Help me understand...

[flavr]

I see a lot of people complaining that the iMac has not been refreshed in a long time...and I can understand why that would upset people in the market looking to buy. Nobody wants to pay todays prices for yesterdays hardware. On the other hand I cannot understand what the urgency is to absolutely need a speed increase at this time. My iMac is rocket fast, I use my iMac professionally. I work with huge files in typical programs like Photoshop ect every day. Have 10-15 applications open at once. Ive upgraded to Mountain Lion without an issue and the speed of my iMac has increased even more since the upgrade. I can do everything FAST and without lag. The screen is big, bright and gorgeous. I run my home entertainment totally off my iMac including an output to a 1080p projector on an enormous 120 inch screen without issue.

All this on my 2009 i7 with 12 gigs of Ram...

Just glancing at the Activity Monitor the CPU is almost never even close to being maxed out. This setup will still be great and fast for awhile...and will be outdated not as much by speed as older hardware requirements are phased out over time. So help me understand where people are having an issue in speed and performance where an upgrade is absolutely needed...unless of course they have a machine old enough to warrant a replacement...

Please keep all replies intelligent and educated, otherwise ill disregard them

 

[12dylan34]

Well, I do have a slow machine that warrants an upgrade, but there are applications for computers much more strenuous than what you've described. I'm still a student and can't really afford a 12 core Mac Pro, but I still need the best Mac I can get that will do my 3D renders fast enough. I'll still be looking at some 24 hour renders with an updated iMac, so even a 10% speed bump will take hours off of my renders.

This is just my situation, which is admittedly not the norm. Most others will tell you that it's because the 2011 is still full sicker price at a year and a half old, when we'll be able to get a better machine at the same price soon.

 

[topmounter]

It's rare that anyone actually -NEEDS- to replace anything. I think most folks are looking for a reason to -WANT- to replace their iMac.

My 2009 c2d 24" w/ 8GB of RAM iMac is running fine and I don't -NEED- to upgrade it, but a major iMac refresh would probably make me -WANT- to upgrade it.

 

[flavr]

Both great answers...thanks, makes sense in certain situations...

 

[davidgnomo]

Both great answers...thanks, makes sense in certain situations...

May I add another good one ? What about people coming from a pc and waiting to switch for a Mac desktop ? I personally don't like the fact that Apple costs so much more than its competitors, but I could give it a try providing that I pay for up-to-date stuff ...

 

[skyenet]

My 2009 iMac Core Duo is actually a great machine and rarely struggles to do anything i want to do. I do quite a lot of photography and video work so while it is pretty good at everything I throw at it, any speed increase would be more than welcome. However one of my favourite programs is the Flight Simulator X-Plane 10 and that is where it really struggles.

Now X-Plane 10 would push any computer, even a fully specced MacPro, to the limits and beyond. Many of my settings such as the scenic detail levels and number of other aircraft traffic are set to minimum levels and even then I struggle to get decent Frames Per Second rates and In fact I believe the way it is designed you would be hard pressed to find any computer that could run it all the top settings. Now I suppose I could go the Windows path to get a very powerful computer but no way am I doing that, I have had enough of Windows over the years and just love the Mac OSX.

I want to run two monitor so looking for 2 Thunderbird ports (mine only has one), USB3 for storage of Photos & Videos. The main areas I am looking for an increase in speed are in the CPU and Graphics. My present iMac only has 512KB of graphics memory so will definitely be maxing out in that area with a new iMac. May well consider a SSD in addition to a large capacity Hard drive depending on price. I am quite happy with the existing screen (apart from the grey smudge problem) and reflections are not an issue to me. So any improvements in the Display will just be a bonus.

I have an uneasy feeling that iMacs may well be dropped from the Apple range in the not too distant future (hopefully I am wrong) so will definitely go for the top of the range BTO iMac I can get. Now have a bit more cash set aside as I ended up returning my iPhone 5 for a refund due to battery and running very hot issues. After that and the grey smudge issues with my iMac I will, this time, take out Apple Cover on my new iMac.

 

[JustMartin]

Well, I don't need a new iMac either, but I do want one, which is why I'm waiting rather than buying. My mid 2007 is pretty much doing everything I ask. But, it swaps a lot, I'm constantly shuffling data between internal and external disks to make up for the lack of space on the former. And it's complaining about some of my more complex GarageBand projects which I do need for the (paid) work I do in my not day job. So, I've decided to buy the next model, whenever it comes out. Unless I have a catastrophic failure beforehand, in which case I'll probably buy whatever iMac is current at that time.

 

[bearsloft]

I have a need for a new machine. My iMac is the last of the white iMacs, 2.16 Core 2 Duo, 24", 4GB ram (maxed), 2007 (I think).

It really began showing it's age with the upgrade to 10.7. The first update to 10.7.1 helped, and a reinstall of the OS helped. Still since that time my family has changed the way we use it. We each have our own accounts and used to quickly and easily switch between them. But invariably we run out of ram, and everything slows to a crawl. Now we have to log out each account before opening a new account. Doing this gets us through most of our uses with the exception of iPhoto. Using iPhoto for long will cause the ram to run out and the machine to limp along. Further, the video card can't quite even show a 1080P movie trailer without stuttering.

Certainly we should have gotten a new computer some time ago. Money was tight and work was . . . well, not good. But Since the beginning of this year, things took a positive turn. Money is better, I've been saving, and my job outlook looks very positive. Soo . . . why not run out and buy?

Now I don't want to buy until there is a new imac out. I have NO DOUBT that the current model would serve us well. Our needs are not especially labor intensive. I don't want a retina iMac. I rather hope they do not remove the optical drive, and I couldn't care less about a machine that was lighter or thinner (it's a FREAKING DESKTOP computer!!!) I figure that by waiting a little longer, I might get the latest and greatest, or I'll save a couple hundred bucks and get yesterdays' model as a refurb. The only think that I really do want from the next iMac is USB 3. Back in the day, I had an eMac. I bought it 3 weeks before they released the newest model and added USB 2.0 to it. I regretted not having USB 2 until the day I finally retired that machine (by getting my current iMac). Imagine how long it took to fill my 80 gig iPod Classic on USB 1 .

Of course the difference is not nearly as dramatic now between 3.0 and 2.0. Still, I know that as ubiquitous as USB is, I'll want my 3.0 external HD to operate at it's promised high speed in all it's glory.

So I'll wait a little longer and see what happens. My current machine is still performing it's job. All be it barely.

Bear

 

[b166er]

I'm looking to get my first desktop since..... dear god since Windows 98. I've been using laptops and tablets since about 2003. Here we are 10 years later.

I want a nice, fast, desktop with a nice amount of ports because I intend to do some (amateur) video and photo editing. You can get a lot more power in a desktop for the money vs a laptop. I already am in the apple "ecosystem" and I like OSX so I'm ready for a new iMac whenever they drop

 

[jkmags]

Ive got a 2011 iMac 27 BTO and I just added a SSD to help with performance. It runs everything I need it to and it runs those programs very well (more so with the SSD).

I do agree with the OP in the general sense, but for me if I was looking at upgrading and I may next year, I want the best resale value for my purchase. Its kinda like buying a new car but your new car sells for full MSRP and its a 2011 MY even though other manufacturers have their 2013 models out.

I'm not wealthy so I like to get the most for my money and as you said buying old hardware for todays prices doesn't seem like a good deal, more so if you want to sell it down the road when you upgrade.

and,.. I would like USB3 plus a better GPU.

 

[joe-h2o]

I see a lot of people complaining that the iMac has not been refreshed in a long time...and I can understand why that would upset people in the market looking to buy. Nobody wants to pay todays prices for yesterdays hardware. On the other hand I cannot understand what the urgency is to absolutely need a speed increase at this time.

Not all of us are so lucky. My iMac is not supported by Mountain Lion, has a max of 3GB of RAM and the graphics card was powering the screensaver on Noah's ark.

It will limp along until the refresh though, since it is crazy to pay full price for 500+ day old hardware, given the length of time I expect my machine to last.

We don't all upgrade every time there's a new product release.