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Apple May Launch 27-Inch Retina iMac With AMD Graphics as Soon as Next Month

koyoot said:
No, they are not. First of all, none of AMD GPUs can handle 5K resolution. Secondly, ONLY Nvidia Maxwell can even run that type of resolution, on single display. ONLY Maxwell cards have HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.3 that can handle that resolution.

3rd. Top end single GPU from AMD costs over 500$. Nvidia GTX970 costs 200$ less, and is on par in terms of performance. Seocndly, R9 290X draws over 270W of power, the Geforce from Nvidia draws almost half that with 142W.

I think the whole article is BS in consideration TECHNOLOGY and Pricing right now.

Only AMD card that COULD possibly handle 5K display right now is few months to come, and that is AMD Fiji GPU.

If we are talking about 4K, then simple integrated GPU from Intel can handle double resolution from 21 inch iMac. But for 5K, iMac MUST have Nvidia Maxwell, or AMD Fiji. Maxwell are right now. Fiji will be next year. If Apple will show 27 inch 5K Display for their computers, whole lineup including Mac Pro must have Maxwell GPUs.
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Unless they go with the iPhone 6 Plus/rMBP approach with a scaled resolution. You'd have a native 4K iMac just scaled to "look like 2560x1440" so that you get a higher ppi with the same screen real estate on the 27". So off-screen render at 5K (5120x2880) but the display itself is not native 5K.

That said said, a 27" 4K native iMac would have a 163ppi density. Would Apple consider that a "Retina display"? Based on distance from screen, I'd say they would.
 
Oh mama! this gets my juice flowing. iphones, ipads, just something I buy to keep my patience for new iMacs :D THis is gonna be great.
 
bounou said:
It will matter for gaming, the easy solution is to run games at 2560/1440 since its unlikely you will be able to do much with that computer in terms of games if you want to run at native resolution.
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Honestly, you can't run most games at a decent graphics quality and framerate with even 2560/1440 resolution on a mobile graphics card. I'm running two GTX 760's in SLI on my desktop and can't even maintain Ultra settings on most games. A mobile graphics card at 2560/1440? Forget about it. You'll be running low to medium graphics quality with a still not-amazing framerate. The GTX 980M isn't bad, however. Probably still not great at that resolution.
 
Babbles said:
PC: You can do anything with our computers.
Apple: We're pretty cute.
PC: You can update hardware for what you're going to use the computer for.
Apple: We'll update it for you in about 2-3 years, okay?
PC: You can play games on us.
Apple: We put chess on for free!
PC: You can hook all your devices up to us.
Apple: We don't consider it incest at all. But you can only use family devices.
PC: We >>>>>> blue screen <<<<<<<
Apple: /snicker/ >>>>>>spinning beach ball<<<<<< /damnit/
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This person is obviosly has NEVER used a mac and speaks Korean.
 
They might include the new Zoom feature found in the iPhone 6 Plus.

pondosinatra said:
Am I the only one who thinks this isn't a good idea? Cramming double the resolution into the same size screen? My eyes aren't getting any younger, and while I can increase the font size etc. why should I have to?

At a certain point such high resolutions don't make sense without a corresponding increase in monitor size.
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I also hope this increases the likelihood for 4k videos in the next iPhone.
 
So we can expect a new Thunderbolt display at the same time I think!

If it is AMD GPU, probably a version of the R9 specifically tweaked for the iMac (Nvidia are now introducing GTX 980, so the iMac has to compete slightly for sure).

I'll hazard a guess of a iMac 3.5Ghz i7 Quad Core, 16gb RAM, AMD R9 4GB, 1Tb Fusion drive, Retina display, being $4500.

All we need now for a AAA Apple year are new 15"+ MacBook Pro's with Alienware type specs.
 
pondosinatra said:
But resolution is resolution. And if you double it on the same size screen everything is going to have to be smaller. Meaning a lot more squinting...
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No, that's exactly what retina screens DON'T do. That's why they're called "retina" because they scale to the point where you have so much PPI the human eye technically can't distinguish the individual pixels. The real estate is exactly, 100%, the same. The resolution is rendered completely and the scaled down, making things clearer.

This isn't that hard dude.
 
Mr. Retrofire said:
Only a small number of programs/plugins use CUDA, and Apple wants more OpenCL performance. The majority of programs/plugins uses OpenCL or the "standard" SIMD ISA extensions like SSE2 up to AVX2.
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Actually those *small number* of programas are the most popular... just to name one: Adobe CS6 ... ahh actually nVidia gpu also suport OpenCL ... so an nVidia gpu is a win-win .
 
Last edited:
where is the new mac mini ?

mlfw4496-BVqwB.gif
 
Aloft085 said:
Honestly, you can't run most games at a decent graphics quality and framerate with even 2560/1440 resolution on a mobile graphics card. I'm running two GTX 760's in SLI on my desktop and can't even maintain Ultra settings on most games. A mobile graphics card at 2560/1440? Forget about it. You'll be running low to medium graphics quality with a still not-amazing framerate. The GTX 980M isn't bad, however. Probably still not great at that resolution.
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I would of expected that the 980M would at least be able to manage at 1440P.

Remind me again why Apple uses mobile GPU's in their desktop machines?

:(
 
TechZeke said:
I honestly don't get the hate over AMD cards. It'd be one thing if they announced going to AMD CPUs(And even then, anything below a i7-4770K has an AMD equivalent in performance)
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It is complete ignorance, if AMD was as bad as implied people would be rejecting the Mac Pro right and left. Yet the Mac Pro has been successful from all indications.
Also, AMD is the only combined competition for nVidia/Intel.
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This is so true, Intel needs good competition. A strong AMD is possibly the only thing that can keep Intel on its toes.

As for people needing CUDA support, why deal with software providers that use proprietary GPU software. The other thing that is absolutely stupid here is people comparing NVidias newly launched but not yet available hardware to AMD hardware that is two years old.
 
I've been waiting for this. I will be purchasing. Although... How soon will the next revision come out? I may wait to purchase until after I move in May of 2015. But I've already been waiting to purchase my first iMac for a long time now.
 
tommy/1984 said:
I doubt that this rumor is true and here is why: price. Pure and simple. The Dell UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K will sell for $ 2,499. Now that's $ 500 more than the current 27" top of the line iMac. Could anyone imagine an iMac selling well above $ 3,000? Or am I getting something completely wrong here? :rolleyes:
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The sticker price on an assembled device has little to do with the cost of the components inside. We really don't have any idea what the cost of the actual LCD membrane is nor do we know for sure that the screen will even be an LCD. Apple could easily pull a rabbit out of the hat here with new LCD technology or something completely new to replace LCD. Between batteries, camera chips and LCD's there are billions going into research and development every year. In the end you simply don't know what is possible until Apple can ship it.
 
dumastudetto said:
The new Retina iMac will be an essential upgrade for everyone really. I'm expecting that display will look completely gorgeous and incredible, and you'll never want to look at another non-retina display again.
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...and this is the exact speech Tim Cooks will use at the Keynote.
 
pondosinatra said:
Not having used a retina display, you're right, I don't understand it.

But resolution is resolution. And if you double it on the same size screen everything is going to have to be smaller. Meaning a lot more squinting...
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The same way a printer with higher dpi automatically made everything smaller.

Hint: the OS compensates by making it still the same size anyway, just higher detail.
 
So many questions I have..

I mean, it's gotta be desktop graphics, right? Even the high end notebook chips can't drive this kind of display correctly, without stutters and lag of animations and such.

That being said, if it is desktop graphics, and if they're going to put the unlocked Core i7 in there, how is an iMac going to handle that amount of heat? Unless it's redesigned to be bigger with better airflow, I can't see how that's going to work without significant throttling.

This is a product I'd expect in 1-2 years, not next month. Especially with AMD chips that usually run hotter than comparable NVIDIA products.

Also, price. The Dell monitor that they are likely basing the panel off of is $1500-$1600 by itself. I don't see how they're going to hit the same price point as the current iMac.
 
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