Fourteen million pixels. Holy moly. That's how many glowing specs of light are packed into the new Apple iMac 27-inch desktop, now with a 5K Retina display. It has been a long time coming, but now that it's here, do you need one? And how does it compare with the Apple iMac 27-inch (Intel Core i5-4670), which already holds a place as our Editors' Choice for high-end, all-in-one desktops?
Let's start at the most obvious comparison: the display. Where the regular iMac 27-inch has the same general dimensions, it boasts a 27-inch, LED backlit 2,560-by-1,440-pixel display. That's a step up from standard full HD. However, the new iMac's Retina display has a whopping 5,120-by-2,880 resolution, leap-frogging past the 4K standard to an impressive 5K. It's an amazing achievement for screens, to be sure, but what does it mean for users? Who really needs something with 5K resolution?
Well, video editors, for one. With that 5K display, you have the resolution available to run 4K video at full resolution, and still have room to spare for all of the toolbars on the side and bottom. For anyone working with 4K video, that extra screen real estate is indispensable. Photo editors and graphic artists will have similar benefits, as they can now see their work in magazine-quality high resolution like never before.
Joining that display is some serious graphics horsepower, thanks to an AMD Radeon R9 M290X, which comes standard with 2GB of dedicated video memory, but can be configured with 4GB as well. This model isn't the first to have some heavy-duty GPU capability, though. The next model down, the non-Retina, iMac 27-inch, comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M graphics card with 4GB of VRAM, a similarly high-end graphics workhorse. While we haven't had a chance to compare the two directly, we've seen enough AMD and Nvidia showdowns to say it's probably a coin-flip as to which is objectively better, and even then it's a close call.
Finally, aside from the display and graphics, the biggest issue is price. The new Retina-equipped iMac sells for $2,499, just $500 more than the earlier iMac 27-inch. Obviously, the 5K iMac is more expensive, but for a better-than 4K display with the processing and graphics hardware to take advantage of it, $2,500 is not a lot. On top of that, the new model also throws in features like a 1TB Fusion Drive (configurable with up to 3TB)—all the better for storing and serving up high-resolution content. You also get two Thunderbolt 2 ports, letting you add on some serious professional-grade storage solutions, like the LaCie 2big Thunderbolt 2 (12TB).
If you are looking for a jumping-off point to start in with 4K—whether you're cutting together video or just streaming House of Cards in the grittiest detail possible—that's not a bad price. If you're a professional working in most any visual media, be it video, photo, or publishing, the iMac 27-inch with Retina 5K display is the desktop you'll want.
For everyone else, though, it's really a question of whether you want to start pouring money into 4K media. For some folks, this is the product that makes the decision, but if you're fine with your existing iMac, you may want to at least wait for our review before hitting the button to buy.
Until then, check out PCMag's Hands On With Apple's 5K Retina iMac.