Between the Imac 2.7 I5 and the Imac 3.4 I7...

Question

I'm in between the Imac 2.7 I5 and the Imac 3.4 I7.  I know there's a $500 difference so I'm trying to see if I really need that much power.  I do mostly audio stuff with Digital Performer and Native Instruments Komplete which streams instruments.  I'm also going to boost the RAM to 16GB.  I'm mainly worried about glitching.  I want to make sure that when I run photoshop and Final Cut Express that I won't have a problem with the 2.7 i5.  Will it be fast enough?  $500 is a lot of money for power that I may or may not use and would rather spend it on software upgrades if I truely don't need the fastest Imac.  What is your opinion?

Answer 1

2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
vs
2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
Higher clock speed
2.9 GHz
vs
2.5 GHz
More than 15% higher clock speed
More l3 cache
4 MB
vs
3 MB
Around 35% more l3 cache; more data can be stored in the l3 cache for quick access later
Supports trusted computing
Yes
vs
No
Allows for safer, more reliable computing
Better 3DMark11 physics score
5,140
vs
3,130
Around 65% better 3DMark11 physics score
Better turbo clock speed
1,250 MHz
vs
1,100 MHz
Around 15% better turbo clock speed
More l3 cache per core
2 MB/core
vs
1.5 MB/core
Around 35% more l3 cache per core
Better PassMark (Single core) score
1,790
vs
1,524
More than 15% better PassMark (Single core) score
Better 3DMark06 CPU score
4,134
vs
3,553
More than 15% better 3DMark06 CPU score
Better PassMark score
4,543
vs
3,823
Around 20% better PassMark score
Slightly better geekbench (32-bit) score
5,849
vs
4,947
Around 20% better geekbench (32-bit) score
Better clock speed
3.25 GHz
vs
2.88 GHz
Around 15% better clock speed
Slightly better PassMark score
1,823.4
vs
1,623.4
More than 10% better PassMark score