Anyone waiting for Coffee Lake?

[TheIntruder]

With the iMac Pro freshly minted, I think Apple will try to squeeze at least one more speed bump out of the current iMac chassis, if not more.

For the regular iMac, that probably means Coffee Lake, and with the i5-8500 supposedly due in February, it appears that all but one of the 8th gen (8700K/8600K/8500) equivalents of the current processors will have hit the market. There doesn't seem to be an 8600 to speak of, but Apple could go with an 8600K/8500/8400 lineup.

All have six cores, albeit with slightly lower clocks and slightly more heat/power consumption.

Despite that, single thread performance is roughly the same, if not slightly better, but multi-threaded tasks benefit from the two additional cores.

I've been planning to order one of the mid-2017 models, but can afford to wait another five months.

Had CL been yet another ho-hum update from Intel, I would have by now, but the two extra cores have disrupted that plan.

I guess a lot depends on whether the flurry of new models that Apple pushed out in 2017 means the company cares about the Mac again, or whether it was more of a fluke, and it will let them languish again, like the Mini still does.

 

[Glmnet1]

I'm waiting too, not in a big hurry to upgrade and the benefits should be worth it.

I'm curious as to how the iMac Pro will affect the next iMac. I think a redesign is possible.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I'm waiting too, not in a big hurry to upgrade and the benefits should be worth it.

I'm curious as to how the iMac Pro will affect the next iMac. I think a redesign is possible.

I think the iMac Pro means an overall iMac redesign less possible/likely. Since they re-engineered all the guts of the iMac Pro, seems unlikely Apple would redesign the standard iMac to be more modern than the iMac Pro. Going by history, the form factor of the iMac Pro will be with us for several years. Aside from bezels that seem about 50% too big, I think it's a wonderful form factor.

 

[Glmnet1]

I think the iMac Pro means an overall iMac redesign less possible/likely. Since they re-engineered all the guts of the iMac Pro, seems unlikely Apple would redesign the standard iMac to be more modern than the iMac Pro. Going by history, the form factor of the iMac Pro will be with us for several years. Aside from bezels that seem about 50% too big, I think it's a wonderful form factor.

That's one possibility. Another one is that they are trying to have 2 separate products (think MacBook and MacBook Pro) where one is bulkier but more powerful and the other one is less powerful, cheaper and smaller. Part of me want to see such a redesign and part of me is afraid that they might go too far with it and leave a big gap in the lineup where you feel obligated to upgrade to the iMac Pro for any computer intensive tasks.

I like the form factor too, but I see the following changes happening at some point:
- less bezels
- less chin
- reducing the bulk at the back, even if at the expense of a thicker edges. It could be like the bottom of a macbook pro, on a stand, with a screen. Or like the pre-2012 iMac but thinner.

 

[northernmunky]

Yep, waiting for Coffee Lake MacBook Pro to replace my Retina late 2013. I'm actually considering saving some money and getting a non-Radeon GPU model, sticking with Intel Iris Pro and just Thunderbolt 3 into an eGPU when needed. I already have a GeForce 980 Ti to slot into it so I might as well retire my ageing PC tower as well and downsize my excess kit.

MacBook Pro > bootcamped into Windows 10 and eGPU NVIDIA 980TI seems like a win.

 

[thefriendshipmachine]

filling an entire lake with coffee seems really irresponsible and bad for the environment to me, so no, I wont be buying it.

 

[DilemmaDude]

filling an entire lake with coffee seems really irresponsible and bad for the environment to me, so no, I wont be buying it.

Buying an entire lake also seems like a pretty pricey affair.

In all seriousness though, I just think Apple will update the internals and use the iMac Pro "enclosure" without the space gray finish, seems more cost effective this way + the machine would run cooler. I just hope they find a way to keep the RAM slot in the back.

 

[Florida Gator]

Regardless of Coffee Lake's launch, it seems that Apple has to wait for whatever succeeds the current Radeon GPUs. The 570, 575 and 580 launched late last April, and Apple didn't put them in iMacs until June. I'm in the same boat as the OP, so I'm guessing June at the earliest.

Well, unless they do something different like go Vega, or switch to Ryzen or ARM.

 

[HumpYourWayUp]

These horrendous waiting for (blah) threads!
They should be filtered out!

 

[Glmnet1]

These horrendous waiting for (blah) threads!
They should be filtered out!

Just don't come on those threads and comment if you don't like them. Based on the amount of threads and comments like this, it seems that a lot of users like it. I think it's fun to try to guess what Apple is going to come up with.

 

[Shivetya]

If the improvement to the iMac case is to incorporate the cooling of the iMac pro then that would be great. I am not worried about the chin because it never has bothered me.

 

[monokakata]

If the improvement to the iMac case is to incorporate the cooling of the iMac pro then that would be great. I am not worried about the chin because it never has bothered me.

But let's keep in mind that the iMac Pro case and innards doesn't allow for RAM upgrades. That's not a plus.

 

[norbinhouston]

I think the iMac Pro means an overall iMac redesign less possible/likely. Since they re-engineered all the guts of the iMac Pro, seems unlikely Apple would redesign the standard iMac to be more modern than the iMac Pro. Going by history, the form factor of the iMac Pro will be with us for several years. Aside from bezels that seem about 50% too big, I think it's a wonderful form factor.

I'll add that that, if its true, I hope they share the speakers with the iMP, because they sound fantastic for built ins!

 

[BeatCrazy]

I'll add that that, if its true, I hope they share the speakers with the iMP, because they sound fantastic for built ins!

Agreed, the iMac Pro speakers are very good for casual listening. And you can't beat their footprint

 

[jon08]

I'm waiting too, but after the recent Intel meltdown fiasco I'm not sure I really want these, as they will still have this hardware vulnerability.

 

[TheIntruder]

I'm waiting too, but after the recent Intel meltdown fiasco I'm not sure I really want these, as they will still have this hardware vulnerability.

What makes it even more frustrating is how vague and evasive Intel's response to the whole thing has been. Hey, look, everyone in the industry has been affected to some degree, so it's not strictly an "Intel problem" or an "ARM problem," etc. It's a common design technique that has been found to have an exploitable security flaw.

Just be straight and let everyone know how you plan to mitigate the problem, both for current and future products.

Now, it's promising that chips with silicon fixes, not just software patches, will ship this year. It hasn't said which generation or chips that will apply to.

While I wouldn't rule out buying a new car with Takata airbags, that doesn't mean I will entirely ignore it either.