December 6, 2009

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How does the performance of the high-end Core i5/Core i7-powered "Late 2009" Aluminum iMac compare to the entry-level "Early 2009/Nehalem" Mac Pro? Is there still a reason to consider a Mac Pro over an iMac?

Please note that all Macs mentioned in this Q&A have been discontinued.

Apple did not release official benchmarks comparing the performance of the high-end iMac "Core i5" 2.66 27-Inch (Late 2009) and the entry-level Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.66 (Early 2009/Nehalem).

However, third-parties excitedly compared the performance of these systems in a variety of synthetic benchmarks and "real-world" tests.

Compiling Geekbench benchmarks, the now defunct Timon-Royer blog presented that the Core i5 and Core i7 iMac models returned results of 7369 and 9638, respectively, compared to 9910 for the entry-level Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.66 (Early 2009/Nehalem) configured with a 2.93 GHz processor. This indicates that in Geekbench tests, an upgraded entry-level Mac Pro is roughly 34% faster than the Core i5 iMac, but a mere 3% faster than the Core i7 iMac.

Using its Speedmark 6 benchmark suite, the industry-standard MacWorld reported:

With a Speedmark 6 score of 209, the 2.66 GHz Core i5 iMac is the fastest standard configuration Mac we've ever tested. It was three percent faster overall than the 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro, and 1.5 percent faster overall than the 2.26 GHz 8-core Mac Pro. . .
With a Speedmark 6 score of 225, the [US]$2199 Core i7 iMac was nearly 8 percent faster than the Core i5 iMac. The Core i7 was nearly 11 percent faster than the [US]$2499 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro and 9 percent faster than the 2.26 GHz 8-Core Mac Pro, which sells for [US]$1100 more.

The always excellent BareFeats ran a series of tests and discovered:

The iMac Core i7 (quad-core) finally gives us an "all in one" Mac that can "run with the big dogs." It is just a few steps behind the 2.93 GHz quad-core Mac Pro. . .
What about the Core i5 iMac? Based on the four CPU intensive apps featured in the graphs, we believe it's well worth paying 10% more for the Core i7 iMac to get 13% to 30% more CPU crunching power.
However, [for 3D graphics] the Mac Pro with a Radeon HD 4870 is 45% to 53% faster than both.

Perhaps in recognition of the narrowing performance "gap" between the "consumer" iMac line and the "professional" entry-level Mac Pro on December 4, 2009, Apple began offering the entry-level Mac Pro with a single 3.33 GHz Quad Core Xeon processor for US$1200 more than the stock configuration and lowered the price of the 2.93 GHz processor upgrade to US$400 as well.

Ultimately, the high-end Core i5 and i7-powered "Late 2009" iMac models considerably raised the bar on the performance provided by a consumer level system and are quite capable of competing with professional systems in many tasks at a significantly lower price. However, for those who need expansion options -- additional internal hard drives and expansion cards -- as well as performance and the option of a "matte" display, the Mac Pro remained the only Apple option.

In the US, site sponsor Adorama sells new iMac models with free shipping. Other World Computing and JemJem sell used and refurb iMac models at bargain prices with free shipping, as well. Finally, if you need to sell an iMac, A+ BBB-rated Cash for Your Mac will buy your older iMac with an instant quote and prompt payment.

In the UK, site sponsor Hoxton Macs sells used iMac models with a one-year warranty and free next day delivery throughout the UK. Delivery across Europe also is available starting at just £9.99 for two-day delivery to France and Germany.

In Australia, site sponsor Mac City likewise has a variety of used iMac models sold at low prices and available with a free warranty and fast shipping across Australia.



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