macOS Big Sur 11.3 Beta 5 Includes References to Two Unreleased iMacs

[mdgm]

WOW I hope it's not another M1 this time in an iMac ?

It's going to be a very boring year for the Mac.

They have to start somewhere whether that's with the M1 or something a little better. Early adopters will take the first gen and as more users have Apple Silicon Macs it'll make it more attractive for developers to update their apps to run natively on it. Then Apple can release second generation Apple Silicon Macs that are significantly better.

Most people using Macs for business probably don't want to jump on the first gen of Apple Silicon anyway. So the second gen will be attractive both to some users with M1 Macs and those who've been waiting for higher performing Apple Silicon Macs and for the apps they use to run natively on the new Macs.

 

[smulji]

I wonder if they will do the same form factor for this first Apple silicon iMac release, similar to the laptops, to have a faster release cycle and for lower cost market. Then have the redesign for the next release.

Disagree. If Apple was just going to reuse the same old design, there’s a good chance they would have done it during the November keynote when they released the other M1 Macs.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

I'd buy a better display like those expensive Japanese brands if you care that much about displays. I remember those CCFL ACDs, I could care less now given how photography and video industry has taken the high-quality displays to the next level of affordability and quality.

At the time those were the best displays. I remember a friend who worked with Annie Leibovitz and took me to one of her studios with 4 Mac Pro’s and 8 30” displays all setup. It was incredible. I know many pro’s who still have them and they’re great.

No one is claiming CCFL LCD’s should come back. Apple had a display line with 20”, 23”, and 30” displays calibrated for OS X and worked flawlessly. Replacing them with the 24” then 27” LED iMac panels was a big mistake. My LG UltraFine 5K 27” displays are great but they definitely could use an update and there are a lot of pro’s and prosumers who would readily buy an Apple Display with better specs in the $1k-$2k market. Easily.

 

[iZac]

I really hope Apple will bump these to a 24" and 30"

I look at a 27" QHD screen at work all day and I gotta say, it's feeling pokey lately.

 

[richinaus]

Yeah, I have a 25” display and I am fine with 24” over 27”. Even at 25”, have to move my head ever so slightly to focus on the edges. It’s the limit of ergonomics for a primary display unless you are video editing or gaming. 24” for a primary display with a second display to the side works for me.

Thats what I think.
I have used loads of different types of monitors inc the 5k imac and LG screens, and find I am most productive and able to focus with the 24"4k. As my work involves a lot of mouse use it means less distance to move it plus less looking around the screen.

Probably not in the market for an imac anyway, but looking forward to seeing them and could get tempted if they are really great.

 

[MacsRgr8]

The new M series iMac will use the follow on to the M1 which could be a M1X. And there is already a supposed benchmark for the M1X. If this benchmark holds true it is going to pretty amazing performance for a TDP of only 45 watts.

CPU benchmark

Our processor / CPU comparison helps you to compare two CPUs. We use benchmark results from Cinebench R20, Cinebench R23 and Geekbench 5 as well as the FP32 raw performance (GFLOPS) of the iGPU.

www.cpu-monkey.com

I would buy a mobile device based on "performance per watt", as battery life <-> performance and speed is the required balance.

For a desktop, I simply prefer performance and speed, and don't care much about "per watt". A thin design staying quiet is very nice, but I'd rather have a higher performing Mac which is a bit thicker at the back.

I now have the top spec'd 2017 iMac. It's a great machine that does it all so very well. Final Cut Pro, X-Plane, usual iLife stuff, etc.
I am so hoping for a very speedy MXx iMac (with plenty of RAM), but I do worry about two things:

1. Graphics performance.
   On the M1 this is mediocre at best. And, it's very safe to say that the grfx is probably not upgradable in any way on the MXx iMac.
2. High power-hungry Intel apps.
   Yes, this is very specific, but I do love my gaming on the iMac. X-Plane 11 mostly, but also the Dirt and Grid series. I do expect these will do "okay" running through Rosetta 2, but X-Plane will be an issue... not just the app itself, but all those plugins too...

 

[Eightarmedpet]

Whilst I understand that this site is titled ‘MacRumors’, but for the life of me, I cannot understand these kind of news stories.
Of course, at some point, references to new hardware will be found in code. Add to that; the continual speculate mark that a new product is coming, is churlish, as what tech company would not be planning new things.
No doubt this post will disappear as I’ve dared to challenge the site, but it needs saying.

So what do you expect a site focussed on Apple based rumours to report on? Would a single post stating that new hardware will be released at some point in the future be enough for you and they could just leave the website at that?

 

[Northgrove]

After owning multiple PC's the past decades, I went from stationary to Macbook Pro, then the Retina version when that came out, but went back to PC for the gaming hardware. It worked well for me although I miss a Mac. Windows is flexible when it comes to gaming, photography and the basic applications, but it runs and looks so bad. I'm thinking that to make less compromises on what I spent 80% of my time with (not games), I'll just get an Xbox Series X and the rumored upcoming 24" iMac M2. I could hope and rely on an iMac GPU but I've been in the "let's hope it can run XXX well on my Mac camp" and it wasn't a fun time. So time to go console for the first time in my life and I've been here since the ZX Spectrum...

 

[matrix07]

Yep, hurry up and we'll get bugs. Take their time and we'll get a solid product. Pick your poison.

Take you time Apple, but do it fast!

 

[nikaru]

I would buy a mobile device based on "performance per watt", as battery life <-> performance and speed is the required balance.

For a desktop, I simply prefer performance and speed, and don't care much about "per watt". A thin design staying quiet is very nice, but I'd rather have a higher performing Mac which is a bit thicker at the back.

I now have the top spec'd 2017 iMac. It's a great machine that does it all so very well. Final Cut Pro, X-Plane, usual iLife stuff, etc.
I am so hoping for a very speedy MXx iMac (with plenty of RAM), but I do worry about two things:

1. Graphics performance.
   On the M1 this is mediocre at best. And, it's very safe to say that the grfx is probably not upgradable in any way on the MXx iMac.
2. High power-hungry Intel apps.
   Yes, this is very specific, but I do love my gaming on the iMac. X-Plane 11 mostly, but also the Dirt and Grid series. I do expect these will do "okay" running through Rosetta 2, but X-Plane will be an issue... not just the app itself, but all those plugins too...

I woudn't be too worried about graphic performance of the M1X or M2 or whatever it is called. Apple would not transition to ARM, dropping not only Intel, but also AMD, Nvidia and eGPU solution, if they didn't have a proper substitute for both integrated and dedicated graphics in higher end/desktop Macs. I dont dream about RTX 3080 like performance in an iMac of course, but Apple shouldn't be too far in this regard. Maybe Apple would drop another bomb and the iMac would be more than capable to offer console-level of gaming experience.

 

[cocoua]

I wonder if they will do the same form factor for this first Apple silicon iMac release, similar to the laptops, to have a faster release cycle and for lower cost market. Then have the redesign for the next release.

That would be so disapointing (though pretty legit)
I hope first M1 macs were an advise to the world “M1 macs are just Macs, no distinguible from Intel Macs” BUT next releases would make the transition bold and definitive

so hope next releases clear the line between past intel and present apple silicon.

 

[MikeyUnix]

For me the wish list is basic. Not worried about facial recognition or touch screen, as in my business these would just be unnecessary overheads and I wouldn't be able to use facial recognition unless it was far more secure than incarnations of it elsewhere.

It has to have speed, performance (both graphics and computing), reliability and ability to do the tasks I need it to perform better and more economical than my existing equipment.

It has to be at least iMac Pro power/performance, so if there's an entry level 24in. iMac that is based on the first M1 I'd probably wait for the next chip that I do not believe will be that long to arrive.

But we won't have to guess soon, so just wait and see what they come up with.

 

[The Banker]

I hope the release is accompanied by a new mouse (and keyboard).

 

[ascender]

I really can't wait to see what these look like. My only hope/reservation is around things like FaceID which I think will make it to the iMac at some point, so hopefully its a gen 1 thing and not a feature held back for a couple of years. FaceID on the iPad Pro makes authentication utterly seamless and given there's no touchID sensor available on a desktop I really hope they add it.

 

[Mimiron]

I am throwing money at the screen waiting for what happens.

 

[brilliantthings]

I might be missing something, but doesnt this sound a lot like there’ll be an Apple Event on Tuesday 30 March?

 

[RSB96]

My iMac 27" 2013 needs a refresh, I've been waiting for a newly designed iMac for years and years. I hope it brings FaceID, although Mark Gurman said that it will not be present at the moment....

 

[phjils]

I've got two classroom's (55 machines) to fit out with new iMacs, and if they don't turn up soon I'll be scratching around suppliers buying up dead stock of Intel machines... which I really don't want to do!

 

[Madonepro]

It really doesn’t need saying. Because you are wrong.

Maybe you need to read what you wrote again, how can I be wrong when you then proceed to basically agree.

As a long time member, it is getting very annoying reading news stories that are simply ad revenue drivers. Yep it's interesting that someone has spent there day, looking through endless lines of code, to find a Mac product identifier, and told us, a trillion dollar successful tech company are releasing new items sometime in the future.
The info does not provide what that tech is, nor does it state when it is occurring. Totally futile, and pandering to an audience desperate for some ASD stimulation, alongside, no doubt, some ad revenue.

 

[whichweather]

We've got an early 2009 20" iMac that's still going strong on Catalina (upgrading the boot drive to SSD and maxing out the RAM made it useable). Despite its general web-surfing, chat and excel/word usability, it fails to run Webex so it now really is time to go for a new machine. Should be quite the upgrade coming from iMac 9,x to iMac 21,x. Also, this is the first time that I realized that the iMac numbers correspond with the year of their release - is this intentional? As an aside, does anyone know why all product codes have a comma and not a period? Is it a hold-over from Jobs' design-thinking?

 

[Roller]

Whilst I understand that this site is titled ‘MacRumors’, but for the life of me, I cannot understand these kind of news stories.
Of course, at some point, references to new hardware will be found in code. Add to that; the continual speculate mark that a new product is coming, is churlish, as what tech company would not be planning new things.
No doubt this post will disappear as I’ve dared to challenge the site, but it needs saying.

"Churlish?" As in mean-spirited or rude? How does that adjective remotely apply to a MacRumors post? Regardless, the reference to new iMac models was found in a beta of macOS that will probably be released very soon. While this doesn't mean that these iMacs will be available then, it suggests they're not far off. Given strong interest in and demand for Apple silicon iMacs with a new design, I'd say this news is more relevant than many news stories here.

 

[Moonjumper]

Still don’t think there will be one larger. Because I think the 4k 24” works for most people who are seeking an AIO.

People who need a larger screen may need 6k, or 5k, or 4k with no latency, or just a large cheap display. So there is a mini pro/pro mini coming.

Or, as one poster postulated, the new design coming later moves the guts to the base like the iMac G4, and the display is a configurable option. So you have some stock configs, but also any of a few display options attached to various base configs.

I would love a G4 style iMac with a configurable display, but don’t think that will happen unfortunately. Apple has had a 27” model for many years and I don’t see the future model shrinking. I had a 24” iMac, and later a 27”. The difference is brilliant. I wouldn’t want to go smaller again, and I expect that it true of many other owners.

 

[Madonepro]

"Churlish?" As in mean-spirited or rude? How does that adjective remotely apply to a MacRumors post? Regardless, the reference to new iMac models was found in a beta of macOS that will probably be released very soon. While this doesn't mean that these iMacs will be available then, it suggests they're not far off. Given strong interest in and demand for Apple silicon iMacs with a new design, I'd say this news is more relevant than many news stories here.

Wow, a tech company is releasing something new! And my use of churlish was in the context of discourteous.

 

[AlekseyS]

24" iMac with Apple Silicon, 32Gb RAM, preferable still with Ethernet/USB-A ports would be something I could wait for.

 

[funwithstuff]

Does anyone know what kind of delay there usually is between a software clue like this and a hardware release?