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Often, the "middle" model has been a safe bet, or "just right" for Goldilocks -- better than the base, but not enough to encroach on the "best" for those who don't need that.

The new 27" 3.1GHz seems designed to extract an extra $200 from suckers, and is an even worse value proposition if optioned with a decently-sized 512GB SSD, which should be standard in a premium computer in 2019. Why not get the newer 9600K and 580X/8GB for a lousy extra $100 bucks?
 
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These are significant speed gains, the biggest multi-core speed percentage gain in a single generation since the 27" iMac went quad-core in 2009, but we of course have Intel to thank for them.

It remains to be seen how the 2019 iMacs will do under sustained load though, considering the cooling system appears to be unchanged from the 2017 models.
 
Typing this on my '19 i9 iMac right now. Couldn't be happier. Blazing fast, dead quiet and surprisingly cool. I find it quite humorous the amount of people taking the piss with a machine they do not have in their possession. Maybe it's jealousy, ignorance or trolling. Not sure which...?
No, it’s simple physics. The i9 9900k needs proper cooling and the iMac’s fans suck (pun intended). This baby needs water and without it, it’ll thermal throttle. Then again, every Apple computer thermal throttles to some extent.
 
On the surface, it seems like a nice upgrade, but as others have pointed out, it is just a processor bump without anything really interesting in terms of new capabilities, or even better cooling for the more powerful CPUs. And, it is an expensive computer that can't be upgraded, making it outdated with the first update to any of the components. I love my 2015 iMac, but I'm not gonna go down that road again.
 
Typing this on my '19 i9 iMac right now. Couldn't be happier. Blazing fast, dead quiet and surprisingly cool. I find it quite humorous the amount of people taking the piss with a machine they do not have in their possession. Maybe it's jealousy, ignorance or trolling. Not sure which...?
No, actually I'm with you on that. I did some digging around on Anand Tech and yes, this i9 chip consumes far less energy than any 7th gen CPUs. Do you plan on doing anything heavy on it?
 
Glad I opted for the i9. Mine should be here any minute! The UPS truck looks like it’s getting close!! Not a bad deal vs the iMac Pro.
Yes, I agree. I am only worried about cooling these bad boys. On one hand it will suck less energy than any 7th gen CPUs for sure, but on the other, we're talking high amounts of CPU frequencies here. I am very curious to see.
 
Couldn't care less.

No larger screens with slimmer bezels -- CHECK
No updated thermal architecture -- CHECK
No PCIe-flash across the board -- CHECK
No 16GB RAM as standard -- CHECK
No 120Hz ProMotion -- CHECK
No Face ID - CHECK
No True Tone Display -- CHECK
No 1080p Webcam -- CHECK
No Tx Security Chip -- CHECK
No Space Grey option -- CHECK
No backlit keyboard -- CHECK
Tim Cook still there -- CHECK

Don’t forget the incredible graphics cards 2 years behind cutting edge.
 
Leaving aside that geekbench can only show so much (or so little), having up to 60 percent performance increase within 2 years or less, being considered not enough, blows my mind.

Most of that increase is from increasing the core count. We’re reaching diminishing returns here. There’s pro applications that make use of eight cores, sure, but that kind of workload on a client computer is the exception rather than the norm.
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The fact that everyone is now equating performance and Geekbench scores is a tragedy of modern hardware reporting...

Given that the CPUs are among the major changes in this generation, are you suggesting a different benchmark?
 
Don’t forget the incredible graphics cards 2 years behind cutting edge.
Please tell me when AMD’s Next Gen 7nm Navi GPUs are going to ship? April? May? October? November? I have read all 4 timeframes in the last few months, but please tell all of us, so we will know when Apple should have shipped new iMacs.

EDIT: Please save the “Apple could have used NVIDIA” argument for the Mac Pro 2019 thread. Thank you.
 
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These are significant speed gains, the biggest multi-core speed percentage gain in a single generation since the 27" iMac went quad-core in 2009, but we of course have Intel to thank for them.

It remains to be seen how the 2019 iMacs will do under sustained load though, considering the cooling system appears to be unchanged from the 2017 models.
YOu got AMD to thank really. :)

No coincidence INtel suddenly put more cores in their cpus just after AMD did it with their Ryzen cpus.
 
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So the best Intel can do for Apple in 2019 is a 95W-range CPU that's less than 25% faster per core than the passively cooled, battery operated, 6mm thick iPad Pro.

The ARM switch cannot come soon enough.
 
So the best Intel can do for Apple in 2019 is a 95W-range CPU that's less than 25% faster per core than the passively cooled, battery operated, 6mm thick iPad Pro.

The ARM switch cannot come soon enough.
Don’t worry, I’m sure 10nm and Sunny Cove will ride in and save the day...not!


EDIT: And Comet Lake, ‘cause now we poor consumers deserve 10-cores and Intel has milked enough money out of their Core Extreme (née Core-X) customers over the past 7 years, so us plebes deserve a piece of meat to keep them from defecting to Ryzen.
 
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Looks like I’m getting rid of my Mac mini soon..Mac OS and it’s limitations are not for me...will keep my lovely iPad Pro though.
 
Couldn't care less.

No larger screens with slimmer bezels -- CHECK
No updated thermal architecture -- CHECK
No PCIe-flash across the board -- CHECK
No 16GB RAM as standard -- CHECK
No 120Hz ProMotion -- CHECK
No Face ID - CHECK
No True Tone Display -- CHECK
No 1080p Webcam -- CHECK
No Tx Security Chip -- CHECK
No Space Grey option -- CHECK
No backlit keyboard -- CHECK
Tim Cook still there -- CHECK

No Bluetooth 5 -- CHECK
No fan filter -- CHECK
No adjustable height -- CHECK
No matte screen option -- CHECK
No user replaceable RAM (21in) -- CHECK
No user replaceable storage -- CHECK
No updated thermal architecture -- CHECK (this is very important so it needs this one again)
 
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