Apple, Please Keep Doing This! – iMac 2019 Review

[Emily Young]

Another year, another iMac, but this time we got a pretty big upgrade in CPU horsepower! Can the iMac tame the Core i9, or are we in for an epic burn?

 

 

Buy an iMac from Apple: https://lmg.gg/8KVX5

 

Buy a Core i9 9900K:
From Amazon: https://geni.us/0KZO7
From Newegg: https://lmg.gg/8KVXz

[Tristerin]

First video Ive watched since the video addressing the clickbait.

 

Well done gentlemen

[Zando_]

TFW Apple does a good:

 

Please continue, bring back epic macs. 

[Guest]

pff, get a load of this Mac fanboy

[Bouzoo]

I am just here shocked that Linus is promoting an Ergodox keyboard and has proper detailed graphs. 

 

Also Apple, when the hell will you swap the glossy screen for a non-glossy?

[Streetguru]

But it's only like $800 at most for a Ryzen 7 + rx 570/580 PC...With like a $500 decent 4k display.

 

Should do a head to head sometime with an ITX Ryzen and 9900K system(s) vs the iMac

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Better, but not good enough. For a little bit of work, for the same price as the entry-level (let's not talk about the $2200 computer with 8GB of RAM) iMac, we can get

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/B8mNtg
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/B8mNtg/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($224.89 @ OutletPC) - 8 cores to the iMac's 6, overclockable to 4.1-4.3GhZ
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler  ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz) - Do I even have to explain how this is better than the iMac cooler?
Motherboard: Asus - Prime X470-Pro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($149.89 @ OutletPC) - Overclocking. Upgrades. RGB shinies.
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($87.99 @ Amazon) - 16 > 8. 3000 > 2666
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($129.89 @ OutletPC) - a "fusion drive" is Apple's bullshit marketing for a hybrid drive.
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.78 @ OutletPC) - 3TB > 2TB
Video Card: MSI - GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING Z Video Card  ($379.99 @ Newegg) - Much faster, better looking, quieter. Plus RTX or something
Case: NZXT - H500 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($61.98 @ Newegg) - Probably a better PSU than whatever Apple has in that thing
Monitor: LG - 27UK650-W 27.0" 3840x2160 60 Hz Monitor  ($399.99 @ Amazon) - The only place Apple beats us out here, since 5K displays pretty much don't exist standalone
Keyboard: Corsair - K70 RGB MK.2 Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) - Apple keyboard is a fucking joke
Mouse: Logitech - G502 HERO Wired Optical Mouse  ($64.95 @ Amazon) - Apple mouse is a fucking joke
Total: $1819.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-23 17:21 EDT-0400

 

Even if you have some need for MacOS, getting it to run on Ryzen really is not that hard

[Guest]

IDK why people are trying to prove Linus wrong. The fact is, for the hardware in the iMac - the intel processor, the 580x etc, it’s not bad for the money - and it’s in a very small form factor all in one. 

 

By and by just vote with your wallet, no one is saying go out and buy one, if you want AMD, go AMD, if you don’t want a Mac, don’t get one.

[Fnige]

... swappable ram?

 

ok... wow

[SkyHound0202]

Was it a coincidence, or you deliberately released a Mac video exactly 5 days after the Hackintosh video...

 

...which itself is exactly 5 years after original Hackintosh video.

[The King of the Undead]

13 minutes ago, SkyHound0202 said:

Was it a coincidence, or you deliberately released a Mac video exactly 5 days after the Hackintosh video...

 

...which itself is exactly 5 years after original Hackintosh video.

wow XD

[caincha]

I want Anthony to write all the Mac reviews from now on please… No more of that 'PC-guy perspective' bullsh*t just the facts - good and bad!

Also - and I've said it before - it would be interesting to see one of LMG editors willing to LEARN how to use OSX and work with this iMac for a month to see how it fares on video editing using the same software they would on Windows…

[Emily Young]

33 minutes ago, floofer said:

IDK why people are trying to prove Linus wrong. The fact is, for the hardware in the iMac - the intel processor, the 580x etc, it’s not bad for the money - and it’s in a very small form factor all in one. 

 

By and by just vote with your wallet, no one is saying go out and buy one, if you want AMD, go AMD, if you don’t want a Mac, don’t get one.

We've said on multiple occasions that it's not necessarily the best bang for buck build, but for the build, it's basically what you'd expect to pay at retail.

 

I've noticed that a lot of people drawing comparisons to self-built machines tend to choose lesser displays, and not just in terms of pixel count. The 5K LG panel Apple uses is by all accounts a professional-grade display, which has implications for colour accuracy, backlight/white level uniformity, and of course support for a wide gamut. It's fine if that's not a priority for you, but that means the iMac was never for you to begin with - It really does make up the bulk of the cost, and it's what draws in the amateur content creator / prosumer crowd.

 

Were a similar external display available for somewhere under $1k, the story would be quite a bit different for the iMac, but so far there's little mainstream effort to cater to that market, and apathy from people focused primarily on content consumption is probably a big part of that (and why the iMac is considered too expensive to those who don't fit the target demographic).

 

TL;DR I calls 'em like I sees 'em. I try to be fair when it makes sense to be fair, and I try to criticize where it makes sense to criticize. In the case of the iMac's cost, I do believe it's justified, if only for the people who are likely to benefit from such a display. In the case of the iMac's thermals and factory upgrade options... I don't think it needs to be said just how insane THAT pricing is.

[Mira Yurizaki]

30 minutes ago, GabenJr said:

I've noticed that a lot of people drawing comparisons to self-built machines tend to choose lesser displays, and not just in terms of pixel count. The 5K LG panel Apple uses is by all accounts a professional-grade display, which has implications for colour accuracy, backlight/white level uniformity, and of course support for a wide gamut. It's fine if that's not a priority for you, but that means the iMac was never for you to begin with - It really does make up the bulk of the cost, and it's what draws in the amateur content creator / prosumer crowd.

This paragraph here sums up why I get my panties in a bunch whenever someone tries to do a "fair" price comparison. People cherry pick some things and leave other things out and claim what they're presenting is better. If you can't understand what the thing is meant for and you don't build around that, you're not making a fair comparison at all.

 

So to that end, I highly appreciated the build list you guys did.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Mira Yurizaki

[JCHelios]

Quote

It's a good thing that Apple is big on OpenCL. 

As Rocket the Trash Panda would say: You're supposed to use the sarcasm voice! 

 

Apple Defends Killing OpenGL, OpenCL as Developers Threaten Revolt

[Crunchy Dragon]

8 minutes ago, JCHelios said:

As Rocket the Trash Panda would say: You're supposed to use the sarcasm voice! 

 

Apple Defends Killing OpenGL, OpenCL as Developers Threaten Revolt

Now I look foolish!

 

Seriously though, I am impressed with this iMac.

[captain_to_fire]

5 hours ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Even if you have some need for MacOS, getting it to run on Ryzen really is not that hard

I've seen the videos of macOS on Ryzen, it works but Apple's built in applications like FCP X aren't optimized for AMD CPUs not to mention it's a Hackintosh, things like Ethernet and WiFi won't work unless you buy a dongle for it.

[Dr.Dikkens]

Thanks for the video guys! Informative and something I've been researching quite a bit, mainly regarding the thermal thresh/and power limitations. 

In terms of budget I'm either looking at a base iMac Pro or the new iMac with only the i9 upgrade (I'll add 32gb later on).

Now my main wonder is if the hardware on an iMac Pro has a same ratio to value for money compared to the iMac 2019. 

I mainly use it for sounddesign and composition, but work with a lot of comprehensive productions.

Mainly due to heavy load plugins and multiple sample libraries running in one instance.

Also it's always for motion based footage, so there always a video instance running at the same time in Ableton. 

My Macbook pro (maxed out 2016) just can't keep up and it's an hassle working for clients like this. 

 

One thing I've been hearing is the iMac 2019 is quieter than an iMac Pro, which would be a plus. 

I don't need 10 gigabit ethernet nor do I care about better speakers as I'm using it in a recording studio. 

 

Is there any apparent reason, like future proofing or resale value to choose for the iMac Pro over the 2019 iMac i9?  (other than; I like the space grey).

 

Thanks in advance!

[Foxlet]

On 4/23/2019 at 11:18 PM, captain_to_fire said:

I've seen the videos of macOS on Ryzen, it works but Apple's built in applications like FCP X aren't optimized for AMD CPUs not to mention it's a Hackintosh, things like Ethernet and WiFi won't work unless you buy a dongle for it.

You don't need a dongle for Ethernet, plenty of boards use a chipset for which drivers exist natively.