Speed test 2013 iMac vs 2019 iMac

Just bought a new Apple iMac for our kitchen computer. It's about $1800 CDN, a 3.6 GHz quad-core Intel i3 processor, and retina screen.

The problem? It feels just as slow as our old iMac ... a 2013 iMac 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel i5. And that sucks, frankly.

When you buy a new computer after 6 years, you expect that the new one will FEEL FAST. But it didn't.

So I did a side-to-side comparison of real-world tasks ... booting up, logging in, starting a web browser, opening email, and so on.

Here are the results ...

[fazebanksisascammer]

Absolutely love my 2013, I strapped a Samsung T5 to the stand and installed Catalina on it. Mine boots in 27, seconds and the comp just runs beautiful now. Must do IMO

[jrwheeler]

I bought a 2013 iMac a year ago in mint condition and I'm extremely happy with it. It is an i5 and has 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB hard drive, which is plenty for me. It's extremely responsive, runs very smoothly, and it does everything that I want and need it to.

[christianburris]

IMACs are AMAZING. I am still on a 2013 with SSD and it is still awesome.

[elaztecapecador]

i was about to order a new imac cause my 2013 was taking as long as yours to boot up but i installed a 2TB NVMe SSD and now it works great. i also upgraded my ram to 32 GBs

[MrRetinas]

I have a similar tale to tell. I too have a 2013 iMac. It was the top one of the 3 different versions. It came with an i7, a fusion drive comprising of a 128Gb blade SSD & 3TB HD. Upon getting it I added another 16Gb of RAM to the 8Gb it came with. I have been very happy with this machine. Eventually the 3TB HD failed so I switched to booting it from an external thunderbolt 1 SSD. So I’m used to a bit quicker disk access. Fast forward to 2021 and Apple silicon is putting an end to BOOTCAMP so I splurge on what will be the last Intel iMac 27. Again I went for the top model. I added a 1TB SSD & maxed out the GPU. Cost about the same number of dollars as the last one. So actually cheaper in real terms. I’ve also upped the RAM to 32GB of 3rd party memory. After all this, in terms of everyday use, there is no difference in user experience. The boot time is effectively the same. Big Sur if anything feels more sluggish than Catalina. It’s all a bit underwhelming really. So I feel for you man. All these benchmarks count for nothing if you don’t improve the user experience. Im surprised I don’t see more disappointed upgraders maybe everyone waited for Apple Silicon?

[TheMetalMag]

I own a late 2013 imac and it works pretty good with el captain and 3.4ghz proc and I5; thanks for this video

[marcoshernandez]

Wow I can’t imagine having a spinning hard drive now. Even fusion drives are not great. My iMac with SSD boots up in about 12–15 seconds and is ready to open programs up right away with no lag

[PackardKotch]

The issue are the slow 5400 rpm drives. My family has 2 iMacs (2011 i5 with 8gb of ram and a 1tb hdd and a 2017 with an i5, 8gb of ram and a 1tb hdd) and the new one actually runs slower because of OS X Catalina. Which slowed it down to a crawl. Because the 2011s came with a 7200 rpm hdd, my iMac which cost a 6th of the price boots and runs faster.

[Poggy]

still the 2013 imac runs faster than many 2020 office Pcs

[liammasias]

Startup speeds are varied mostly by storage types. Since it is an HDD, that will cause a super slow start up. Fusion drives will make it slightly faster but ssd will cause startups to be at least 4 times faster. So the main difference will be seen on a metal test

[hussainhijazi]

My iMac 2013 i5 boots up in 15 seconds with a T5 1TB SSD hooked via USB. Got it for $120 from Office Depot. Best and easiest upgrade I've ever done. I won't upgrade until the new M1 30" come out.

[Tony-pohu]

Go get a SSD for the 2013 imac and return the new 2019 imac. It feels much more better

[Gleichtritt]

Kinda old video, but used imacs are crazily cheap. You can get some high end models of 2012 for 500$ which cost a fortune back then and are still better than the entry models of nowdays.

[shomanv]

In all honesty, you didn't really need a new computer, well not to justify an i3 $1, 800 machine. The 2014 model you have is still quite a good machine. What I would have done is take it somewhere qualified (unless you feel confident doing it yourself) where they can remove the screen and install an SSD. This is exactly why apple gets a bad wrap. I recommend at least exchanging, and buying one with no spinning drive at all. If cost is an issue, Costco sells (at least where I live) 27" fusion models for around $1, 800 with pretty good specs.

[runninginswflorida]

My software runs a lot better on my 2019. I have a few older Macs and boot up time is about the same unless you get a SSD.

[kostaslikegaming]

i have a 2013 late imac. the one you have, so yeah 1TB hard drive 2, 7GHz 4-core i5 and intel iris pro 5200 and its still heating.

[aerotrooper]

My 2004 and 2012 iMacs restarted in 45 seconds. My 2019 takes about 4 minutes. I returned it for one with better specifications and it is still 4 minutes to reboot. Also freezes after software updates and must be shut down and restarted with the power button. I can’t believe no body talks about how bad these things became after Steve Jobs died. I’m not so confident my 2019 iMac will last over ten years like my other two did working perfectly the entire time. I’m curious how the M1 iMacs perform.

[maryooliss]

So frustrated with my 2019. My husband refuses to use it because it has been so slow since the day we got it.

I finally got fed up and called Apple. They wasted a week of my time bouncing me from person to person, running diagnostics, admitting it is very slow, but saying things look fine.

Eventually someone told me that the spinning drive can’t handle OS newer than 10!!!

After over a decade of being an Apple person, I’m disgusted they released this and won’t admit their mistake. Absolute waste of money.

[MrTheguy]

I read your article online. Does this also affect video editing speeds and other demanding applications?

[EverydayMacofficial]

The Safari test wasn't done properly. You seem to have Safari and iTunes as Startup items on the old iMac. Both apps are active and already opened before the test. You can tell that by the black dot under the icons in the dock. Otherwise you maybe forgot to quit the apps last time before you turned the iMac off. Mac OS remembers that and starts the apps again next time you turn the computer on. You should use other processor intensive apps and tasks also for the test.
In the end the results were pretty expected with these simple tests. Although the new iMac has a faster quad-core i3 with 6 MB cache, base speed of 3.6 GHz and faster memory and bus speed it will appear only slightly faster in simple apps lika Mail and Safari that stress the processor only for short moments. In such moments your old iMac with quad-core i5 with 4 MB cache and base speed of 2.7 GHz boosts up to 3.2 GHz and make the new iMac appear only slightly faster. The old iMac can't though sustain the boost speed and under heavy load when all the cores are needed may go back down to base speed to not overheat. The new iMac on the other hand can continue to work with the higher base speed and get heavy tasks done faster. That's why you should for example do some video or audio encoding to really compare the two iMacs.
If you had tested the GPU you had noticed a big difference too. Radeon Pro 555X is much faster than Intel Iris Pro 5200, 2-4 times faster. So if you are a casual gamer or use other apps that take advantage of the GPU you notice a big difference. Otherwise you didn't really need a new iMac for just web browsing and mailing. Your old iMac can still handle that. You should also wait for the next iMac upgrade comin soon, with AMD Navi GPUs. I myself am still using my 21.5" iMac 2011 with Radeon 6750M 512 MB for both gaming and other stuff, but mine has a 7200 rpm HDD. :)