Will there ever be a new large iMac (Pro)?

[pldelisle]

And there's rumours of Nvidia racing to an August launch of Ampere to beat them to the 'punch.'

Ampere will rock. RDNA2 will probably feel miserable next to it. Just with the preview of A100 for servers, this GPU is going to rock the hell out of it. Oh yeah, it gonna heat the hell out of it too (300+w TDP for consumer cards), but it's going to be impressive.

NVIDIA A100 GPUs Power the Modern Data Center

The fastest data center platform for AI and HPC.

www.nvidia.com

This is massive.

 

[triangletechie]

I really hope a redesign finally solves the dust under the screen issue. My 2017 has been fantastic except it now has dust in each of the bottom corners. Unfortunately I didn't add AC to it at the time of purchase. If I buy the new model, I absolutely will add it this time.

 

[xgman]

As an old-timer my duty is to remind again...lower your expectations!
Only then can you be truly happy with what is announced.

I'm going with no redesign and updated 10th gen CPU.
That's how it's done.

Then I'm going with "ugg"... or alternatively "bleh"

By the way, I think this ARM transition will be a lot more gradual than has been suggested here, aside from whatever air or macbook basic that they start it off in. The pro lines may not ARM for years, depending on what intel does in the meantime, and how developers react.

 

[Freida]

I hope they preview RDNA2 for a product. iMac or iMac Pro so we know otherwise they might screw us so badly

 

[lilcosco08]

Ampere will rock. RDNA2 will probably feel miserable next to it. Just with the preview of A100 for servers, this GPU is going to rock the hell out of it. Oh yeah, it gonna heat the hell out of it too (300+w TDP for consumer cards), but it's going to be impressive.

NVIDIA A100 GPUs Power the Modern Data Center

The fastest data center platform for AI and HPC.

www.nvidia.com

This is massive.

It gets even better; the 20% TDP increase comes at the same time as 12nm -> 7nm. These cards are going to shred

 

[iPadified]

A preview and BTO RDNA2 option isn't that far out of whack. Apple being AMD's largest PC based GPU customer? And the close work done on the 5600M...suggests that there may be more fruit to come.

I would not be surprised if Apple got a custom made early mid range chip of RDNA2. Apple is, after all, a very loyal costumer and might provide some extra buzz around RDNA2.

 

[Azrael9]

Ampere will rock. RDNA2 will probably feel miserable next to it. Just with the preview of A100 for servers, this GPU is going to rock the hell out of it. Oh yeah, it gonna heat the hell out of it too (300+w TDP for consumer cards), but it's going to be impressive.

NVIDIA A100 GPUs Power the Modern Data Center

The fastest data center platform for AI and HPC.

www.nvidia.com

This is massive.

It will be impressive in performance...and heat. ...and unavailable to Apple customers. Unfortunately.

This will be their 3rd crack at accelerating ray tracing. I'd expect it to have less of a performance hit for consumers with this iteration.

If the performance of Ampere is 50% greater (up to...as they say...) than a 2080 Ti(?)/2080.

...and a Big Navi is 25% faster (allegedly) than a 2080 Ti/2080.

My conclusion is that Ampere's Titan will be 25% faster than Big Navi. And that will come at a cost in £ and Heat.

AMD Radeon returning to the high end stack does one thing.

It brings disruption the the 4k consumer performance arena and force Nvida to compete on performance and price.

That means more affordable GPU products for the consumer. At least from Radeon I would have thought. The respun 5700XT should be cheaper. And I'm guessing a 6700XT will hold the RDNA2 entry spot at around £450. (Maybe a 6600XT at around £300-£350?)

Azrael.
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These cards are going to shred

This is THE best gpu iteration for a long, long time. The PS5 live event showed me all I needed to know.

Azrael.

 

[fastlanephil]

I don’t watch the Apple WWDC keynotes live now as it interferes with my daily walk/run which is emotionally much healthier post SJ. But I am hoping for any news that will help me determine if I should begin the process of learning a cross platform DAW, probably Cubase.

 

[Azrael9]

I would not be surprised if Apple got a custom made early mid range chip of RDNA2. Apple is, after all, a very loyal costumer and might provide some extra buzz around RDNA2.

We should frame this post by iPadified. This is what we and Apple should be aiming for.

That's kind of what I've been *hinting* at for a while now.

(I'm not completely insane, folks... )

If Apple can do a custom 5600M with HBM2 for a thermal budget of 50W on a Macbook Pro...

...why not a something forward facing for the 'new' iMac.

Apple are AMD's biggest PC vendor customer? Whilst I wouldn't expect the 'new' iMac would get the top end Big Navi...it doesn't make sense that the 'now tower occupying' iMac 27 incher wouldn't have *SOME* access to the RDNA2 stack. There's about 4 cards (allgedly...) in this. A 6700XT/6600XT RDNA2 would bring Ray tracing to the iMac. And it SHOULD be getting it...it's been out on PC land with Nv cards for ages now. Why aren't the creative platform of Macs getting Ray Tracing on their gpus?

Are we saying consumers can get RDNA2 on a £400-500 PS5 this fall. PC owners in just over two months time in September... But iMac 'pro' customers have to wait until the following year or more (on Apple's update schedules...) to get this technology? And at 4-5 times the cost of eg the PS5?

A £2000 entry machine (which is what the 27 inch iMac effectively is...) is hardly 'consumer.' And it should be getting 'pro' level features. Despite Apple suddenly deciding that pros no longer pay £2K+....no...NOW they have to pay £6k+ to be a 'pro.' (There's an English word for what I think of that marketing voodoo...and I won't repeat it here.) Rolex. I'll leave it to others to decode that...

So. Yes. A custom mid-range RDNA2 for the iMac is what I expect and would leave me much happier with my iMac purchase.

Given the long standing £££ relationship they have with AMD's GPU division. Apple are a primary customer. Why should Apple give iMac customers cutting edge prices...for last year's tech'?

Azrael.

 

[Macintosh IIcx]

Looking forward to the reveal for sure. However, I don’t think this year will be the perfect time to buy one for me. First, I don’t expect the Mini LED displays to show up before next year, and second Intel should be able to start providing some decent CPUs again in the second part of next year. Maybe. If the new iMac is launched with 30“ or 32” Mini LED this year along with AMD CPUs, then take my money!!

 

[Azrael9]

Ampere will rock. RDNA2 will probably feel miserable next to it. Just with the preview of A100 for servers, this GPU is going to rock the hell out of it. Oh yeah, it gonna heat the hell out of it too (300+w TDP for consumer cards), but it's going to be impressive.

NVIDIA A100 GPUs Power the Modern Data Center

The fastest data center platform for AI and HPC.

www.nvidia.com

This is massive.

I did see NV's data centre video...where they demonstrate that 'one column' stack could replace the entire room.

:O

Azrael.
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If the new iMac is launched with 30“ or 32” Mini LED this year along with AMD CPUs, then take my money!!

Well. I *want* that. £££.

I'll have to suffice with an external 32 inch 4k monitor run off the new iMac, if not.

Azrael.
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Then I'm going with "ugg"... or alternatively "bleh"

By the way, I think this ARM transition will be a lot more gradual than has been suggested here, aside from whatever air or macbook basic that they start it off in. The pro lines may not ARM for years, depending on what intel does in the meantime, and how developers react.

That remains to be seen.

The Mac ARM is allegedly starting off at 8 performance cores (Firestorm) and 4 low power cores (Icestorm?) And that's probably just the A14X 'Mac' variant.

...and that's in the year they're launching the A15 for the iPhone in the same year.

...with the following year A16x. How many performance cores will this get? 16? Double the previous A14X?

If it does. I wouldn't bet against the iMac and Mac Pro getting those Mac ARM chips.

It will be a badge of honour for Apple to complete the transition in at least a year (to be competitive with the last transition...) The last one, 7 'consumer' months?

We don't know the scale or scope of the A16X. But we know the A14X will put some distance between the impressvie A12X and itself. It's two A chip iterations on. The A12 is now a two year old chip?

Suffice to say, if the A14X will be impressive in a consumer laptop...

...what's Apple's 'Pro' Mac ARM cpu going to be like? I'd guess, far more cores than 8. And single core performance to be quite formidable. It's one of the A chips strength against the mobile opposition.

Or put another way. If nearly bankrupt AMD can clobber Intel with chiplets...

....the 1.5 trillion Apple can't hammer Intel with Apple optimised ARM cores?

Azrael.
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MB Air are not "terrible". Lol ! Especially the new ones !

They won't be when they get Mac ARM chips in them...

As per CWallace's suggestion.

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

Big Navi can be dropped in later just like the 5600M was. They also want the new Mac out before the schools starts.

Hopefully the tech' can be previewed for Macs now that Sony have got their PS5 out the way 1st. The next single vendor has to be Apple. And the jamborie of PC vendors in September?

I'd be down with a custom or mid range RDNA2 'previewed' and shipping later (maybe post Nav2 launch in Sept'.)

By which time you may as well just buy it then and eGPU it and have your 'new' iMac sooner with some RDNA1 variant.

Azrael.

 

[askunk]

Actually, the first vendor. Consoles (XBox and PS5) will come later. They can be served only when production yields are satisfactory. AMD CFO has recently said that RDNA2 will come out with Big Navi first, then consoles, then RDNA2 low and mid.

At present, I doubt they have anything to give to Apple on RDNA2 (Navi 23, 24) more than some buggy driverless prototypes, apart from Navi 21 which surely is already finalised. They will have to work on Big Navi drivers, while production ramps in July, August is devoted to stocking and distribution, and September to the unveil.

 

[Azrael9]

Rumored GeForce RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 specifications emerge - VideoCardz.com

Specifications of the upcoming GeForce RTX 30 series have emerged (yet again). NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090/3080Ti/3080 We tend to avoid such rumors for a good reason, there is no way (other than calling Jensen himself) to confirm if the rumored specifications are actually real. It is simply too...

videocardz.com

Ampere. 3090/80 Ti. etc. With specs.

AMD NAVI 23 graphics processor gets GFX1032 ID - VideoCardz.com

AMD Navi 23 is confirmed Decoding AMD graphics chips is not an easy task. The more products AMD releases, the more likely they are to overlap with different architectures. Not all products are always up to date, so despite being the latest they actually feature last-gen architecture (such as...

videocardz.com

'Big' Navi. With Code and Product names and architecture.

RDNA1.

Note: 5600M (Mac) as announced.

5700XT.
5500 (M/XT.)

RDNA2.

6900XT. Not announced.
6600M (Mac) unannounced.
6500 (M/XT) Not announced.

Azrael.

 

[DrRadon]

Last of us is helping to pass time. xD

 

[krazzix]

"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst"

I prepare myself for a 5700M as top GPU option.

 

[anthony13]

When you are a student you don’t have choice to have a powerful machine you can transport
But once you have done your time (lol), desktops are more appropriate. Especially with the power an iPad can have today and will have in one week with iPadOS14

^I'm learning how true this is, and it's double impacted by the pandemic. My long coffee shop days have become longer days stuck behind my laptop and sidecar'ed iPad, I need screen real estate and much better graphics performance in the programs I use (vectorworks especially). Looking forward to Monday's announcement and trying to catch myself up with this thread to see what the consensus is.

 

[Amethyst]

As i’m app developer, i think iMac is perfect to be first mac for Arm transition rather than MacBooks because.

1 To develop/compile an app, developer needs a desktop machine (Fast enough to compile ARM binary of their app, which may be include large project) not a small MacBook type machine.
2 Desktop market is lot smaller than Laptop market, they can started a transition with lower risk.


ps. FYI iMac is the first retail intel mac. (ADT kit private)

 

[satchmo]

Not sure if this was covered in the 160+ pages, but do we think the lower end model 23" would be 4K or 5K?

If 4K, the ppi would be worse than the current 21"

I would think they would retain a distinction between the smaller and the larger iMac (4K and 5K respectively)
Or 5K and 6K if you're optimistic.

 

[CWallace]

Not sure if this was covered in the 160+ pages, but do we think the lower end model 23" would be 4K or 5K?

We're guessing 4K, but not sure if it will be 4K Retina (which will require a new 218ppi screen) or if it will use the LG 23.7" Ultrafine screen which is not Retina, but at ~186ppi is not as bad as, say, a 27" or 32" 4K screen.

 

[Moonjumper]

Not sure if this was covered in the 160+ pages, but do we think the lower end model 23" would be 4K or 5K?

If 4K, the ppi would be worse than the current 21"

I would think they would retain a distinction between the smaller and the larger iMac (4K and 5K respectively)
Or 5K and 6K if you're optimistic.

Many Apple screens do not conform to standard TV pixel dimensions. They tend go for what suits the PPI they want at the size they want. I expect it to be 4 point something.

 

[xgman]

I really hope we all haven't got ourselves all worked up over nothing. I wish someone would sneak us a pic.

 

[pepperonibois]

My long coffee shop days have become longer days stuck behind my laptop and sidecar'ed iPad, I need screen real estate and much better graphics performance in the programs I use (vectorworks especially). Looking forward to Monday's announcement and trying to catch myself up with this thread to see what the consensus is.

I feel you there.

Don't waste your time reading the backlog, nobody knows anything but the consensus is split thusly:

Some are demanding an iMac Pro Killer at an 80% discount
The more reasonable among us are expecting a solid spec bump + maybe some pleasant surprises

 

[gusping]

It will be impressive in performance...and heat. ...and unavailable to Apple customers. Unfortunately.

This will be their 3rd crack at accelerating ray tracing. I'd expect it to have less of a performance hit for consumers with this iteration.

If the performance of Ampere is 50% greater (up to...as they say...) than a 2080 Ti(?)/2080.

...and a Big Navi is 25% faster (allegedly) than a 2080 Ti/2080.

My conclusion is that Ampere's Titan will be 25% faster than Big Navi. And that will come at a cost in £ and Heat.

AMD Radeon returning to the high end stack does one thing.

It brings disruption the the 4k consumer performance arena and force Nvida to compete on performance and price.

That means more affordable GPU products for the consumer. At least from Radeon I would have thought. The respun 5700XT should be cheaper. And I'm guessing a 6700XT will hold the RDNA2 entry spot at around £450. (Maybe a 6600XT at around £300-£350?)

Azrael.
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This is THE best gpu iteration for a long, long time. The PS5 live event showed me all I needed to know.

Azrael.

I think I need to not buy any computer tech until Q4... Ampere, RDNA2, PS5, Xbox Series X, Zen 3 (although just a revision). Going to be a fantastic end of year. Oh, and I will be able to upgrade my iPhone and Apple Watch too. Lovely!
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We all deal with muppets, especially at work so I hope you mentally survive that and get ready for the "disappointing" monday.

Lets all form a circle, hold hands and make a ritual to get what we want on monday

Anyway, as its friday before WWDC my body is telling me: "we are ready for the flop event"

I guess my body knows this better than me. Hahahahahaha

Just about survived today..... Thank f**k it is the weekend! Time to refresh this thread constantly, refresh twitter leakers' pages constant, etc...
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Last of us is helping to pass time. xD

Have you got it? If so, any good?
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"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst"

I prepare myself for a 5700M as top GPU option.

That's the boring approach. I'm hoping for a 10-core i9 option and full-fat 5700 XT!

 

[Freida]

I'm ok to wait till fall so that will give Apple plenty of time to get RDNA2. Its also the timeframe for updates so I wouldn't mind having iMac revealed on monday with iMac Pro previewed. After all, the market for iMac Pro is smaller and previewing won't hurt sales as no one in their right mind would by iMac Pro right now. If someone does then I would call that person a Fusion Duck. Sorry but that literally would be the case.
Someone who needs the power of iMac Pro is also someone that knows what tech etc. is on the way and value too. So if the same person buys it now then duck me.
Sorry but there are just no other words.

So Apple has the luxury to preview it and won't hurt anything. In fact, Apple can gain as those machines are often for business purchases also and we all know how businesses like to prepare.