The 4K Dell OptiMac - 9020 MT - Core i7-4790 - Radeon RX 570 - LG 4K IPS Monitor

[unclejarvis]

Not much difference between these. The 4790 is a Haswell refresh so it's a year newer and clocked higher. The only difference between a 9020 and 7020 is that the BIOS/UEFI of has a raid option (for the 9020).

It shouldn't make any difference which SMBIOS you use as long as it's compatible with this hardware. 14,2 or 15,1 iMac are the two main ones used. Apple Music will work with either one.

Thanks so much, really helps me make my decision.

 

[percussive]

Not much difference between these. The 4790 is a Haswell refresh so it's a year newer and clocked higher.

Yes, and they have the same TDP, so no real heat/fan-noise difference.

 

[trs96]

Here's the detailed specs comparing each Haswell i7. The performance of the 4790 is just 2-3 % better. They simply clocked the 4770 200 MHz higher, base clock and 100 MHz higher turbo. That's it.

 

[trs96]

Yes, and they have the same TDP, so no real heat/fan-noise difference.

I was wondering if you would compare your i5-4690 system with NVS 510 to the i7/RX580 Optiplex. Is there a major performance difference you can notice or do they seem about the same ? How are you using each one ? I know that the latter i7 system would massively outperform the i5/NVS 510 in anything graphic intensive. What about in everyday use. Do they both work as smoothly or does the AMD card make a major difference ? It will give non-gamers some idea whether it's worth it to spend $150 more for the RX580 instead of going for the low cost NVS 510 with a 4K monitor.

 

[vbmota]

There's some DSDT patched (is that needed?) for the 9020 SFF with Core i7 only with Intel 4600 Graphics?
I will use it to run Mavericks and Mojave/Catalina together.
Thanks.

 

[trs96]

There's some DSDT patched (is that needed?)

No idea ? Where did you get it ? What is it doing ? This guide doesn't use static DSDT patching just UEFI hot patching.

 

[percussive]

I was wondering if you would compare your i5-4690 system with NVS 510 to the i7/RX580 Optiplex. Is there a major performance difference you can notice or do they seem about the same ? How are you using each one ? I know that the latter i7 system would massively outperform the i5/NVS 510 in anything graphic intensive. What about in everyday use. Do they both work as smoothly or does the AMD card make a major difference ? It will give non-gamers some idea whether it's worth it to spend $150 more for the RX580 instead of going for the low cost NVS 510 with a 4K monitor.

Sure! In a nutshell, for everyday web-browsing/docs/email/news/YouTube/iTunes/etc. They both are quite snappy, and I don't really feel much of a difference. Most of my setups use two screens; main screen in Landscape orientation in front, secondary screen in Portrait mode off to the side. The NVS 510 is fine for basic Photoshop work, although I have not yet done any Premiere/AE work on that card.

I use the RX 580 machine (booted into Win10) for FPS gaming, and that's where there is a huge difference. If you're planning on gaming while simultaneously running Discord, YouTube, social media, Steam, etc. you'll definitely want an i7 CPU (sooo not me).

I really like the NVS 510 cards, and they're a steal. (I've purchased a few, at an average of just under $36 shipped... just make sure the seller 'Accepts Returns'.) The NVS 510 sleeps/wakes properly whereas I still have to shut the RX 580 machine down instead of attempting sleep. Which is totally fine in my situation.

Every once in a while, one 9020-4690 box which is equipped with an NVS 510 will display high-resolution 'snow' instead of the waking-up login screen, and a press of ESC (or two) will snap it back. I'm still puzzling out the why on that.

If you're not gaming (or needing the heftier card for some other GPU-intensive task), I would go with the NVS 510, hands down. You'll likely need to buy a couple of mini-DisplayPort to <whatever> cables, as few of us have extra mDP cables laying around.

 

[nicksoph]

@percussive Might you be interested in testing/comparing the HD 4600? See this.

 

[percussive]

@percussive Might you be interested in testing/comparing the HD 4600? See this.

Certainly, can-do... I transplanted a 9020 MT mobo (with a i5-4690S running HD 4600) into an Antec quiet-case, if that's of any interest to the thread. One thing I can't help too much with is 4K resolution testing, as I don't have a 4K screen. Could borrow a 4K 'TV/monitor' from work, though.

Is there any particular comparison that would be helpful? For a short while, I'm going have a rather silly number of these units on-hand (multiple 9020 MT's and 9020 SFF's, a few 9010 MT's). Presents a kind of 'test-lab' opportunity, if you want any particular testing or benchmarking. I'd be happy to oblige!

While they're all here to play 'crash-test-dummy' with, I'm looking into CPU Power Management a bit. With some configurations, Intel Power Gadget seems to indicate an ~800MHz CPU freq, but full/proper PM isn't yet working.

Edit: some seriously good info in that thread. Thx!

 

[nicksoph]

Thanks for offering to try this.

Is there any particular comparison that would be helpful?

I suspect that benchmarks between the 510 and 4600 will be similar but mostly I'd like to know if there is any appreciable difference in use.

As for power management - if you look at this thread, which is for a base machine - the speed stepping works across the full range although it does not seem to be native osx power management. I suspect that if you build according to those instructions (or just make the changes listed (config.plist from that thread and slight bios changes, the two builds are identical as far as kext are concerned but put the kexts in both locations to start with) and then insert a Nvdia based card you will get the full range without any other changes.
There is at least one change in the config.plist which Ive not mentioned that deals with cfg lock - it is there in the acpi section in my config.plist for the 4k monitors. Sry Im not more specific but I only just realised I hadnt mentioned it and am not at my machine for a few weeks to be specific.

4k has been tested so dont put yourself out for that (note: anything but dp to dp cables seems to cause issues) and I think there is no reason to make the 2nd change unless you want to use 4k but the unlocking of the cfg lock seems a good idea.