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Apple could ship 2012 iMac next week!

The smart money suggests this all-hands event is to introduce the new VP of Retail.

Don't get your hopes up.
 
I'm not starting another iMac vigil until the 680M is selectable on Alienware.
 
Hurry up damnit!

I'm inclined to agree with Seamaster and cypress822, though I wish that we all end up being wrong.

I'm switching to Mac after over 22 years of PC. I'm running a home studio and my Vista (*shudders*) notebook is crapping out on me. Reason 6.5 is just too demanding for the Centrino Duo with 4GB RAM (even after a fresh install, update, and optimisation).

I have a $1,000 gift card which will give my new iMac a nice boost if they ever decide to release it this side of Christmas. But it expires at the end of next month. :(

If the iMac is not out by then, I'm just gonna bite the bullet and get a MacBook Pro Retina with 512GB SSD, and the 16GB RAM spec. I have two 22" screens I'm wanting to hook up to it. It might be I'll have to sacrifice warranty for hardware though, and how dumb is that with such an expensive piece of equipment?

If anyone has experience using a Mac for music production with large samples and devices, using 16 tracks or more, I need some advice about what system and specs is going to handle that and then some, seeing as it'll be my first Mac and I'll want to be using it for a while.

Fingers crossed for the end of this month, or barring that, before the end of next month, as this wait is holding me back from getting some real work done.

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
Angelis said:
I have a $1,000 gift card which will give my new iMac a nice boost if they ever decide to release it this side of Christmas. But it expires at the end of next month. :(
Click to expand...
Are you in US? I believe that US money (as well as Gift Cards) do not expire.
Check your state law.
 
vladfein said:
Are you in US? I believe that US money (as well as Gift Cards) do not expire.
Check your state law.
Click to expand...

I'm in Australia. The gift card is a VISA and the expiry date is displayed on it, so unfortunately no hope for extension there. :(
 
forty2j said:
I'm not starting another iMac vigil until the 680M is selectable on Alienware.
Click to expand...

Just curious. I've been haunting this board for about 4 months now, waiting for the new iMacs along with everyone else around here. But, back then, everyone kept on about the 7970M as the be-all-end-all GPU. It came out. It benchmarked really high. Apple has used ATI/AMD 4/5/6xxx series cards for several years now. Why the shift (not just you) to this 680M? Is there some info that Apple is shifting away from AMD?
 
Angelis said:
I can't seem to locate anything other than the iTunes Gift Cards on the Australian Apple Store. Perhaps it's only a US thing?
Click to expand...

The AUS store does seem to be lacking the Apple Gift Card. The link simply isn't there, while it's there on the US store.

Do you have the option of walking into a physical Apple Store?

----------
iMacFarlane said:
Just curious. I've been haunting this board for about 4 months now, waiting for the new iMacs along with everyone else around here. But, back then, everyone kept on about the 7970M as the be-all-end-all GPU. It came out. It benchmarked really high. Apple has used ATI/AMD 4/5/6xxx series cards for several years now. Why the shift (not just you) to this 680M? Is there some info that Apple is shifting away from AMD?
Click to expand...

As usual, there's nothing solid.

However, there are two key points:
- Last year's MBPs used AMD. This year's use Nvidia. Only in the past couple years has Apple really cared what kind of video they offered, especially in the MBP. They seem to be going where they can get the best performance and/or drivers. It seems unlikely at this point that they'd offer different brands in each line. The 680M does test about 10-15% higher than the 7970m.. but the 7970m is a damn fine card.
- If they were using the AMD 7970m, then we're out of tangible reasons why the new refresh isn't out yet. 7970m is shipping quite happily. 680M isn't. If the 680M starts shipping in volumes and the 2012 iMac still isn't out, then we're back to the drawing board, but for now it's an extremely plausible reason for the delay.
 
Last edited:
forty2j said:
- Last year's MBPs used AMD. This year's use Nvidia. Only in the past couple years has Apple really cared what kind of video they offered, especially in the MBP. They seem to be going where they can get the best performance and/or drivers. It seems unlikely at this point that they'd offer different brands in each line. The 680M does test about 10-15% higher than the 7970m.. but the 7970m is a damn fine card.
Click to expand...

I think it's also been about efficiency. Apple seems to always want to get the best performance possible for least amount of power draw and heat. The last couple generations of NVidia GPUs have lagged behind AMD in this respect, but they seem to have gotten competitive again in the efficiency space with Kepler.

Honestly the use of AMD GPUs is what kept me away from the 2011 iMac. While I'm sure the drivers are fine in OS X, I know that I personally much prefer NVidia's Windows drivers to AMD's and have for some time.
 
jmhart said:
I think it's also been about efficiency. Apple seems to always want to get the best performance possible for least amount of power draw and heat. The last couple generations of NVidia GPUs have lagged behind AMD in this respect, but they seem to have gotten competitive again in the efficiency space with Kepler.

Honestly the use of AMD GPUs is what kept me away from the 2011 iMac. While I'm sure the drivers are fine in OS X, I know that I personally much prefer NVidia's Windows drivers to AMD's and have for some time.
Click to expand...

Interesting viewpoint.

I assisted my 19 year old son in choosing configuration for his Windoze games machine, and in the end, we chose two nVidia 570s. The reason why was that from my research, it seemed that in SLI mode, NVidia were more reliable.

However, some games would run better with either nVidia, or with AMD.

I had thought the extra GPU memory which came with AMD was a clear advantage. But eventually thought nVidia the safer bet, despite an apparent lack of memory for the dollars spent.
 
Angelis said:
If the iMac is not out by then, I'm just gonna bite the bullet and get a MacBook Pro Retina with 512GB SSD, and the 16GB RAM spec. I have two 22" screens I'm wanting to hook up to it. It might be I'll have to sacrifice warranty for hardware though, and how dumb is that with such an expensive piece of equipment?
Click to expand...

Apple lets you buy AppleCare within the first year of your initial warranty.
 
Identity Fraud said:
Apple lets you buy AppleCare within the first year of your initial warranty.
Click to expand...

That is really handy. Thank you for that! :)


Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions. I will have to head down to an Apple store to see if I can buy the gift card there.

Cheers.
 
iMacFarlane said:
Just curious. I've been haunting this board for about 4 months now, waiting for the new iMacs along with everyone else around here. But, back then, everyone kept on about the 7970M as the be-all-end-all GPU. It came out. It benchmarked really high. Apple has used ATI/AMD 4/5/6xxx series cards for several years now. Why the shift (not just you) to this 680M? Is there some info that Apple is shifting away from AMD?
Click to expand...

Apple switches suppliers mainly for the best prices. There are other design considerations like heat and performance, but this is mainly about price and availability.

Edit: Just to add to this. Companies like Apple do not wait around until these chips are released into the market and then check out the reviews on gamingbenchmarks.com or whatever and think, "Damn, that's pretty quick, let's put that in". Months before the release, the sales people from the manufacturer will get together with the people from Apple and do the pitch of how awesome their new chips will be and what power rating they will have. Most importantly, they will discuss prices per 1000 or per 10,000 etc units. They will also discuss clauses like what penalties the manufacturer will have to pay Apple if they are not able to supply the agreed amounts per month and so forth.
 
Last edited:
forty2j said:
As usual, there's nothing solid.

However, there are two key points:
- Last year's MBPs used AMD. This year's use Nvidia. Only in the past couple years has Apple really cared what kind of video they offered, especially in the MBP. They seem to be going where they can get the best performance and/or drivers. It seems unlikely at this point that they'd offer different brands in each line. The 680M does test about 10-15% higher than the 7970m.. but the 7970m is a damn fine card.
- If they were using the AMD 7970m, then we're out of tangible reasons why the new refresh isn't out yet. 7970m is shipping quite happily. 680M isn't. If the 680M starts shipping in volumes and the 2012 iMac still isn't out, then we're back to the drawing board, but for now it's an extremely plausible reason for the delay.
Click to expand...

theSeb said:
Apple switches suppliers mainly for the best prices. There are other design considerations like heat and performance, but this is mainly about price and availability.

Edit: Just to add to this. Companies like Apple do not wait around until these chips are released into the market and then check out the reviews on gamingbenchmarks.com or whatever and think, "Damn, that's pretty quick, let's put that in". Months before the release, the sales people from the manufacturer will get together with the people from Apple and do the pitch of how awesome their new chips will be and what power rating they will have. Most importantly, they will discuss prices per 1000 or per 10,000 etc units. They will also discuss clauses like what penalties the manufacturer will have to pay Apple if they are not able to supply the agreed amounts per month and so forth.
Click to expand...

Thank you both for your informative answers. So the bottom line is, either card would rock, and be an improvement in the line if they chose to use one of them. And we are talking about the top 27" model, right? The $1999 one? The one with the 6970M now.
 
iMacFarlane said:
So the bottom line is, either card would rock, and be an improvement in the line if they chose to use one of them. And we are talking about the top 27" model, right? The $1999 one? The one with the 6970M now.
Click to expand...

Yes, and yes. I for one am not terribly interested in the lower options.. if I didn't want the top spec, I'd be trying to find a bargain bin 2011 right now.
 
iMacFarlane said:
Thank you both for your informative answers. So the bottom line is, either card would rock, and be an improvement in the line if they chose to use one of them. And we are talking about the top 27" model, right? The $1999 one? The one with the 6970M now.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the 21.5" with a little tweak could handle this cards also but prices would go super high so there is almost no chance for the 21.5".
 
forty2j said:
Yes, and yes. I for one am not terribly interested in the lower options.. if I didn't want the top spec, I'd be trying to find a bargain bin 2011 right now.
Click to expand...

Good point, me too.

ivoruest said:
Yes, but the 21.5" with a little tweak could handle this cards also but prices would go super high so there is almost no chance for the 21.5".
Click to expand...

Roger that, thanks.
 
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