Unboxing of the Early 2009 NVIDIA iMac, Early Benchmarks

[MacRumors]

Engadget has posted an unboxing gallery of the new iMac. Externally, there is not much different in the new machine with the exception of a FireWire 800 port and mini DisplayPort. The new iMac does come with the keypad-less keyboard (pictured above). MacRumors readers who are waiting on delivery of their new iMacs are congregating in this thread.

Primate Labs has already posted some benchmarks of the new iMacs and Mac minis. Unsurprisingly they found that processor speed has not improved significantly between the older and the new models:

Processor performance hasn’t increased substantially in the latest hardware; the performance increase seems to scale with processor speed. This isn’t surprising, since neither the iMac nor the Mac mini moved to a new processor architecture.

Geekbench, however, only measures processor and memory performance and does not measure graphics card performance. The main improvement in these models was a move to an NVIDIA-based architecture with improved integrated graphics. This should improve graphics benchmarks and will also provide additional benefits when Snow Leopard is released.


Article Link: Unboxing of the Early 2009 NVIDIA iMac, Early Benchmarks

[shanmugam]

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/First-Lo...-20-Inch/658/1

and teardown photos here

[vista.john]

nice, now wait to see how mac mini performs...

[macUser2007]

Bleh.

Not much to get excited about. It looks like an interim model.

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by vista.john

nice, now wait to see how mac mini performs...

99.9999% sure that it performs like the Aluminium 2.0 Ghz Macbook.

[HLdan]

Originally Posted by macUser2007

Bleh.

Not much to get excited about. It looks like an interim model.

I have to agree, it's the same machine intro'd in 2007. Do we really need an unboxing?

[shanmugam]

and the cpu numbers are

Intel Core 2 Duo E8435 3.06 GHz (2 cores)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8335 2.93 GHz (2 cores)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8135 2.66 GHz (2 cores)

...

[mark88]

So much for progress!

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by shanmugam

and the cpu numbers are

Intel Core 2 Duo E8435 3.06 GHz (2 cores)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8335 2.93 GHz (2 cores)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8135 2.66 GHz (2 cores)

...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...5&postcount=70

Nothing new there. Apple shifted their previous processors down and nothing more.

[anubis]

Can someone help explain to me what the advantage is of having an "nvidia chipset"? How is this different from the graphics card itself? I understand that snow leopard is going to take advantage of the computational power of the grahphics card in order to speed things up... but what's the difference between using the graphics card and using "the chipset"? I have the now-previous generation iMac 24" 3.06GHz with Geforce 8800 GS graphics card. Will my computer significantly underperform a similarly equipped computer with an "nvidia chipset" with snow leopard?

[ltldrummerboy]

Not an amazing update. Another thing they changed was the stand. It now tapers like the 24" LED cinema display.

I really like the Radeon 4850, though!

[edgew8]

Hmm, looks like a performance drop for the Imac and a bump up for the mini.

I am looking at this "update" as a clever way of dropping the price of the 2008 lineup, while apple can maintain its image of premium priced computers (maximum profit!!!) to stockholders with the "updated" models.

[Tesselator]

That GeekBench was used makes the tests almost completely meaningless for me.

If I run GeekBench 10 times on my MP I get ten quite different results. It's gotta be the worst BM utility I've ever come across.

[ppnkg]

no full keyboard for the desktop line? Are they nuts?

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by edgew8

Hmm, looks like a performance drop for the Imac and a bump up for the mini.

I am looking at this "update" as a clever way of dropping the price of the 2008 lineup, while apple can maintain its image of premium priced computers (maximum profit!!!) to stockholders with the "updated" models.

My money is on the 9400M G in the iMac and shared video RAM taking a few refresh cycles away from the CPU and memory for display purposes.

Originally Posted by Tesselator

That GeekBench was used makes the tests almost completely meaningless for me.

If I run GeekBench 10 times on my MP I get ten quite different results. It's gotta be the worst BM utility I've ever come across.

Under the same conditions? What about your background applications?

Originally Posted by bking1000

Boo! on the keyboard without a numpad. I hate typing numbers across the top. Ugh!

You can order a keyboard with the numpad.

[bking1000]

Boo! on the keyboard without a numpad. I hate typing numbers across the top. Ugh!

[boonedocks]

When I first saw that keyboard photo I imagined it to be a numeric keypad-less keyboard with a giant multi-touch trackpad. That would be very cool.

[~Shard~]

As an iMac owner I find this update to be fairly minor. In fact, I'm very happy I bought my iMac in Dec '07, as the line hasn't seen any siginficant updates since, as is perfectly ilustrated here - glad to see my machine isn't obsolete yet! I guess we'll have to wait for a new chipset to come along before we see any real significant changes to the iMac line. That or Blu Ray.

[pwille]

Originally Posted by anubis

Can someone help explain to me what the advantage is of having an "nvidia chipset"? How is this different from the graphics card itself? I understand that snow leopard is going to take advantage of the computational power of the grahphics card in order to speed things up... but what's the difference between using the graphics card and using "the chipset"? I have the now-previous generation iMac 24" 3.06GHz with Geforce 8800 GS graphics card. Will my computer significantly underperform a similarly equipped computer with an "nvidia chipset" with snow leopard?

I have the same question anubis. I have the current iMac 24" 3.06GHz w/Geforce 8800 GS graphics card. Is the new chipset really that much faster?

[BornAgainMac]

I wish the iMac had easier access to the hard drive.

[QCassidy352]

Originally Posted by pwille

I have the same question anubis. I have the current iMac 24" 3.06GHz w/Geforce 8800 GS graphics card. Is the new chipset really that much faster?

No. You have an nvidea chipset as well, as the 8800GS is an nvidea card. That 8800 will beat all of the nvidea cards available in the new imac lineup.

Ironically, the only card in the new imac lineup that would outperform what you have is the one non-nvidea card: the ATI 4850.

[moracity]

Originally Posted by edgew8

Hmm, looks like a performance drop for the Imac and a bump up for the mini.

I am looking at this "update" as a clever way of dropping the price of the 2008 lineup, while apple can maintain its image of premium priced computers (maximum profit!!!) to stockholders with the "updated" models.

I agree, this was just a value update to setup a new pricing structure. This is purely an attempt to stimulate sales. In the fall, the 20-in will probably be gone and we will see a processor change and LED-backlit display, at least in the top-end model. We may even see a larger display, but 24-in may be as large as most people will need or want - too much screen space to move the mouse around. Maybe a 26-in or 32-in Apple TV (AppleTV+Display). That seems like the next logical step.

[Tesselator]

Originally Posted by Eidorian

Under the same conditions? What about your background applications?

Yes sir. I'm a smart old guy and been around computers since before the 1st ever PCs. So yes, I've tested GeekBench under many different conditions including settled after a cold start - unplugged from the net. Happens over several versions too.

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by BornAgainMac

I wish the iMac had easier access to the hard drive.

It's not that hard if you're willing to take it apart.

[QCassidy352]

Externally, there is not much different in the new machine with the exception of a FireWire 800 port and mini DisplayPort.

Question about that: does the new imac have 2 FW 800 ports? Because my previous gen 20" 2.66 has one FW 400 and one FW 800.