In Europe, I can't - seems an US only thing.
AMD M395X in new Retina iMac
- Thread starter MandiMac
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EnesM
macrumors 6502
So now I have to wait yet another year?While it’s all fine and good to speculate about whether Apple can fit an R9 Nano into the RiMac chassis/power envelope for the next revision (and I’d certainly love it if they could), I think that regardless of what comes in October, there are at least two good reasons to be hopeful that the next two generations (2015 and 2016) of iMacs are going to bring some key improvements in graphics performance.
1. The addition of Thunderbolt 3, with it’s officially sanctioned support for external GPUs, may well finally unshackle us from the limitations of mobile (non-upgradable) GPUs dictated by the iMacs form factor. Of course this assumes that the GPUs themselves will support OS X, that they will be capable of writing back to the internal screen, that they won’t be horrendously expensive, and that the bandwidth limitations of Thunderbolt 3 compared to PCIE won’t be crippling at 4-5K resolution, none of which is guaranteed. Still I’ll be excited to (hopefully) see Thunderbolt 3 in the 2015 iMac.
2. The transition from a 28nm manufacturing process to as 16nm manufacturing process, forecasted to take place in 2016, should allow for a massive increase in the amount of GPU power that can be fit into the iMacs space and thermal constraints. When combined with the engineering effort both Nvida and AMD put into pulling as much out of 28nm as possible, and the trend towards more power efficient (Nvidia Maxwell) and smaller (R9 Nano) full featured GPUs, we could well be looking at another another golden age of iMac graphics.
Of course, we’ve been burned with promises of what thunderbolt could do before (I’m still pissed at Intel/Apple for not officially sanctioning external GPUs with Thunderbolt 1/2), and mobile graphics cards wont be the only ones that benefit from the move to 16nm. Still, I’m excited to see what the future holds for the iMac, as I no longer feel we’re the only ones demanding good GPUs for computers with more limited form factors. Here’s to hoping the new iMac expands our options and that whatever Apple puts in it, it can run cooler and throttle less than the M295X…
Oh, and there's also the potential of Metal,DirectX12 and Vulcan to be excited about
No. Thunderbolt 3 should come to the iMac this yearSo now I have to wait yet another year?
Hopefully without the mentioned limitations!No. Thunderbolt 3 should come to the iMac this year
Yeah the key will be whether it can drive the internal screen or not... (along with of course how well it works on OS X at all)
Im very excited about the prospects of a eGPU. Hopefully Apple will play along.
iMacmatician
macrumors 601
Probably by releasing a redesigned iMac lineup with all integrated graphics and selling external graphics in the store.
Or not….
???
What are you talking about. The iMac (and macs in general) don't ever get face time at the September event, that's strictly for iOS devices. Mac's get their own event in October generally.
Unfortunately, John Gruber tells us otherwise. Highly unlikely to get another event this year.
Or put it another way: What would a second event be about? Only the Mac line?
h9826790
macrumors P6
Rumors have suggested that since the iPad Pro was announced that there is nothing to share the stage with any new announced macs, therefore there are not enough new products to justify an event. Additionally, Intel's new skylake processors are in short supply, which would most likely be used in new products. Traditionally an October mac event comes several weeks before the release of a new operating system, but with El Capitan already set to be released 9/30 it looks like this won't be the case this year.
The only mac that has had a whiff of rumors is the 21.5" 4k iMac, and that is rumored to use Broadwell processors introduced over the summer. Updating a low end mac hardly warrants an event.
EnesM
macrumors 6502
If Asus can make an iMac clone with Skylake I don't see why Apple can't
colodane
macrumors 65816
The iMac and Mac Mini are traditionally updated with an October announcement with availability in November. Mac Pro should also be due soon. None of these were touched in the Sept announcement, so I'm certain at least one iMac will be updated in October and hopefully some improvements in all of the above.
They can and they probably will. But it will happen without an event, therefore a "silent update".
I'm optimistic that we'll see a 4K 21.5" iMac, but not that we'll see Skylake 27" models, which is really a bummer.
My fingers are still crossed. It would be very unusual to update the 21.5 inchers, but leave the 27 inchers alone. The lack of rumors can be interpreted either way: There's no external change to the 27 incher, so there can't be rumors like "better screen" and so on (the ridiculous 8K rumor needs to die), whereas the 21.5 incher will definitely get the 4K screen - an info the suppliers could and did leak. We'll see
Looks like you were right! All aboard the Skylake train!My fingers are still crossed. It would be very unusual to update the 21.5 inchers, but leave the 27 inchers alone. The lack of rumors can be interpreted either way: There's no external change to the 27 incher, so there can't be rumors like "better screen" and so on (the ridiculous 8K rumor needs to die), whereas the 21.5 incher will definitely get the 4K screen - an info the suppliers could and did leak. We'll see
Squuiid
macrumors 68000
No Thunderbolt 3 nor USB 3.1. Disappointing.
And lets not speak of the R9 M395X. Horrible.
http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/specs/
And lets not speak of the R9 M395X. Horrible.
http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/specs/
aevan
macrumors 601
How do you know M395X is horrible? You've used it?
I am very satisfied with my M290X, works awesome in Adobe apps, OS X - and even modern games (not that you should buy an iMac for that, but it's still nice). I can only imagine M395X is even better.
steve62388
macrumors 68040
That's what this thread is about.
As an aside, it is amusing going back over people's predictions about new iMacs just in this thread alone. Some people got it right, some got it woefully wrong (you know who you are).
aevan
macrumors 601
Yeah. I can see the hypothetical iMac now: An Nvidia 980M equipped computer with an SSD as standard and a touchscreen 8K. There will be a lot of QQing on these forums. For me, the previous iMac 5K was (and still is) amazing, and these new ones are even more amazing
Squuiid
macrumors 68000
No, but I'd like the iMac to come somewhere close to being an OK machine for gaming with Bootcamp on a 5K screen. The M395X is nowhere close to OK IMO. I know an iMac will never be a beast in graphics, but these rebrand AMD GPUs are very disappointing.
Take a look at the 980M, a GPU released over a year ago, and how it compares to the "new" M395X. Pathetic.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-M395X-vs-GeForce-GTX-980M
I too had a look at this comparison between the two cards, BUT there seems to be a huge difference concerning the facts that Apple states as far concerns the M395X, to thegpuboss.com ones. Gpuboss.com says that M395X has a floating point performance of 2961 Gflops (2.9Teraflops), whereas Apple in the performance page of the new Imac states up to 3.7 Teraflops! So is it just a rebadged 'Tonga', or is it something else?