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We need an iMac Pro!

T

Theninjagecko

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 17, 2025
26
39
I have a 27 inch intel iMac that’s sitting around because it’s too old now.

I have a 27 inch 180hz screen I use with my laptop 1440p looks good for gaming but looks ass when my MacBook Air m4 is connected.

I thought about a Mac mini or studio but I don’t want some hurdy gurdy Frankenstein setup.

What I really want is an iMac Pro, 24 or 27 versions with a pro-motion screen, 10gb lan options and all the bells and whistles. Give it me in a full range m4 or m5 series and my money is Apples.
 
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I think the iMac Pro is a cool product idea but unfortunately overlaps a bit too much with the Studio in terms of power and functionality and the Mini in terms of price and convenience. That being said I think it is a nice lower volume product that organizations could buy in bulk for employees and especially students, but one could argue the M4 is perfectly capable of handling student film, video, photo, and music workloads at decent speed.

The better and smarter solution would probably be to just add a 10GB ethernet option so it can work with existing NAS solutions a lot of those places already have set up and maintain thunderbolt for local expansion hardware if necessary.

I think Apple is pushing the mac mini for this purpose though so orgs don't have to ditch the monitors. It leaves the iMac in a strange place unfortunately...
 
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Theninjagecko said:
I have a 27 inch intel iMac that’s sitting around because it’s too old now.

I have a 27 inch 180hz screen I use with my laptop 1440p looks good for gaming but looks ass when my MacBook Air m4 is connected.
Click to expand...

You've just highlighted two of the reasons why we don't need an iMac Pro.

First, you've been stuck with a perfectly good (presumably) 5k3k display, the panel of which would be very usable as a Mac display today - but you can't use it because it is tethered to a thoroughly obsolete Mac.

Second, you've realised that displays are "horses for courses" - a 1080p, 1440p or 4k screen with high refresh rate is perfect for gaming, but a 220ppi 5k or 6k screen is far better for, well, virtually everything else. At the moment, you can count the number of 220ppi, 27" or larger panels with high refresh rate on the fingers of both feet, and even if you do find one it's going to cost $ludicrous. Size, vs. resolution vs. refresh rate currently involves a lot of trade-offs so a one-size-fits-all iMac with no choice of display makes zero sense. Of course, you can easily carry a MacBook, Mini or Studio into the lounge and plug it into your large-screen TV for gaming sessions...

There's the Studio Display if you really want the iMac experience... two extra cables!? Oh, the humanity!

Theninjagecko said:
An imac invites me in to use it. The Frankenstein doesn't, in the same way Rosey O'Donell doesn't give me the same feels as Margot Robbie.
Click to expand...
...so what you really want is not so much "iMac Pro" as "iMac - Barbie edition"?

Meanwhile, if you want Frankenstein, hang an external disc drive, ethernet and a USB/Thunderbolt hub off your iMac and enjoy all the cables dangling from the screen...
 
Got my dad's old Machintosh SE in 1990
Got my own Blueberry iMac in 1998
Bought a G4 iMac in 2002
Bought a high end 27" iMac in 2011
Bought a high end 27" iMac in 2020
Now I'm ready for something new...
 
Support for Macs ends approx 7 years after they are sold... if you had an iMac Pro with a big beautiful retina screen then after 7 years the screen would still be great but the computer it's permanently attached to will no longer get any security updates rendering it's useful time limited. I don't think iMac Pros are a good idea for this reason... get a nice monitor and Mac Studio instead.
 
Theninjagecko said:
I thought about a Mac mini or studio but I don’t want some hurdy gurdy Frankenstein setup
Click to expand...
What is a hurdy gurdy set up? I mean if you want, you can buy a Mini or a studio, apple keyboard, apple mouse and an apple studio display or XDR display. You would have all fruit components, no hurdy or gurdy

Theninjagecko said:
What I really want is an iMac Pro, 24 or 27 versions with a pro-motion screen, 10gb lan options and all the bells and whistles. Give it me in a full range m4 or m5 series and my money is Apples.
Click to expand...
What market segment would this iMac fit in, the original imac pro was a stop gap measure because apple had sat on the trash barrel mac far too long. Apple now has the Studio computer that now fits that market segment.

The iMac ever since Steve Jobs introduced the bondi blue, was a consumer device, what you seem to be asking is for something that punches up above that weight class
 
What we need is an M4 Pro chip (or upcoming M5 Pro chip) in the current 24” iMac, and not just the vanilla base M4.

If Mini has it there is no good (practical physical) reason for iMac not to have it. Apple being stubborn.
 
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theluggage said:
You've just highlighted two of the reasons why we don't need an iMac Pro.

First, you've been stuck with a perfectly good (presumably) 5k3k display, the panel of which would be very usable as a Mac display today - but you can't use it because it is tethered to a thoroughly obsolete Mac.

Second, you've realised that displays are "horses for courses" - a 1080p, 1440p or 4k screen with high refresh rate is perfect for gaming, but a 220ppi 5k or 6k screen is far better for, well, virtually everything else. At the moment, you can count the number of 220ppi, 27" or larger panels with high refresh rate on the fingers of both feet, and even if you do find one it's going to cost $ludicrous. Size, vs. resolution vs. refresh rate currently involves a lot of trade-offs so a one-size-fits-all iMac with no choice of display makes zero sense. Of course, you can easily carry a MacBook, Mini or Studio into the lounge and plug it into your large-screen TV for gaming sessions...

There's the Studio Display if you really want the iMac experience... two extra cables!? Oh, the humanity!


...so what you really want is not so much "iMac Pro" as "iMac - Barbie edition"?

Meanwhile, if you want Frankenstein, hang an external disc drive, ethernet and a USB/Thunderbolt hub off your iMac and enjoy all the cables dangling from the screen...
Click to expand...

IMO, the issue is about the OS (and the premium adhered to it), not the hardware.
If an iMac Pro is offered at a reasonable price, I still want it. Windows 11 has no issue running in that nice piece of computer hardware. (Price for a 2nd iMac Pro in my neighborhood is about 1000$.
 
Fishrrman fearless prediction:
There is never going to be another "iMac Pro".
(that is all...)
 
I waited years for a new 27" iMac. It never came so instead of giving Apple my usual £2.5k budget I bought a £999 M4 Mini and a 3rd party monitor and had money left over to spend elsewhere. While I would much have preferred a 27" iMac this was really my only option. I refuse to go to a smaller screen as when working as a designer on multipage layouts the screen real estate is a massive factor in screen choice. I also refuse to spend £1500 on 10 year old screen technology for an Apple Studio Display especially when 27" iMacs used to start around this price AND came with pretty much the same screen tech.

The Mac Studio starts at over £2k plus they want £1500 for the Studio Display and there's no way im dropping £3.5k on those! SO many of my colleagues have now done the same thing as me after waiting years. It's like Apple completely forgot about professionals on a budget - mainly freelance professionals. Not everyone can drop £4k or £5k every few years and I know even fewer design studios that will shell that out on 10 new workstations. So in my experience they've completely alienated the professional design market.
 
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