Intels new Ivy bridge desktop line-up is perfect for a iMac refresh and i don't think this is a coincidence.
Remember the rumor that intel would postpone the introduction of its new Ivy Bridge line up to June and later they denied this ? This would make the possible new iMac refresh to over one year! And now these processors are introduced?
I think Apple have put pressure on Intel to introduce these processors now and postpone the rest of the line up
(Also the new mobile line up looks perfect for a Macbook Pro refresh.)
the desktop line-up:
Model number Cores/threads Clockspeeds Cache Gpu Tdp
Core i7-3770K 4/8 3,5GHz (3,9GHz) 8MB HD 4000 77W
Core i7-3770 4/8 3,4GHz (3,9GHz) 8MB HD 4000 77W
Core i7-3770T 4/8 2,5GHz (3,7GHz) 8MB HD 4000 45W
Core i7-3770S 4/8 3,1GHz (3,9GHz) 8MB HD 4000 65W
Core i5-3570K 4/4 3,4GHz (3,8GHz) 6MB HD 4000 77W
Core i5-3550 4/4 3,3GHz (3,7GHz) 6MB HD 2500 77W
Core i5-3550S 4/4 3GHz (3,7GHz) 6MB HD 2500 65W
Core i5-3450 4/4 3,1GHz (3,5GHz) 6MB HD 2500 77W
Core i5-3450S 4/4 2,8GHz (3,5GHz) 6MB HD 2500 65W
With the Core i5-3450S perfect for the base iMac 21".
The Core i5-3550S perfect for the high end 21" and the Core i7-3770S as an upgrade possibility.
The S suffix stands for a tdp of 65 watts and they have to be to fit in the 21" model because of heat dissipation.
For the 27" iMac i'm expecting the low end to have the same Core i5-3550S as the high end 21" and the high end 27" to have the Core i5-3450, with the Core i7-3770 as an upgrade possibility.
The line-up is very comparable with what Apple did for its 2011 iMac model line-up.
As for the graphics part isn't it a coincidence that AMD releases new mobile graphics parts the next day? Also with a perfect line-up for Apple's iMac line up.
here's the line up:
Serie Gpu memory Stream-procs. Rops Tmu's
HD7900M 850MHz 2GB-gddr5 @ 4800MHz 256bit 1280 32 80
HD7800M 800MHz 1GB-gddr5 @ 4000MHz 128bit 640 16 40
HD7700M 675MHz 1GB-gddr5 @ 4000MHz 128bit 512 16 32
With the HD7700M perfect for the base 21" model, the HD7800M perfect for the high end 21" and low end 27". And he HD7900M would of course be perfect for the high end 27" model.
The HD7900M standard comes with 2GB of memory but I'm expecting Apple to offer just 1GB as standard and 2GB as an upgrade so they can collect some extra cash for it.
The HD7700M and HD7800M series are basically the same chip like the HD6750 and HD6770 were. There wasn't much performance difference between those 2 because they only differ in gpu clock speeds. This will change with the new series as the HD7800M series also has more stream processors 640 compared to 512 for the HD7700M which wil make the performance gap between the 2 bigger.
Lower AMD graphics parts like the HD7600M series and are actually based on older 6000 series parts.
and Apple also might put a HD7670m part in the base model which is basically an rebranded HD6770M. But i seriously hope they will only use new parts.
So my new iMac line-up would be:
Base 21" Core i5-3450S with HD7700M
High end 21" Core i5-3550S or Core i7-3770S(upgrade) and HD7800M
Base 27" Core i5-3550S with HD7800M
High end 27" Core i5-3450 or Core i7-3770(upgrade) with HD7900M 1GB(2GB upgrade)
And now we wait until the 2011 models stock numbers are getting restrained.
lol