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

[Azrael9]

i'm on the beast now @Azrael9 its sweet

Excellent Whiteman007..!!! Enjoy that iMac Sugar. (Kick the wheels and open her up... Feel free to share your user case/workload/benches..!)

And?

11am this morning!?

BOOOOM!

FINALLY!

IT ARRIVES!!! IT'S HERE!!!!!!

Azrael.

 

[teetoo]

Just been encoding 8k 360 footage and properly experienced fans at full throttle, also get same when playing it back at bit... but hey, I can actually playback 8k footage full screen with no lag or dropped frames which is such a result for video editing and the main reason for maxing out on the BTO. Happy days!

 

[Azrael9]

"

• Delivered."

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

Just been encoding 8k 360 footage and properly experienced fans at full throttle, also get same when playing it back at bit... but hey, I can actually playback 8k footage full screen with no lag or dropped frames which is such a result for video editing and the main reason for maxing out on the BTO. Happy days!

That's insane. 8k footage on an iMac. Full screen. No lag. No dropped frames.

It seems iMac has come of age.

To the Max.

Azrael.

 

[krell100]

Congrats to everyone getting a shiny new iMac, enjoy pealing that plastic off!

@Az: Its been a long road!

The wait for a 30" AS Mac begins for me but the old TrashCan purrs along nicely so the wait will be bearable..

 

[Azrael9]

Congrats to everyone getting a shiny new iMac, enjoy pealing that plastic off!

@Az: Its been a long road!

The wait for a 30" AS Mac begins for me but the old TrashCan purrs along nicely so the wait will be bearable..

A long road. Indeed.

Currently re-arranging my studio environment. Involves dusting, cleaning, hoovering...

Yes. The wait for the 30 incn+(?) AS iMac begins. (I'd say within 12 months of this Intel iMac. There is the chance it launches with the iMac24...which will be AS14 based. But the larger iMac? AS15 based...?) The AS Macs are going to be x86 slayers. The design show stopping. The performance INtel CRuShinG!

"Slay the hordes of darkness. REVENGE!" *(PS bake offs...buttery smooth 8k video work...)*

This thread is far from over.

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

Now...back to sorting the Attic Studio...

*Benches* to follow.

Got to pick up a copy of Windows 10 locally.

...and I'll order the RAM on the new iMac. (I guess I don't trust the PC side for doing things like that online...)

Azrael.

 

[iDan75]

I must say I had no interest in the new 27”, and was happy to wait for the smaller AS model, but the enthusiasm I’m getting from the forum has given me second thoughts. Hope everyone is loving their new toys ?

 

[Azrael9]

OWC Express 4M2

Four M.2 SSD bays with pure adrenaline inducing Thunderbolt 3 performance.

eshop.macsales.com

What you folks think to this?

M2 based NAS type thing. Affordable chassis. Upto 4 drives. m.2. Kick az speed.

I could have two drive for the Mac (apps and data...) and two for the PC Bootcamp...(apps and data...)

Azrael.

 

[Azrael9]

I must say I had no interest in the new 27”, and was happy to wait for the smaller AS model, but the enthusiasm I’m getting from the forum has given me second thoughts. Hope everyone is loving their new toys ?

It's if you have a dead Mac or poor performance for your work Mac.

The gains are the most substantial in years. And the price perf' is :OOOOO

That 5700XT wit' teh 16 gigs of Vram...

Anybody who has a decent and recent Mac can sit this out. But anyone around 2012?

Take a look at the benches. It's warp drive compared to what you have.

Azrael.

 

[DrRadon]

Got to pick up a copy of Windows 10 locally.

How much did you end up paying?

 

[The_Lord_of_Apple]

OWC Express 4M2

Four M.2 SSD bays with pure adrenaline inducing Thunderbolt 3 performance.

eshop.macsales.com

What you folks think to this?

M2 based NAS type thing. Affordable chassis. Upto 4 drives. m.2. Kick az speed.

I could have two drive for the Mac (apps and data...) and two for the PC Bootcamp...(apps and data...)

Azrael.

How much storage space are you going to have externally? You are better off with something like this - https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVP20/

or you could have just upgraded your iMac to 4TB internal storage which would have worked out cheaper. NVME M.2 1TB/2TB units are expensive.

 

[pldelisle]

Intel unveils 10nm SuperFin, Xe-HPG gaming, Tiger Lake and Alder Lake architectures - VideoCardz.com

Intel Unpacks Architectural Innovations and Reveals New Transistor Technology at Architecture Day 2020 Architecture Day 2020 Unveils Willow Cove, Tiger Lake and Xe Architectures, Introduces New Transistor Technology as Intel Advances its Six Pillars of Innovation August 13, 2020 – At the...

videocardz.com

Azrael.

It’s looking more and more like Apple Silicon but remains on x86...!

 

[pldelisle]

Increased Ram limit. (128 gigs of RAM? Who needs that much? Apart from@ pldelisle.)

I do.
I was uncompressing a json log file of 6 GB yesterday. Had a ton of apps running, medical imaging viewer... I totally ran out of memory. At least 64 GB to be comfortable lol.

 

[EugW]

I see you are using a monitor stand. Has anyone used a mesh stand? They are supposed to increase air flow. I read a couple of reviewers saying it reduced fan noise.

For the iMac? Doesn't seem likely. It's not as if there is an air intake at the bottom of stand.

update: when doing final render's in Vectorworks, I'm able to compete with a jet taking off.

How long does it take to get to jet mode? 30 seconds? If several minutes that's not so bad, but the 30 s ramp up is annoying IMO.

Which model?

Random News i don't think we were aware of yet:
MaxTech noted on his youtube that this new 27 inch iMac now supports HDR Video playback.

This is not limited to current 2020 iMacs.

My 2017 iMac supports 4K HDR VP9 and HEVC video playback as well, fully hardware accelerated, and the 2019 iMacs add streaming video 4K HDR DRM support (eg. Apple TV+) to that too.

 

[iDan75]

It's if you have a dead Mac or poor performance for your work Mac.

The gains are the most substantial in years. And the price perf' is :OOOOO

That 5700XT wit' teh 16 gigs of Vram...

Anybody who has a decent and recent Mac can sit this out. But anyone around 2012?

Take a look at the benches. It's warp drive compared to what you have.

Azrael.

Not for work and not dead, just very slow and very, very hot. External SSD is helping, but I’m sure it’ll tide me over until AS arrives. I also have 13” MBP and 11” IPP as backups, so no panic, just impatience that comes with saving up the money and having it in the bank ready to spend ?

I’m processing 30mb raw files in Lightroom and 150mb word documents so nothing like some of you guys are working on, but my trusty 2011 warrior is failing me.

It’s just the unknowns that AS brings re software, esp Adobe Lightroom Classic & Office 365. Hoping that it’s a simple transition and all sorted by then.

 

[iDan75]

It's if you have a dead Mac or poor performance for your work Mac.

The gains are the most substantial in years. And the price perf' is :OOOOO

That 5700XT wit' teh 16 gigs of Vram...

Anybody who has a decent and recent Mac can sit this out. But anyone around 2012?

Take a look at the benches. It's warp drive compared to what you have.

Azrael.

I’m presuming (hoping) I’ll be able to get a decent 24” AS model for under £2k that will keep me going for the foreseeable.

 

[DrRadon]

I’m presuming (hoping) I’ll be able to get a decent 24” AS model for under £2k that will keep me going for the foreseeable.

Of cause you will. If 27 inch starts at under 2000€ the smaller one will have options well under 2000€

 

[John90976]

Excited for your take on this 5700XT Azrael, it genuinely feels like AMD gave Apple some RDNA1.5 considering the lower power requirements for how much output this GPU has, unless the 16GB is the culprit. The 11GB 20180 TI ($1200USD) can play 4/5k with a few settings cut down while requiring 3-4x the power, and the 5700XT is right there with it based on some incredibly intensive games I've tried. Throw in the value of the 5K display and I am SAVING time/money not building a PC. Unfortunately most of the iMac reviewers are not well versed in the GPU world and kept underrating this card in their reviews. It's a beast, going to see how the system handles sustained high usage today.

 

[iDan75]

Of cause you will. If 27 inch starts at under 2000€ the smaller one will have options well under 2000€

That’s what I’m hoping too, but it will be interesting to see how Apple price the AS models. From what I hear, in theory, they should be cheaper, but Apple being Apple, they may likely add a premium.

 

[iDan75]

Of cause you will. If 27 inch starts at under 2000€ the smaller one will have options well under 2000€

Although it’s tricky for me to spec up a current 21” intel model for less that £2k for what I’d want, especially the way ram is priced.

 

[DrRadon]

Although it’s tricky for me to spec up a current 21” intel model for less that £2k for what I’d want, especially the way ram is priced.

Well, if you spec up thats definitely a issue. Right now you can still talk to people that can open a iMac up safely as i think ram is not soldered but i have this funny feeling that ARM will be so thin that there is no room leftfot something as clunky as old school ram bricks.

 

[krazzix]

Some benchmarks for tasks that I do very often:

Test	iMac 2011	iMac 2020	Performance gain
Boot	50s	30s	66%
Phpstorm boot + project	18s	10s	80%
Docker reboot	45s	28s	60%
Indexing large project	1m12s	30s	2,4x
Running full test suite	3m45s	2m10s	73%
Reload page in local env	1100ms	500ms	2,2x
Reload CMS in local env	500ms	250ms	2x
Windows VM boot	60s	20s	3x
Encoding H265 video - 1080p 10m	12fps - 20m	195fps - 1m	16x (!)
Boot into Windows + Steam	2m40s	35s	4,6x

Also tried out 2 games:

Doom Eternal
4k ultra-nightmare - medium: Between 15 - 45fps, not very playable in intense fights
1440p ultra-nightmare: Solid 60fps. So anything below is also 60fps. Plays butter smooth and not much visible difference between 4k anyway.

Horizon Zero Dawn
4k ultra - medium: Between 15 and 30 fps, not really playable
1440p - ultra: 35 fps
1440p - high: 40 fps
1440p - medium: 45 fps
1440p - low: 50 fps
1080p - ultra: 55 fps
1080p - high: 50 fps

So this game performs way worse, but this is probably because it's badly optimized. Also when I boot it, it says I should update my drivers, but I haven't found any way to do so as of now.

Fan noise
The fan noise is slightly less annoying than with the 2011 iMac, but it kicks in way more often. Any game or any CPU intensive task (even when short) kicks in the fans quite fast. It's possible it's also due to the weather here, it's insanely hot these last few days and I don't have any airco.

 

[DrRadon]

No movement here, i doubt there is any chance to have the iMac by monday or even tuesday even if it still sais 17-24th.

 

[krazzix]

Excited for your take on this 5700XT Azrael, it genuinely feels like AMD gave Apple some RDNA1.5 considering the lower power requirements for how much output this GPU has, unless the 16GB is the culprit. The 11GB 20180 TI ($1200USD) can play 4/5k with a few settings cut down while requiring 3-4x the power, and the 5700XT is right there with it based on some incredibly intensive games I've tried. Throw in the value of the 5K display and I am SAVING time/money not building a PC. Unfortunately most of the iMac reviewers are not well versed in the GPU world and kept underrating this card in their reviews. It's a beast, going to see how the system handles sustained high usage today.

Could you share some benchmarks?