New 27-Inch iMac Has Up to 80% Faster Graphics at Compute Tasks Compared to Previous Model

[macduke]

Oh man! My work iMac from 2012 is getting pretty outdated so my boss is letting me upgrade! I've just ordered the 27" 5K iMac with the 4.2GHz i7, Radeon Pro 575, 32GB RAM (16GB stock + 16GB 3rd party) and 512GB SSD with an external drive for archiving. Nearly 19,000 is a pretty decent score and I'm quite happy with that as my current iMac is barely faster than my iPad Pro 10.5", lol.

Now I just need to figure out if I upgrade my personal mid-2012 rMBP with an iMac Pro this winter or wait to see what the modular Mac Pro brings. I'd really like to buy something really powerful and just forget about it for the next 6-7 years, lol. Although Intel is supposed to be releasing some 6-core i7 chips next year that could go in a non-pro iMac, which might be enough for me.

 

[DanielDD]

You keep deflecting. For a third time, why should the iMac have No bezels? And how does make it any less desirable to purchase this machine based of One physical feature over performance ? Please answer the question this time without including other unrelated topics.

Two words: multiple displays

Smaller bezels allow a better experience when splitting windows across multiple displays.
Further a bezel-less but ticker iMac wouldn't compromise on performance (perhaps even helping in that department).

 

[Col4bin]

Still comes with spinning hard drives and bezels on a non-touch screen.

(Not asking for a touch-display but the fact that it has fat bezels while even iPads squeeze those bezels is questioning which rather is a touch-screen)

Very interesting point about Apple's perpetuation of a bezeled screen on the iMac. I could create a mock-up to test this theory, but if the bezels were to suddenly go away on the 21.5" model, it would look seriously small juxtaposed against it's older brethren. My thinking is that perhaps Apple feels there would a resulting negative consumer cost-versus-size perception amongst consumers?

 

[ZipZap]

I will wait for x-mas and a sale. Then get the i5 top model.

 

[litmag01]

People wanted redesigned. The same front design since October of 2009.

Still one step better than this:

http://www.applecomponents.com/media/parts/922-7172.gif

 

[mkeeley]

Very interesting point about the continuation of a bezeled screen on the iMac. I could create a mock-up to test this theory, but if the bezels were to go away on the 21.5" model, it would look seriously small juxtaposed against it's older brethren. My thinking is that perhaps Apple feels there would a resulting negative consumer cost-virus-size perception amongst consumers?

"cost-virus-size" you're mixing things up with Windows.

 

[SpinThis!]

And if they had put in Threadripper they would have leap frogged into first place. Next year, TB is free and you can bet Zen2 will have it built-in.

While I wish there were more CPU competition for Intel, AMD is just not that competitor. AMD's performance per watt is not good, they require a ton more cooling, and their chips are simply not reliable. What good is a super fast CPU that eats power if it pukes in a year? Gamers don't mind replacing pieces of their rigs every couple of years if they can save a couple bucks since they do that anyway. But end users? Not a chance.

 

[44267547]

Two words: multiple displays

Smaller bezels allow a better experience when splitting windows across multiple displays.
Further a bezel-less but ticker iMac wouldn't compromise on performance (perhaps even helping in that department).

I understand your point here. But it would also depend on if someone would utilize multiple displays. I just appreciate have the upgraded internals and it how it benefits my Work Experience.

 

[djcerla]

... in synthetic multi-core / multi-GPU benchmarks that are not representative of real world-usage.

Most Mac applications will not take full advantage of having more than 4 cores or dual GPUs as well as those benchmarks do.

Unless we're looking at heavily parallelized applications like video editing, the single-core CPU performance and single-GPU performance mattersmore, and there the iMac totally beats the Mac Pro. Heck, even the Swift compiler is faster on a quad-core iMac than a 12-core Mac Pro.

Yup.

In Logic Pro, for example, few powerful cores matter much more than several slower ones.

Indeed, i've just upgraded my 2011 MBP to a new 27" iMac i7, can't wait for it to arrive!

 

[JMacHack]

inb4 "these specs are only good for browsing Facebook and checking email, I need something more powerful"

 

[Col4bin]

"cost-virus-size" you're mixing things up with Windows.

Some sort of Gates-Balmer-Freudian slip no doubt!!

 

[Bawstun]

Wallpaper??

 

[coolfactor]

I really think Apple missed the mark by dropping their focus on Xgrid. I believe it had true potential to set Apple apart from the competition, and allow customers to upgrade their processing power without having to completely replace installed systems. Just plug in more. That's what I want.

 

[derekaw]

I just got the new base model 27 inch and Im very happy. I also got the Magic Keyboard with number pad and its interesting that my finger still go to the top row number keys.

Where can I get the wallpapers you see when the 5K machines are advertised like above?

 

[bluespark]

For an iMac, bezels are GOOD ;-)

But you are right about spinning hard drives though.

I rather like the way the black bezels frame my screen. I think that's focus-enhancing. The main reason bezels are disfavored with portable devices is because they decrease the usability to portability ratio. That's not an issue with desktop devices. The bezel could be a negative for those users with multi-display setups, but that is an extreme minority of iMac users. Overall, the design decisions here are defensible at a minimum, and arguably correct.

 

[thealkimist]

Touch display? It's the bezels thicker than an iPad is the point.

It would be nice to have smaller bezels, but bezels play more of an integral function with mobile devices since the variables of device weight, reachability and handles are not core usable factors for a desktop computer.

 

[bcortens]

Two words: multiple displays

Smaller bezels allow a better experience when splitting windows across multiple displays.
Further a bezel-less but ticker iMac wouldn't compromise on performance (perhaps even helping in that department).

Window splitting is likely not as common as it once was due the default behaviour of macOS now being to treat each display as its own 'space' rather than as an extended desktop.

I do agree that a machine with better thermal design would be nice.

Personally, I think that the iMac Pro design should be the default design for all iMacs. I would happily trade easily upgradeable RAM for a vastly superior thermal design. I personally would rather have two large and slow moving fans than one fan which has to spin up to a very high rate to cool the machine at load.

 

[Mr Dobey]

That says OpenCL, does that mean Graphics through Metal would actually have more favorable results?

GeekBench 4 gives you an option to test OpenCL or Metal. I tested my MBP 2017 5 times on each and OpenCL gave more favorable scores ever my time.

 

[montanaco]

Ah, even more excited for my new iMac to come in

 

[DanielDD]

I understand your point here. But it would also depend on if someone would utilize multiple displays. I just appreciate have the upgraded internals and it how it benefits my Work Experience.

Nobody benefits from a thin waterdrop-like desktop design. So replacing the bezels with a thicker body do not harm anyone while providing advantages from some people.

Nobody gets worse, some get better. That's the whole point

 

[kobalap]

Still comes with spinning hard drives and bezels on a non-touch screen.

(Not asking for a touch-display but the fact that it has fat bezels while even iPads squeeze those bezels is questioning which rather is a touch-screen)

Bezel related complaints... yawn. You could cure insomnia with those complaints.

 

[Swift]

People wanted redesigned. The same front design since October of 2009.

You know the front is only part of the design? This is an inch thick.

 

[TechZeke]

What's utterly fascinating is that the "old, tired" 2013 Mac Pro still beats the pants off everything but one 2017 iMac configuration.

Care to explain that, Haters?

In any event, just think how much faster the iMac Pro and the new Mac Pro will be!

Hardly. The Mac Pro with double the cores is only 10-15% faster than the 4 core Kaby Lake i7 iMac. Even the MID LEVEL Radeon Pro 575 iMac is beating the DUAL D700(Which shows how horribly dated those Dxxx cards were even when they were first released, sheesh) all at a price that's $400-$600 cheaper and INCLUDES a 5K Display with better I/O. Although the Mac Pro is using more Workstation grade components which costs more, it literally makes no sense to buy it in 2017.

 

[gian8989]

Feel

I rather like the way the black bezels frame my screen. I think that's focus-enhancing. The main reason bezels are disfavored with portable devices is because they decrease the usability to portability ratio. That's not an issue with desktop devices. The bezel could be a negative for those users with multi-display setups, but that is an extreme minority of iMac users. Overall, the design decisions here are defensible at a minimum, and arguably correct.

I feel the same way about bezel. Behind my monitor i have a white wall and small bezel would bother me. They are a problem for multimonitor config for sure, but right now is there on the market a monitor that can have a similar designe and don't look like sh*t? Unfortunatelly even the old apple cinema display wasn't designe consistent with imac.

 

[stevie grant]

Just goes to show that all of the waiting for these new Macs was worth it.

How did you come to that conclusion?