If there is a new iMac (probably 2nd quarter 2019), it WON'T have "the latest" CPU chips in it.
Apple doesn't work that way.
What it will probably have is "the last chip back", so to speak.
Apple has the latest Intel CPUs in the 13" and 15" MacBook Pros that were released to the public on July 12, after they we launched by Intel on April 2nd, which means that it took 15 weeks from Intel announce to Apple ship. Apple had product for sale in their stores before Dell had orders in customers hands.
Apple introduced the 2017 iMacs on June 12th, 2017, with Kaby Lake CPUs that were launched on January 3, 2017, which means it took 22 weeks before Apple updated their lineup. Slower than many, but not the end of the world. Besides, even with Coffee Lake being introduced in August of 2018, Intel did not complete its lineup of CPU suitable for the iMac until April of this year (i5-8600, i5-8500) or have good initial supply of those earlier CPUs, hence the staggered rollout.
My hope is that Apple decided to wait until the announcement and release of Intel's Z390 PCH and the 9th Generation CPUs to update the iMac. Unfortunately, Intel is now the one saying they may have production constraints on all 14nm CPUs, which is bad news for every PC OEM, not just Apple, going into the 2018 holiday buying season.
It is possible that may mean that Apple holds the iMac updates until next year, but I am confident that they will be 9th generation CPUs in the 27", although Apple may opt for the 8th Generation CPUs in the 21.5" depending on how well Intel fixes its supply issues.
If Apple is indeed revving the 13" MacBook (Air) and the Mac mini, it may ask Intel to prioritize those CPUs to make sure it does not have any supply issues after the introduction as this is going to be a pretty big launch for them.
Intel is trying to fix their supply issue as we speak, so the argument may be moot. I still expect Apple to rev the iMac with 9th Generation CPUs, at least in the 27" iMac, if not in the next 4-6 weeks, then in Q1 of 2019.
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QQ
Yeah, I guess I am stating the obvious and bringing up a common talking point wrt the next iteration of the iMac. However when talking about possible high-TDP chips as part of the next update, I feel the cooling capacity of the current design should be brought up as well. I can't wait to see how Apple pulls off the next update - there's lots of issues that could be addressed for the better.
Improving the cooling system is the most obvious, but removing spinning storage is the other...we're not there yet in terms of price for Apple to maintain their margins, so it is a waiting game at this point. Moving to Coffee Lake anything requires a new motherboard (2017 iMacs use the Skylake Z170 PCH), so the opportunity to rework the insides of the current iMac is somewhat of a necessity as well, as Coffee Lake is 6-cores all the way down the S-Series CPU line, at least what Apple uses. The iMac Pro's TMS doesn't have to accommodate HDDs, so its all speculation until iFixit tears the thing apart or Apple makes it a USP in a keynote.
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