2020 iMac 27" 'screen' issue - or is it?

Do the video artifacts continue if you do a Safe Mode boot? That, or booting from a test user account, suggests a software cause if the artifcats go away.

I 100% appreciate that your RAM load-out worked perfectly until Sequoia, but we need to rule out some quirk in OS 15 that may not like the RAM you installed. So what brand of RAM did you install?

Have you tried running on fewer modules, or testing with just the original Apple RAM. I get that 8GB RAM won't do for the Adobe stuff, but it may help you decide on an action if the video artifacts disappear or change with just the original RAM.

Yes, a major long shot but it sounds like you've already harvested the fruit on the lower branches.

RAM - 32gb 2x DDR4 2667 MHz. I think it was Crucial or Kingston.

Will try to take out the the 2x DIMMs and will see what happens.

Thank you!

Crucial is good. It's a Micron product.

Only Kingston's top-tier RAM grade seems 100% happy in Intel Macs. But therein lies the rub: the RAM market is so price sensitive that most resellers only carry the cheaper— and not always Mac-friendly— "value" RAM. You usually have to order maker direct to get the top-tier from either Kingston or Corsair. Kingston Value RAM used to be easy to spot by part number— it started with "VR." No longer.

If the RAM was Crucial, I say you are OK. If not, the "pull" test should help with decisions. Crucial stopped listing iMac RAM on their web store—don't know why.

Your question almost answers itself... the best kind of question.

In reverse order,


B. Do I continue working on an older OS (Ventura) which runs just fine, does everything I need to, and seemingly without any screen issues, and just leave it at that?

Yes.

A. If I upgrade to a new OS, and this issue keeps happening because it’s a “new OS + hardware conflict”, do I take a chance, have Apple do repairs on the iMac and hope that resolved it - with ZERO guarantee from Apple that those repairs would work?

One minor comment though; their repairs are guaranteed to work... for 90 days. If they don't stick you will need to do it all over again. That's also the sort of question that answers itself.

The real crazy part which makes no sense to me (I used to build circuit boards from scratch at an engineering firm and would test them in instruments that the firm made, so I have a little bit of background in circuit board prototyping/building/testing/etc)

Understandable. Did you work for me? 😄

Component level repair is not a dying art, it's dead. Gone.

Don't put any more money into that Mac. Yes that model was a great Mac in its day, but Intel is just as dead and gone. Keep using it until it no longer does what you need it to do.

For what it's worth I can't improve upon the sound advice Apple already provided.

Or...

C. Spend the same (or less) money on a new Mac mini and 27" 4k monitor. You'll get a fresh warranty on both devices. And years down the road, when the time comes, you replace one or both devices. Write off this iMac. Sell it or relegate it to reserve action. You may be able to get something for it by trading it in. Apple Trade In - Apple

Here's some food for thought.

A Mac Mini M4 with 15 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD with a 32" LG 4k monitor w/speakers is $1418 w/tax which is $650 less than a similarly configured new 24" iMac. You can save ever more if you select a 27" 4k monitor.

The Mini boots up in about 2-3 seconds whereas my 2017 Intel iMac with an SSD boot drive took 45 seconds

You're welcome.

I understand your fondness for the 27" iMac. I have a 2013 model just coasting as a media server. And I can't really speak to the specs for a monitor. I haven't needed to buy one for some time as I do have a couple 27" Apple models here as well.

As for the Mac mini, spec one with all the RAM and storage you can afford, because these things cannot be changed after the buy. I have no doubt that even base Mac mini with M4 will outrun your five year old iMac.

No doubt other users will chime in with some great guidance.

npgraphicdesign wrote:

What do you think would be good specs for a new Mac mini and monitor? I tend to avoid Apple monitors because they are overpriced, but I just haven't had to buy a monitor for over a decade, so I'm not sure what is the latest/greatest right now.

What sort of things do you run on your Mac?

Adobe recommends at least 16 GB of RAM for each of several of their main products (Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, etc.). It appears that you are currently using a machine with 40 GB of RAM to run Adobe Creative Cloud applications, so I'm guessing that if you step back to 16 GB, you may be disappointed.

The memory choices on the Mac minis are a bit odd, but I believe that you can get

• 16, 24, or 32 GB of RAM on Mac minis with plain M4 chips
• 24, 48, or 64 GB of RAM on Mac minis with M4 Pro chips

The M4 Pro chips have more CPU and GPU cores. But provided that you were comparing machines that had enough RAM for the workloads they were running, you'd probably only notice the extra CPU cores if you were running lengthy batch jobs that made good use of all available cores.

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With respect to monitors, the closest thing to your iMac's screen is the 27" Apple 5K Studio Display. It goes for $1600, and until recently, the only other 27" 5K (5120x2880) monitor out there was one by LG that also sold for well in excess of $1000. Now we are beginning to see 27" 5K monitors from a few other vendors: BenQ, Asus, Samsung, and ViewSonic.

Given the cost of the Apple monitor, a lot of people have instead gone for 27" – 32" 4K monitors. These aren't quite as sharp, but there are a lot of good choices at various price levels. You might be able to get a basic, but decent (IPS panel, near-100% sRGB coverage, modern inputs) 27" 4K monitor for as little as $300 – $400.

I am guessing some information in the screenshots may have been construed to be personal / private.

Must not have been the Tom Jones song though. I don't judge.