I suspect the three years of global covid has impacted the design>production of all technologies. Apple is trying to get back to a pre-covid production cycle. It is stunning to see how a global crisis impacts production far into the future.
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iMac With M2 and M2 Pro Chips Could Arrive Soon, Says Latest Conflicting Rumor
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I said this ages ago... Apple will make M3 based off A16 and M4 based off A17. Purely because that'd the cadence we have had so far.
I want to be wrong.
I agree with the latter part about using it as an external display.
But the AIO factor, imo, is awesome. The saved space and the convenience for the most part.
Of course, if you decide you want a bigger screen, then there’s a problem :[
I have an Mac Mini M2 Pro together with a 42" OLED, never had a better setup.
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How much of that Mac revenue do you want to bet is laptops, though?
if an 24" iMac is enough for you, you dont need a M3. And if you can wait, you dont need a M2, buy a M1 24" children mac. lol
Im sure 4000$ starting price is no problem for you then
HDR is no longer "the future" it is here, right now, in everyone's pocket with their iPhones. Editing and enjoying HEIF HDR stills and HDR 4K video at full resolution and brightness and with the full color gamut and dynamic range is currently only possible for the deep-pocketed Studio/Mac Pro creators using the now-overpriced-for-its-age-in-the-marketplace 32" XDR display. It's past time for the products for the masses of Apple's user base.
The need for an all-in-one HDR computer is obvious...6K/32" and 42"/8K iMacs are what's missing in Apple's lineup, and Cupertino has both the hardware and computing ecosystem to move this market, finally, forward. (And, yes, for those still living in the '90s with the notion that a computer and monitor must be two separate devices requiring two separate power cords and two separate power supplies and needs to clutter up one's work space with cables galore, well, those same displays should be sold separately, too, lest these forums collapse from the sounds of collective teeth gnashing! Haw!)
My anticipation is that these long-rumored products are nearing production, SDR is dead-to-dying and it's time to step into the future. So, c'mon, Tim...XDR iMacs in 32" and 42" sizes!
The need for an all-in-one HDR computer is obvious...6K/32" and 42"/8K iMacs are what's missing in Apple's lineup, and Cupertino has both the hardware and computing ecosystem to move this market, finally, forward. (And, yes, for those still living in the '90s with the notion that a computer and monitor must be two separate devices requiring two separate power cords and two separate power supplies and needs to clutter up one's work space with cables galore, well, those same displays should be sold separately, too, lest these forums collapse from the sounds of collective teeth gnashing! Haw!)
My anticipation is that these long-rumored products are nearing production, SDR is dead-to-dying and it's time to step into the future. So, c'mon, Tim...XDR iMacs in 32" and 42" sizes!
LOL, no, nothing personal. I just view it as environmentally unfriendly. Mini + Monitor seems better, if either fail they are easily replaced. It makes no sense to me that there isn't some kind of switch or part of the main board that would allow a "dead" or no longer useful iMac (processor wise) to function strictly as a monitor.
I disagree with you here. Yes, under very basic use scenarios one might have an iMac for 10 years of daily driving. I think those people are outliers. "Power users" should never have bought an iMac in the first place. A far more like scenario is, as you mentioned, is it becomes too slow for daily use, but as discussed, Apple does not build in any functionality to continue using the screen only as a second monitor. There are probably a ton of 5k iMacs around that are considered too slow to use but the monitor is functioning perfectly well. Couldn't we could all use a secondary market of 5k screens?
I get that people like AIOs, I just don't have the same opinion for the reasons above.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Says everyone in the know if Apple announced just ONE new Mac with M3 when they are shopping for any of the others. M3 iMac seems like a downer on the goal of maximizing the holiday Mac revenue if I'm Apple... unless I think iMac can sell gigantic volume to make up for the delays this could have in some people buying the other Macs (while waiting for M3 versions).
On the other hand, if M2, then all Macs have "our latest & greatest silicon" so anyone can pick any Mac and get the newest technology from Apple. It also doesn't give the press 3+ months to talk up M3 only to have Apple roll out the wonder product with "old M2 tech" as its brain. So if M3, then Vpro will likely be M3 too. Else, M2 iMac soon, followed by M2 Vpro in "early 2024" and then on to M3 stuff sometime after that.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I'm 100% with you here. There should be a standardized input as a kind of modernized Target Display Mode and/or build the computer on a card that can be swapped with an updated computer on a future card in the same unit. Then one can buy an iMac now with "latest & greatest" and upgrade it to a "latest & greatest" iMac in a few years while still using the same screen, keyboard, mouse, camera, speakers, etc... vs. throwing nearly all of that out when the guts are vintaged or any part conks.
After more than a decade with iMac, I will NOT buy another one so locked down. It has seemed great going in on a relative value basis vs. all other Mac offerings but it's terrible at the end when it all has to go when the chips fry or Apple just vintages it. So I went separates, saw too much of the same lockdown in ASD and chose a different 5K2K monitor with FOUR video inputs. I expect it to be my Mac monitor for the next 2 or 3 Macs I own.
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The next-generation 24-inch iMac will likely be available with M2 and M2 Pro chip options, Thunderbolt 4 ports, Wi-Fi 6E support, and Bluetooth 5.3 support, according to a report today from Japanese blog Mac Otakara.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has repeatedly claimed that the next 24-inch iMac will be equipped with the M3 chip, so it's unclear if the information reported today is accurate. It is possible that Apple's plans have changed, but no other sources have indicated that the iMac will be updated with M2 and M2 Pro chips as of yet.
Mac Otakara notes that some custom 24-inch iMac configurations are facing up to one-month shipping delays on Apple's online store in the U.S., but this has been the case for a while now, and there is no guarantee that an iMac refresh is imminent.
Last month, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said it was unlikely that Apple would release any new MacBooks with the M3 chip this year, but a new iMac has not been ruled out this year. Apple is not expected to hold an event this October, so if there were to be a new iMac this month, it would likely be announced in a press release on Apple's website.
All in all, rumors about which chip the new iMac will have and when the computer will be released remain in a state of flux. The only certain thing is that October continues to roll along without any product announcements from Apple so far.
The current 24-inch iMac with the M1 chip was released in May 2021.
Article Link: iMac With M2 and M2 Pro Chips Could Arrive Soon, Says Latest Conflicting Rumor
I hope this “delay” (if it’s according to plan) signals that, even though they’ve just released the A17 Pro, Apple is taking more necessary time with the M3…
With the M3 I’d like to see a generational leap in the CPU and other cores/blocks — like what Avalanche/Blizzard was to Everest/Sawtooth (even though some analysis infers that improvements over Everest/Sawtooth were not exactly “generational” improvements), and were merely more transistors, small tweaks to the same Avalanche/Blizzard cores and SSL cache tweaks which seems to be the case with the P and E cores of the 3nm A17 Pro compared to last year’s A16 Bionic, afaik.
Are these seemingly “sideways” improvements in Apple Silicon designs year-over-year ultimately the consequence of the disruption in Apple’s semiconductor group and the group’s well-publicized talent exodus? (Thanks for nothing, Gerard Williams III and Rivos founders Bhasi Kaithamana and Ricky Wen and Jeff Wilcox and Mike Filippo. Lots of turmoil. Lots of time lost.)
I would not be surprised if last year’s reported “last minute” ditching of ray tracing and other hardware acceleration in the A16 Bionic — setting Apple back a year, it could be argued — was a result of all this Apple semiconductor division drama, poaching and perfidy.
But perhaps with the A17, Apple should have returned to its “X” nomenclature and called it the A16X instead.
The A17 Pro uses the 3nm node fab process, has 19 Billion transistors over the 4nm A16 Bionic’s 16 Billion transistors, has a base clock frequency of 3.78GHz over the A16 Bionic’s 3.46Ghz, has a new GPU design and 6 GPU cores over the A16 Bionic’s 5 cores; the A17 die has 8GB of (the same LPDDR5) RAM over the A16’s 6GB — all this and YET! — the A17 Pro offers only a 10% CPU speed increase over last year’s A16 Bionic and a 20% GPU speed increase according to Apple⁉️
I’d consider it more of an A16+ on 3nm than an A17.
“Giant leaps” haven’t happened with Apple Silicon since the A15.
I consider the A17’s improved P and E CPU cores with Apple’s announced “improved” branch prediction, and wider decode and execution engines to be more Avalanche+ and Blizzard+ than the year-over-year generational leap we’re accustomed to. (And — make no mistake — I’m rooting for Apple to CRUSH Qualcomm and all other direct Apple Silicon competitors! I’m just concerned and think this is serious.)
But I’d bet all the turmoil, treachery and drama in Apple’s semiconductor division has trimmed its lead over the competition by at least a year (whereas the lead had been considered by industry analysts to be 2+ years).
Just like Apple acquired the chip designer Palo Alto Semiconductor so that Apple could make its own chips, and acquired Imagination Technologies for its PowerVR GPU technology now present in the GPUs in Apple SoCs, I would encourage Apple to prudently acquire a company (or companies) and hire its engineers to make up for lost time owed to the widely reported “brain drain,” drama and turmoil in Apple’s semiconductor design division.
And I just hope the M3 represents a generational leap, not just MORE — more of the same: more CPU cores and more GPU cores and more cores in the Neural Engine, that are all the same generation of technology seen in the A17 Pro.
I hope the technology in the M3 represents a year-over-year generational leap and that it takes a very different design approach than just MORE.
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The ethical thing to do is to give the upcoming iMac an M3 CPU since customers are paying a lot of money. But Tim Cook is not ethical. He has decided to give new non-Pro iPhones the previous year's CPU.
Because Cook is an unethical corporate scumbag who likes to sell old tech at cutting-edge tech prices (for example, still including over 20-year-old USB 2.0 in the latest non-Pro iPhone) in order to maximize profits, it's hard to know whether the upcoming iMac will get an M3 or M2 CPU.
Because Cook is an unethical corporate scumbag who likes to sell old tech at cutting-edge tech prices (for example, still including over 20-year-old USB 2.0 in the latest non-Pro iPhone) in order to maximize profits, it's hard to know whether the upcoming iMac will get an M3 or M2 CPU.
Noooooooo! If I've had to wait this long just to get a M1.5 Chip (which they could've released last year) i'm going to be irritated.
Absolutely ridiculous that Apple notebooks get updated about twice a year while us desktop users have to wait 2 years & 7 months just to get already outdated chips.
Absolutely ridiculous that Apple notebooks get updated about twice a year while us desktop users have to wait 2 years & 7 months just to get already outdated chips.
For you, maybe it’s better they don’t release an M2.5 only to release a true new generation M3 not long after you and other people buy an M2.5 Mac.
D’oh!
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I have a feeling they're doing this to purposely cripple the iMac for them to release a new M3 iMac Pro (with black bezels) in the spring/summer of 2024. Gotta have 7 models for every product, that's the new Apple way!
What? No updates for a long time? 🤯
It's all Intel's fault! 🤬🤬🤬
It's all Intel's fault! 🤬🤬🤬
It is NOT all Intel’s fault. Everyone knows it’s a conspiracy between Google, Microsoft and Intel! And of course the Illuminati & Elon Musk involved somehow too.
The sales of M2 was very poor these are now on the shelves eating dust. They need to use that inventory.