iMac 2019 for game development

Hello. I'm a freelance narrative designer and I'm about to buy the 2019 iMac (not the Pro version, way over the budget). I spend most of the time writing, but I'd like a machine that can handle a full game dev process: Unity, Premier, Photoshop, C4D, etc.

Buuuut... my upper budget is 3500 $/€ and I need to make some choices.

Fixed components:
Retina 5K display 27" 5120x2880
32 GB DDR4 2666MHz (I will upgrade it buy myself from the original 8GB configuration)
512 SSD

Doubts: I can only upgrade the CPU or the GPU (or neither, if the default configuration is fine)
Default CPU: 3.7GHz 6‑core Intel Core i5
Configurable: 3.6GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 > + 400$ / 480€

Default GPU: Radeon Pro 580X 8GB GDDR5
Configurable: Radeon Pro Vega 48 8GB HBM2 > + 450$ / 520€

What is your advice? Do I need the i9 CPU? Or should I prioritise the Vega 48 GPU? Or maybe the default configuration is fine?

This is the iMac 2019 27" page on Apple's website, if you want to know more.

Thank you guys

 

I imagine you're doing iOS dev? If that's your budget, you'd be better off spending $2500 on a decent PC build and then using the latter $1000 for mobile deployment hardware.

 

Nope, PC/Mac development only. And buying a PC is not an option ^_^"

 

Note that Apple has made all their iMac models notoriously difficult to upgrade on your own for many years now, or in some cases includes risk of electric shock since they like to use entirely open power supplies in these machines lately (not even enclosed in their own metal box like every other computer). Verify the upgrade instructions for this specific iMac model before you purchase with the intent of upgrading it.

Overall as a PC guy it seems pretty over priced for what you're getting. You're paying around double by my estimate.

 

Online resources say that the CPU and the RAM are both socketed. In theory you might be able to upgrade both of these but I highly recommend you contact someone like Louis Rossmann and verify with them what you will be able to upgrade them.

https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/

Additionally, like @Joe-Censored mentioned, the machine itself is extremely difficult to take apart for someone unfamiliar with it with a high possibility that you can shock yourself (it has a bare PSU) as well as a high possibility you can damage it.

If I were purchasing one of these I would either buy everything up front or I would have a professional upgrade it for me.

 

Note that the post mentions the CPU/GPU upgrades as configureable. It is about choosing upgraded specs on the machine that is bought, not doing it themselves. The only thing mention to do themselves was RAM, which can be done.

I have a 2015 iMac. I upgraded the RAM to 24GB by adding 16GB. I have found that is plenty (mostly mobile dev, but have done some PC). It means you can continue to use the existing RAM and only buy half as much.

I'm not certain on if you should go with a better CPU or GPU, but would lean towards the GPU.

You'll love the screen. A similar spec would cost over $1000 alone.

 

Yeah I was aware he was only referring to the RAM upgrade for himself. Apple though has made a major push to move away from any access panels on their more recent models though. I would expect the current iMac requires a much more extensive disassembly of the machine to access the RAM slots compared to what they put out 5 years ago. So I'd verify that isn't the case before planning to do such an upgrade yourself, unless you've got a lot of experience cracking open modern iMacs.

(hopefully the iMac the OP is considering still has the access panel just for RAM upgrades on the back near where it connects to the stand, but I wouldn't assume it does without verifying it)

 

Care to explain why? None of the information you gave in your original post suggests it's necessary. Because if you don't need to spend every bit of your budget on Apple hardware you can very easily get a couple quality monitors, a reasonably powerful PC, and a Mac Mini with that budget.

 

Also, it's worth noting that people are kinda abandoning ship when it comes to shipping games on MacOS that require any amount of GPU power for a reason. Even with the upcoming EGPU stuff, gaming on a Mac for things with even modest hardware requirements has effectively priced most people out of the market. Apple is trying to position their entire computer ecosystem around this sort of prosumer/professional market after years of being trounced in that space and the result has been incredibly expensive hardware with incredibly poor 3D performance.

There's a pretty big elephant in the room when it comes to Mac gaming right now, and it's the fact that the only people who have Apple hardware powerful enough to handle realtime 3D aren't using their computers in a recreational capacity. Almost every dev I know has completely given up even maintaining Mac releases made in the last year because it's not worth the upkeep cost.

 

Thank you for the answers: I'll buy an iMac 'cause my house ecosystem is Apple branded since 2006 This is not a PC vs Mac thread ^_^ I'd like to know if that machine is a good one for an indie non-mobile game developer.

ps: yep, I'll upgrade the RAM by myself (420$ vs 80$: crazy)

 

Simply put? It isn't a good machine for the sole reason that if you are approaching this from a business perspective, you are likely to absolutely never recoup that cost.

 

Yes and no. From a testing standpoint the bottom-most tier is likely the ideal tier to be verifying everything works great, but from a development standpoint there are some limitations. An AMD GPU, for example, means no support for CUDA-based assets like Bakery which is currently one of the best lightmappers for Unity.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/level-design/bakery-gpu-lightmapper-122218

There is a difference between "PC vs Mac" and "good deal vs bad deal". An iMac 2019 will take the majority of your budget leaving very little. The Mac Mini will cost you less than half of your budget. With the remaining amount you can purchase multiple monitors as well as a PC for development and testing.

There are worse reasons to choose a product. Just keep in mind that when it comes to loyalty you might be loyal to the company but the company will never be loyal to you. That you can barely upgrade and repair the machine yourself says a lot.

Everything concerning that machine is crazy. The Vega 48 increases the cost by $450 but an equivalent upgrade from an RX 580 on a PC would only be another $150. The CPU upgrade is the most reasonably priced one but it's still $150 more than it need be.

You had it right though that the memory price is insane. A 64GB DDR4-3200 kit is only $290. They want $1,000.

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-4x16GB-Desktop-Systems/dp/B07CZ6Q7VT

 

What platform are you building for then? Typical reasons to go with any Mac for Unity is to use Xcode, which is needed for iOS builds and for IL2CPP Mac builds. If your building for PC standalone, you can create Mono builds on Mac, but IL2CPP can have better performance but requires a PC to create the build.

 

I use a 2018 Mac Mini with an external RX 580 and 16GB of RAM and am extremely happy with it. My subjective experience performing routine development tasks like compilation, frequent disk I/O, modeling, making materials, and smoothly moving between applications along a pipeline is so good I prefer it to my higher-spec Windows desktop workstation.

I chose the Mini because I had a 1080p monitor and wanted the flexibility of an external graphics card, but if I were to get the iMac I would probably upgrade the GPU because of the extremely high resolution display. My Mini has a 6-core 3.2Ghz i7, and I've never really wanted for more. It may be the case that prolonged tasks for which the i9 would be most useful will be thermally throttled in the iMac chassis anyway. That's speculation. Still, I know where I'd put my money.

 

I have the 2019 iMac 27", upgraded the CPU to the i9 as it is more useful. The Vega48 is only around 20% faster compared to the RX580 which is not that much, it's only in certain circumstances it can be faster, like if you are editing h.265 footage, but for h.264 it doesn't matter at all. You can also add an external graphics card down the line if needed, but you cannot upgrade the CPU. I also added 32GB of extra ram, took around 5min to install (40GB total now). So far it can handle anything I throw at it without issues.

EDIT: Also chose the 512GB SSD.

 

Thanks AdventurousDrake

The default RAM configuration is 4x2 or 8x1? The first, I think

 

2 x 4GB RAM sticks, I bought 2 x 16GB to get 40GB RAM.

 

I'm not the hardware guru here, but I think this is a vague question and I don't know if anybody addressed it.

What kind of game are you going to be making? Because that changes everything.

 

1-3 2-4 dual configuration, right?

The team I'm working for is developing a game technically specular to Disco Elysium.

 

I just checked the prices on that. 2 x 16GB is the same price as 4 x 8GB. So the OP can get 40GB for the same price as 32GB (as you have done). Or just have 24GB for half the price (which is what I have done, although the prices were a lot higher when I did it).

 

Yeah, banks 0 and 2 and banks 1 and 3.