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iMac CPUs for 2017 iMac refresh announced

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M

mpe

macrumors 6502
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Sep 3, 2010
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It looks like we now have clarity about CPUs for 2017 iMac.

My expectation for entry level 27" is:

i5-7500 3.4 GHz (3.8 GHz turbo) 6MB L2
(I would be surprised if they cripple this configuration with even slower CPU or integrated GPU)

mid-level:
i5-7600K 3.8 GHz (4.2 GHz turbo) 6MB L2

BTO high-end
i7-7700K 4.2 GHz (4.5 GHz turbo) 8 MB L2

I expect all models to ship with 2400 MHz DDR4 RAMs.

Given by the fact the Kaby Lake chips use the exactly same architecture as Skylake with same IPC and performance is proportional to turbo frequency we can expect relatively modest 10-15% performance gain in the best case.

source:

https://newsroom.intel.com/newsroom.../01/7th-gen-intel-core-january-fact-sheet.pdf
 
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The problem lies on which cards are they going to use. If they keep the radeons, performance on the 5K or even the 4K will still not be as good as it should. Those screens really need some serious GPUs...
 
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jetjaguar said:
Hmm I thought the cpus they just announced don't support ddr4
Click to expand...

They do. DDR4-2400/DDR3L-1600. Only 2 channels. 4 channel models will presumably come later this year.

Even Skylake chips used in iMacs supported DDR4-2133. In fact Skylake doesn't (officially) support DDR3, only DDR-3L (which Apple use).

Since Kaby Lake DDR4 controller only supports 1 DPC of SODIMMs, we can only bet if we ever get again four memory slots in iMacs. Or perhaps soldered-in RAM? :)
 
ivoruest said:
The problem lies on which cards are they going to use. If they keep the radeons, performance on the 5K or even the 4K will still not be as good as it should. Those screens really need some serious GPUs...
Click to expand...
Would be amazing if they could fit a desktop 1080 like razer does in their laptop
 
mpe said:
Given by the fact the Kaby Lake chips use the exactly same architecture as Skylake with same IPC and performance is proportional to turbo frequency we can expect relatively modest 10-15% performance gain in the best case.
Click to expand...
That's a little sad. I was hoping for that 20-25% boost so talked about.
 
ivoruest said:
The problem lies on which cards are they going to use. If they keep the radeons, performance on the 5K or even the 4K will still not be as good as it should. Those screens really need some serious GPUs...
Click to expand...

Not for general use or even video editing and photo editing.

Displaying a 4k-5k image or video all comes down to the decoder and bandwidth. This is why TVs, settop boxes (like Roku) and modern 4k smartphones can do it so easily.

3d rendering and gaming is a different story and yes a better GPU is always better for those.

I prefer whatever runs the coolest and quietest which tends to not be AMD unfortunately.
 
I know I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth however I feel the 5k iMac is built for 4k video editing and it does other stuff very well but the resolution and color gamut seem to indicate that.

So it would be nice to see an iMac with a higher core count for faster video encoding. If you were building a video editing rig you'd likely overlook the 7700k unless you had other task relying on core clock. Like gaming for example however we all know how Macs are with gaming.

Sometimes I hate being so cynical but I feel this is just so people don't settle for the iMac instead of the Mac Pro (assuming its updated). However taking TDP and cost into account I guess the Extreme Edition CPU's are a little unrealistic.
 
cynics said:
I know I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth however I feel the 5k iMac is built for 4k video editing and it does other stuff very well but the resolution and color gamut seem to indicate that.

So it would be nice to see an iMac with a higher core count for faster video encoding. If you were building a video editing rig you'd likely overlook the 7700k unless you had other task relying on core clock. Like gaming for example however we all know how Macs are with gaming.

Sometimes I hate being so cynical but I feel this is just so people don't settle for the iMac instead of the Mac Pro (assuming its updated). However taking TDP and cost into account I guess the Extreme Edition CPU's are a little unrealistic.
Click to expand...

they'll do it with coffee lake later this year or 2018, 6 cores mainstream. they gotta compete with ryzen
 
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Pretty fair improvement over the current gen, but my i5 6600 is still more than capable of handling any of the office work and Chrome usage I throw at it.
 
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