Core i7 (Upgrade) equipped iMac’s: The best $200 ever spent…

Results above are in 64-bit mode

When the new iMac’s were announced a couple months back, I like many of you were awestruck. The form was somehow even more delicious than previous generations with upgraded hardware that left me wanting two. Unfortunately for those who were ready to throw down cash on the spot for a new Core i7 beast, a November shipping date put a temporary block on the speed party. Well, it’s November and said units are now shipping with benchmarks starting to trickle in. What’s the initial consensus? The 27″ Core i7 iMac is the best $200 (for an upgrade — $2199 overall) ever spent.

Benchmarks for the Core 2 Duo iMac’s have been around since the announcement of the new machines, but the Core 2′s while fast, are old news. I already assumed performance upgrades via the Core 2 would be barely noticeable. After seeing early reviews of those units, I can honestly say I was right. The main reason to get a 27″ iMac with the stock Core 2 was simply for the price. But then the Core i5 came along brining quad-core goodness. And boy was it fast, much faster than the Core 2 models — but the Core i7 is faster.

How much faster? Chances are I probably lost you waaaay back at the beginning with the graph image above. But just in case you managed to make it past, the Core i7 iMac’s are a full 35% faster than even the Core i5 models. The sweetest part of all is that the speed increase can be had for a paltry $200! That’s a steal. Seriously. Looking at the benchmarks above and comparing them to Geekbench results of the latest Mac Pros shows that the new i7 iMac’s are extremely close in comparison. Justifying a Mac Pro just become a tad harder…didn’t it?

Gizmodo > Macrumors > Timon-Royer