New iMac with M4 • Hacker News Board

Re: New iMac with M4

#51

Post by observationist » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #10

If 32GB is the max, why not just make that the one and only model and get rid of this weird segmentation. That's a ridiculously low minimum and only just barely adequate. 8GB was practically criminal. Or -- and I know this is crazy -- slottable RAM on a device that is designed for things other than portability. Wild, I know.

Arbitrary markup based on whatever they can maximally extract from their consumers is the name of the game. Product segmentation is just one of a variety of tools used to that purpose.

Re: New iMac with M4

#52

Post by Hamuko » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #3

16GB base RAM, they finally did it. They also did move the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse to USB-C.

Surprised that they didn't offer it with 8 GB, since they do have a 8 GB version of the M4 in the (cheaper) iPad Pro.

Re: New iMac with M4

#53

Post by stu2b50 » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

candiddevmike wrote: post #42

stu2b50 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ram is on the package for more than portability. It’s necessary for fast enough transfer speeds for the iGPU.

> necessary for fast enough transfer speeds Source?

When was the last time you saw a GPU with slottable memory?

For transfer speeds, look at the data sheets for the M series. Much faster than DDR4 or DDR5 RAM. In the ballpark of GPU memory.

Re: New iMac with M4

#54

Post by HeuristicsCG » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #32

mmastrac wrote: post #10

If 32GB is the max, why not just make that the one and only model and get rid of this weird segmentation. That's a ridiculously low minimum and only just barely adequate. 8GB was practically criminal. Or -- and I know this is crazy -- slottable RAM on a device that is designed for things other than portability. Wild, I know.

> That's a ridiculously low minimum and only just barely adequate. What are you doing? I'm still doing web development with Chrome, JetBrains, and Docker on a 16GB M1 Pro and it isn't a problem. For the average Chrome-using citizen, 16GB should be fine.

I'm over here doing hobbyist C++ development and web browsing on an 8gb m1 air without any issues.

Re: New iMac with M4

#55

Post by aabhay » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

phs2501 wrote: post #30

fckgw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They literally can't. They moved the headphone jack from the back to the side because it was too long. Now you could argue if it needs to be that thin but for the current configuration, there's nothing you can cram behind the screen.

For something that's literally designed to sit on a desk, yes... it's ridiculous to make it thinner in a dimension you never see vs one that you see all the time.

Aesthetics is also for the environment of the object rather than the primary user. That’s the reason the logo is on the back

Re: New iMac with M4

#56

Post by candiddevmike » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

phs2501 wrote: post #16

Why does this still have the ridiculous iMac chin? Surely they can fit everything behind the screen at this point.

These look hideous tbh. I'm waiting for the iMac to flip vertically and ask me to tip.

Re: New iMac with M4

#57

Post by bluedino » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

bearjaws wrote: post #6

> the new iMac is up to 1.7x faster than iMac with M1 Now 4 generations in, they are still comparing performance to M1. I get that 15-20% improvements aren't too exciting but it feels old.

I know it's not the same, but it's like Intel saying the Pentium IV is however many times faster than then Pentium MMX

Re: New iMac with M4

#58

Post by ChadNauseam » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #10

If 32GB is the max, why not just make that the one and only model and get rid of this weird segmentation. That's a ridiculously low minimum and only just barely adequate. 8GB was practically criminal. Or -- and I know this is crazy -- slottable RAM on a device that is designed for things other than portability. Wild, I know.

I’ve never felt memory limited on my 16gb macbook pro, on which I code, run rust-analyzer (major memory hog), video edit, etc. Most people definitely don’t need 32GB

Re: New iMac with M4

#59

Post by giraffe_lady » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:34 PM UTC

phs2501 wrote: post #16

Why does this still have the ridiculous iMac chin? Surely they can fit everything behind the screen at this point.

where do you put ur sticky notes?

Re: New iMac with M4

#60

Post by bearjaws » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 3:34 PM UTC

Hamuko wrote: post #41

mmastrac wrote: post #10

If 32GB is the max, why not just make that the one and only model and get rid of this weird segmentation. That's a ridiculously low minimum and only just barely adequate. 8GB was practically criminal. Or -- and I know this is crazy -- slottable RAM on a device that is designed for things other than portability. Wild, I know.

32 GB seems plenty for me for the target audience. The iMac is aimed at a rather casual computer user, especially now that they nixed the larger screen size one.

I agree, I run 32gb on a dev Macbook pro and it's enough, even our largest app is around 20k files and the language server uses 5gb of ram. I often sit around 22-24gb of usage with Docker running.

For most people 32gb is not going to hold them back.