Any educated guesses on the 2018 iMac (not pro)

[Glmnet1]

But half the number of threads... 6/6, would that make it worse or better in multicore tasks compared to a 4/8 cpu?

What are the chances the iMacs will come with 16GB RAM as standard? They've had 8GB for quite long, since 2012.

It would depend on your usage but in most scenarios, 6/6 is better than 4/8. EDIT: After some more digging it seems that hyper-threading in the most favorable conditions adds about 40% increase in multicore tasks. So that brings it to an equivalent of 4*1.4=5.6 so the 6/6 will always be superior if you compare chips with the same architecture and clock speed etc.

I think the chances are slim but who knows! Maybe if they remove the RAM door they might decide to increase it on the 27" to prevent some outrage If not you can always BTO.

 

[EugW]

A 40% speedup is uncommon. Range is 0-40%.

 

[iMacDonald]

Won't surprise me if there is no iMac 2018 at all, to ensure Apple shifts the iMac Pro and the Kaby Lake models which they will take more margin from every day that passes.

 

[unobtainium]

Ah ok, I never took a liking to the thin bezel thing. Maybe I just haven't used them enough. Personally I have been frustrated by the lack of third party displays that look as good as iMacs.

Thin bezels are overrated.
When we hang a picture on the wall, do we look for the smallest frame possible? Usually no, because frames look nice.

 

[danielwsmithee]

Thin bezels are overrated.
When we hang a picture on the wall, do we look for the smallest frame possible? Usually no, because frames look nice.

Except when you hang multiple photos close together, then thin bezels look nicer just like monitors.

I could care less if Bezels are thin if I’m going to only use a single monitor. With multiple monitors thin is the way to go.

Since Apple doesn’t really have a matching secondary display for the iMac I’d be surprised if they put any effort into thin bezels.

 

[Glockworkorange]

I doubt we'll see a redesign. Just updated internals, but who knows when that would take place. I would wager that we won't see any spec updates for several months.

Yeah, I think they'd put the redesign in the hyper car product, which usually trickles down. The 2012 15 MBP got the redesign first and then it trickled down to the 13 inch. The 2014 iMac went 5K and 4K/retina did not hit the 21 inch until the next year. If there was going to be a re-design, I think it would have started with the iMac Pro.

But who knows?
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Thats a lot of work for a still relatively small group of people.

They have so much money and resources. I agree it's a small group of people, but they could certainly afford to make it bigger and more productive.
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According to standard ergonomics guidelines that is generally not true, but of course if you happen to be 6’6” that probably wouldn’t apply to you.

Generally eye level should be near the top of the screen. ie. Eye level should be where the macOS menu bar is located. This is from nationally recognized guidelines in various countries.

View attachment 742427

One of the reasons some occupational therapists loved the lampshade iMac was because of its height adjustability.

So if you’re a 5’2” female then in most scenarios the 27” iMac is too tall, but can’t easily be adjusted lower.

It’s easy to adjust higher with a stand but with the 27” iMac it’s a major hassle and major expense to adjust lower, and even with that expense it’s limited adjustment because of the chin.

Who sits like the person in the picture?

 

[Glmnet1]

Except when you hang multiple photos close together, then thin bezels look nicer just like monitors.

I could care less if Bezels are thin if I’m going to only use a single monitor. With multiple monitors thin is the way to go.

Since Apple doesn’t really have a matching secondary display for the iMac I’d be surprised if they put any effort into thin bezels.

Unless they release the upcoming Apple display at the same time, both with a gorgeous bezel less design!

The iMac Pro makes this less likely to happen soon though...

 

[phobos]

Yeah I agree with a lot of voices here.
I don't think we'll see a new iMac Pro in 2018.
I would go as far as saying that the iMac Pro might be a one off model.

The technology to cool down the internals could easily be transferred to the regular iMac which might get a 6 core upgrade and if people want a more powerful machine they can upgrade to the yet unreleased Mac Pro.

Of course this is pure speculation on my side so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[sputnikBA]

I don’t see their being a new iMac Pro until:
1) AMD wants to ship replacements for the 56 and 64 (and rumours are that this won’t happen until next year, they are more focused on lower power / mobile designs this year)
2) PCIe 4 (and by extension Thunderbolt 4) are ready.


AMD is also unlikely to ship anything this year midrange that’s anything more than a refresh of the 580. The 10-18 cores are still high enough above (a theoretical) 6 core iMac that people would be fine choosing between regular and pro. The worst case scenario for apple is that they just adjust their manufacturing so they make less base model iMP. I’d wager that they are running it pretty lean as most prospective iMP candidates would want 10core Vega64 model anyway.

So I don’t see them having a problem with keeping iMP for more than a year while also introducing a new iMac this year.

 

[EugW]

The new 8th generation Intel chips are supposed to be out next month. The new ones are in bold below.

https://www.computerbase.de/2018-02/intel-coffee-lake-celeron-pentium-core-april/

Out of the new chips, the i5-8500 and i5-8600 look great for the 27" (esp. the i5-8600), but for the 21.5", even the i3-8300 looks very decent as an entry level CPU.

Also, an i7-8700 would be nice for the 27", but I suspect Apple won't release that in the 27", just the 21.5".

 

[iMacDonald]

The new 8th generation Intel chips are supposed to be out next month. The new ones are in bold below.

https://www.computerbase.de/2018-02/intel-coffee-lake-celeron-pentium-core-april/

View attachment 752857

Out of the new chips, the i5-8500 and i5-8600 look great for the 27" (esp. the i5-8600), but for the 21.5", even the i3-8300 looks very decent as an entry level CPU.

Also, an i7-8700 would be nice for the 27", but I suspect Apple won't release that in the 27", just the 21.5".

Seems bizarre they even place the xxxxK processors in there at all considering heat, noise of the single fan and extra power consumption and minimal performance increase and eventual throttling.

 

[EugW]

Seems bizarre they even place the xxxxK processors in there at all considering heat, noise of the single fan and extra power consumption and minimal performance increase and eventual throttling.

All the K processors in that list are 95 Watts. All the non-K Core processors in the list are 65 Watts.

 

[BananaX]

Yeah I agree with a lot of voices here.
I don't think we'll see a new iMac Pro in 2018.
I would go as far as saying that the iMac Pro might be a one off model.

The technology to cool down the internals could easily be transferred to the regular iMac which might get a 6 core upgrade and if people want a more powerful machine they can upgrade to the yet unreleased Mac Pro.

Of course this is pure speculation on my side so take it with a grain of salt.

+1

I think Apple uses iMac Pro to fill in the gap before the new Mac Pro/Apple 5k display announcement. And all the new techs in iMac Pro will shift to iMac, and future iMacs will have a lot more options in CPU/GPU I suppose.

in 2019 or 2020, we may see 3 line ups: MacBook Pro, modular Mac Pro + Apple 5k display, and redesigned iMac with Face ID and all that.

 

[padams35]

Anyone care to speculate on what GPU a 2018 iMac would use? While the 6-core CPUs are exciting I can't find precedent for Apple every upgrading to a new CPU generation without at least also upgrading the GPU in the top-end model.

AMD Navi seems to have slid into 2019, Apple probably isn't going to suddenly switch to Nvidea, and it seems equally unlikely they will suddenly give 5K iMacs an iMac Pro Vega 56. The Vega refresh seems limited to the top end and the bottom with the Vega M iGPU with not a whisper of anything in between.

Even with new 6-core CPUs I'm a little worried that Apple is going to set a new longest-time-between-updates record with no new iMacs until mid 2019.

 

[EugW]

Anyone care to speculate on what GPU a 2018 iMac would use? While the 6-core CPUs are exciting I can't find precedent for Apple every upgrading to a new CPU generation without at least also upgrading the GPU in the top-end model.

AMD Navi seems to have slid into 2019, Apple probably isn't going to suddenly switch to Nvidea, and it seems equally unlikely they will suddenly give 5K iMacs an iMac Pro Vega 56. The Vega refresh seems limited to the top end and the bottom with the Vega M iGPU with not a whisper of anything in between.

Even with new 6-core CPUs I'm a little worried that Apple is going to set a new longest-time-between-updates record with no new iMacs until mid 2019.

Mid-2019 is too long, considering that would be two years since the Kaby Lake iMacs, like the one I'm typing on right now. Mid-range Vega is rumoured to launch later this year, but even if it doesn't, I would expect Apple would release 8th gen Coffee Lake iMacs with the same Polaris GPUs. Apple could give them a bit of a clock speed bump and call the next top of the line the RX 580X or something.

 

[enc0re]

I’m hoping for Vega 56 as a BTO option in the top end model. All of that is of course assuming that the cooling layout changes in the iMac Pro are a preview of the direction the regular 27” is headed.

I subscribe to the theory that iMac Pro is a stopgap model until the modular Mac Pro is released.

 

[EugW]

IMHO, the 2018 iMac will have the same design as the 2017. I say this because the 8th gen chips are roughly just a drop in replacement for the 7th gen chips, save for a chipset update. Furthermore, the TDPs are all similar to what they were before.

 

[fathergll]

IMHO, the 2018 iMac will have the same design as the 2017. I say this because the 8th gen chips are roughly just a drop in replacement for the 7th gen chips, save for a chipset update. Furthermore, the TDPs are all similar to what they were before.

What GPUs would be used? New versions of the current GPUs in the AMD roadmap?

 

[EugW]

What GPUs would be used? New versions of the current GPUs in the AMD roadmap?

Dunno. Not sure if they'd use a rehashed Polaris or the new Vega. Depends on when AMD is really able to release Vega mid-range at decent volumes. Rumoured timing for mid-range Vega might be OK for inclusion in say a summer iMac release though.

 

[potatis]

The new 8th generation Intel chips are supposed to be out next month. The new ones are in bold below.

https://www.computerbase.de/2018-02/intel-coffee-lake-celeron-pentium-core-april/

View attachment 752857

Out of the new chips, the i5-8500 and i5-8600 look great for the 27" (esp. the i5-8600), but for the 21.5", even the i3-8300 looks very decent as an entry level CPU.

Also, an i7-8700 would be nice for the 27", but I suspect Apple won't release that in the 27", just the 21.5".

Suppose the next lineup could be something like this then, if you replace 7X00 with 8X00:

21.5-inch 2017 -> 2018:
3.0 GHz 4/4 (I5-7400) -> 2.8 GHz 6/6 (I5-8400)
3.4 GHz 4/4 (I5-7500) -> 3.0 GHz 6/6 (I5-8500)
3.6 GHz 4/8 (I7-7700) -> 3.2 GHz 6/12 (I7-8700)

27-inch 2017 -> 2018:
3.4 GHz 4/4 (I5-7500) -> 3.0 GHz 6/6 (I5-8500)
3.5 GHz 4/4 (I5-7600) -> 3.1 GHz 6/6 (I5-8600)
3.8 GHz 4/4 (I5-7600K) -> 3.6 GHz 6/6 (I5-8600K)
4.2 GHz 4/8 (I7-7700K) -> 3.7 GHz 6/12 (I7-8700K)

 

[Glmnet1]

Can anyone explain how the lower base clock speeds but faster turbo boost clock speeds will affect performance? Does it allow for a cooler CPU? Is there a downside to reducing the base clock speed?

 

[EugW]

Can anyone explain how the lower base clock speeds but faster turbo boost clock speeds will affect performance? Does it allow for a cooler CPU? Is there a downside to reducing the base clock speed?

The 8th gen will be faster. For example, compare the i5-8400 2.8 GHz hex vs the i5-7400 3.0 GHz quad.

Cinebench single core:
i5-7400: 149
i5-8400: 169 (+13%)

Cinebench multi core:
i5-7400: 564
i5-8400: 954 (+69%!)

Not much downside to having a lower base clock speed than the quads. I wouldn't worry about it.

Suppose the next lineup could be something like this then, if you replace 7X00 with 8X00:

21.5-inch 2017 -> 2018:
3.0 GHz 4/4 (I5-7400) -> 2.8 GHz 6/6 (I5-8400)
3.4 GHz 4/4 (I5-7500) -> 3.0 GHz 6/6 (I5-8500)
3.6 GHz 4/8 (I7-7700) -> 3.2 GHz 6/12 (I7-8700)

27-inch 2017 -> 2018:
3.4 GHz 4/4 (I5-7500) -> 3.0 GHz 6/6 (I5-8500)
3.5 GHz 4/4 (I5-7600) -> 3.1 GHz 6/6 (I5-8600)
3.8 GHz 4/4 (I5-7600K) -> 3.6 GHz 6/6 (I5-8600K)
4.2 GHz 4/8 (I7-7700K) -> 3.7 GHz 6/12 (I7-8700K)

That sounds about right. If I were buying this year, it'd probably be the i5-8500, or at most the i5-8600 (non-K).

 

[fathergll]

Interesting predictions

 

[c0ppo]

Interesting indeed. Design like that? Not happening. Touch Bar? Face ID? Nope and nope.
Updated specs are coming, he's right about that ^^

 

[jon08]

^^Design like that? Pipe dream. Also, it should definitely have some sort of chin with an Apple logo on it...