[ Update: On March 19, 2019, Apple released updates to both 21.5″ and 27″ iMacs. These new systems feature improved CPU and GPU options, though the display and storage remain the same as earlier versions. I’ve reflected these new options in my recommendations below. ]
At their WWDC, in June, 2017, Apple announced and released new iMac computers, designed to meet the needs of professionals. These new systems sport a variety of very exciting features. However, if you are on a budget, how do you determine where to spend your money?
This article is designed to help you make more informed choices when you don’t have a lot of money to spend.
NOTE: I have not purchased any of these systems. My recommendations are based on past experience, current system specs and talking with informed individuals.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
If money is no object, buy the top of the line iMac. It will work great and you’ll have bragging rights over all the other systems.
But, if money IS an object, then you need to make trade-offs, balancing the performance you need with the money you have. However, you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a system today that can meet your editing needs for the next several years.
ALSO: Here are two other configuration articles you may find useful:
YES, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE IMAC PRO?
Holy smokes! What a system.
This review covers the iMac. Click here to read about the iMac Pro.
YES, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MAC PRO?
Given the latest iMac releases, there are very, very few reasons to purchase a Mac Pro right now; especially given its price. Keep in mind, however, that Apple has already announced they are working on a new, top-of-the-line Mac Pro which will ship sometime in 2019.
Given what Apple has announced for the iMac Pro, however, that upcoming Mac Pro will need to be a true screamer to compete. I’m looking forward to seeing what Apple creates – but, as I mentioned earlier, I still need to pay my bills today.
And that leads us directly to the latest updates to the iMac.
WHAT SIZE SCREEN?
Both Final Cut Pro X and Premiere interfaces work best on larger screens. This is not to say they work poorly on smaller screens, but both of these display a LOT of elements on screen. More screen room is MUCH better.
I recommend a 27″ display. Plus, all the new 27″ iMacs now share the same 5K Retina Display.
NOTE: One of my iMacs is an older 5K iMac. I’ve discovered, that while seeing a 5K image is nice, the on-screen text is often very hard to read. So I’ve lowered the screen resolution using System Preferences to make the text larger. I prefer to easily read the text to seeing every pixel in my image.
However, if the purpose of the new system is video compression, you don’t need the bigger screen size. In which case, you can save money and improve performance with a 21″ system.
NOTE: Both H.264 and the up-coming H.265 video codecs are hardware-accelerated in all the new hardware. While this won’t help when transcoding into ProRes, hardware-acceleration will significantly speed compressing files for the web.
WHAT SPEED CPU?
UPDATE Intel’s latest 8th-gen and 9th-gen Core processors, including up to a 3.2GHz six-core 8th-gen Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz for the 21.5-inch 4K iMac and up to a 3.6GHz eight-core 9th-gen Core i9 with Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz for the 27-inch 5K iMac.
While CPU speed is important, it is not critical for video editing; remember, iMacs that were current as recently as last month, were easily able to edit almost all forms of SD, HD, and 4K media.
Any of the processors in any of the new iMacs will be fine for video or audio editing.
UPDATE: The choice in the 21.5″ iMac is between i5 and i7. The i7 is worth the money because of its support for multi-threading. The choice in the 27″ iMac is harder: between i5 and i9, because it’s a $500 differential. Unlike the i5, the i9 supports multithreading. If you are doing multicam, 4K or HDR editing, or lots of video compression, the i9 is worth the money.
HOW MUCH STORAGE?
I really like that Apple has put Fusion drives into all but two of their iMacs. I own two iMacs with Fusion drives and I remain very impressed with these systems. They are an excellent balance between the speed of an SSD with the storage capacity of spinning media.
Keep in mind that the SSD portion of a Fusion drive is only a part of the total storage. For example, the 1 TB Fusion uses a 32 GB SSD, while the 2 and 3 TB Fusion drives use a 128 GB SSD. The OS watches what you do and moves files onto the SSD based upon what you are using most. Which means that a Fusion drive works fastest with files you access over and over.
NOTE: Here is an updated article on storage speeds and media requirements that explains the load your storage system needs to carry.
If you want maximum performance AND you plan to store media on an external drive, get the 512 GB SSD. All the files in macOS will take less than 30 GB, leaving plenty of room for working files and immediate storage.
If you want an excellent balance between performance, price and capacity, stay with the 1 TB Fusion drive. Again, store media externally.
If you don’t plan to purchase external storage – and you will, you just don’t know it yet – get the 3 TB Fusion drive. (An extra TB for $100 makes this a better value than the 2 TB Fusion drive.)
One of my systems has a 3 TB Fusion drive. Currently, I’m using 600 GB of it. The rest is sitting around idle. When using external storage, you really don’t need lots of internal storage.
If you just want maximum performance from your storage, get the 1 TB SSD. It’s pricey, but it’s speed will make you giggle.
Apple notes: “For the best performance, iMac systems with 32GB or more of memory should be configured with a 2TB or larger Fusion Drive or all-SSD storage.”
NOTE: Apple’s marketing materials now define a terabyte as one trillion bytes. This means that when a disk is formatted, its storage capacity will be less than 1 TB because of the differences between how marketing and engineering calculate disk sizes.
WHICH GPU?
Configuring the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is now done when you pick the initial iMac, rather than as a build-to-order option within each iMac family. So, much though I would like to pick the mid-range system and add a high-end GPU into it, we no longer have that option.
Which is a shame. Because while we don’t need the high-end CPU system for most video editing, we would significantly benefit from the high-end 580 GPU in any system.
Both Final Cut and Premiere are increasingly using the GPU for most editing tasks, because the GPU is much faster than the CPU at rendering bitmapped images. Therefore, the best choice is the high-end GPU. The high-end GPU also includes 8 GB of video memory (VRAM).
However, the mid-range system with the Radeon Pro 575X is a perfectly adequate choice.
NOTE: The difference between the 575X and 580X is performance. The 575X has a peak performance of about 4.5 Teraflops, while the 580X supports up to 5.5 Tflops. Both will handle video just fine. All of the Radeon chips support OpenCL and Apple’s Metal and up-coming Metal 2 GPU computing API.
Here’s a link to learn more about Radeon’s GPU chips.
NOTE: Again, if you are principally doing video compression, the GPU speed is less important than the CPU speed. So, compressionists don’t need as high-performance a GPU as an editor.
UPDATE: When looking at GPU performance, use the specs for Metal or Metal II. OpenCL will not be supported going forward. Also, while eGPUs are attractive, I don’t see them, yet, as a big enough benefit for iMacs. eGPUs are principally designed for laptops.
HOW MUCH RAM?
Both Final Cut and Premiere will use as much RAM as you can afford.
Based on my tests with the 2016 MacBook Pro, I recommend a minimum of 16 GB of RAM, though, all my systems here have 32 GB. Again, if you have the money, max out the RAM. However, 32 GB of RAM will be sufficient for virtually all projects.
HOW MUCH SHOULD I SPEND?
You are going to be using this computer for four years. Spend what you can afford, but don’t be stingy in areas that matter: GPU and RAM.
All the base systems are fine, But, depending upon your needs, you can tweak the configurations to better match what you want the systems to do. All systems feature wireless mice and keyboards; though, in my office, I prefer my mice and keyboards wired.
NOTE: Apple has not yet delivered the Touch Bar on any stand-alone keyboards.
If it were my money and I was doing video editing on a budget, here’s what I would get:
Total: $2,499 (you’ll still need to spend additional money for 3rd-party RAM)
However, I wish that Apple made the Radeon 580X available on the mid-range unit.
If it were my money and I was doing mostly video compression, I’d get the high-end Mac mini. (This, in fact, is what I did personally.) Here’s an article that explains this in more detail.
As always, I’m interested in your opinions.
346 Responses to Configure a 2019 iMac for Video Editing [u]
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Kris says:
June 28, 2017 at 7:51 am
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Larry says:
June 29, 2017 at 9:18 am
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Yon Van Kline says:
July 3, 2017 at 5:29 am
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Michael says:
July 5, 2017 at 8:15 am
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Larry says:
July 5, 2017 at 12:35 pm
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Don says:
July 6, 2017 at 7:53 pm
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CJ Gilbreth says:
July 7, 2017 at 8:46 am
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Bob says:
July 23, 2017 at 7:39 am
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jake says:
July 5, 2017 at 3:52 pm
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Larry says:
July 5, 2017 at 3:56 pm
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jake says:
July 5, 2017 at 4:02 pm
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Tim B. says:
July 5, 2017 at 6:02 pm
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Larry says:
July 6, 2017 at 6:04 am
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David says:
July 7, 2017 at 8:34 am
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Larry says:
July 7, 2017 at 8:55 am
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Jake says:
July 9, 2017 at 5:34 am
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Larry says:
July 9, 2017 at 6:21 am
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Jake says:
July 9, 2017 at 6:59 am
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Larry says:
July 9, 2017 at 8:29 am
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Jake says:
July 9, 2017 at 5:35 am
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Larry says:
July 9, 2017 at 6:22 am
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Eric says:
July 15, 2017 at 7:43 pm
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Larry says:
July 15, 2017 at 10:35 pm
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Jack says:
August 1, 2017 at 7:03 am
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Larry says:
August 1, 2017 at 11:25 am
← Older Comments Newer Comments →Coming from a PC, my biggest frustration has been the lack of pragmatism on the Apple side…particularly about those fusion drives, which the Internet would have you believe are the spawn of the devil. I suspect a 2TB fusion will serve me well, and save me enough to buy FCPX. Thanks.
Kris:
Just so you know, I am a HUGE fan of Fusion drives! I’ve owned at least ten Macs with them. I find them fast, reliable, fast, quiet and really really fast.
Larry
Great article. Clearly written, not overly verbose, very useful.
Thank you Larry!
Don’t let the “creatives” fool you. People often think that a Mac computer is the best solution for video editing. For the $2,000 that Larry quoted the Mac’s at, you could build/buy a much more powerful PC that will render way faster than anything Apple has to offer. In the real video industry, no one uses a Mac or Final Cut Pro X. The standards for video production houses and studios have moved to Avid and Adobe.
Don’t think that building a PC is too complicated. There are so many free tutorials so that you can teach yourself. If you aren’t willing to learn, then you probably aren’t technically inclined enough to be a professional in the video industry. If it was easy, everyone would do it.
People that do simple editing, with only a few layers and effects will be fine with an overpriced Mac. Anyone that does VFX work, color grading, or image compositing will be disappointed with the hardware in Apple’s computers. Even the Mac Pro. For some odd reason, Apple has partnered with AMD and uses their GPU’s exclusively. Nvidia makes much more powerful graphics cards and even partners with Adobe to develop more efficient hardware acceleration.
Using PC also allows you to upgrade your components if you get bigger projects down the road. Good luck upgrading the GPU in a Mac. To do that you’ll have to buy a while new system, when you could just buy a newer graphics card for a few hundred dollars.
Michael:
For me, speed is part of the issue, but integration between all the different software tools that exist means that shifting between platforms is both expensive and time-consuming.
You are correct, though, that rendering currently is faster on Windows. It is my hope that Apple is learning from their mistake of not making their “pro” gear expandable. We shall see…
Larry
I agree with everything Michael says in principle. You can build a PC much cheaper then a Mac. I built one almost every two to three years from 98 to 2008. Due to the fact that the Amiga I had was on its last legs.
However after witnessing friends get 6 to 8 years of use out of there macs I understood the cost is cheaper on the mac in the long run. The downfall is not the hardware but the software. Microsoft keeps adding crap that slows your computer down. With gaming publishers moving to consoles I did not see the need to build a new computer until I ran into adobe. Instead of going through the build upgrade switch from windows 7 to 8 to 10 I purchased a mac. Four years and not no slowdown.
As fas as video processing, most of the YouTube and Instagram crowd are using macs. The great thing is on the mac you have choices, avid and adobe run on macs without the windows overhead. BTW so does windows.
Hahaha wow. If you don’t want to build a crummy PC you’re probably not cut out to be a pro in the industry? What a lame comment, Michael. What about all of the crap that comes with owning a PC, like bum software, Microsoft OS, constant firmware updates, crashes and overall poor quality.? Those were always my experiences with a PC, custom build or not. Apple creates a reliable, quality product. Yeah the specs might not be as hot as your fancy PC, but I’d rather have peace of mind with a machine that I can count on. “Creatives” are the life blood of any creative project. You sound like numerous folks I’ve crossed paths with who only regurgitate specs. Specs aren’t the end all be all. Folks who lean on that generally aren’t that imaginative or creative, IMO. How about this, if you can’t find a way to create a quality piece of content with what you perceive to be an inferior tool, maybe you need to upgrade yourself as a person and get more creative? Or maybe you should just build PCs and step away from video?
I agree. I have owned multiple OSX and Windows machines. My main machine in use is a Mac Pro 2008. I added an SSD and GTX660 and it’s been it’s been amazing except for video editing render times. I attempted to replace it with a 7700K custom PC with a GTX1080 Ti and I was back to dealing with unpredictable Windows issues. Months prior I purchased an HP Hexacore and it too was problematic at the beginning. Show me a stable WIndows system and I’m all for moving back. There is no question you get better value. Though, it should be stated that the iMac 27″ is a pretty good deal with the included 5K display. It’s much cheaper than the new MS Surface Studio built on older technology.
How do the GPU performance specs translate into video editing performance?
At what point does the type of work benefit from the Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB video memory versus Radeon Pro 575 with 4GB video memory? What is the type of work? What is the story/use case/scenario?
Jake:
I don’t know of a hard and fast rule. GPU speed affects rendering and export. So, if your editing is cuts-only, or cuts and dissolves, a faster GPU won’t help a lot.
If you are doing lots of color grading, gradients, blend modes, feathering… stuff that manipulates a lot of pixels in different ways, a faster GPU makes a big difference.
Ignore, essentially, the amount of video memory. This is determined by the engineers developing the GPU – they will pick the cache size that works the best for the GPU and, besides, we can’t change it anyway.
Larry
What about dual monitor support?
If most of my editing will be iMovie, and money is no object, what iMac would you recommend? I’m looking for SPEED and fewer “spinning balls.” I have a video library of about 300-400GB.
I also have a Photos Library of about 20,000 images with large file sizes, and integrate them into my iMovie work.
Thank you,
Tim
Tim:
If money is no object, get the top of the line 27″ iMac, and upgrade to the fastest CPU, fastest GPU and 32 GB of RAM.
Larry
I’m looking for a new system so thanks for the great info. A lot of used or refurb iMacs I see have a 1tb Fusion HD, which you say has been very fast and fine for editing on your systems. But what apps are regularly used on those? The SSD part on the 1tb is only 32gb, which seems like it would be filled quickly by the basic OS + typical apps like CS6, Avid, MS Office, etc.
David:
32 GB is pretty big when you consider the OS and most common apps take less than 30 GB.
However, the Fusion drive manages itself automatically. Apps that you use a lot are automatically copied to the SSD portion. Apps that are not, are not. As I wrote earlier, I have three systems with Fusion drives – both 1 TB and 3 TB – and they’ve never given me any problems.
Larry
Is the storage drive upgradeable? How?
If I buy a 1 TB fusion drive today, but later discover I needed the 2 TB fusion drive, can I upgrade? How easy/hard is that?
Jake:
Internal storage is not upgradeable. Keep in mind that even a 3 TB internal drive will be insufficient for most media projects.
This is the reason I recommend that all media and projects be stored on external devices, which are easy to expand or add to.
Larry
Larry:
Thanks. My plan is to offload projects I’m not working on to NAS, and have a large enough SSD/HDD/Fusion drive for project work. I’m guessing 30 GB for OS, 20 GB working project (30 minutes @ 4K), ? GB for apps. On my Windows machine, 128 GB SSD is too small, so I want something more than 128 GB. So either a 512 GB SSD or 2 TB Fusion (128 GB SDD + 2TB HDD) is required (and my decision will depend on the $100 difference). I swore of HDD in my laptop, so I’m leaning towards the 512 GB SSD for the iMac since I’ll be using a NAS for files I don’t frequently use.
Jake:
The 512 GB SSD will be the fastest option. However, I would recommend the 2 TB Fusion drive. I regularly use the Desktop as a temporary storage location for exports and other files that I’m in the process of moving.
If you plan to do HD, either works fine. However, 4K is 4 times bigger than HD and, depending up bit depth, even bigger yet. For example, a ProRes 4444 10-bit 4K file is 636 GB per hour.
Larry
When video editing and exporting, is heat going to be an issue?
Jake:
Not really. The iMac has internal fans to keep components cool under normal office temperature conditions. Apple’s engineers have done a good job here.
In all the years I’ve been using iMacs, I’ve never had a heat issue.
Larry
Larry, is it possible to buy the top of the line ’27” IMac, and then buy memory from another manufacturer? The last time I was in the apple store, they said you can configure the memory.
Eric:
As long as memory can be upgraded, and I believe the 27″ iMac can, then yes.
A good site to check is: http://www.owcdigital.com
Larry
Yes, you can upgrade the RAM by yourself which is a good thing because Apple charges double for the same capacity and spec RAM. I got a 32GB kit from Amazon for $265, Apple charges $600 for the same spec RAM.
Jack:
The only Mac system that allows user upgrading of RAM is the 27″ iMac. The rest are non-upgradeable after purchase.
Larry