How does it compare for practical speed to an iMac Pro circa 2018? Asking for a friend ;)
27-inch iMac gets a major update
521–530 of 611 posts
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#522Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the 27" iMac, the memory upgrades are able to be done easily by the user. The 21" Models require taking it to an Apple Store to do so. I believe the iMac Pro also needs to be taken apart in order to upgrade the RAM.
The difficulty of lugging a 27" machine around is probably the only reason they make it user upgradable.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#523The one thing I keep missing on my 5k iMac is some form of video-in. Would be great if I could connect my MB Pro to it and use the iMac as a display. Perhaps even in a window and all mouse and keyboard events to the window get passed to the connected MacBook.
I researched why the 5k iMac doesn't have video-in, and it seems that the reason is that the display has so many pixels that it needs to pieces of hardware to drive it. Getting the timing and color calibration and what-not clearly wasn't going to happen externally, so rather than have a suboptimal experience they just took video-in out. There's also the issue that few video cards can drive that resolution. https://ww…
Those problems are typically rectified in a year or so. Presumably the hardware should last longer. Perhaps the antiport faction got their way.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#524Solid spec bump. Interesting how much emphasis they put on the camera, speakers, and mic; makes total sense in the age of Zoom. I’d also speculate this means iMac won’t be the first computer getting Apple Silicon. I wonder if it will be the last? What’s the consensus guess now? Perhaps a new MacBook Air with good performance but the real “breakthrough” is > 12 hours battery life?
Maybe a 2-in-1 windows competitor? (eg; Surface, Yoga, etc).
Their new iPad Pro took a big step in that direction with the keyboard, but it still doesn't have macos and mac apps.
Not sure whether they'd position it more as a "Macbook Touch" or "iPad Mac"...
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#525Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But for a $600-$700 machine with an ARM CPU? that's insanely competitive, and is in-line with the "basic" macbook branding. I'm skeptical Apple's introduction of their high performance CPUs exclusively on a low end device. A super light/ high performance 12ish inch machine seems right up their ally, but they don't want the new CPU associated with being a low-end "Intel Pentium Gold" type device. There might be a lo…
Maybe not exclusively, but it would make more sense as users of their more 'budget' machines likely won't be put off by its inability to run Windows and running existing Mac software more slowly due to emulation (unless it's been recompiled in the latter half of 2020). Edit: Thanks to the replies letting me know that Rosetta is still a thing. I somehow forgot. Updated.
Most Mac software should be ready with an Apple Silicon recompiled version when or soon after they ship. Apple has been showing how easy it is for most software to retarget the new chips will very little work.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#526The one thing I keep missing on my 5k iMac is some form of video-in. Would be great if I could connect my MB Pro to it and use the iMac as a display. Perhaps even in a window and all mouse and keyboard events to the window get passed to the connected MacBook.
This one kills me. With COVID, I'm now stuck working from home. I literally spend all day staring at my work Macbook Pro's small screen with a glorious but unused iMac screen sitting five inches behind it.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#527Solid spec bump. Interesting how much emphasis they put on the camera, speakers, and mic; makes total sense in the age of Zoom. I’d also speculate this means iMac won’t be the first computer getting Apple Silicon. I wonder if it will be the last? What’s the consensus guess now? Perhaps a new MacBook Air with good performance but the real “breakthrough” is > 12 hours battery life?
There is a lot of speculation that they might have a replacement MacBook 12” at launch. It would be a good fit. That one is not listed in any of the stronger rumors though.
The strongest rumors are for a MacBook Pro 13/14 and a 24” iMac. The 24” iMac suggests that they will switch to new designs with the new chips.
I don’t think that Apple will restrict their new chips to just a little MacBook. It would make it look like that is all they can do. They are going to want to come in strong and have a range of chips on different machines. Some with high efficiency and some with high performance. They seem confident and I suspect they will pull this off.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#528I bought a 2012 iMac with 8GB of memory as the baseline. We’re more than halfway through 2020 and Apple is telling us 8GB is still just fine for a >$2000 computer?
Given their crazy RAM price markups, I prefer to have this option so that I can buy my own RAM from another source.
Pretty sure you can't upgrade the RAM in the newer models.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#529Earlier quoted context omitted.
> people still buy their machines Sure, but more would buy at lower prices. That said I don't doubt that Apple has researched this a zillion ways, and this price point is there for solid reasons.
Apple intentionally prices a lot of customers out of their market. Their monetary strategy relies on it, oddly enough. If they sold to more people, they’d run into many more issues being seen as a monopoly. Tim Cook spelled it out pretty clearly to Congress when he testified last week; Apple does not have majority market share in any market they’re in. Not in smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, or wearables. And…
I imagine they also reduce their support resources, and improve their customer retention, by pricing where they do. Low-cost shoppers are going to be hard to retain.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#530Earlier quoted context omitted.
oof, that is brutal. I just ordered one and assumed it would support it. My imac from way back in 2012 supported it and with connectivity only improving since then it never crossed my mind that it wouldn't support it.
I think that went away with the jump to 5k. I remember some intent to readd it when possible, but I haven’t seen it yet.
Apple brags about their custom timing controller a minute into the original 5k iMac intro vid:
https://youtu.be/6vBEiPaegjM?t=60
This is most certainly why video input does not exist. What's ridiculous is they clearly figured it out to support the LG 5K display which is the exact same panel and over TB3 which the iMac fully supports.