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Will Apple release new iMac in March?
- Thread starter ndolebay
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Apple tends to roll out new iMacs in the fall October of 2015 I believe was the last one. I wouldn't be surprised but yet with that said, we didn't see any updates in 2016, so people were hoping for a spring release.
I don't think so. Actually I've been surprised with them producing "last years" model in many of their products especially mobile.
A lot of the time "last years model" is the discounted entry models without and/or very limited build to order specs.
Usually what you'll see is the current "last year model" disappear. For example, they sold the AppleTV 3 and 4 side by side. Now rumors of the AppleTV 5 are popping up and you can't get a new AppleTV 3 model (from Apple) anymore. They could just have run out of stock and holding onto the ones they have for warranty or something but it seems to be a common trend.
I may have mentioned this here or in another thread but Apple has to be very careful to prevent the Osbourne Effect. This is when everyone knows a new model is coming out so current sales drop way off. I see many people around here still buying the 2015 (which is completely fine btw its a great machine) but if Apple started dropping too many hints or if we even had an exact date most of those people would wait. Since Apple doesn't typically discount until a new product is out they are maximizing profit (older tech is cheaper for them but selling at the same price).
Just a thought. If I were to guess I think we will see an announcement in June with products shipping in July. Just a WAG though. They have invested WAY too much into APFS to just be putting it on old Macs so I know for fact they are coming...just when is the question.
I saw a crazy deal on a 27inch imac with the top specs on craigslist yesterday for $2300. The seller originally paid $3600 for it but needed it gone. I wanted to get it so badly but I'm holding out because hopefully if/when apple does refresh the imac more of these amazing deals will pop up when people upgrade.
I have always seen announcements in the fall. With pre order and delivery happening in october/november.
If you go to Apple Spec you'll see that Apple has released the iMac through out the year but mostly late summer and fall.
The graphics boost will be worth the wait. I remember buying a MacBook after years of 10% annual performance boosts then they die shrunk the next year & pushed out a 50% boost. Man did I regret that purchase. This one will be at least 50%, with a possible max of 100%. Naysayers will bring up TDP or TGP without reading the FINFET note saying 80-100% performance boost utilizing the SAME POWER. Die shrinks rock over overclocking & rebranding.
I'm typically a naysayer due to Apples predictable incremental updates.
What GPU brand and model/architecture do you feel they will be using in the next iMac for this boost?
For all we know we could see the mobile Radeon Pro (Polaris 11) line entering the iMac line like on the MacBook Pro and be very lucky to have the same performance we do now! Lol
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Just saw a thread about this over on reddit - someone put a lot of thought into what Apple might do. https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/5xn50l/oc_analysis_guessing_the_gpu_in_the_next_imac/
Thanks for the link!
Although I have no need for it I'll likely be buying a maxed out iMac especially if that ends up being true. Frustratingly Apple sometimes does things that don't make much sense.
Although down clocked to 900mhz we may actually see some reasonable gains vs the m395x. Comparing flops which is all I really have to go by 3.7 tflop m395x vs 5.8 tflop RX 480 @ 1,120mhz which I just randomly pulled from a comparison website. I know its not linear but 900mhz ~ 20% slower and doing direct math would = ~4.6 tflops. Now obviously that is no where near accurate, more just fun math. The poster on reddit even mentions 900mhz is the most efficient clock so my math should be worse case if what he said comes true. Pushing the bonds of "incremental".
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The GPU boost will be good regardless -- I think this reddit post is spot on.
Personally I am after the Kaby Lake update, it's minor (~200mhz) but as a developer 200mhz is another few seconds on each compile…
While I have been a proponent of a new iMac this month, I would think we would have seen supply chain leaks of the new back panel by now (with USB-C replacing USB-A and TB2). So perhaps the update is not coming until later this year - which would allow Apple to use Vega 11 GPUs as opposed to Polaris 10.
I'm not all that excited for Kaby Lake especially in an iMac. Don't get me wrong I think the i7-7700k is one of the best consumer (even prosumer) CPU's available currently. However it frequency (like the 6700K) needs the cooling capacity to back it up.
They 2015 iMac is slightly redesigned and offers just enough cooling to keep the 6700k from throttling unlike the 4790k before it in the 2014. The 2014 could thermal throttle under a few real world conditions, like pure software encoding, converting to Prores, etc basically anything that could max out the CPU for extended periods of time.
The 2015 design seem to even over compensate for the slightly higher TDP of the 6700K making it unlikely to throttle under any real world use. I'm sure you could do it with a dedicated stress test, enough time and high ambient temps but you could say that about computer.
The 7700k like you said will offer that minor bump but at the same TDP (same CPU process).
The reason I'm not excited about it, is because I do a lot of software encoding and the 6700K in an iMac sounds like a jet, for hours on end. Adding to that I'm spoiled by my 2013 i5-4760 which has a low enough TDP that it is incapable of causing the iMac (2013) to lift off of the idle fan speed (at ambient temps around 68-72F).
This is temps hours into a software encode.
Still at 1200 rpm as seen at the top.
Because of Kaby Lake and Intels inability it get to a 10nm process (btw I'm not knocking them for it I'm sure its an overwhelming task impossible for me to even fathom) I'll probably be waiting for the iMac following this next released model.
I feel a 10nm CPU could be exactly what the iMac needs to have a smaller virtually silent design under any and all work loads since its very apparent Apple is unwilling to compromise on the design. I think the iMac looks great but appearance isn't worth offending my other senses (hearing), again keep in mind I'm a bit biased based on being spoiled by my current i5.
I could get another i5 but that is only incremental, not worth the cost of upgrading for CPU alone comparing with Intels i5 7th gen offerings.
I know people here will literally lose their minds but I would be more then willing to wait for this process in an iMac. Unless their is some other ground breaking features why not just get a discounted 2015 model if CPU is your main concern?
TL;DR - While you are excited for Kaby Lake its probably the reason I won't be getting a 2017 iMac. Its fast but for my workload and desire for low noise not a very good fit in an iMac (FOR ME).
Totally understand, software encoding can cause fans to go full blast for a long period of time, luckily Software development is very much about the turbo boosts just when compiles happen. My projects are not massive so the fans sometimes spike but typically just for a few minutes tops.
I also fully understand, and in light of this I'd advise people who are considering an iMac and pondering between the i5 (65W) and i7 (91W) to opt for the i5 unless you aaaabsolutely need the i7. Your ears may thank you later.
What do you remember it being? And which model are you starting from? Typically when I think this I realize I'm in the education store..
However....From the 1TB Fusion to the 1TB SSD is 700, I seem to remember it being 800. From the 2TB Fusion (high end model) to 1TB SSD its 600. Something has changed. Or maybe the option changed and it was a 1TB HDD?
Something is definitely changing. There definitely was a 2tb PCIe SSD option on the high end MacBook Pro which I can no longer find.
EDIT : I'm just looking at the wrong Mac. The one at the bottom I assumed was the high end model. Nothing to see here keep moving.... Didn't realize the old MacBook Pro was still for sale....at $1,999 lol yeesh
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Yea, I thought it was 800ish to upgrade from the bottom model. That might have been from a 1TB, but I don't recall. Stacked SSDs are becoming much more common which means apple really needs to drive their price down. Crucial's 2TB SSDs are only 550, but I don't know if Apple uses the more reliable SSDs. I know there is supposed to be a limit on how long a SSD will last, but I have a 2011 MBP with a 2011 SSD installed & it still works great today.
Apple did lower the price on the SSD upgrades for the 2015 MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro, so perhaps they are now doing the same for the iMac.
It seems every time SSD prices start to fall Apple uses a latest and greatest and passes on the premium. I'm not sure how I feel about that, and with even better stuff around the corner....ugh.
No price reduction here in the UK unfortunately and not many rumours of any iMac 2017 updates either.So many new components being released lately,
must be planning something that's for sure, but when?I am getting restless to say the least.
Come on
give us some official news on the matter and put us out of our agony 
If that happens Apple will just release a smaller version of the imac. The end result will be the same.
9th of March... there is little hope for a March release for the iMac. The lack of rumors spells "pushback", so it might be April, May, or June. They have all the hardware to put it on the market today.
This depends entirely on your workload. In my video transcoding tests using FCPX, hyperthreading on an i7 makes a 30% performance improvement. This can be proved by using the CPUSetter utility to disable/enable hyperthreading on an i7. Use this utility at your own risk: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/48580/cpusetter
Since the i5 runs at 3.3Ghz and the i7 at 4Ghz, that alone is 21%. So for certain multi-threaded tasks the i7-6700K could be 50% faster than the i5. For that amount of improvement I'll put up with a little fan noise.