What to expect from iMac 2012 - Discussion

Ivy bridge.

I made a bad decision last month to wait for the new 2012 iMac. I should have just gotten the 2011 model as I'm dying from all the waiting. Now I can't get the 2011 model because it feels like I wasted my time waiting.

Never again...

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Screen - 30" would be nice but not necessary. An option for anti glare for the people who have been demanding it.

HDD/SSD - 2TB standard, with 4TB optional. The highest end iMac come standard with a SSD for the OS and applications. Bring down the price a bit so we don't have to pay an arm and leg for apple to install one. Possibly an easy way for us consumers to add an SSD, although this is highly unlikely.

CPU - Obviously Ivy Bridge! Also the option for water cooling.. Totally kidding, but I am jealous of the 4+ GHz speeds sometimes lol.

RAM - Highest end iMac should come standard with 8GB of ram and increase the the available speed of RAM that can be used.

Mobo - Let's mak this Sata III so we can take advantage of SSD real performance.

Drop the optical drive and use it for more SSD/HDD space

Height adjustable monitor with possible swivel would be nice but not a deciding factor.

Make more in line with the 27 cinema display and Apple will have mighty sexy new iMac on the market.

Option for a wireless numeric keyboard, something that should have been done ages ago.

I will add more as I think of it.

srxtr said:

Ivy bridge.

I made a bad decision last month to wait for the new 2012 iMac. I should have just gotten the 2011 model as I'm dying from all the waiting. Now I can't get the 2011 model because it feels like I wasted my time waiting.

Never again...

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I was going to wait, but another five months with a windows machine was too much torture for me to bear.I just bought a new iMac on Friday, I went for the i7 and the 2gig gfx so I have to wait til dec 6th for delivery, aim finding it fairly hard to wait til then, so waiting for a refresh would have been impossible. Just get a new mac, who cares if they are ten or even fifteen percent faster after the refresh, what's that slight increase worth when compared with five or six months without a new mac?

doktordoris said:

I was going to wait, but another five months with a windows machine was too much torture for me to bear.I just bought a new iMac on Friday, I went for the i7 and the 2gig gfx so I have to wait til dec 6th for delivery, aim finding it fairly hard to wait til then, so waiting for a refresh would have been impossible. Just get a new mac, who cares if they are ten or even fifteen percent faster after the refresh, what's that slight increase worth when compared with five or six months without a new mac?

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Actually probably around 30% faster, but who's counting lol? I can wait as I already have a quad core iMac, but I am slowly becoming more and more impatient. I guess when I get it, it will be well worth the wait!

MacOG728893 said:

Actually probably around 30% faster, but who's counting lol? I can wait as I already have a quad core iMac, but I am slowly becoming more and more impatient. I guess when I get it, it will be well worth the wait!

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It could well be thirty percent, I can't be bothered to do any research, and so I'm probably wrong, but i thought ivy was just the "tick" die shrink from sandy bridge, and so will offer about fifteen percent advantage in real world usage. But as I said I am probably wrong.

desktop technology won't "evolve" all that much

My "iMac wait" dilemma lasted for about 2 weeks. My windows lap top was failing, but not dead yet. I lurked around on this forum for a while and absorbed all kinds of knowledge and opinions. Being that around my house I have access to apple computers and windows computers in working condition waiting until the next refresh was a viable option.

I can honestly express that my decision to purchase (3 weeks ago) was the absolute right decision. Using the this iMac is an amazing experience in comparison to what I was previously working with. If the refresh looks new and sleek cosmetically in Q2 2012? then I might be a tiny bit jealous of those who buy the new model. But, I feel that this reasoning alone did not warrant a 6-7 month drought on my part.

End the drought! For those who are having the dilemma..... end your drought!

Careful now, the new boy OP clearly told us what 'his' thread is for and we seem to be meandering off topic.

doktordoris said:

I was going to wait, but another five months with a windows machine was too much torture for me to bear.I just bought a new iMac on Friday, I went for the i7 and the 2gig gfx so I have to wait til dec 6th for delivery, aim finding it fairly hard to wait til then, so waiting for a refresh would have been impossible. Just get a new mac, who cares if they are ten or even fifteen percent faster after the refresh, what's that slight increase worth when compared with five or six months without a new mac?

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While this is true, it's always the "what if?" factor that really gets me... like what if they come up with a new feature that won't be included in the 2011 iMac? While I'm tempted to buy one now, I know I would kick myself if 3 months later Apple comes out with a new iMac that totally kicks ass.

srxtr said:

While this is true, it's always the "what if?" factor that really gets me... like what if they come up with a new feature that won't be included in the 2011 iMac? While I'm tempted to buy one now, I know I would kick myself if 3 months later Apple comes out with a new iMac that totally kicks ass.

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Buy one and I'll bet you a tenner in a months time you tell me you are glad you went for it and got one.

I'm being hopefully, but I wish Apple would drop the 21" model and add 24" and 30" options while keeping the current 27" model.

SSD is still far from being the default, so I'd still expect 500GB HDD to be the norm.

CPU (Ivy bridge) and GPU both will see boosts.

4GB RAM will still be the standard, probably...

2012 iMac I'd like to see Siri integration.
2013 iMac I'd like to see a NFC chip added

For everyone looking for a 24 and 30 inch model, i dont really see that happening. The resolutions would be hard to make since there is no 16:9 resolution that fits between the 27"s 2560 by 1440 and the 21"s 1920 by 1080. So hoping for a 24" model seems out of the question unless they try and revert to 16:10 again and give it a 1920 by 1200 res, but i dont think they are going to do that.

Aside from stating what i think wont happen.

The only thing i see happening would be:
The CPU upgrade to ivy bridge
A better GPU
MAYBE an increase in RAM standard
And more storage options.

I really dont think an SSD standard will come out until the refresh after since the pricing for those are still pretty high.

I'm just hoping they change to some good, SATA-III SSD's. I'd pay the Apple Tax for an SSD if it was a decent brand with solid performance. $500 for the SATA-II stinkers they're currently using just isn't happening.

I think they'll do that since they kept the same SSD's from 2010 in the 2011 line. Besides that and Ivy Bridge I'm not sure what else they could change (as far as the internal components go). Will new GPU's even be out by Ivy Bridge timeframe?

Speaking about Ivy Bridge... what realistic benefits can we expect to see from this? Is it something that affects only the CPU or does it affect the graphics card too?

I'm thinking about the 2012 version, but I wonder. Sometimes, the first-generation models of a new architecture have some... quirks.

The reason I want to upgrade is namely for a better video card. Mind you, any of the current iMac video cards out there will probably stomp mine into the ground, but I'm wondering if the graphics card in the next refresh will be an incremental increase as we've see so far or might it be a beast of an upgrade?

dylin said:

The only thing i see happening would be:
The CPU upgrade to ivy bridge
A better GPU
MAYBE an increase in RAM standard
And more storage options.

I really dont think an SSD standard will come out until the refresh after since the pricing for those are still pretty high.

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That's what I'm hoping for actually. I've got a late 2010 iMac and I've gone back and foth for a while on whether to upgrade to the coming revision or not. Finally I decided (I think..) to wait and hope that the 2012 revision is indeed "just" a performance upgrade and that the 2013 one will be the next big jump with a possible redesign and maybe even an ssd as standard on the premium iMacs.
*Fingers crossed*

Roozer said:

The reason I want to upgrade is namely for a better video card. Mind you, any of the current iMac video cards out there will probably stomp mine into the ground, but I'm wondering if the graphics card in the next refresh will be an incremental increase as we've see so far or might it be a beast of an upgrade?

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Well, cant really count on it being a beast since if they want to keep the minimal form factor, that already limits them to just using integrated graphics instead of dedicated. So hoping for good gaming on a mac mini is only relative to which games you plan on getting and what resolutions you wish to play at. Playing battlefield 3 at even 1280 by 720 with medium settings is still a drag since it cant even perform at 60fps constantly.

I'll give you that my choice of words was a bit strong - you have a point in that the iMac is limited as far as GPU are concerned.

I suppose I was mostly wondering whether Ivy Bridge (sounds overhyped sometimes) would have beneficial effects for video cards or none of the noticeable kind.

Roozer said:

I'll give you that my choice of words was a bit strong - you have a point in that the iMac is limited as far as GPU are concerned.

I suppose I was mostly wondering whether Ivy Bridge (sounds overhyped sometimes) would have beneficial effects for video cards or none of the noticeable kind.

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It depends what you use the GPU for.
Or at least, the integrated chip improvement + new quick sync could be an incredible asset to video workflows...
That's why I'm waiting.
But the odds of Final Cut X immediately supporting it??

The 4k support is another thing that screams future-proof
But by the time we have a glut of super high res displays, it'll be a snail.

If the potential of the first gen Ivy's aren't fully realized, hopefully the redesigns will at least look cool enough to generate envy.

the end of the Euro in the current form ?
the end of the Iranian regime ?
a new US president ?

who knows ....

I think we may see more desktop parts in it which will make it thicker and might replace the Mac Pro...

Also seems like OLED is starting to take off so we may see that also

srxtr said:

I'm being hopefully, but I wish Apple would drop the 21" model and add 24" and 30" options while keeping the current 27" model.

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Why? 21" is perfect size for the 1080p resolution and 27" is the perfect size for the 1440p resolution; the resolutions won't change any time soon and increasing the display size results in blockier pixels. Going back to 24" or u to 30" would be reducing the quality of the screen, and I don't want that. And Apple won't go back to 16:10 aspect ratio.

I expect no more optical disc drive.

I also expect it to ship after April 2012.

A new form factor.

Circular

I am holding out on an imac until the refresh, the macbook air I bought last week is helping me along. A 30" screen would look so amazing. Not sure if it would be a good idea, but still amazing.