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4 cores in next imac refresh?

H

hexdump

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 16, 2009
13
0
Hi,

When back in March I saw new imacs still gonna had core 2 duo I really got pretty disapointed. I wasn't going to spend a buch of money for such a little upgrade. Yes, you guessed I was hoping they could mount new 4 cores processors on imac.

I'm still waiting for this upgrade to happen and then I will get my imac, but, does anybody have information if it will happen in the near feature? perhaps when snow is released?.

Thanks in advance,
HexDump.
 
You have to pay attention to Intel's roadmap and what they are going to release when.
As it seems now, Intel is going to release the Arrandale CPU, which is quad-core and has enough TDP to actually include it in a very close case like the iMac has.

There is a thread about the Arrandale CPU in the MBP/PowerBook sub-forum, if you're interested.

The new CPU is expected in the last quarter of 2009 and first quarter of 2010, so it is very unlikely, that new iMacs are released with Snow Leopard, but maybe Apple surprises us like in June with the MacBook Pros.
 
Hi again,

So, buying an imac with c2d perhaps could be an option this days? Argggg, what difficult is life!.

Thanks in advance,
HexDump.
 
An iMac with a Core2Duo with 2 cores is still an option today, even the only one.
If you need it now, buy it, it's a more than capable machine as it is, unless you wanna render 24/7 or put it to other kinds of heavy calculation, that would greatly improve with four cores.

If you can wait, wait as long as you can.

Or buy a PC with four cores.
 
spinnerlys said:
You have to pay attention to Intel's roadmap and what they are going to release when.
As it seems now, Intel is going to release the Arrandale CPU, which is quad-core and has enough TDP to actually include it in a very close case like the iMac has.

There is a thread about the Arrandale CPU in the MBP/PowerBook sub-forum, if you're interested.

The new CPU is expected in the last quarter of 2009 and first quarter of 2010, so it is very unlikely, that new iMacs are released with Snow Leopard, but maybe Apple surprises us like in June with the MacBook Pros.
Click to expand...

Arrandale is 2 cores (4 threads).. Not good enough to remain competitive in the desktop market. Clarksfield is a mobile quad core but it's limited at 2ghz and quite expensive. If they stay with mobile cpus there is nothing good out there at the moment or the near future. I guess they could still try and go to the core2quads (65w), but they should have already done that in march..
 
I mainly will use it for audio production and programming. I think 4 cores in audio production will be nice because of vst's running at same time.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance,
HexDump.
 
I don't know about VSTs, so I don't know how much you would gain with four cores.
You could have a look for older MacPros models at eBay or Apple's Refurbished Online Store section.

Or go with a PC, as iMacs (or MBPs for that matter, as they share the same CPUs) wont gain four cores in the next months.
 
wesleyh said:
Arrandale is 2 cores (4 threads).. Not good enough to remain competitive in the desktop market. Clarksfield is a mobile quad core but it's limited at 2ghz and quite expensive. If they stay with mobile cpus there is nothing good out there at the moment or the near future. I guess they could still try and go to the core2quads (65w), but they should have already done that in march..
Click to expand...

Remember that Clarksfield has Turbo, 2GHz goes up to 3.2GHz for one core. 65W is too hot without redesign and better cooling. C2Qs would be perfect because they are cheap too, about 300$. If 65W can fit to iMac, then there would be lots of CPUs available, up to 3.33GHz dual core. I'm still guessing Arrandales but C2Qs would be nice too. We'll see...
 
wesleyh said:
Arrandale is 2 cores (4 threads).. Not good enough to remain competitive in the desktop market. Clarksfield is a mobile quad core but it's limited at 2ghz and quite expensive. If they stay with mobile cpus there is nothing good out there at the moment or the near future. I guess they could still try and go to the core2quads (65w), but they should have already done that in march..
Click to expand...

Thanks for the corrections. I'm confused as it seems.

So Clarksfield is the quad core, but what is its TDP? EDIT: 65W as Hellhammer has stated.

Current MBPs have a TDP of around 35W I seem to recall, so the iMac will be the same.

Is there any kind of quad core chip in Intel's roadmap with that low kind of power consumption?
 
spinnerlys said:
Thanks for the corrections. I'm confused as it seems.

So Clarksfield is the quad core, but what is its TDP? EDIT: 65W as Hellhammer has stated.

Current MBPs have a TDP of around 35W I seem to recall, so the iMac will be the same.

Is there any kind of quad core chip in Intel's roadmap with that low kind of power consumption?
Click to expand...

We were talking about desktop Core 2 Quad chips. Clarksfields are 35W and 45W/55W. 24" iMac can take up to 55W with current design.

Clarksfields are possible but they are expensive and I think Apple don't want iMacs with high clocked duals and low clocked quads. It confuses buyers.
 
Hellhammer said:
We were talking about desktop Core 2 Quad chips. Clarksfields are 35W and 45W/55W. 24" iMac can take up to 55W with current design.

Clarksfields are possible but they are expensive and I think Apple don't want iMacs with high clocked duals and low clocked quads. It confuses buyers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that information.

Seems I'm out of touch with all that mobile quad core business.

Maybe when I'm in the market for a new mobile machine (hopefully in not less than three years) I will pay more attention to the then available eight or sixteen core mobile CPUs.
 
spinnerlys said:
Thanks for that information.

Seems I'm out of touch with all that mobile quad core business.

Maybe when I'm in the market for a new mobile machine (hopefully in not less than three years) I will pay more attention to the then available eight or sixteen core mobile CPUs.
Click to expand...

No problem, mate. Haswells are coming in 2012 and they will have 8-cores as a standard :D
 
Hellhammer said:
Clarksfields are possible but they are expensive and I think Apple don't want iMacs with high clocked duals and low clocked quads. It confuses buyers.
Click to expand...
Exactly. (Arrandale Turbo Boost goes to higher clocks than Clarksfield Turbo Boost due to Arrandale's higher initial clocks.) If Apple wanted to go quad-core, they would have done it in March this year when 3 quad-core mobile CPUs were available.

The quad-core landscape won't change much with Clarksfield and may not change much in 2010, so I think 2011 for quad-cores in the iMac (and MacBook Pro).
 
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