Opinion on the 24 inch iMacs...

[Smellmet]

We currently run a studio that has four 27 inch iMacs - the oldest one being a late 2017 4.2Ghz i7 with 24GB RAM, 512 SSD and the Radeon Pro 575, with the other three being a couple of years newer, with the same spec and 32GB RAM.

We're considering the new 24 inch iMacs as a potential replacement for these, I've read that the M1 chips are excellent in day to day use but these machines and their GPU might not measure up when using, say After Effects for example (which we do use but only makes up for around 5% of our work, the rest is Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop).

What's the general consensus? We're actually happy with the performance of our current machines, but they're leased and a couple of them are at the end of the contract, and the lower price of the new 24s does appeal somewhat.

 

[glenthompson]

For your use case the 16gb limit on memory might be a problem. If you can wait until a version with the M1 Pro or Max is available it might be a better fit. My needs are significantly less than yours and the M1 has easily handled anything I’ve thrown at it.

 

[Smellmet]

For your use case the 16gb limit on memory might be a problem. If you can wait until a version with the M1 Pro or Max is available it might be a better fit. My needs are significantly less than yours and the M1 has easily handled anything I’ve thrown at it.

Yeah I suspect that may be the case, but I've heard great things about the M1 chip and it's memory management.

I get the impression that these 24s are aimed more for the home market in the main.

I just need to see if there's anyone on here using these machines in a professional capacity really.

 

[ADGrant]

Yeah I suspect that may be the case, but I've heard great things about the M1 chip and it's memory management.

I get the impression that these 24s are aimed more for the home market in the main.

I just need to see if there's anyone on here using these machines in a professional capacity really.

Yes the 24" is aimed more at the home market. The GPU and cooling system isn't really "Pro" level. The M1 has what is called unified memory. What this means is the GPU and the CPU share the same RAM. In some cases this works out well. In other cases you may wish you had more RAM.

The current Intel 2020 27" iMac can be configured with 16gb of Video RAM and 128gb of system RAM. The higher specs will beat the M1 in GPU and some multicore benchmarks but the M1 has better single core performance so web browsing for example will be faster.

 

[Bodhitree]

I think the M1 iMacs would not have any problems running graphic design software. Mine has been fast and stable so far, although I have been using it mostly for the web and a little coding. I usually have open about 7-8 Safari tabs including some heavy sites, Pages, Zoom, Music and a few other things, and it just keeps going. I do have the 16 GB ram upgrade though.

The Geekbench benchmarks suggest you should see a decent performance uplift. I’d suggest starting with replacing one and seeing where that gets you.

 

[Smellmet]

I think the M1 iMacs would not have any problems running graphic design software. Mine has been fast and stable so far, although I have been using it mostly for the web and a little coding. I usually have open about 7-8 Safari tabs including some heavy sites, Pages, Zoom, Music and a few other things, and it just keeps going. I do have the 16 GB ram upgrade though.

The Geekbench benchmarks suggest you should see a decent performance uplift. I’d suggest starting with replacing one and seeing where that gets you.

I'm sure they can run Illustrator, Indesign and Photoshop just fine. It's the animation side with After Effects etc that I've got my doubts about, especially if I've got all the other apps open at the same time, even with 16GB.

Yes the 24" is aimed more at the home market. The GPU and cooling system isn't really "Pro" level. The M1 has what is called unified memory. What this means is the GPU and the CPU share the same RAM. In some cases this works out well. In other cases you may wish you had more RAM.

The current Intel 2020 27" iMac can be configured with 16gb of Video RAM and 128gb of system RAM. The higher specs will beat the M1 in GPU and some multicore benchmarks but the M1 has better single core performance so web browsing for example will be faster.

Yeah this is what I suspect. I think we're gonna wait for the larger model to be released. It shouldn't be too long hopefully.

 

[Bodhitree]

I'm sure they can run Illustrator, Indesign and Photoshop just fine. It's the animation side with After Effects etc that I've got my doubts about, especially if I've got all the other apps open at the same time, even with 16GB.

It will depend on the size of your files, I think. If you try and apply effects to 8K streams in the background while doing a bunch of other things it might run into problems. But the M1 macs are pretty resilient under memory pressure, I was just reading some threads about what people are doing with 8 GB of ram.

Unfortunately I don’t have After Effects or the other Adobe apps, otherwise I’d test it for you. There are some YouTube videos on After Effects performance on the M1 though, and as technically the guts of the 24” iMac are the same as the M1 MBA and MBP you should be able to just take them straight across.

 

[Bodhitree]

On waiting for a 27” iMac with M1 Pro / M1 Max and more ram, that’s almost certainly going to prove more expensive as well, it might be more economical to actually try and find out whether the base M1 will serve your needs. Since you note cost is a factor.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

If "the oldest one" of the iMacs you now use is a 2017, you're not in bad shape at all.

I suggest you keep waiting for the upcoming large-screen iMac.
It will be as "big of a jump upwards" (from the current m1 iMac) as are the MacBook Pro 14" and 16" models vis-a-vis the original m1 MacBook Pro 13".

I'm expecting to see them in January or February.
That's really not that far away...

 

[UltimateSyn]

OP:

If "the oldest one" of the iMacs you now use is a 2017, you're not in bad shape at all.

I suggest you keep waiting for the upcoming large-screen iMac.
It will be as "big of a jump upwards" (from the current m1 iMac) as are the MacBook Pro 14" and 16" models vis-a-vis the original m1 MacBook Pro 13".

I'm expecting to see them in January or February.
That's really not that far away...

I definitely agree that OP should wait for the new large iMac, but I would personally not suggest that they're coming in January or February. These are certainly worthy of an event-based reveal and there is no historical precedent of Apple having special events in January or February over the past ten years. March at the earliest IMO.

(A "second thought" edit; Apple certainly has a LOT in store for 2022 based on high-reliability rumors, so maybe they will get started with the product unveils a little earlier than usual. That would be cool)

 

[steve217]

I definitely agree that OP should wait for the new large iMac, but I would personally not suggest that they're coming in January or February. These are certainly worthy of an event-based reveal and there is no historical precedent of Apple having special events in January or February over the past ten years. March at the earliest IMO.

(A "second thought" edit; Apple certainly has a LOT in store for 2022 based on high-reliability rumors, so maybe they will get started with the product unveils a little earlier than usual. That would be cool)

You make good points - including what “would be cool”.

I would love a November reveal of the new iMac and Mac Pro. I know it’s late in the year, but it’s not like these are prime Christmas presents. I mean, I wouldn’t be bummed if I found one under my tree.

But the buyers of these machines will get them when they need them. Besides, the last Mac Pro hit was revealed in December ‘19.

I would much like to see the M1 series unveiling completed this year.
M1 Pro/M1 Max for the new iMacs, similar SKUs to the 14”/16” MBP.
M1 Furiosa for the Mac Pro with proposed 4 Soc M1 Max - 256gb RAM, 40 CPU cores and 128 GPU cores.

 

[Smellmet]

On waiting for a 27” iMac with M1 Pro / M1 Max and more ram, that’s almost certainly going to prove more expensive as well, it might be more economical to actually try and find out whether the base M1 will serve your needs. Since you note cost is a factor.

Yeah we originally looked into replacing our 27s with them but I think we're gonna wait. We have a couple of non designers who work on 2x 2015 21.5" iMacs with the platter drives and 8GB RAM and I think we'll try the new 24s to replace those initially, as they're absolute garbage.

 

[Smellmet]

OP:

If "the oldest one" of the iMacs you now use is a 2017, you're not in bad shape at all.

I suggest you keep waiting for the upcoming large-screen iMac.
It will be as "big of a jump upwards" (from the current m1 iMac) as are the MacBook Pro 14" and 16" models vis-a-vis the original m1 MacBook Pro 13".

I'm expecting to see them in January or February.
That's really not that far away...

Yeah the issue isn't the performance of our current 27s - they are across the board excellent for what we need, we were just looking into the feasibility of replacing them with the new 24s as our machines are leased and the contracts are more or less up on them. x