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Likely features in next iMac models?

Bear said:
If I had to get a new iMac today, I would be getting either this or the 3.2 i5. And yes it should last me 3 or 4 years as well. Of course I haven't had my current machine 3 years and I'm not having any issues with it - it'll be another year or 2 before my current one gets upgraded.
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I'll be going for the 27inch, 2.9GHz, 1Tb Fusion (I'd have been happy with a 500GB SSD)

Can't beleive I'd notice an extra 10% on the 3.2 CPU. Especially since, from what I read, if you need it you get turbo boost to 3.6 on both of them?? Or did I miss something there?

Re the DVD drive, is there any benefit/downside to getting the apple drive? Presumably I'd be able to get a third party drive instead that I could get firmware for that will bypass the regional code restrictions?
 
Tumbleweed666 said:
I'll be going for the 27inch, 2.9GHz, 1Tb Fusion (I'd have been happy with a 500GB SSD)

Can't beleive I'd notice an extra 10% on the 3.2 CPU. Especially since, from what I read, if you need it you get turbo boost to 3.6 on both of them?? Or did I miss something there?
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Here are the differences I can think of between the 3.2 i5 and the 3.4 i7:
  1. normal and turbo clock speed for the i7 are both higher.
  2. i7 has hyperthreading, If your workflow can take advantage of this it will be noticeable.
  3. the i5 has 6MB of onboard cache and the i7 has 8MB of cache. For some people this is a minor difference and for others it will be a bigger difference - again depending on the workflow.

I'm not sure I'd notice much with the i7, however, if you're looking at refurbished models you will still save money if you get an i7 refurbished over an i5 new. And for a 1TB fusion with 680MX, the i7 is more common as a refurbished model. So new I'd get an i5 and for refurbished I'd grab what is available that meets my requirements and saves me money over new.

Tumbleweed666 said:
Re the DVD drive, is there any benefit/downside to getting the apple drive? Presumably I'd be able to get a third party drive instead that I could get firmware for that will bypass the regional code restrictions?
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Downside to the Apple drive is the price, and the extra issues you get with slot loading drives. The upside is if you also have a MacBook that you need the drive for - it will run off the USB port on the Airs and Retina Pros.
 
VideoBeagle said:
I was all set to get ready to buy..but now that apple's announced WWDC for just about a month from now I'm all befuzzled on to pull the trigger or just wait the month...just in case.
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Apple won't release a new iMac at WWDC.
 
Depends on....

how the new iMac models will be released, we can maybe see some or all of the following:

1-New CPUS
2-Bigger SSDs in the Fusion package. Or options actually as premiums, marketed in the next iteration as stock options.
3-Wide or better options in the GPU side.

:):apple:
 
Red Fuji said:
Here is one for Apple: how about seriously adding in some accessable physical ports on front or sides- at least for the SD card. My guess is some Apple studio higher up has set a hard rule prohibting buttons or ports on front or sides. if so then Engineering needs to stand up to Studio with a solid arguement of putting functionality above Asthetics. Apple has taken this 'looks' thing too far with the Imac. It is a computer for heavens sake not a swim suit model. i say function first.
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Actually there are computers that already embrace this philosophy. Dells and HPs. Go get one.
 
Why wouldn't a retina display be feasible? Hardly anyone games that hard such that they require 60 fps of photographic renderings in a "battlefield" (lol). Most regular people play much more mundane games.

So why not a retina-like 3520*1980? Hardcore games don't have to run at that res, they just run in a window. That amount of real estate and sharpness would be incredible. Given the power of GPU's, they could still handle the higher res if the pixel-intensive apps are managed well.
 
VideoBeagle said:
no, but a gpu or cpu spec bump wouldn't be unheard of, no?
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WWDC really hasn't been about hardware lately, and given that the iMac was the last line to get a substantial update, it won't be updated at WWDC. Based on the earnings call, I wouldn't expect anything to get updated until Sep/Oct, and iMacs will be the last to get Haswell (since they will benefit less and sell fewer units).

Get off the fence and make a purchase - nothing new is coming for at least six months, probably quite a bit longer.
 
Haswell is geared towards mobile form factors. Better discrete graphics, better power management, etc. Since iMacs don't have batteries and use discrete graphics, I wouldn't wait 6 months for a very modest CPU performance gain.
 
All signs point towards the 2013 iMac being a speed bump and minor spec update. So you'll see the latest Intel CPUs and upgrades to GPU chips and many faster RAM. Also updated WiFi and BlueTooth to the current specs.

Unlikely to see more USB or other ports (no HDMI) and no Retina LCD.

My suggestion is if you need an iMac now then get one, I got the current iMac and its great, just get Fusion if you can't afford anything else.

If you don't 'need' a new iMac then wait and you'll get a little bit more for your money in 6 months (or more)
 
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ya right

VideoBeagle said:
no, but a gpu or cpu spec bump wouldn't be unheard of, no?
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spec bump too....what exactly?

do you live need to a superfund site?

hold on just a few more year and you'll get a much better machine in 5 or 6 years....

moore's law has hit the point of diminishing returns, the downside of the bell curve. Oh, yea and the post PC era. Longer upgrade cycles for both business and consumer PC's. I also seems thin clients are making a come back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore's_law

good luck,
jm
 
I think right now for most home users they can wait at least 3 years between upgrades of their desktop computer without seeing a marked drop off in performance.

The main reason I upgraded to the new iMac was my G5 was just not cutting it and OS X was outdated. Not that the difference in speed between the G5 and i7 isn't huge but for day-to-day email and web the G5 worked just fine.
 
The basic 10-15% jump across the board has been very consistent over the years. Funny how people seem to miss this business model repeating over and over. UAS enabled USB3 perhaps trumps the basics this year if you use large externals for work and don't like the current Thunderbolt solutions.

The next rev will be just a little better. What a shock!

;)
 
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