Will Apple release a mid range or high end M-Series iMac?

[leman]

I only see Apple doing three distinct series of desktop Macs, and two of the three are already out:

Budget option: Mac mini M1

Mid-range option: iMac M1

I wouldn't call the 24" iMac a mid-range option, it's still pretty much budget it just comes with a display. The $1499 iMac is basically the $699 Mac Mini + $800 display, which sounds about right. And you can even get it cheaper if you skip the extra ports.

While the new iMacs are pretty and quiet, they are neither very performant or, unfortunately, cheap.

It's the same price as the old 21" model, isn't it?

That doesn’t bode too well for my hopes for a larger iMac.

The larger (30" at this point) iMac will mot likely have the same pricing as the current 27" inch.

If a larger iMac comes around it will likely share the same design ethos, implying it will share SoC with a larger MBP. And cost will be significant step up.

But at the same time it ill probably split CPU/GPU into separate chips, allowing more power tuning...

 

[EntropyQ3]

You’re right in that it remains to be seen and the specific details really matter. I wonder when, the word from the supply chain is that Apple will start producing Mac chips on TSMC 4nm in half a year or so.
Seems a bit late, but I’ll sit on my computer budget until Apple has shown their hand.
Personal shopping aside, my inner computer architecture geek hopes that they will depart a bit from their ”phone SoC” design pattern, but I wouldn’t say that it would be required in order to make a significantly more powerful device than the M1. I would have preferred something a bit more performant GPU-wise in the iMac 24 both for it’s own sake and as an indicator for the future.

 

[leman]

She clearly said "up to 50% perf faster than most powerful dgp from the 21.5", that is the vega 20
So even if its on par with vega 20...that means the M1 is a little different..since the M1 from my mbp 13" is not around that level

Oh, indeed, she did! Sorry, I missed it.

That changes things, the M1 until now was definitely not 50% faster than Pro Vega 20... If they are talking about TFLOPS, it would put it at around 4TFLOPS or 50% higher clock (not unreasonable for the desktop form factor to be honest). One would need to bench these things out to know for sure. Could also just be marketing trickery (like one specific benchmark where M1 is faster due to unified memory for example...)

I will order 1 to see whats the difference , hope i can get in May

Nice, I can send you my GPU FLOPS throughput test if you want

Do you will order one? just for testing at least?

I'm not that rich unfortunately to constantly buy and sell new Macs We do need a computer at home but I think we'd just wait for the "bigger cousin" to come out.

 

[Serban55]

Oh, indeed, she did! Sorry, I missed it.

That changes things, the M1 until now was definitely not 50% faster than Pro Vega 20... If they are talking about TFLOPS, it would put it at around 4TFLOPS or 50% higher clock (not unreasonable for the desktop form factor to be honest). One would need to bench these things out to know for sure. Could also just be marketing trickery (like one specific benchmark where M1 is faster due to unified memory for example...)



Nice, I can send you my GPU FLOPS throughput test if you want



I'm not that rich unfortunately to constantly buy and sell new Macs We do need a computer at home but I think we'd just wait for the "bigger cousin" to come out.

Nice, we should stay in touch then. Maybe you will send me your GPU FLOPS test when the times come
Yes, the my main personal machine will also be the 30-32" ...

 

[Homy]

Remember it's only been a couple months since M1 actually came out. I bet that they wanted to upgrade all the entry-level machines first, as that is what most consumers would buy. The Pro machines would most likely come out later this year with an M1X/2 chip.

A couple of months? It's been almost six months.

 

[Serban55]

A couple of months? It's been almost six months.

yes, and think about it...a lot of macs, gain an update after 2 years...with intel inside...now you want the new apple silicon to be once/6 months? Even the iphone that is their main device is getting 1 year update cycle
So, for a mac..to gain new SoC every year, is more than enough with the scaling that these SoC
Remember, in 2022 we already should have the 3nm or 4nm ...i mean this is mindblowing if you think about what we had until now, for 10 years with Intel inside

 

[Homy]

yes, and think about it...a lot of macs, gain an update after 2 years...with intel inside...now you want the new apple silicon to be once/6 months?

What? Where did I say that I want new Apple chips every six months? I just stated the fact that M1 was released in Nov 2020, not in Feb 2021 as it was said.

 

[Serban55]

What? Where did I say that I want new Apple chips every six months? I just stated the fact that M1 was released in Nov 2020, not in Feb 2021 as it was said.

hmm..in a lot of countries, "couple of months" doesnt mean 2 months....it means more than 1 month and thats it(it could mean 2 months or 3 or 5 or 9 etc)...some language strange interpretations all over the world with this paraphrase . Even in US movies couple of x, means 2 x

 

[Serban55]

The 24" with a power adapter of 143W...that means apple is thinking way ahead with the next M3 M4 chips that will require that power or they created 1 power adapter for the 24" and for the bigger 30" imac ?!

 

[Serban55]

Buy iMac

Get an iMac all-in-one desktop computer with M4 chip when you trade in an eligible Mac for credit. Built for Apple Intelligence. Buy now.

www.apple.com

Buy iMac

Get an iMac all-in-one desktop computer with M4 chip when you trade in an eligible Mac for credit. Built for Apple Intelligence. Buy now.

www.apple.com

 

[snorkelman]

High-end: iMac Pro M1 or Mac Pro M1, most likely the latter to further underline the differences in branding and performance. This is also where we might see "M1X" or "M2" or something different than M1 chips.

The M1 is a SOC with eight cores and tops out at 16GB of directly coupled RAM, and as such they can't just stick two four or eight of them on one board under one giant heatsink, where they then share a single pool RAM etc like multiprocessor Xeon boards would have done in their older MacPro machines

if they want more cores want more RAM they're going to have to kit the higher end machines out with something other than current M1 Granted, architecturally it may well be the equivalent of 32 M1 cores sharing 64GB of RAM, but it will need to be a new die in order to do it

 

[Homy]

hmm..in a lot of countries, "couple of months" doesnt mean 2 months....it means more than 1 month and thats it(it could mean 2 months or 3 or 5 or 9 etc)...some language strange interpretations all over the world with this paraphrase . Even in US movies couple of x, means 2 x

I don't think so. Couple means two or max three. You never say "couple of month" about something that happened in Nov last year, but that wasn't the reason for my reaction to your response. You said that I wanted/expected new Apple chips every six months ("now you want the new apple silicon to be once/6 months?") when I never did.

 

[dugbug]

Oh, indeed, she did! Sorry, I missed it.

That changes things, the M1 until now was definitely not 50% faster than Pro Vega 20... If they are talking about TFLOPS, it would put it at around 4TFLOPS or 50% higher clock (not unreasonable for the desktop form factor to be honest). One would need to bench these things out to know for sure. Could also just be marketing trickery (like one specific benchmark where M1 is faster due to unified memory for example...)

This shows the Macbook M1 doing quite well against it (I don't have either so am just a curious bystander)

Pro Vega 20 vs Apple M1 8-Core GPU [1-Benchmark Showdown]

Comparing Apple M1 8-Core GPU with AMD Pro Vega 20: technical specs, games and benchmarks.

technical.city

 

[leman]

This shows the Macbook M1 doing quite well against it (I don't have either so am just a curious bystander)

Pro Vega 20 vs Apple M1 8-Core GPU [1-Benchmark Showdown]

Comparing Apple M1 8-Core GPU with AMD Pro Vega 20: technical specs, games and benchmarks.

technical.city

Sorry, I can't extract any useful information out of that clickbait site. These "spec comparison" websites are only there to make money from ad traffic, they are utterly pointless for anything practical.

 

[dugbug]

Sorry, I can't extract any useful information out of that clickbait site. These "spec comparison" websites are only there to make money from ad traffic, they are utterly pointless for anything practical.

Ok. Here is the summary from notebookcheck.net normalized for radeon pro vega 20. The details are there if you want to see what benchmarks rolled into them.

Average Benchmarks AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 → 100% n=13​

Average Benchmarks Apple M1 8-Core GPU → 118% n=13​

 

[Homy]

Sorry, I can't extract any useful information out of that clickbait site. These "spec comparison" websites are only there to make money from ad traffic, they are utterly pointless for anything practical.

Not 50% faster but a little faster: https://gfxbench.com/compare.jsp?be...PU&hwname1=AMD+Radeon+Pro+Vega+20&D2=Apple+M1

 

[Serban55]

I don't think so. Couple means two or max three. You never say "couple of month" about something that happened in Nov last year, but that wasn't the reason for my reaction to your response. You said that I wanted/expected new Apple chips every six months ("now you want the new apple silicon to be once/6 months?") when I never did.

a couple of...is associate in the US with a derivation of the substantive "a couple" which means in general 2
You and your wife are a beautiful couple for example
But in this context, all of the world, even in the UK, couple doesn't means 2 necessarily , its a synonym with "few" or "several"
So the user could have said a couple months ago, or a few months ago or several months ago(same thing). Is not an exact number until you count it (in this case, several or couple of months is 5 almost 6 )
Regarding to your reaction...i thought you reply to him, meaning that you are already angry that the M1 is still coming to new released products like the iMac even if the M1 is almost half a year old.

 

[Serban55]

Not 50% faster but a little faster: https://gfxbench.com/compare.jsp?be...PU&hwname1=AMD+Radeon+Pro+Vega+20&D2=Apple+M1

better to test ourselves or at least have someone of those you tubers test it
Until then, we will wait. I will post when the imac will arrive and test it head to head with the M1 mbp

 

[darngooddesign]

hmm..in a lot of countries, "couple of months" doesnt mean 2 months....it means more than 1 month and thats it(it could mean 2 months or 3 or 5 or 9 etc)...some language strange interpretations all over the world with this paraphrase . Even in US movies couple of x, means 2 x

Couple is defined as 'two people' or 'an indefinite but small number'. Several is defined as 'more than two'. For more than five items you could use several but not couple, but even several isn't adequate to describe nine items.

 

[Homy]

But in this context, all of the world, even in the UK, couple doesn't means 2 necessarily , its a synonym with "few" or "several"

No, it's not. As said something that happened in Nov 2020 didn't happen "a couple" of month ago, but several or a few months ago. Few/several is not synonym with couple, no matter if people use it in a wrong way. Use it as you want but don't keep justifying the use.

 

[darngooddesign]

No, it's not. As said something that happened in Nov 2020 didn't happen "a couple" of month ago, but several or a few months ago. Few/several is not synonym with couple, no matter if people use it in a wrong way. Use it as you want but don't keep justifying the use.

Yep.

'Couple,' 'Few,' and 'Several': The (Mostly) Definitive Guide

More than several/a few/a couple of you have asked.

www.merriam-webster.com

What to Know
Couple is used when referring to two things, as in "a couple of days ago," whereas few and several are less specific. Few means "not many but some," as in "The train leaves in a few minutes," and several denotes more than the words couple and few do but implies lesser than the word many does.

 

[DennisdeWit]

Could we please leave the English lesson behind?

Thank you.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Could we please leave the English lesson behind?

Thank you.

Every day is a great day to learn.

 

[darngooddesign]

Could we please leave the English lesson behind?

Thank you.

Don't worry, it's a couple of posts back.

 

[EntropyQ3]

In a moment of clarity, it dawned on me why I found this set of announcements disappointing.
These are consumer targeted Macs. So, if we were to see Apple go for more graphics/gaming capable hardware, this would be the platform(s) to extend graphics performance specifically a bit. It didn’t happen.

The graphics down/side-grade of the AppleTV sends the same message. Apple could easily have used the no longer utilized A12z as a natural upgrade to the A10x of the previous generation. Instead, they seem to actually have regressed a bit.

While I’m sure the SoC for the higher end will get a somewhat beefier GPU, there is little reason to target gaming graphics with their work/business oriented Macs.

Now the M1 offers nice graphics performance for what it is, and it establishes a respectable baseline for the AS Macs, and thus a decent consumer market volume. But it also seems likely that even future higher end iMacs will offer graphics performance clearly below $499 consoles. Which is a bit of a bummer since I like being able to fire up a game every now and then, and now I can’t even attach more capable hardware to the iMac and use its screen.
And of course, that truly powerful TBDR based GPU won’t see the light of day.