having kind of a dilemma about the new iMac

[alexevah]

Hello everyone and I hope you're having a good time!
First, I want to point a few things out:
1. I'm new to this forum as a member, but i'm a long-time reeder
2. I'm non-native english speaker as I live in Russia, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes I may commit

So, here's my problem... well, sort of
I have mac mini (late 2014), which is quite old, have weak processor with only 1,4 GHz, RAM is also very poor, and over-all it's a pretty weak machine. I was very excited when M1 iMac came out, and (i know this is gonna sound weird lol), i love the design, maybe it's not masterpiece, but it's very nice, in my opinion, I love colorful and customisable products. The only problem I have with it is the the RAM option is only limited to 16GB, and this is where i get stuck, because i have quite power-hungry needs, which are:
video editing (fcp, after effects. yes, i know ae not optimized for m1 yet, but soon... hopefully)
photo editing and active use of photoshop

and while i'm pretty sure photoshop is no big deal for m1, as well as fcp, i'm not sure about ae, and i'm not sure that 16GB is enough for ae (this thing is extremely hungry for ram and it really annoys me to be honest). Oh, and i think it's also worth to point out that non of that is professional work, i'm just a hobbyist. personal use. I mean, no 4K, heavy codecs or something like that, just regular 1080p, and some color grading. And I know I also don't have the ability to sell the machine anytime soon after purchasing (that's in case if new model comes out after), so if it stays, it stays. I was thinking about waiting a bit, but with all the delays and uncertainty.... I guess you can't know for sure. I was also thinking about buying m1 mini, but after reading with all the problems with displays and such, decided to step back.

I came to this forum because it seems pretty active and i really can't decide so i thought i could use some fresh ideas
would do you think guys? should i just buy Imac or should i wait for a new model with more ram?

thanks for stopping by

 

[cupcakes2000]

Hello from france! In your case, if it’s not an urgent buy, then I would wait until they release the more high end models, if nothing but to see what they offer. Then make your choice.

 

[alexevah]

I'm still waiting so i could save a little more money for purchase, but with all that's happening, new models seem so distant... like, no one knows anything, everyone just trying to guess the date, which seems to make it even more depressing 🤣 honestly, if the iMac included 32GB option, it would be a dream machine for me. Thank you for your time!

 

[Apple_Robert]

@cupcakes2000 is right. Wait and see what happens later in the Fall. No since in buying 16GB of RAM machine now and being frustrated from day one.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[cupcakes2000]

I'm still waiting so i could save a little more money for purchase, but with all that's happening, new models seem so distant... like, no one knows anything, everyone just trying to guess the date, which seems to make it even more depressing 🤣 honestly, if the iMac included 32GB option, it would be a dream machine for me. Thank you for your time!

If I were you I would wait as long as you can. But anyway, the newer models will be much more expensive I would guess. If that’s an issue then I don’t know.
If you’re used to working on that machine in the op, then a current m1 imac will run rings around it anyway. I imagine you’re not going to be limited with a current 16gb (or maybe even 8gb) m1 imac when compared to your current spec.

 

[alexevah]

If I were you I would wait as long as you can. But anyway, the newer models will be much more expensive I would guess. If that’s an issue then I don’t know.
If you’re used to working on that machine in the op, then a current m1 imac will run rings around it anyway. I imagine you’re not going to be limited with a current 16gb (or maybe even 8gb) m1 imac when compared to your current spec.

yes, I agree with you on the price tag. I guess I would have to wait and save as much as I can until Fall, and hopefully new mini will be released along with the macbooks as it was last year. A girl can dream Once again, thank you all!

 

[ADGrant]

Why not buy the M1 Mac mini. Much cheaper than the iMac and basically a drop in replacement for your current Mac mini.

 

[Fravin]

I came to this forum because it seems pretty active and i really can't decide so i thought i could use some fresh ideas
would do you think guys? should i just buy Imac or should i wait for a new model with more ram?

lol

Hello there! Greatings from Brazil.

Your dilema is kinda common here in Mac Rumors. Everybody is trying to make the right decision about something that wouldn´t be hassle. Buying a new computer should be funny! But the funny thing is that chatting about it is more funny than actually buy it! lol

About the iMac, I have some experience to share with you all. The fact is that M1 chips are different than Intel ones. The entyre system is diferent. Even the basic things that we used to assess when buying a computer like RAM ans chip frequency is totally diferent.

Having said that, I can state that the M1 is a very capable machine with 8Gb of RAM, for movie editing and photoshoping. I run an ad agency and down here we have an i9 iMac with 64Gb RAM side by side with a brave Mac Mini M1 8Gb RAM.

The Mac Mini is faster than the Mac by far. Some measurements I did:

Importing 430 pictures in Capture One: i9 5:35 - M1 3:40
Exporting 100 High Resolution JPEGs in Capture One: i9 2:30 - M1 1:45
Opening a batch of 15 JPEGs in Photoshop: i9 1:45 - M1 0:30
Rendering FCP 6´ 4k footage: i9 3:40 M1 2:30

So, the concerns you had about RAM amount in M1 machines are pointless right now. And, maybe, nobody could tell you if the right decision was made several years from now. It´s just diferent scenarios. Diferent machines. Diferente computers.

My advice is: Just buy it. In the most cheerful colour you can find. Personaly, I would choose the purple one.

 

[Fravin]

Why not buy the M1 Mac mini. Much cheaper than the iMac and basically a drop in replacement for your current Mac mini.

Mac Mini is a Brave computer. A Hell of a Machine. But it´s not colourful than iMac! lol

 

[Tech198]

and even if you do get an M1 will, you will never be disappointed.. There is nothing that you'll need the M2 for over an M1 just cannot do.. Or i cannot think of one. unless you must have that extra performance for some unknown reason.

To me the M1 would be fast enough for FCP and Photoshop stuff.

Those days have gone.... everything today with Apple chips is more powerful, and less of a need to upgrade to "better performance cpu's" because the M1 already has 8-core..

The reason to upgrade cpu is still there, it's just become less of an issue i think today, but ya, 16Gig of ram for FCP, and all pro-work.

 

[GSWForever8]

Go for the iMac. You won’t regret it!

Btw welcome to the forum

 

[cupcakes2000]

So, the concerns you had about RAM amount in M1 machines are pointless right now.

To me the M1 would be fast enough for FCP and Photoshop stuff.

The op asked about after effects also, which is a complicated powerful programme that traditionally uses lots of ram. I haven’t heard much regarding the m1 using AE, has anyone? I don’t know the application well, I haven’t used it extensively for some time. Seems a better idea to hang around and see what the future holds.

eidt* here is an M1 AE test video I found

Adobe After Effects Running on the NEW M1 Macs (CPU & RAM Usage, Rendering, Performance) - Apple Silicon Compatibility Video - Does It ARM

Latest reported support status of Adobe After Effects Running on the NEW M1 Macs (CPU & RAM Usage, Rendering, Performance) on Apple Silicon and Apple M3 Max and M2 Ultra Processors.

doesitarm.com

 

[EntropyQ3]

I’m in a similar situation as you - aging Mac, and generally inclined to buy/set up/use for a long time, rather than buy/set up/ find work-flow/sell/buy new/hassle with the sales going sour while trying to set up/… 😀

I’m sitting on my wallet until Apple show their hand when it comes to updated or higher end Mini and possibly higher end iMac if it turns out to be a wonderful system. If either of those fail to turn up, I’ll make do with the current mini for the next five years or so.
The 24” iMac has a lovely screen but you pay a fair chunk of change for it, and you don’t want the castrated low end model with the iffy cooling and almost no ports once you’ve duct taped an external SSD to the back of it. So the price of the 24” iMac is pretty steep for the actual computer you get. Not terrible but not great either.
My expectation is that whatever new SoC Apple brings out for the Mac will have more robust I/O and RAM capabilities, and my hope is that it won’t exclusively end up in prohibitively expensive hardware.
Patience is a virtue. Or so I’ve heard. 😀

 

[Fravin]

My expectation is that whatever new SoC Apple brings out for the Mac will have more robust I/O and RAM capabilities, and my hope is that it won’t exclusively end up in prohibitively expensive hardware.
Patience is a virtue. Or so I’ve heard. 😀

lol

People using iPad have been asking for more ram and io ports for decades. MBP users all around the world is blaming Apple by his dongles. Would you really think Apple will just change her mind about RAM amount and io ports? lol

 

[EntropyQ3]

lol

People using iPad have been asking for more ram and io ports for decades. MBP users all around the world is blaming Apple by his dongles. Would you really think Apple will just change her mind about RAM amount and io ports? lol

Not on their basic consumer offerings in their respective categories, no. Unfortunately.
Once we move up a notch, to the much hoped for Big Mini, or a larger iMac, things are likely to change to some extent. RAM is likely to still not be user upgradeable but there is still a large difference between, say, 16GB and 64. To me, that is the difference between ”likely to do the job for my present needs” and ”likely not to be a limitation this decade no matter what”. Depending on what kind of consumer you are, you may find the first option a bit uncomfortable, when you can’t do upgrades after the purchase.
I’d like a minimum of 32GB. My private Mac has had 16 for twelve years, my private PC 32GB for nine. Staying at the level of my old Mac for another decade feels as though it may chafe down the line.
I/O and upgraded standards is a PITA, but manageable if there is a fair number of high speed ports available that you can plug adapters into.

My point is that we just don’t know how Apple is going to prioritise features, performance and price on their new machines, and rumors of number of CPU and GPU cores is no help at all. Speculation may run rampant on forums but I don’t base purchase decisions on that.
YMMV, obviously.

Or you can fall in love with purple and throw reason to the wind. 😀

 

[alexevah]

Whoa! Thank you all for suggestions

Why not buy the M1 Mac mini. Much cheaper than the iMac and basically a drop in replacement for your current Mac mini.

I love my mini, even tho it's quite old and gets hot in a snap, even when i'm just watching regular 1080p videos in my player, i've been using it for 10+ years for now (well not this particular model, i had two minis through my story with Apple), but as I said in the original post, it seems that at the moment m1 mini has a lot of issues with monitors and a lot of bugs in general, so I don't wanna buy and regret afterwards. So if you ask me "why iMac", i'd say, first - i'm looking for a desktop computer so I don't have to be concerned with charging (I have iPad for that lol), second - it has a great monitor so i don't have to worry about compatibility of the one that i currently have, and third - it's just looking very nice

The op asked about after effects also, which is a complicated powerful programme that traditionally uses lots of ram. I haven’t heard much regarding the m1 using AE, has anyone? I don’t know the application well, I haven’t used it extensively for some time. Seems a better idea to hang around and see what the future holds.

eidt* here is an M1 AE test video I found

Adobe After Effects Running on the NEW M1 Macs (CPU & RAM Usage, Rendering, Performance) - Apple Silicon Compatibility Video - Does It ARM

Latest reported support status of Adobe After Effects Running on the NEW M1 Macs (CPU & RAM Usage, Rendering, Performance) on Apple Silicon and Apple M3 Max and M2 Ultra Processors.

doesitarm.com

Thanks for the video! I've seen a lot of videos regarding AE performance on the m1, but it was mostly about using 3D, benchmarks, and heavy stuff like 4K, and i don't do all of that, so honestly it's not relevant for me, I wish someone did a video regarding more regular stuff, like real world tasks

Personaly, I would choose the purple one.

My thoughts exactly! Although... the pink one is kinda growing on me

 

[Fravin]

My thoughts exactly! Although... the pink one is kinda growing on me

That should be your only concern. Don't overthink it. Just choose the colour!

 

[cupcakes2000]

That should be your only concern. Don't overthink it. Just choose the colour!

I agree at some point here. I mean- we buy Apple as much as for the ecosystem, as much for what it can do (m1 in particular), as much what they look like! Or else why bother? The design of Apple stuff is intrinsically linked to why a lot of people choose it.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hello everyone and I hope you're having a good time!
First, I want to point a few things out:
1. I'm new to this forum as a member, but i'm a long-time reeder
2. I'm non-native english speaker as I live in Russia, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes I may commit

So, here's my problem... well, sort of
I have mac mini (late 2014), which is quite old, have weak processor with only 1,4 GHz, RAM is also very poor, and over-all it's a pretty weak machine. I was very excited when M1 iMac came out, and (i know this is gonna sound weird lol), i love the design, maybe it's not masterpiece, but it's very nice, in my opinion, I love colorful and customisable products. The only problem I have with it is the the RAM option is only limited to 16GB, and this is where i get stuck, because i have quite power-hungry needs, which are:
video editing (fcp, after effects. yes, i know ae not optimized for m1 yet, but soon... hopefully)
photo editing and active use of photoshop

and while i'm pretty sure photoshop is no big deal for m1, as well as fcp, i'm not sure about ae, and i'm not sure that 16GB is enough for ae (this thing is extremely hungry for ram and it really annoys me to be honest). Oh, and i think it's also worth to point out that non of that is professional work, i'm just a hobbyist. personal use. I mean, no 4K, heavy codecs or something like that, just regular 1080p, and some color grading. And I know I also don't have the ability to sell the machine anytime soon after purchasing (that's in case if new model comes out after), so if it stays, it stays. I was thinking about waiting a bit, but with all the delays and uncertainty.... I guess you can't know for sure. I was also thinking about buying m1 mini, but after reading with all the problems with displays and such, decided to step back.

I came to this forum because it seems pretty active and i really can't decide so i thought i could use some fresh ideas
would do you think guys? should i just buy Imac or should i wait for a new model with more ram?

thanks for stopping by

None of us can say yet for sure how After Effects on a 16GB of RAM equipped M1 Mac would perform when running it natively because After Effects hasn't yet made the jump (at least, it hasn't to my knowledge). I'd say that for casual uses, 16GB ought to still do a fair amount with After Effects on an M1, assuming a native app. Certainly, leaps and bounds moreso than the low-end 2014 Mac mini. Certainly, if you're worried about not having enough RAM, waiting for Apple Silicon Macs that have more than 16GB of RAM as a configurable option is probably a decent way to go. By the time they see the light of day, so will an Apple Silicon native version of After Effects.

 

[tokenmacdude]

Just out of curiosity, have you considered Apple Motion as a replacement for AE? You mentioned that you do "normal" stuff with AE, which may translate well to Motion. Additionally, being an Apple app, Motion is already written for the M1 architecture, so it should work as well as FCP with the new SoC.

 

[Lemon Olive]

Hello everyone and I hope you're having a good time!
First, I want to point a few things out:
1. I'm new to this forum as a member, but i'm a long-time reeder
2. I'm non-native english speaker as I live in Russia, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes I may commit

So, here's my problem... well, sort of
I have mac mini (late 2014), which is quite old, have weak processor with only 1,4 GHz, RAM is also very poor, and over-all it's a pretty weak machine. I was very excited when M1 iMac came out, and (i know this is gonna sound weird lol), i love the design, maybe it's not masterpiece, but it's very nice, in my opinion, I love colorful and customisable products. The only problem I have with it is the the RAM option is only limited to 16GB, and this is where i get stuck, because i have quite power-hungry needs, which are:
video editing (fcp, after effects. yes, i know ae not optimized for m1 yet, but soon... hopefully)
photo editing and active use of photoshop

and while i'm pretty sure photoshop is no big deal for m1, as well as fcp, i'm not sure about ae, and i'm not sure that 16GB is enough for ae (this thing is extremely hungry for ram and it really annoys me to be honest). Oh, and i think it's also worth to point out that non of that is professional work, i'm just a hobbyist. personal use. I mean, no 4K, heavy codecs or something like that, just regular 1080p, and some color grading. And I know I also don't have the ability to sell the machine anytime soon after purchasing (that's in case if new model comes out after), so if it stays, it stays. I was thinking about waiting a bit, but with all the delays and uncertainty.... I guess you can't know for sure. I was also thinking about buying m1 mini, but after reading with all the problems with displays and such, decided to step back.

I came to this forum because it seems pretty active and i really can't decide so i thought i could use some fresh ideas
would do you think guys? should i just buy Imac or should i wait for a new model with more ram?

thanks for stopping by

You're pretty much where everyone else is. Apple has had the M1 dangling out there for a year with its raw CPU power and efficiency, but has not released any Pro products for people with real needs. It is frustrating as all hell.

We continue to wait and not spend money on Apple computers, since it would be foolish to do so.

 

[MrGunny94]

Honestly I'd go for a Mac mini and get a ultra wide monitor! I'm currently running my Air Hooked up to my 34" gaming ultra wide monitor and it's awesome.

The M1 SoC is great for every day use and even in my case where I use tons of browser tabs (both safari/edge) alongside a couple of DB managing apps and it's much better than my old 16"

 

[petvas]

I'm still waiting so i could save a little more money for purchase, but with all that's happening, new models seem so distant... like, no one knows anything, everyone just trying to guess the date, which seems to make it even more depressing 🤣 honestly, if the iMac included 32GB option, it would be a dream machine for me. Thank you for your time!

I understand what you are saying. I have the new iMac and I am a power user, having multiple apps open at the same time. This iMac just flies and there is no slowdowns whatsoever. Of course it would be better to have 32GB of RAM, but I believe that you will be more than ok with 16GB RAM.
I am not doing any video editing, but I have around 20 apps running at the same time and my iMac is always very fast. Memory pressure sometimes goes to yellow, but never to red. Most of the times it stays to green. The new iMacs are fantastic computers and I am sure you will enjoy them.

 

[apple2me]

I would say wait if possible for the next version with expanded RAM options. If your current workflow is severely impacted, I would get M1 Mac Mini.