Apple Updates iMac Lineup With Up to 8-Core 9th-Gen Intel Processors and Radeon Pro Vega Graphics Options

[kazmac]

I had mine for 6 years (started with the 2011 27" iMac). Worked great, and finally just wanted something better. So long as specs isn't an issue, you should be able to hang on to it for 6-7 years at least.
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An imac with such a feature is going to jack up the price significantly, and be such a niche product category that it will likely not sell enough quantities to justify the R&D.

If it's art you want, you can consider the 12.9" iPad Pro. Even the guy from Penny Arcade is using it for his work.

No kidding a Surface Studio-like iMac will jack up the price. As for the 12.9” iPad Pros, not buying another iPad Pro until Apple addresses the hardware issues (touch disease, etc.). I lost $1k when Apple refused to replace my 2017 that developed touch disease issues. Given that the 2018s still develop this issue, I’ll pass despite loving the second gen pencil.

 

[kis]

No kidding a Surface Studio-like iMac will jack up the price. As for the 12.9” iPad Pros, not buying another iPad Pro until Apple addresses the hardware issues (touch disease, etc.). I lost $1k when Apple refused to replace my 2017 that developed touch disease issues. Given that the 2018s still develop this issue, I’ll pass despite loving the second gen pencil.

I lost 2000 dollars when I had to sell my 3-month-old Surface Studio 2 because the fans on these are so damn loud, it’s impossible to work with them in an office.

 

[kazmac]

I lost 2000 dollars when I had to sell my 3-month-old Surface Studio 2 because the fans on these are so damn loud, it’s impossible to work with them in an office.

Sorry to hear that.

Not sure what I am going to do as far as upgrading whenever I get my federal tax refund back. Surface Studio is too expensive and underpowered to even consider it.

If I could avoid going Vega and CPU upgrade, I’d appreciate it. Really do not want to go over $2500 if I get another iMac.

 

[kis]

Sorry to hear that.

Not sure what I am going to do as far as upgrading whenever I get my federal tax refund back. Surface Studio is too expensive and underpowered to even consider it.

If I could avoid going Vega and CPU upgrade, I’d appreciate it. Really do not want to go over $2500 if I get another iMac.

The studio isn’t really a bad performer - but Microsoft’s choosing a 7th gen processor that gets hot as hell should disqualify the PC for pretty much anyone. Using it is quite a unique experience though - that touch screen and the pen input on this thing is insanely cool. But as i said: it’s unbearably loud.

Unfortunately, for 2500, all you get from an iMac is an i5 with 8gb of RAM and hard drive that was already outdated when the first iMacs were launched 10 years ago.

It’s prob cheaper to get a Mac mini and one of the eGPUs from Sonnet.

 

[kazmac]

The studio isn’t really a bad performer - but Microsoft’s choosing a 7th gen processor that gets hot as hell should disqualify the PC for pretty much anyone. Using it is quite a unique experience though - that touch screen and the pen input on this thing is insanely cool. But as i said: it’s unbearably loud.

Unfortunately, for 2500, all you get from an iMac is an i5 with 8gb of RAM and hard drive that was already outdated when the first iMacs were launched 10 years ago.

It’s prob cheaper to get a Mac mini and one of the eGPUs from Sonnet.

I love the design of the Surface Studio myself, but the older internals are a big ol' no as you said. Shame the fans are loud. I love the idea of it though.

With educational discount, I can get a 21.5 with 32gb of ram and 512 ssd for $2573. That's certainly more inline for me especially since I am a hobbyist. I can buy external storage down the line.

The T2 chip, needing an egpu, and the multiple problems with the Mini sadly axe it from my choices. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[PickUrPoison]

<snip>
Unfortunately, for 2500, all you get from an iMac is an i5 with 8gb of RAM and hard drive that was already outdated when the first iMacs were launched 10 years ago.

It’s prob cheaper to get a Mac mini and one of the eGPUs from Sonnet.

Are you talking about 2,500 US dollars?
Because that config is USD1800.

For $2,500 you can get an i5 256GB SSD and 32GB RAM. Or an 8-core i9 8GB 1TB Fusion drive (256GB SSD is +$100).

 

[Patolino]

This update is pathetic. 5400 RPM drives, no redesign in a decade. I will only update my iMacs when they redesign it with ARM processors.

 

[ChrisMoBro]

This update is pathetic. 5400 RPM drives, no redesign in a decade. I will only update my iMacs when they redesign it with ARM processors.

Be careful what you wish for... skip to 3:00 to see what I mean

 

[retta283]

This update is pathetic. 5400 RPM drives, no redesign in a decade. I will only update my iMacs when they redesign it with ARM processors.

I'm not sure why you responded here... Update is old at this point and so is this thread

 

[ThatSandWyrm]

This update is pathetic. 5400 RPM drives, no redesign in a decade. I will only update my iMacs when they redesign it with ARM processors.

Says someone who obviously does little to no actual work on their Mac. If you need to update for your work, you will.

 

[Patolino]

Be careful what you wish for... skip to 3:00 to see what I mean

When you have an iPhone with a GPU that can deliver 3 trillion operations per second, like the iPhone 11 Pro, you know ARM processors designed by Apple is the way to go. Intel is stuck

 

[ChrisMoBro]

When you have an iPhone with a GPU that can deliver 3 trillion operations per second, like the iPhone 11 Pro, you know ARM processors designed by Apple is the way to go. Intel is stuck

From a hardware perspective, I totally agree but, until more developers produce software for ARM, Intel is the best option

 

[ThatSandWyrm]

When you have an iPhone with a GPU that can deliver 3 trillion operations per second, like the iPhone 11 Pro, you know ARM processors designed by Apple is the way to go. Intel is stuck

Raw operations per second doesn't matter until unmodified Photoshop runs smoothly under x86 emulation, full stop. At least as well as on an x86 MacBook Air. Apple or Microsoft will probably have to pay Adobe to update their ancient code base. If Adobe even still understands how their apps (Photoshop is nearly 30 years old now) work internally. It would probably be a near total re-write, or a compiler port that pops out a thousand small bugs to be fixed. Neither would be cheap or justifiable for a niche processor port.

 

[redheeler]

This update is pathetic. 5400 RPM drives, no redesign in a decade. I will only update my iMacs when they redesign it with ARM processors.

When you have an iPhone with a GPU that can deliver 3 trillion operations per second, like the iPhone 11 Pro, you know ARM processors designed by Apple is the way to go. Intel is stuck

Compact and power-efficient mobile devices like the iPad, MacBook Air, or Surface are what many years of ARM chip development have focused on, this is where it makes sense to use them. Replacing Intel with ARM in desktop iMacs would be a bad idea at this point, the performance just isn't adequate (when compared to the power-hungry desktop Intel processors) to make the transition. The is true especially when you consider the expectation that emulated x86 apps must run at a comparable speed to the previous Intel-based models where it ran natively, emulation speed was a crucial factor in Apple's previous processor architecture transitions.

 

[chucker23n1]

Raw operations per second doesn't matter until unmodified Photoshop runs smoothly under x86 emulation, full stop. At least as well as on an x86 MacBook Air. Apple or Microsoft will probably have to pay Adobe to update their ancient code base. If Adobe even still understands how their apps (Photoshop is nearly 30 years old now) work internally. It would probably be a near total re-write, or a compiler port that pops out a thousand small bugs to be fixed. Neither would be cheap or justifiable for a niche processor port.

I'm sure Photoshop has some architecture-specific optimizations, but the vast majority of Photoshop code will absolutely not be hard to compile on a different architecture. It originally ran on 68k, previously ran on PowerPC, and already runs publicly in portions on ARM anyway.

And even the optimizations increasingly don't use CPU-specific features. There's frameworks like Accelerate that abstract those away.

 

[newyorksole]

This update is pathetic. 5400 RPM drives, no redesign in a decade. I will only update my iMacs when they redesign it with ARM processors.

Well for someone coming from a Mid-2010 21.5” iMac to a 27” 5K iMac 2019 with an SSD and 16GB of RAM.... It’s uh-mazing.

When the redesign happens I’ll sell it and buy the new 1.

 

[Voyageur]

Any rumors about the next generation's release time?

 

[chucker23n1]

Any rumors about the next generation's release time?

Assuming they're waiting for new Intel CPUs: Comet Lake-S will probably come in early spring. That might mean a new iMac with up to ten cores and Wi-Fi 6 in March or April.

Assuming they're instead waiting to ship a case redesign, though, all bets are off.

 

[pshufd]

The iMac was already refreshed in 2019, wasn't it?

 

[chucker23n1]

The iMac was already refreshed in 2019, wasn't it?

That's why this thread was created, yes.

 

[throAU]

I'm not sure why you responded here... Update is old at this point and so is this thread

Well, 5400 rpm drives were old and should have been never fitted to "high end" or "premium" machines back in 2011-2012... so.... it's still appropriate.

 

[retta283]

Well, 5400 rpm drives were old and should have been never fitted to "high end" or "premium" machines back in 2011-2012... so.... it's still appropriate.

I don't get what the age of the tech has to do with reviving a dead thread when there are many like it from more recent times.

But the use of 5400rpm drives is a joke when all iMacs from the 2002-03 G4 to 2012 used 7200rpm drives. The entire MacBook line uses SSDs, why the iMac does not is perplexing.