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Mini-LED iMac Pro to Launch in Mid-2022, Not Expected at Spring Event
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Considering you can barely get a 24-inch iMac yet, we've had orders for top end M1 Max MacBook Pros since November that aren't due to arrive till mid April at the earliest - I don't expect there to be readily available stock of this until the middle of next year.
I'd be happy with the return of Target Display Mode. I can't possibly be the only person who would like to keep an iMac on their desk who would also like to use it as a monitor with their work computer when working from home. I'd assume the pandemic has widely expanded that market.
While I personally do not expect it to happen, Apple putting the M1 in this new 27" iMac would not necessarily be an anomaly since the current Intel model is available with an i5 to hit the $1800 and $2000 price points for folks who just want a large screen.
And Apple putting an M1 Pro in the 24" model would also not be an anomaly as the 21.5" model was available with an i7.
And Apple putting an M1 Pro in the 24" model would also not be an anomaly as the 21.5" model was available with an i7.
The 8GB is there to provide a lower price for a "home" computer. Something to use when you are primarily single-tasking doing web browsing, touch up photos, word processing, taxes, etc. For that 8GB is more than enough. If you are using it for work, then you are likely multi-tasking with multiple open apps at once and then the extra RAM of 16GB comes into play. Then you should expect to pay a little more to get a more productive machine.
Some of the early reviewers should be blamed for a number of people getting the 8 when they should have gotten the 16 with the reviewers claiming that Apple was doing something special with RAM and that 8GB was the same as 16GB on older systems. It isn't. The RAM/SSD/SOC are fast enough that you don't notice the swapping as much but once you push things you are better off with more RAM.
Hmmm, possibilities...
1. Apple has lost it's mojo because it is not meeting dates set by rumors.
2. Ongoing Covid supply supply issues are causing delays in product launches and shipments across the board, including Apple.
...they said "about 2 years" and that was before they had the pandemic and chip shortage as an excuse. I don't think the world ends if they don't complete the range this year (with the most likely hold-out being the Mac Pro replacement). What would be a bit embarrassing is if they M2 Air comes out before the M1 Pro/Max/Duo/Quadra machines - not that the M2 will out-perform them on GPU and multi-core, but it would just look bad.
It's already ludicrous that the 5k iMacs come with 8GB across the range - only mitigated by the fact that those machines are trivially easy to upgrade with cheap, equivalent 3rd party RAM. Of course, that won't be an option with Apple silicon. Plus, it would be a logistic nightmare since they have to produce different M1 Pro/Max packages for each RAM size (and doesn't the M1 Pro/Max carry 4 LPDDR chips vs. the M1's 2? They'd have to source "tiny" 2GB chips, or leave 2 spaces 3 - and waste controller channels - to make an 8GB M1 Pro). If you look at the MBP range, they haven't bothered to make an 8GB M1 Pro or a 16GB M1 Max.
If the new iMacs start at 8GB then it will be the final sign that Apple have no shame, and that we should stop encouraging them by giving them money.
Once you start using memory-intensive work that actually needs gigabytes of data in memory then yes, it is.
Unified memory can be more efficient than separate VRAM on certain workloads, and the faster SSD access mitigates the impact of swap usage - but SSD swap is still an order of magnitude slower than RAM. A lot of those "benchmarks" showing 8GB M1s out performing Intel never bothered to check whether the Intel Mac was actually running short of RAM - while the M1 was benefiting from faster SSD access and new graphics accelerations that had little to do with RAM. Reality is, as long as you've discovered the 'close tab' button on your web browser, 8GB is more than enough memory for the sort of general work - and occasional spot of more demanding work - that the lower-end Macs are intended for, but if you need an M1 Pro or Max processor then you probably need more RAM. Also, the M1 machines were replacing integrated Intel CPUs that already used main RAM for the GPU. The machines the M1 Pro/Mac are replacing had discrete GPUs with 2,4 or 8GB of VRAM and - even with unified memory potentially reducing duplication & moving data about - a portion of that is going to have to come out of main RAM. Plus, there are now twice as many CPU cores to feed with data...
Anyway, when these machines come out, the question should be not whether they're faster than 2-3 year-old Intel Macs but whether they are worth the premium over the M1 Macs. If a task can use more than 8GB of RAM it'll probably run faster with 16.
This!!! I'm so glad that someone else gets it... and the only current Apple Silicon Mac that breaks this, the 13" M1 MBP, is already in a bit of a weird place, and likely to be obsoleted by the next MacBook Air.
I mean, although I wouldn't bet my life against Apple coming up with something totally illogical, there's really no point trying to speculate what that might be.
It would be fun to see the machine with the rumoured 4xM1 Max package being called the Mac Quadra, though...
Well I just ensured the imminent announcement of a brand new M1 Pro iMac in March by growing impatient with my Late 2012 2.9GHz Quad Core i5 iMac and ordered a 24" M1 iMac. I've been limping along with this thing for the last two years and almost ordered a 24" when they were announced a year ago but thought a larger 27"+ was coming "shortly." Well, now it will be!
I hope this is not a "pro" model as I want an absolutely killer 32 inch iMac Pro in the case of the XDR display, with an awesome mini led display, and the next generation of Apple Silicon.
Apple can make this happen and I will hang one on my wall and be the happiest apple consumer ever.
Apple can make this happen and I will hang one on my wall and be the happiest apple consumer ever.
This is the fence I've been sitting on (though I'd choose the 14"). Issue for me is that there are also rumors of new standalone displays. If they come out with something 5k (or 6k), 27" -32", for less than the XDR, I'd go that route.
I'd pull the trigger on the 14" to ride it out except that my late 2014 5k iMac lacks Target Display Mode. Grrr.
My Retina 27” died 3 months ago and I really need a replacement. i bought a mini M1 as a temp solution but it’s really pretty poor for serious work. This is the worst news. Come on Apple get your s**t together and put a Max in the mini or something. This is pathetic. Peoples jobs and livelihoods depend on these machines. But Apple is more interested in making bad tv shows and new phones every minute.
Perhaps, I would suggest most rumors start with Apple. It is in Apple's best interest to keep rumor mill churning. Apple aids this ruse by refusing to commit on anything period. Apple is trying to have its cake and eat it too. But I could be wrong, but it does seem a bit convent.
Covid supply issues have been around for two years and is wearing thin at this point. Remember Tim Cook is reputed to be a supply genius, but his reputation appears to have been overstated. The MBP delivery delays lends support to my point of Apple's lost mojo. The purpose of any business is to sell and move product. Apple is failing, It is not like Apple did not have time to plan this rollout. You may not agree but that is ok, we all have opinions. Thank you for yours, it was a valid argument.
Yes, the early reviewers raved sycophantly about the capabilities of the 8GB machine. Leaving many disappointed customers in their wake once they realised those reviews weren't exactly entirely honest.
But again, the real problem is the utterly ridiculous pricing of RAM at Apple. The base machines should have just had 16GB in the first place. The only reason they don't us the utter pure greed of the Apple executives, wanting to milk every penny from their customers.
Yeah, nice in theory, and the sycophant, pro-Apple, reviewers will all tell you that, but in reality, no it can not. The 8GB machines slow right down when you throw too much at it, regardless of the amount of SSD swap available. I don't own one, but one of my best friends does, and it really annoys the absolute hell out of him. He deals with it, but he isn't happy about it. And as soon as he realised it, he wanted to go back and exchange it for a 16GB model, but there were none available back then, and he'd already sold his old laptop, so was stuck with it.
Did you see Apples latest quarter results? Or of 2021 in general? I think Apple did move many product and is doing extremely well in this situation. Compared to other industries Apple is doing great actually. The cycling industry for example: Shimano was for example not able to deliver break pads for certain brakes for months. And thats not really a complicated product compared to a new computer. Also I am waiting for a replacement frame for a Santa Cruz MTB since over a year now. They say they can't get enough frames shipped out of Asia.
So Apple is doing just fine.
Except they are still present and very much impacting. I tried to order a personal color laser printer and even the OEM stores were out of stock for weeks, much less Amazon or retailers. There are not enough transport to get good between markets and what transport there is cannot be loaded/unloaded due to lack of people. Stores are out of basics like dairy and meat.
And, of course, a Mac is more than the M1 family SoC inside it and Apple has to compete with the rest of the world to get those parts.
BTW you can install macOS Monty on this with OpenCore. I have the same machine and will be giving it a go.
As someone who participated in the VERY long 2020 iMac thread building up to its release, it’s funny to think that the apple silicon iMac (larger) is not arriving until summer 2022. Back then in 2020 so many were convinced there was no way apple was releasing an intel iMac in 2020. It will have lasted two years by the time it was replaced if this report holds up.
Either way. Looking forward to it! Very much hoping for a silver/black option.
Either way. Looking forward to it! Very much hoping for a silver/black option.
Doesn't work that way. Making custom silicon is expensive (even more so if you have to design, tape and validate 3 variants of it), and the Mac market, especially the part of it that sells the bigger versions of the SoCs (Pro and Extreme as they call it now) is very, very small in comparison. The iPhone market is more than big (and profitable) enough to warrant a year-on-year upgrade, but the market for Macs and Pro-Tablets isn't. I think we'll see the big chips (former A*X, now M*) around every 2 years, most likely each time they actually switch processes, and have the improvement cycle reserved for iPhones and tablets that are "small" enough to use them.
Plus I guess the crowd that is willing to buy a new Mac every year is a rather small fraction of the already quite limited Mac user base. A lot of the more expensive machines go into businesses, and those will not buy new hardware every year. Even every two years is a tough ask for many.
Also.... why isn't it the M14? Probably because people will stop waiting for an M15 that never comes if they don't keep the numbers in step. So ... I'm willing to bet quite a few nuggets that M2 will be based on the A16 architecture and process, M3 on A18 arch and process, and so forth.
I don’t think that the assumption is that people would be buying a new mac every year, even if they did update the processors that often. What it would do it help Apple keep ahead of the competition performance wise.
I do agree than an annual update cycle on the M-series is unlikely and they will probably settle into an 18-24 cycle with some, high-volume, models getting updates more frequently than others.
As they do this transition and maybe for another year or two, they might do more frequent updates while they get all of the systems transitioned and get them aligned from an update cycle. Then they could move into an ongoing longer cycle.
It won’t matter anyways if it’s not color. I don’t want a gray computer anymore. I have evolved. Bring back macs that are fun. No reason it can’t mirror the regular lineup. I don’t get why only professionals should be gifted with a 27”. It’s not like that’s the norm now. If you want to call it pro, fine, just give me something playful.
This year I’ll be buying a new computer. Whether it’s Apple or PC. I already have a 16” M1 Max. I budgeted about $5K for a loaded 27” iMac M-series. Do they want it, or will I buy a PC for half and put the rest into Apple stock. Anyone knows that’s how you win with Apple.
This year I’ll be buying a new computer. Whether it’s Apple or PC. I already have a 16” M1 Max. I budgeted about $5K for a loaded 27” iMac M-series. Do they want it, or will I buy a PC for half and put the rest into Apple stock. Anyone knows that’s how you win with Apple.
figures, the one new product professionals actually need gets delayed. None of us want to buy new intels at this point and the regular iMac doesn’t have enough ram for my industry