The iMac 27 "Quad-Core SSD stands up to the Hexa-Core Mac Pro

The iMac 27 "high-end SSD version is a bomb that can stand up to a powerful Mac Pro is the conclusion of a test of Macworld U.S. The two ranges meet very different needs, but there is zones between the two where the iMac may well do meet the performance requirements of some professionals.

Tests of two iMac Quad Sandy Bridge next generation had already shown that the Mac Pro Quad entry received a few lessons from these machines. But the configuration custom made by Macworld drives the point, this time facing the Mac Pro hexa core, the point of making the Mac the most powerful measured so far.

The magazine took an iMac 27 "Core i7 Quad at 3.4 GHz with its 1TB drive and replaced it with a 256 GB SSD The bill then goes from 1900 € to 2600 €. To be exact, Macworld DSS has recovered his iMac Core i5 and installed in 27 "(but more can be done simply by the set of options at the Apple Store) The Mac Pro took in default, it costs € 3599 with a 1 TB hard drive and 3 GB of RAM.


Of the 17 tasks comprising the application testing of Macworld, the iMac went to the Mac Pro in 14 of them. However the number of cores (four and six against both configurations manage hyper threading) gives the advantage to the Mac Pro with some applications. The Mac Pro is 13% faster with Handbrake, 21% in the test of Cinebench CPU and 28% on the test MathematicaMark. It also compares two different generations, the Mac Pro are those of 2010 and expected their cooling.

If we compare this iMac from its hard drive and SSD versions, the second configuration is 18% faster on average. This model SSD is 35% faster in copying a 1GB file, 44% faster in a file decompression, 17.5% faster to open a Word document in Pages and iPhoto import is two times faster. For all that relates only to actions seeking the processor, the difference is - no surprise - insignificant.

Finally, this iMac 27 "face a 21.5" Core in i5 2.7 GHz SSD also shows that the former is generally 16% faster. Task-Finder, file compression iMovie and export the results were either identical or marginally better on the 27 "Core i7.

Logically, the Core i7 took the lead in the processor tasks: 30% faster with Handbrake, with 37.5% and 41.5% with Cinebench, MathematicaMark. It should be remembered that in the new iMac line, all are four cores, but only Core i7 hyper threading manage virtually doubling their number. Finally, although the gain of the SSD is evident in adopting instead the hard disk, divide its internal storage capacity by four face configuration 1 TB