iMac Discrete Graphics

[deanbo]

Does this mean that the GPU is no longer soldered to the motherboard and can be upgraded like any other graphics card? If so, why no options for GPU on the online store?

 

[powerbook911]

Does this mean that the GPU is no longer soldered to the motherboard and can be upgraded like any other graphics card? If so, why no options for GPU on the online store?

No, sadly it does not mean that. The iMacs are still a very tight package with the chip modified for their configuration.

The discrete graphics simply means you aren't stuck with the much slower intel integrated graphics.

 

[bolen]

Discrete graphics means that the GPU is on a separate chip but most importantly it has dedicated memory. Integrated chips share the (slower) RAM with the CPU.