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What to expect from iMac 2012 - Discussion

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Leemado said:
I do expect the 6970m to outperform the 7600m because 7600m is just a revamped 6770m.

If we look at AMD site we can see the specs of both 7600m & 6900m:

6900m:
TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
960 Stream Processing Units
48 Texture Units
128 Z/Stencil ROP Units
32 Color ROP Units

7600m:
TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
480 Stream Processing Units
24 Texture Units
32 Z/Stencil ROP Units
8 Color ROP Units

Look also at a site like notebookcheck.net which lists all mobile graphics cards:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

6970 is number 26 in the list while 7690 is number 70 in the list.

7000M series doesn't have any technology change over the 6000M series, they are in fact still using the same 40nm process while in the desktop line they have moved to the 28nm process.

The thing about the chassis redesign... that's something that could be possible with a design refresh. 6970M has a TDP of 100W while the desktop 7850 (which is faaaster) has a TDP of 130W. Only 30% more power... considering the shrink in technology of ivy bridge and the possibility of the removal of the ODD and even the standard use of SDDs... It is very possible.
Click to expand...

Just as I suspected...Apple isn't going to refresh the iMacs with parts that are just as powerful as the ones used in the last generation. So we'll have to wait for the 28nm mobile graphics from AMD or maybe we'll see desktop graphics in an iMac for the first time and the end of the Mac Pro line. Either way, I can't wait :D
 
forty2j said:
In addition to the ergonomic considerations (which you're welcome to disagree with), consider that a UI designed for a pointer device with 2 buttons (or easy emulation of that) doesn't translate well into Touch. You'd need more iOS-like controls, not just from OS X but from each of the applications, for a touchscreen to make sense.
Click to expand...

I agree entirely (with exception to the ergonomics). The UI needs to be tweeked to work with a touchscreen, but launching applications/programs works just as easily if not more easily with touch than it does with a mouse. Navigating files and folders may be the part that needs tweaking. After that it is the responsibility of the software developers to redesign their programs to be used with a touch interface. However, companies wouldn't adapt the programs for a market that doesn't exist, asking and paying hundreds of programmers to change their GUIs and functionalities. We have had touch interface windows PCs for quite sometime now, but that market is so segmented that most people wouldn't pay the premium for the touch screen. Most desktop Apple users, however, would be forced to buy a touchscreen if they came standard on the iMac. That would start the evolution of some of the software. I can see dozens of uses for touchscreen in Pro Tools already, AS-IS. I can only imagine the number of applications touch would be used for in CS.

As others are saying, a touchscreen iMac would not replace a keyboard and mouse, it would be used in conjunction with those input devices for those that could use it. I don't think it is coming with this update, but I hope it is coming with the next update.
 
beosound3200 said:
radeon 7700m (macbook pros) and 7900m (imacs) arent out yet

those should bring 50% power boost over previous generation with 10 watts less tdp

if you're interested, this forum sums all the rumors
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...pu-info-thread-6xxm-7xxxm-discussions-14.html

7600m and below, previously mentioned, are just rebrands of 6xxxm, not the new GCN 28nm we're waiting for
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction.

Best info I can find for the 7900m is "second quarter"; meanwhile, I have a lot of reports for nVidia saying "April" that aren't being too specific on whether those are desktop or mobile parts.
 
Leemado said:
I do expect the 6970m to outperform the 7600m because 7600m is just a revamped 6770m.

If we look at AMD site we can see the specs of both 7600m & 6900m:

6900m:
TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
960 Stream Processing Units
48 Texture Units
128 Z/Stencil ROP Units
32 Color ROP Units

7600m:
TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture
480 Stream Processing Units
24 Texture Units
32 Z/Stencil ROP Units
8 Color ROP Units

Look also at a site like notebookcheck.net which lists all mobile graphics cards:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

6970 is number 26 in the list while 7690 is number 70 in the list.

7000M series doesn't have any technology change over the 6000M series, they are in fact still using the same 40nm process while in the desktop line they have moved to the 28nm process.

The thing about the chassis redesign... that's something that could be possible with a design refresh. 6970M has a TDP of 100W while the desktop 7850 (which is faaaster) has a TDP of 130W. Only 30% more power... considering the shrink in technology of ivy bridge and the possibility of the removal of the ODD and even the standard use of SDDs... It is very possible.
Click to expand...
Not all of the mobility 7000 series are rebrands, the 7730, 7750, 7950 and 7970 aren't and they're very powerful. The main reason for not fitting a desktop card is space in the chassis, mobility GPUs are really small.
 
forty2j said:
Thanks for the correction.

Best info I can find for the 7900m is "second quarter"; meanwhile, I have a lot of reports for nVidia saying "April" that aren't being too specific on whether those are desktop or mobile parts.
Click to expand...

the consensus for 7970m is early may, often correlated with ivy bridge. 7850 (on which 7970m will be based on) desktop card came out weeks ago and it has 100W tdp so there isnt much tweaking necessary for it to become mobile.

but that all doesnt matter, 7970m wont be sold in huge numbers (high end) so apple could grab it easily. i dont think gpus will be the crucial factor in imac launch date. on the other hand, ivy bridge could pose a problem, although intel claims that this year its making 50% more as opposed to sandy bridge, so there shouldnt be any constraints in the first months

basically what im saying is that i think after april 29th, or maybe a week after, everything is in apples hands, there shouldnt be any reason for a prolonged imac introduction. for now.

but the most important thing is that 7970m is one hell of a gpu, easily outpacing 6970m by 50% (look at the 7850 vs 6850 desktop cards), even more, and all that with 10 watts lower tdp, so overclockers are happy too. it will definitely be worth the wait. and thats the bare minimum, who knows, maybe we're waiting for a complete redesign :apple:
(not necessarily physical, maybe new features, better screens, ssd standard, etc.)

only a month before we start checking apple store website in the morning :D

edit: and yeah, as usual, nvidia is late to the game, april is for desktop gpus
 
beosound3200 said:
edit: and yeah, as usual, nvidia is late to the game, april is for desktop gpus
Click to expand...

Hmm, yeah. Extrapolating from the Alienware M14X R2 rumors, it seems they're not waiting for Nvidia. The choice of video cards will be 2 rebrands from Nvidia, and the not-yet-released top-end AMD offering. This would seem to hint fairly strongly at Apple only looking at AMD as well.
 
all the specs posted here are nice. i want to see a fingerprint reader on the future iMacs. also, does apple already have face recognition for the Mac? if not then that would be fine also.
 
If the 2012 iPad became slightly thicker then the iPad 2 to accommodate better hardware why not the iMac?
 
Expectations: Ivy Bridge processor, bigger HDs from base-upward. Not much else.

I suspect the iMac won't have a redesign or anything totally awesome, like 2 HDDs inside with access panels on the side/s. The might increase memory capabilities.

It'd be cool if they had a model that ditched the optical drive and thinned down to be a sub-$1000 tiny-iMac.

We'll see if some kind of "retina" display stumbles along. I doubt that will happen this year.
 
What you expect on the new iMac?

What do you think will be the specifications on the new iMac?
What will be the processor (ex. i7 or i5 or i3) and what GHZ?
The RAM (ex. 4GB or 8 GB standard, 1333 MHz?)
The Storage (ex. 1TB or 2TB standard?)
Video Card
and other stuff...
 
27" hi-end option:
- i7-3770
- nvidia geforce 680m (GK104gpu) 2gb vram
- 4gb ddr3 1333 (expandable to 16gb total)
- 1 TB 7200 rpm hdd
- usb 3; firewire; thunderbolt ports
- redesign chassis w/o superdrive (slimmer and easier to access internals since the new imac w/o the superdrive now has room for user-accessible hdd's of which there are 2 extra space for either 3.5" or 2.5" hdd's)
 
I'd expect something along the lines of this, though of course this is just my speculation.
Low 21.5"
2.8GHz i5 (3450S)
4GB RAM
1TB HD
AMD 7750m 512MB

High 21.5"
3.0GHz i5 (3550S) - 3.1GHz i7 (3770S) Upgrade
4GB RAM
2TB HD
AMD 7770m 1GB

Low 27"
3.0GHz i5 (3550S)
4GB RAM
2TB HD
AMD 7770m 1GB

High 27"
3.3GHz i5 (3550) - 3.4GHz i7 (3770) Upgrade
4GB RAM
2TB HD
AMD 7970m 2GB

All hard drives upgradeable to 3TB and a 256GB SSD additional.
RAM upgradable to 16GB either running at 1333MHz or 1600MHz, 8GB RAM could be standard in the high end model but we will have to wait and see, most people are probably fine with 4GB.
USB ports are now all 3.0 along with all the ports it currently has now.
Graphics cards and VRAM could be NVIDIA Cards with the likes of 660m and 680m with between 512MB and 2GB of VRAM.
As for the optical drive the iMac may or may not keep it.
 
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