Design Comparison: 5K iMac vs 8-Core iMac Pro

The design of both the 5K iMac and the 8-core iMac Pro has remained largely unchanged since their introduction in 2012. The only notable differences are a slight change in color and accessories, with the iPro variant coming with bigger vents in the back and two extra USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, as well as a faster 10Gigabit Ethernet port and a 1080p FaceTime camera. Up front, both iMacs feature identical displays with a resolution of 5120 x 2880, 500 nits of brightness, and the same P3 color gamut for accurate punchy colors.

We personally love the screen on the new iMacs, finding it to be vibrant, bright, and perfect for coloring in post. However, one thing to note is that the speakers on the iPro are significantly louder than those on the regular 5K iMac. While neither speaker system is exceptional, the iPro's sound is fuller and more pleasing out of the box.

Moving on to performance, our top-of-the-line 5K iMac boasts a 4.2 GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 40 GB of RAM (which we upgraded ourselves), and the Radeon Pro 580 graphics with 8 GB of VRAM and 500 GB of SSD storage. In contrast, the base model 8-core iMac Pro features a 3.2 GHz Intel Xeon W processor, 32 GB of RAM, a built-in one terabyte SSD, and the Radeon Pro Vega 56 with 8 GB of VRAM.

When it comes to benchmarking, the iPro takes the lead in several tests. According to Geekbench, the iPro finished quicker than the 5K iMac, with single core scores of 4372 compared to 5675, and multi-core scores of 33,719 versus 19,806. Additionally, Blackmagic Speed Shop's video editing test showed that the iPro handled 8K footage better than the 5K iMac.

However, it's worth noting that while the iPro may excel in certain tests, the 5K iMac is a more affordable option with a price difference of almost $2,000. With our base model 8-core iMac Pro costing around $5000 and our upgraded 5K iMac coming in at roughly $3050, the latter offers significantly better value for money.

Ultimately, the choice between these two machines comes down to your specific needs as a creative professional. If you're looking for a computer that will grow with you over the next few years and can handle more demanding tasks like editing 8K videos or running large After Effects files, the 8-core iMac Pro is the clear winner. With its extra boost in performance, this machine will save you time rendering, exporting, and overall improve your workflow.

On the other hand, if budget is a concern and you're looking for a top-of-the-line computer without breaking the bank, the 5K iMac offers some impressive features and performance at an affordable price.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey I'm Matt the video director here atTechnoBuffalo and I'm Mark I'm thecreative director and we make videoshere at TechnoBuffalo for the past fewweeks we've been testing the 27-inch 5kiMac fully loaded and I've been testingout the eight core iMac Pro so justlike our previous flagship videos we'regoing to split this verses video intothree different categories we're gonnacheck out the iMac's design theperformance and the value and at the endof the video we'll declare a winner andsee whether the 5k iMac or the iMac Prois a better computer for a content creatorso we just picked up the base model iMacPro a few weeks ago since we made theswitch to Final Cut Pro X as our mainediting software however we're stillusing After Effects to create ourgraphics because that's just what we'reused to before we move into anybenchmarks and test though let's justtalk design now we haven't really seen amajor design overhaul on any of the iMacsince late 2012 when they remove theoptical drives and introduced the 21 and27 inch iMacs so here we are in 2018the iMac and Pro variant look exactlythe same other than a space great colorand accessories it comes with out of thebox it also comes with bigger vent inthe back and you'll also get two extraUSB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports a faster 10Gigabit Ethernet port and a 1080pFaceTime camera so up front the displayon both iMac are completely identicalwith the same 5120 by 2880 resolutionthe same 500 nits of brightness as wellas the same p3 color gamut for thatsuper accurate punchy colors now Ipersonally love the screen on the newiMacs it's really vibrant it's reallybright and it's just perfect forcoloring in post one thing to notethough before moving onto benchmarksspeakers are so much louder on the iMacPro it's not the best speakers out therebut there's more bass its more full thanthe regular iMac and it sounds great outof the boxso let's move on to performance our 5kiMac is the top-of-the-line27-inch model it has a 4.2gigahertz Intel Core i7 processor 40gigabytes of RAM which we upgradedourselves something you can't reallyeasily do with the iMac Pro it has theRadeon Pro 580 graphics with a gigabytesof vram and 500 gigabytes of SSD storagethe iMac pro is the base model with the3.2 gigahertz Intel Xeon W processorwith 8 cores has 32 gigabytes of RAMbuilt in a one terabyte SSD and it's gotthe Radeon pro vega56 with 8 gigabytes of vram taking alook at Geekbench we first see that theiMac Pro finished quicker at 1 min 10 secondswith a single core score of 4372and a multi-core score of 33719 the 5kiMac finished just a couple minuteslater with a single core score of5675 and a multi-core score of19,806 so quite a bit lowermoving on to Blackmagic speed test youcan see the iMac pro blows the 5k iMacout of the water with its three gigabytewrite speed and two gigabytes reads speedthe 5k iMac on the other hand is justslightly behind the pro with a 1.8gigabyte write speed and two gigabyteread speed now in Cinebench the 5k iMacgot an OpenGL score of 120 frames persecond and a CPU score of 900 the iMacpro got an OpenGL score of 118 framesper second but a CPU score of 1641 nowmoving on to some more realistic testswe moved to Final Cut Pro 10 wedownloaded a six second 8k clip from REDand tried to add color correction andeffects to see how these two handled 8K video and it turns out the iMac procan playback 8k videos just fine wherethe 5k iMac has some trouble playingback the files even after its renderedso we then duplicated this 8Kwith its effects and colors into a1-minute file and then exported it theiMac Pro exported it in 11 minutes and 42seconds while the 5k iMac took a decentamount longer at 20 minutes and 45seconds after our test finish we triedplaying back the exported 8K clip inQuickTime and both iMacs were unable toplaybackvideo in real time which surprised usmoving on to After Effects we exported a50 second clip that we made from scratchwith multiple elements and in 4k theiMac Pro finished exporting in 13minutes and 50 seconds while the 5k iMacexported the same project in 15 minutesand 11 seconds another thing to notewith these tests is besides the timedifference there's also a noisedifference with the fans in the timewe've been using the iMac Pro not oncehave we heard the fans kick on or ifthey are on we can't hear them whereaswith the 5k iMac it sounds like aplane's about to take off so clearly theiMac pro is the more beefier system butit's also more expensive but how muchmore is it the 5k iMac we bought withthe extra 32 gigabyte kit we installedourselves costs roughly around 3050dollars and our base model iMac Procosts five thousand dollars so we'relooking at almost $2,000 pricedifference between the two systemsobviously the 5k iMac is the better bangfor the buck but if you're looking for acomputer that will grow with you for thenext three four or five years the iMacPro starts to look appealing sure formost of the tests we did the differencemay not seem worth the price differencebut for the tests that are a bit moreforward-thinking like editing 8Klarge After Effects files the iMac Prohandles these way better so if you'relooking for a computer that will be ableto grow with you for the next few yearsthe iMac Pro is the way to go especiallyif you run a business or rely on acomputer to make a living it's a largerinvestment up front that can help youearn more in the long run as creativeprofessionals if you're in the marketfor a new computer to edit or createvideos for YouTube or whatever else youwant to create the base model 8 coreiMac Pro is definitely worth the extratwo thousand dollars and it's the clearwinner here that extra boost inperformance will save you some timerendering exporting and if you need evenmore power you can upgrade to a ten coreor even an 18 core computer for way morepower than what we have here while onthe 5k iMac this is the best that youcan get on pretty much every front youcan't go wrong with the iMac Pro anywaysthank you guys so much for watching thisvideo let us know in the comments downbelow which one you would choose and ifyou enjoy this video make sure to hitthat subscribe button and make sureto hit that notification bell to beupdated when we upload new videos i'mMark Linsangan from TechnoBuffalo andI'm Matt Gonzales with TechnoBuffalo and we'llsee you guys in the next one\n"