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Apple’s ProMotion Display Tech will render all current iMacs OBSOLETE

Benz63amg

Benz63amg

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 17, 2010
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What is ProMotion?
Apple describes it as such:

A new [display] technology that delivers refresh rates of up to 120Hz for fluid scrolling, greater responsiveness and smoother motion content. ProMotion also improves display quality and reduces power consumption by automatically adjusting the display refresh rate to match the movement of the content.

hhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.imore.com/promotion?amp

The next iMac is sure to include this new display tech and it’s going to be a game changer
 
The next iMac design will be great but I won’t be buying version 1. I wait until the bugs are worked out.
 
Obsolete is a strong word. But I am conflicted by iMac's display technology. On one hand, it is one of very few 5K retina quality displays on the market. LG's UltraFine 4K has been discontinued and I suspect LG's UltraFine 5K is on the way out.

On the other hand, it lacks higher refresh rate (ideally with FreeSync or equivalent such as ProMotion), single-digit pixel response time, and HDR. These things are common in most mid-priced 4K displays.

Hopefully, Apple will refresh the iMac and introduce standalone displays when Mac Pro is launched.
 
nutmac said:
Obsolete is a strong word. But I am conflicted by iMac's display technology. On one hand, it is one of very few 5K retina quality displays on the market. LG's UltraFine 4K has been discontinued and I suspect LG's UltraFine 5K is on the way out.

On the other hand, it lacks higher refresh rate (ideally with FreeSync or equivalent such as ProMotion), single-digit pixel response time, and HDR. These things are common in most mid-priced 4K displays.

Hopefully, Apple will refresh the iMac and introduce standalone displays when Mac Pro is launched.
Click to expand...

HDR is indeed a feature that would be absolutely incredible to have on the 27 inch iMac as well
chabig said:
That article is from 2 1/2 years ago. LOL.
Click to expand...

“LOL”? What’s so funny? ProMotion is being used and is expected to be implemented in future Apple Products whether you like it or not and is a vastly superior display technology to that used in current gen iMacs including the 2019 iMac.
 
Benz63amg said:
HDR is indeed a feature that would be absolutely incredible to have on the 27 inch iMac as well


“LOL”? What’s so funny? ProMotion is being used and is expected to be implemented in future Apple Products whether you like it or not and is a vastly superior display technology to that used in current gen iMacs including the 2019 iMac.
Click to expand...

What's funny is that you made this post as if it was some new technological breakthrough and it's been used in iPad pros for 2 years.
 
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JBGoode said:
What's funny is that you made this post as if it was some new technological breakthrough and it's been used in iPad pros for 2 years.
Click to expand...
You’re further supporting the point whether you’re aware of it or not. It’s going to come to the iMac sooner or later.

The 2019 iMac is not a redesign which is most likely why we haven’t seen the 120hz display implemented just yet but it’s a known fact that a 120hz refresh rate monitor is superior to a 60hz in every regard and given the fact the iMac has remained unchanged since 2012 leaves little to no doubt that a drastic upgrade is on the horizon whether in the next year or two.
 
Benz63amg said:
You’re further supporting the point whether you’re aware of it or not. It’s going to come to the iMac sooner or later.

The 2019 iMac is not a redesign which is most likely why we haven’t seen the 120hz display implemented just yet.
Click to expand...

Supporting what point? That you never heard of it before today and thought this was something new? :)
 
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Benz63amg said:
You might be the one who was unaware of the feature up until today, not me.
Click to expand...

And how did you come to that intelligent conclusion? I own an iPad Pro with this feature and am currently smoothly scrolling through this ridiculous thread. o_O Your own words give you away. Again, you clearly stated that this was “new” technology and posted a 2 year old article.
 
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JBGoode said:
And how did you come to that intelligent conclusion? I own an iPad Pro with this feature and am currently smoothly scrolling through this ridiculous thread. o_O Your own words give you away. Again, you clearly stated that this was “new” technology and posted a 2 year old article.
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By “new” I was referring to this feature being absent on any of Apple desktop computers including the 2019 iMacs, I do hope Apple incorporates this display technology into the redesigned iMac as it will be an absolutely great addition to the Mac line of products.
 
So basically a 5k panel with 120Hz and dynamic Hz feature?

It's a given this technology will come in the future.

I would rather say older iMacs would seem dated, not obsolete though.
 
Yeah even the iMac Pro doesn’t have this yet so I expect it to come to that first and then maybe the iMac later down the road. Remember that the iPad Pro is the premium device compared to the iPad and iPad Air and the iMac plays second fiddle now (although the i9 in my 2019 iMac is no slouch vs. the iMac Pro).

You could also say this about Apple switching from Intel to their own chips. You can just keep waiting forever or you can upgrade. I should have upgraded a year ago and regret not doing that. The “next big thing” will always be around the bend in tech and you can just catch it on the next upgrade in 4-8 years or whatever cycle you’re on when it will be way better than the first gen and with even more goodies baked in (31.5” 6K display, incredibly fast Apple CPU and GPU, Face ID, True Tone, 10Gbps Ethernet, WiFi 6, BT 5, UHS-II SD card reader, 4K FaceTime camera, better speakers, Thunderbolt 4 80/100Gbps, USB 4.0 20Gbps…I could go on. For now I’m happy because it’s way faster than my 2012 rMBP which was my previous personal device.

I mean, it’s important to not be stupid with buying decisions, but for many of us 120Hz isn’t critical to our workflow. The main reason they put it on the iPad is because it’s better for quickly updating the display when using the Apple Pencil. When I went to a Retina display on my iPhone 4 suddenly all other displays looked like garbage. When I got Pro Motion I was like “that’s nice” but don’t even really think about it on other devices. I don’t think it’s so groundbreaking when I don’t even miss it. It’s nice to have but not important, IMO.

You also have to realize that the GPUs they put in the iMacs are not very fast.
 
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I currently have an iPad Pro as well and yes, it's definitely really nice to have 120Hz but I don't come back to my iMac and say that it's crap. I can live with the iMac display. Same goes for the phone- I have the Razer with 120Hz display and it's really nice but I still use my iPhone ten times more and I don't find it to be crap.
 
Benz63amg said:
What is ProMotion?
Apple describes it as such:

A new [display] technology that delivers refresh rates of up to 120Hz for fluid scrolling, greater responsiveness and smoother motion content. ProMotion also improves display quality and reduces power consumption by automatically adjusting the display refresh rate to match the movement of the content.

hhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.imore.com/promotion?amp

The next iMac is sure to include this new display tech and it’s going to be a game changer
Click to expand...

It's 'nice to have', not life & death essential.

Apple have to justify the premium pricing somehow so ProMotion displays on the next iMac would be good, but it won't have those who have just bought new iMac's jumping off bridges.

I don't think anyone gives a toss about power consumption when it comes to a desktop computer though.
 
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macduke said:
Yeah even the iMac Pro doesn’t have this yet so I expect it to come to that first and then maybe the iMac later down the road. Remember that the iPad Pro is the premium device compared to the iPad and iPad Air and the iMac plays second fiddle now (although the i9 in my 2019 iMac is no slouch vs. the iMac Pro).

You could also say this about Apple switching from Intel to their own chips. You can just keep waiting forever or you can upgrade. I should have upgraded a year ago and regret not doing that. The “next big thing” will always be around the bend in tech and you can just catch it on the next upgrade in 4-8 years or whatever cycle you’re on when it will be way better than the first gen and with even more goodies baked in (31.5” 6K display, incredibly fast Apple CPU and GPU, Face ID, True Tone, 10Gbps Ethernet, WiFi 6, BT 5, UHS-II SD card reader, 4K FaceTime camera, better speakers, Thunderbolt 4 80/100Gbps, USB 4.0 20Gbps…I could go on. For now I’m happy because it’s way faster than my 2012 rMBP which was my previous personal device.

I mean, it’s important to not be stupid with buying decisions, but for many of us 120Hz isn’t critical to our workflow. The main reason they put it on the iPad is because it’s better for quickly updating the display when using the Apple Pencil. When I went to a Retina display on my iPhone 4 suddenly all other displays looked like garbage. When I got Pro Motion I was like “that’s nice” but don’t even really think about it on other devices. I don’t think it’s so groundbreaking when I don’t even miss it. It’s nice to have but not important, IMO.

You also have to realize that the GPUs they put in the iMacs are not very fast.
Click to expand...

So you think Apple will not implement the ProMotion technology displays into all the redesigned IMacs and will limit the upgrade to the iMac Pro Only?
 
Benz63amg said:
What is ProMotion?
Apple describes it as such:

A new [display] technology that delivers refresh rates of up to 120Hz for fluid scrolling, greater responsiveness and smoother motion content. ProMotion also improves display quality and reduces power consumption by automatically adjusting the display refresh rate to match the movement of the content.

hhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.imore.com/promotion?amp

The next iMac is sure to include this new display tech and it’s going to be a game changer
Click to expand...
I think the title is something childlike. Calling something OBSOLETE and yet posting a tech that was introduced 2 years ago is not really great. Why?
Well, clearly those 2 years have gone and the tech is still not here for the iMacs so people would waste 2 years of waiting. Also, even though its a nice tech its not something that will make your iMac OBSOLETE because it really doesn't change much on the speed etc. The tech is most likely coming, thats for sure but its not a tech that one really wants to wait for, is it?
I think the title was written childlike on purpose because you wanted to grab the attention but its in an unfortunate form because you get all the bad responses. Instead, you could have posed it as a question which would grab the attention but the tone from others would be different.
Afterall, you want to achieve a good discussion about the topic, right?

I am in the boat that I'm waiting for a redesign and I also believe that the refresh we got was more likely a bridge gap between now and redesign. They probably didn't want to redesign before WWDC where (as most assume) the Mac Pro along with the new Display will be introduced and iMac will most likely be designed in the same visual language so perhaps we can have redesign in autumn. It would be logical and Apple has done 2 updates in the past many times.
There will also be better GPUs so it wouldn't just be redesign.

Now, the other theory is that redesign will come with ARM chips but I feel we are still 2 years away from that.

Honestly, so far this year (and last year for that matter), Apple sucked but I do look forward to WWDC to see the Mac Pro. IF they do good job then I will consider a purchase but if they mess up or price people out then I will have no choice but to see what I can do.
The base Mac Pro needs to start at reasonable price. I had the 2008 model (THE BEST value for money) and 12 core 2010 (not the best value but still good).
So, no, iMac will not be obsolete with a 120Hz refresh rate.
 
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Benz63amg said:
So you think Apple will not implement the ProMotion technology displays into all the redesigned IMacs and will limit the upgrade to the iMac Pro Only?
Click to expand...
It seems likely that Apple would want to further separate the iMac Pro from the iMac. The caveat is if they move to 6K first then it will be even longer to trickle down as I doubt they will do 6K 120Hz out of the gate. Next major update for iMac Pro will probably be 31.5" 6K iMac Pro (after Apple has released their 31.5" 6K display for a while for the Mac Pro), and then maybe a couple years after that they will do Pro Motion. If they keep 5K in the iMac Pro, then that one will get Pro Motion sooner.

Eventually the base iMac will get it, but I've been following Apple for a long time and know their M.O. is to put specs like that in the Pro machine first. For instance they held back on 10Gbps ethernet, UHS-II card readers, and the extra two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports in the 2019 iMac update, with a top-end GPU option that is still below the lowest iMac Pro and a top-end CPU that overlaps with the lowest iMac Pro. The regular iMac is a second-class citizen now, though still quite capable on the higher end models. But the other thing is that Apple usually makes hardware decisions like that with a purpose behind it, as I said with the iPad Pro it was smoother operation of the Apple Pencil (but I would argue that it makes scrolling with a finger directly on the display feel more responsive as well, and it's important to have high response rate when physically interacting with a UI like you do on an iPad). I don't think iPhone has gotten it because of a hit to battery life, but I could see the top-end models get it in the next year or two. It's also important to note that they do have some patents on an iMac display that disengages when you touch the sides so that you can lower it flat to use it as a giant tablet to draw on, but there has been no rumor or other indication to suspect they are going to do anything with that patent—even though it would be freaking cool.

I think it's highly likely that Apple will see no need for a 120Hz display on what they consider to be a consumer to prosumer grade product for several more years. The primary benefit of 120Hz on a device in this class would be for gaming—and that is not a primary reason why most people buy Macs (although a secondary, casual reason for why I spec'd a Vega 48 for Bootcamp) and Apple doesn't care about the twitch gaming segment of the market and traditionally hasn't cared about gaming on the Mac at all. Hopefully that changes with their new Apple Arcade service, but I'm jaded enough over the years to doubt it, lol.
 
Rockadile said:
So basically a 5k panel with 120Hz and dynamic Hz feature?

It's a given this technology will come in the future.

I would rather say older iMacs would seem dated, not obsolete though.
Click to expand...
Ironically, the thing that makes iMacs look dated isn't necessarily the display's technical limitations (although is is dated by modern standard, particularly for its slow pixel response time, limited refresh rate, and lack of HDR). It's the design. The giant 1" black bezel around the screen really stands out, not to mention 5" bottom chin.

Most modern monitors have about 0.3" bezel.
 
I wonder if this technology is Apple's equivalent of Gsync or Freesync. If so, this might be limited to Apple GPUs in use, and will not be translatable to Macs until they start running on Apple chips.
 
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