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Report: Apple Silicon iMac Featuring Desktop Class 'A14T' Chip Coming First Half of 2021

It'll be interesting to see how they perform. Current iMacs are very slow for desktop PCs, especially on the GPU front, and they often throttle due to poor cooling. When you look at the cooling required for the likes of the i9 and Zen 3, as well as the 3080 and 3090 it's obvious silicon with performance of anywhere near that level are not in Apple's sights.
 
Sakurambo-kun said:
It'll be interesting to see how they perform. Current iMacs are very slow for desktop PCs, especially on the GPU front, and they often throttle due to poor cooling. When you look at the cooling required for the likes of the i9 and Zen 3, as well as the 3080 and 3090 it's obvious silicon with performance of anywhere near that level are not in Apple's sights.
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I would have to agree, Apple is interested right now in a main stream Mac computer doing main stream tasks. Which is ok for Apple because they make more money on iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches. If you need high end performance with Apple you have to step up to the Pro line of computers, which are created for computer and graphic content developers with processors and graphic chips for that purpose. I think the days of home computers doing entertainment has come to the end with new consoles like the Xbox X and PS5 having so much power.
 
bklement said:
What's all this fuss with gen1? The cpu's are already proven for years in ipads, so they are not gen1's, all the problems should come from arm macos being gen1, which will be upgradeable and gradually fixed.
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I don't think it's just the cpu. Condering Apple's recent trackrecord (keyboard, speakers, screen, thermal etc. issues) with the last few (Mac)Book's, I don't think it's strange for people here to be reluctant. Also, the OS. Recent Mac OS releases have always had some weird bugs and it took time to get them fixed. And this big transition could even bring more. Also, don't forget all the 3rd party apps need to transition too. This needs time to have a smooth experience. All in all, I understand some people being skeptical and wanting to wait for a second release.
 
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bklement said:
What's all this fuss with gen1? The cpu's are already proven for years in ipads, so they are not gen1's, all the problems should come from arm macos being gen1, which will be upgradeable and gradually fixed.
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The concern, at least for me, isn’t the CPU. It’s almost certain the new products will come with a redesigned form factor. As an owner of a 2016 MBP (Gen 1 of the current design) I can say Apple burned a lot of its customers.

Mine has been in for repairs at least 5 times — the keyboard was the main issue, but one of the batteries was also faulty (because they had to add a new one every time the keyboard was replaced), and the coating on the screen was defective and created marks all over it (entire screen had to be replaced). The repairs were covered by the warranty and recall but the time and productivity lost was notable.
 
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Kobayagi said:
I don't think it's just the cpu. Condering Apple's recent trackrecord (keyboard, speakers, screen, thermal etc. issues) with the last few (Mac)Book's, I don't think it's strange for people here to be reluctant. Also, the OS. Recent Mac OS releases have always had some weird bugs and it took time to get them fixed. And this big transition could even bring more. Also, don't forget all the 3rd party apps need to transition too. This needs time to have a smooth experience. All in all, I understand some people being skeptical and wanting to wait for a second release.
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You beat me to it.
 
Kobayagi said:
I don't think it's just the cpu. Condering Apple's recent trackrecord (keyboard, speakers, screen, thermal etc. issues) with the last few (Mac)Book's, I don't think it's strange for people here to be reluctant. Also, the OS. Recent Mac OS releases have always had some weird bugs and it took time to get them fixed. And this big transition could even bring more. Also, don't forget all the 3rd party apps need to transition too. This needs time to have a smooth experience. All in all, I understand some people being skeptical and wanting to wait for a second release.
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Yeah, that's almost what I said. Most defects of gen1 won't be permanent, so if someone needs a mac in the next month, I would go with arm. But if you have an intel mac, no need to hurry.
 
Exciting times for Mac. Doesn’t seem that long ago so many people were lamenting about “Apple has abandoned the Mac...” Clearly that is not the case. I don’t know if I’ll replace my 2017 MacBook Pro with the 2021 MacBook Pro or wait until the 2nd gen of Apple silicon-based MBP. With all of this power in the A14, I wonder if Apple will continue to hamstring the iPad Pros with iPadOS or make it even more usable to take advantage of the CPU/GPU. Can only imagine the performance of the A14X.
 
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Still not sure existing peripheral such as printer, scanner and others pro gears like tangent panels, graphic tablet, audio interface can work properly in day one....especially with very early gen model.
 
If true, the fact that the lightweight 12-inch MacBook will be powered by the A14X leaves only 2 options:

A) The MacBook Air will be discontinued as soon as the 12-inch MacBook is announced.

OR

B) The new 12-inch MacBook will cost significantly more than the current MacBook Air.

After the announcement of such a powerhouse of a laptop with the bonus of running iPad and iPhone apps natively, nobody would still buy the current MacBook Air unless it was sold for way less money than the new MacBook.

EDIT: there's also a third scenario

C) Apple updates both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13" to Apple Silicon and introduces the new Apple Silicon 12-inch MacBook at the same time. Which sounds a bit unlikely (3 new products in the same category at the same time?), but who knows.
 
Sakurambo-kun said:
Faster than Intel eh?

I hope you have a hat, as I'll be asking you to eat it. These are CPUs intended for telephones. The idea of putting them into desktop PCs is frankly absurd.
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Under which rock have you been living? There are tons of benchmarks of the A12X (in the 2018 iPad Pro) that show that processor to be faster than a lot of laptop processors, in particular naturally compared to 2018 laptops.
 
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Kobayagi said:
Also, don't forget all the 3rd party apps need to transition too.
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That’s what I’ve been wondering. Does that mean you have to wait till every application is adjusted to the new chip? And will there be a restriction like on iOS devices in terms of not being able to install outside the App Store?
 
Northgrove said:
I'm a little surprised the Mac mini isn't going ARM early on given its lower usage in the home and industry. Sounds like a good and fairly low-impact early product for this. They have some balls to begin with laptops of all things!
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The DTK is in a Mac Mini shell, so I’d hope they upgrade it to a full ASi Mini once this chip comes out.

Laptops are where the new chips will really shine, and not at all a stretch for these chips. After all, what is a MacBook but an iPad with integrated keyboard case and bigger battery?

Apple has a product line specifically designed to optimise portability over compute power - the MacBook Air. Seems like a good fit. If they can deliver performance good enough for an iMac, that also means they probably have chips good enough for a regular non-Pro MacBook, too.

Basically, the only difficult parts a re the Pro products. Like we’ve always known. But Apple have the money and scale to catch up quickly.
 
ChromeCloud said:
If true, the fact that the lightweight 12-inch MacBook will be powered by the A14X leaves only 2 options:

A) The MacBook Air will be discontinued as soon as the 12-inch MacBook is announced.
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Remember how long the last non-retina (2012) 13" MBP was kept in the lineup?* Largely because it was able to offer significant storage for an affordable price since it could still take 2.5" HDDs. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens with at least one lower-end Intel Macbook.

* Until October 2016
 
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shadyman said:
That’s what I’ve been wondering. Does that mean you have to wait till every application is adjusted to the new chip? And will there be a restriction like on iOS devices in terms of not being able to install outside the App Store?
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there is a transition technology, so Intel apps will still work, but don’t forget the biggest thing: iOS Apps will run natively on Apple Silicon Macs.

So overall this is going to be a big win for app availability.
 
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