Not all iMacs are the same for video editing: here is how to pick the right one
Video editing on a Mac is almost something we take for granted, and why should we? The Apple iMac is virtually omnipresent in production environments, from high-end production houses, to small studios. Film and television students gravitate towards Mac computers, looking for performance, reliability and, (why not) eye-candy as well.
With that said, not all Macs are the same, and when it comes to production environments, we can’t just pick any Mac to do the job.
The iMac comes in two sizes, the 21.5 inch Retina 4K version, and the 27 inch Retina 5K, each one with their unique hardware configurations.
While the LED-backlit version of the iMac is still available, by resolution alone, the 1980x1080 display on the non-Retina iMac just won’t cut it, especially as video editing requires enough desktop real estate to be able to work comfortably with HD video. Furthermore, there is no match for the crispness and sharpness of the Retina display.
The 21 inch version of the Retina iMac is powered by a 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, in its base configuration, however, for speedier results, upgrading to a 3.8GHz i7 will make a noticeable difference.
Editing HD video is not only time-consuming and CPU intensive, it also requires enough storage, and memory as well. The minimum configuration for the 21 inch iMac Retina is 8GB, but doubling the RAM to 16GB is highly recommended, as well as upgrading the 1TB fusion drive, with a 2TB, and if resources permit, a 512GB flash drive to set as the system drive, for good measure, which will speed up operations quite a lot.
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While the 21 inch Retina 4K iMac is great for editing HD video, hardware specs permitting, the 27 inch iMac Retina 5K is a better option if the objective is to edit UHD and 4K video.
Considering that many video streaming services support UHD, HDX and 4K content, professional video editors should look for a Mac with the chops to handle massive video footage, and there is no match for the iMac Retina 5K.
In its base configuration, the 27 inch iMac is powered by a 3.2GHz Intel Core i5, however upgrading to a 4.0GHz or 4.2GHz i7 will ensure smoother operations in Final Cut.
The high-end version of the iMac Retina 5K supports up to 1TB of flash storage, and a 3TB fusion drive, and the RAM is configurable up to 32GB, which is recommended when processing UHD and 4K video.
The processing unit on board of the iMac Retina 5K is an AMD Radeon R9 M395, with 2GB of GDDR5 RAM, however, upgrading to a M395X with 4GB or memory will provide an additional boost.
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