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Apple Teases Upcoming Space Gray iMac Pro, "the most powerful Mac ever"

194 points by runesoerensen 9y ago

mmastrac 9y ago
I’m disappointed they chose “pretty” over a “functional” metal box like the old Mac Pros. They ran into thermal issues with the fancy design of the trash can, despite their promises of cutting edge thermal design. These iMac Pros are probably going to be soldered-CPU, soldered-RAM beasts with low repairability. It's a bit of a small victory that they support external GPUs, but I think they are missing the boat here.
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  Agreed. Pretty is not everything. Many of us just need a practical and flexible machine to work with.
  - vosper 9y ago
    There are plenty of nice looking PC cases out there these days. I'm hoping to build a Hackintosh into an NZXT Manta case [0] (the windowless, matte black one) so that I can have practical, flexible, pretty, and quiet [0] https://www.nzxt.com/products/manta-matte-black-windowless https://www.nzxt.com/products/manta-matte-black-windowless
    - maxxxxx 9y ago
      Nothing wrong with pretty. The problem with Apple these days seems to be that they compromise extensibility for prettiness.
      - nas 9y ago
        I think their real target market is no longer pros. The pros are vastly outnumbered by people with a lot a money that will buy the latest shiny thing Apple puts out. As a company strategy to make the most money, its smart. If you are a pro looking for a serious work computer, Macs are just not very compelling.
        maxxxxx 9y ago
        You are probably right but I think that's pretty shortsighted. I think one of the main reasons for the rise of the Macbooks was the fact that suddenly a lot of developers started using them. Once developers start moving away from Mac their ecosystem will hurt a lot.
      - vosper 9y ago
        Absolutely - and OSX is still the king of HiDPI compatibility, along with some other niceties. That's why I think a Hackintosh is the way to go - though it's a lot of work to build your own machine. If I had the skill and time I'd start selling compact PCs with hardware that just happened to be compatible with OSX. Might be a small market, but I think it's there.
        maxxxxx 9y ago
        A "Certified for Hackintosh" product line could sell pretty well for developers. Or being able to run a Hackintosh as VM in Linux. You probably would need a good lawyer though.
- mpweiher 9y ago
  This is the stopgap. They said there'll be a real Pro in 2018.
  - kilroy123 9y ago
    Then why should anyone buy this one?
    - _ph_ 9y ago
      It is available earlier, and perhaps, with those "power" upgrades, it does the job for a large part of the audience. The iMac is a really great computer for all, who don't need to exchange components. Now with real workstation class power.
    - fredsted 9y ago
      It's a different product for a different audience. And it has a screen.
- usaphp 9y ago
  This is not a Mac Pro, it's an iMac pro...
- phlowbieuq 9y ago
  Historically, Apple has been verrrrrry anal about making their x-ray marketing images reflect the real design that is hiding inside their units...and I definitely saw RAM sticks in slots when they were showing off the fans. So maybe they have changed course just a little?
  - Joeri 9y ago
    The 27 inch imac has always had slotted ram.
- floatboth 9y ago
  DIMMs were visible in the cooling system animation they showed on stage. Also I doubt that Intel will even make non-socketed Xeons.
Keyframe 9y ago
From what pro users wanted - this makes it worse, not better.
- cupofjoakim 9y ago
  Atleast it's a relatively powerful all apple option. Earlier we'd have to go for a hackintosh, which is a no go in many professional environments. Still not good enough tho - it's not upgradeable.
  - Keyframe 9y ago
    It would be a great thing if screen was a cintiq, like Surface. This.. it feels like a stopgap - expensive one at that.
sz4kerto 9y ago
I'm watching this iMac announcement and .. hm, I still find it underwhelming. The top-spec'd iMac will be less powerful (when it comes to CPU) in Jan/2018 than my current desktop I bought in mid-2015. We'll see the actual pricing though. I don't think that forcing high-perf components into a small desktop chassis makes a lot of sense, but it might me only me.
- shams93 9y ago
  For starting at 5k the pricing requires a bank loan for most people when you could pick up a refurbished desktop for $300-400
  - 36bydesignBL 9y ago
    Which is why it isn't aimed at "most people."
  - always_good 9y ago
    I bought a suit from Goodwill for $50 in uni. Doesn't mean there isn't a market for more expensive suits.
  - spike021 9y ago
    I don't think this is for the average consumer.
  - empath75 9y ago
    The market for this is enterprise users.
- smitherfield 9y ago
  >The top-spec'd iMac will be less powerful (when it comes to CPU) in Jan/2018 than my current desktop Your current desktop has a more powerful CPU than an 18-core Skylake Xeon?!
- mrweasel 9y ago
  I think there a VERY small subset for users that need anything that the current line of iMac can't deliver. At my previous employer I had a 2012 iMac as a developer workstation. It would still be more than sufficient today. Even my 2011 MacBook Air would still be fine, if it wasn't for me wanting a better screen and more than 128GB of storage. People buy Macs for the operating system, not the hardware. The hardware has been sufficient for at least five years in a row, for all but a very small subset of consumers. I would agree with you that the Mac isn't a particular cost efficient way of getting high performance hardware, it's just that I don't think that matter any more. Windows is still a bastard operating system and Linux is not nearly as polished as MacOS. Personally I'm not sure that I'll necessarily get a Mac next time, but there's also not a whole lot of other options out there. Maybe I'll built an OpenBSD box, at least that OS is consistent.
mtgx 9y ago
I just can't believe they chose the 18-core 2018 Intel vaporware chip [1] over this year's 16-core AMD Threadripper. Very strange decision on Apple's part. Not to mention they could've sold the iMac Pro for like $1,000 less. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWFzWRoVNnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWFzWRoVNnE
- knd775 9y ago
  Thunderbolt.
  - redtuesday 9y ago
    Yeah, probably the biggest reason. Maybe this will change when Thunderbolt will be royalty-free next year. AMD has the advantage of being the only company on this planet which can combine a high performance x86 CPU and high performance GPU.
    - fliptables 9y ago
      I'm kinda hoping for Thunderbolt PCIe cards that aren't tied to a specific brand or board. Would be nice to just throw an x4 or x8 card into an existing system to get one or two TB3 ports for stuff like external storage.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- endorphone 9y ago
  18 core Xeon chips have been available for 3+ years. There is nothing particularly odd about Apple's choice -- AMD has not been a serious competitor in the workstation market for years, and even with their newest entrant are only nipping at the very bottom of the market.
  - masklinn 9y ago
    Also, no Thunderbolt from AMD.
danieldk 9y ago
It is interesting that they have gone this direction, since Pros were clearly asking for something more akin to the cheese gater. The price for the entry-level model is also pretty bad. It's also a shame that the Mac Mini seems to be dead (at least no updates in the keynote). At least the MacBook and iMac line got nice bumps.
- kogepathic 9y ago
  > It's also a shame that the Mac Mini seems to be dead (at least no updates in the keynote). Yeah which is really too bad. I bet there's a larger market for a "Mac Mini Pro" with similar specs to this iMac, but without the integrated display (and hefty price premium Apple exerts). I seriously don't understand how Apple supposedly have time to design an advanced cooling system for the iMac Pro yet can't come up with a bog-standard cheese grater case like the previous Mac Pro design...
colept 9y ago
This is Apple's answer to their negligence to the Pro market, and it's hugely disappointing. The iMac was already supposed to be a Pro machine. And then they "New Coke"'d it by making it too thin and susceptible to overheating. Performance suffered and now they're compensating with this machine. At $5000 the iMac Pro falls just short of a ~$2000 Hackintosh. It's still locked into the thin form factor that can't be upgraded and does not vent heat well enough. I'm sure this works for big companies like Disney where machines are replaced every few years. However as a developer, a Pro user, I've never felt more validated in my choice to switch away from Apple's hardware.
- goodroot 9y ago
  Why do you assume that heat ventilation will be an issue with the iMac Pro?
  - WalterSear 9y ago
    * 8 Core Intel Xeon * Radeon Vega graphics * 500 Watt power supply
  - sp332 9y ago
    They mentioned this during the product announcement. It has completely different cooling, with dual centrifugal fans. http://live.arstechnica.com/apples-wwdc-2017-keynote-liveblog/images/DSC00077.JPG http://live.arstechnica.com/apples-wwdc-2017-keynote-liveblo... (From the Ars liveblog http://live.arstechnica.com/apples-wwdc-2017-keynote-liveblog/ http://live.arstechnica.com/apples-wwdc-2017-keynote-liveblo... )
    - foobarbazetc 9y ago
      Anyone buying a $5000 rev 1 Apple product knows what's going to happen...
      - greedo 9y ago
        The liquid cooled Mac Pro G5 I used to own agrees with you...
heliumcraft 9y ago
I don't think an equivalent PC really costs $7000 USD....
- rbanffy 9y ago
  A Dell Precision 7000 will set you back US$3000 at a configuration similar to the iMac Pro. Add a good 27" 5K display, PCI-based SSD and you are close to US$ 6000 with a GPU that's a generation behind. And it comes with Windows. Nobody deserves that.
  - heliumcraft 9y ago
    Wait, but Dell Precision 7000 is a laptop? you can't compare with a desktop. I just built a good gaming PC that can be overclocked including a GTX 1080 for just $2300 (monitor excluded). I'm sure with $4700 more it's possible to get something still better than this new imac pro.. yet with a good cooling system and upgradable at any time. edit: $2300 INCLUDING 15% taxes
    - rbanffy 9y ago
      Sorry, the Precision 7000 is the "Fixed workstation". You'll probably can get something with higher performance, but it'll probably also take up more space, generate more heat and make more noise. It'll also demand more time to select the components and assemble it. If you enjoy doing it, OK. If you don't, your time is more expensive than the difference. I selected a Dell because I want a single phone number to call when something goes wrong.
      - heliumcraft 9y ago
        You're right about that, I installed 6 fans on the computer case alone and it can be noisy at times, but I'm happy with what I'm getting and I can upgrade later. This is for desktop, for laptops I might still go with apple however.
    - ProblemFactory 9y ago
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
cupofjoakim 9y ago
Well, atleast it has a VESA mount?
aspirin 9y ago
I hope this isn't the "Mac Pro successor" Apple was alluding to earlier this year...
- masklinn 9y ago
  No it's not, in April they both talked about a modular Mac Pro which would ship "not this year" (the iMac Pro is slated to ship in December), and they did specifically refer to this iMac Pro: > “great” new iMacs in the pipeline, slated for release “this year”, including configurations specifically targeted at large segments of the pro market. https://daringfireball.net/2017/04/the_mac_pro_lives https://daringfireball.net/2017/04/the_mac_pro_lives
ravitation 9y ago
Keep in mind, that this sits between the iMac and the Mac Pro. A new iteration of the actual Mac Pro is expected in 2018.
rocky1138 9y ago
Is this the VR-capable one?
- rocky1138 9y ago
  Honestly, I have no clue why I got downvoted. I was genuinely asking. People keep talking about the VR Apple computer.
- tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
  Yes, it is.
- Geee 9y ago
  On their page they advertise it as capable of VR development. I hope it delivers.
toufka 9y ago
How is this not another Trashcan Mac Pro? It is a beautiful, expensive device at launch but has no capability of being upgraded, expanded or experimented with. It looks to have same thermal conundrum as the trashcan needing to dissipate the heat of the screen - all while trapped in a consumer-level shell designed specifically for exterior looks at the cost of performance. Is it not just philosophically incorrect for the pro market? And compared to the enthusiasm for their iOS here, the pro customer is clearly no longer of value to Apple.
- goodroot 9y ago
  I'd say an external GPU introduces pretty significant upgrade potential.
  - toufka 9y ago
    That was the exact statement made about the Mac Pro when it was released in 2013. Look how well that went.
    - Joeri 9y ago
      The mac pro did not feature external GPU, just external storage. The only thing you won't be able to upgrade in this machine is the CPU. The RAM is not soldered on those high end iMacs, and disk and gpu can be external over TB3.
      - toufka 9y ago
        Thunderbolt promised there would be external GPUs, but IIRC there were licensing and corporate disputes that prevented such hardware from ever materializing (after the design and debut of the Mac Pro). But it definitely was the promise of such a compact machine: "external everything!" Non-soldered RAM is a good start, but what about multiple ethernet ports, what about any standard scientific/medical/experimental PCI card, what about the new SSD/HDs that come out in 3 years? What about upgrading the CPU? What about upgrading the screen! Much less using Apple's "most powerful computer" headless?
dharma1 9y ago
How is the Radeon Vega going to be used for machine learning without framework support?
- arcanus 9y ago
  https://streamhpc.com/blog/2016-12-15/amd-gets-machine-intelligence-mi-range-hardware-software/ https://streamhpc.com/blog/2016-12-15/amd-gets-machine-intel... "AMD will be delivery HIP version of Caffe, Tensorflow, Torch7, MxNet, Theano, CNTK, Chainer, all supporting our new MIOpen – our new Deep Learning solver."
  - dharma1 9y ago
    Theyve been saying "will" for a long while now. I'll believe it once they post the github link but expect there to be a long wait
tomduncalf 9y ago
Gonna leave this here from the official press release as it seems quite a few people have missed this point: "In addition to the new iMac Pro, Apple is working on a completely redesigned, next-generation Mac Pro architected for pro customers who need the highest-end, high-throughput system in a modular design, as well as a new high-end pro display." https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/06/imac-pro-most-powerful-mac-arrives-december/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/06/imac-pro-most-powerfu... Also, I want that black keyboard!
- slg 9y ago
  That is just confusing. There will be a modular Mac Pro that is totally different from this iMac Pro? That leaves me to wonder who exactly this iMac Pro is targeted at.
  - spike021 9y ago
    I'm sure there are still professionals who would prefer pre-packaged solutions. Sure, many prefer being able to continually upgrade and add to their setups as well. Just a different kind of sub-market, I think.
    - jordache 9y ago
      how is a mac pro not a pre-packaged solution? You choose from a few pre-configured setups if you wish.
      - spike021 9y ago
        For one, it doesn't have a display included that is already proven to work precisely with the components that are packaged.
      - coldtea 9y ago
        In that the iMac displays are some of the best in the industry in a very competitive price (competitive displays cost nearly the same for the display alone).
gigatexal 9y ago
Maybe I'm a sheep but I think it's great. Up to 128GB ECC, up to 18 cores, large NVMe SSDs with up to 3GB/s speeds (likely reads, but probably also writes), and it's in that beautiful grey / black. Really cool. The 8-core model at 5k seems reasonable to me since the monitor is likely 2k itself. You'll probably see a lot of them being bought for upper eschelon developers at hip startups. And the TCO of a mac vs. a beige box PC is said to be much lower by way of lower incidents of issues, failures, etc. Edit: the one processor e5 16xx chip is less than a grand. That changes the value proposition of the iMac pro but if I had the cash I'd still get one.
- Joeri 9y ago
  Yeah, if I had that kind of money stuffed between my couch, I'd totally buy it. I don't care that it's a ridiculous machine and that single thread performance with that 18-core monster won't be anything to write home about. I still want it, because it is awesome.
  - gigatexal 9y ago
    I agree. I think the sweet spot for my workload (not encoding much video just compiling stuff) the 8-core model with higher clocks makes more sense for me.
    - seanp2k2 9y ago
      "Finally, you can `npm install` in mere minutes!"
- MitjaBezensek 9y ago
  The cheapest 5k iMac is $1799, so just the screen is probably closer to $1000.
  - gigatexal 9y ago
    so say for the imac pro which comes with 32GB ddr4 standard and a 1TB nvme ssd, an 8 core chip, and the higher end panel: 1k for the panel, 750 for the cpu, 200 for the ram, 650 for the ssd (samsung 960 pro?) comes to: 2600 before labor and other overhead. Solid margins there for sure, but I maintain still not a ripoff. As I have earned more in my career (I'm still not wealthy by any means, but I like nice things -- those things are probably related...but beside the point) I have tended to opt for nicer more upscale things and Apple usually fits the bill. Again the iMac for me is the non-pro line, but I want a pro iMac.
Jyaif 9y ago
Not very hard to release the "most powerful Mac ever" when you haven't updated your top of the line for 4 years.
goodroot 9y ago
Given the support for major gaming engines, Steam VR, and changes within Metal 2, is it wrong to be optimistic for Mac gaming? If the takeaway from this WWDC could be potential gaming parity with Windows, that's a really big deal for me. Me being the segment of Pro users who need to work on a Mac and want to game natively on one, too.
- dkonofalski 9y ago
  This is where I am and I'm already doing VR dev and playing lots of VR stuff. If this is where Apple jumps in, then I'm super excited.
- modeless 9y ago
  Optimism would be warranted if they announced Vulkan, OpenGL 4.5 and a commitment to update their product line with new internal GPUs more frequently and at reasonable prices. Thunderbolt 3 has less than half the bandwidth of PCI Express 3.0 x16 so that's a lame solution for GPU upgradability.
  - floatboth 9y ago
    GPUs don't really use the whole 3.0 x16 bandwidth, x8 is enough. It is sad that they didn't drop Metal in favor of Vulkan, yeah.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - squaredpants 9y ago
      I think some do now... And even if they do not, they will in the near future!
dasloop 9y ago
Any idea about what nCU (New Compute Unit) is? Was listed as one of the new features of the iMac Pro.
- jra101 9y ago
  That's a feature of the graphics card, AMDs new Vega GPU architecture.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
IE6 9y ago
Not a Mac user but do they ever release a top-end product that was less powerful than last year's top-end product? If not hasn't ever top-end mac ever been the most powerful mac ever?
- ex3ndr 9y ago
  MacMini 2013' are better than a new one.
  - handedness 9y ago
    You mean 2012 (Macmini6,x), right? The last of the quad-cores.
    - ex3ndr 9y ago
      Yes, thank you for clarification.
- zild3d 9y ago
  This is just common marketing, "new and improved" is slapped on everything
benologist 9y ago
I hope they sell the dark peripherals separately.
shmerl 9y ago
Still no OpenGL 4.5 support?
kuon 9y ago
I am so happy I switched to Windows, ha! My 7048A supermicro is running double E5-2650 (2x 10 cores) with 1TB ram, quadro P4000 and it was around 5000$ (not counting displays, which I had).
- zymhan 9y ago
  No one runs a Mac because they just want powerful hardware.
- kuon 9y ago
  To be fair, I had a really good wholesale price on the memory, so I guess it doesn't count.
JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
Space isn't gray?
clhodapp 9y ago
Hrm.. Folks here keep acting like this means Apple still doesn't get the Pro market (or that there is still a pro market).. This really seems to me to be a "what can we get out sooner" product released as a stopgap to next year's preannounced new Mac Pro. I suppose it's still valid to fault them for the reality of their product line and for having gotten themselves into this position in the first place, but I think it's pretty clear that this is not Apple's actual attempt to fully pent-up demand for a good traditional workstation from Apple.
- intoverflow2 9y ago
  >This really seems to me to be a "what can we get out sooner" Feels the opposite to me, feels like they've considered this the Mac Pro killer. But then at the last minute back at the start of the year realised there was still a place for a Mac Pro. Probably because this solves none of the real issues with the last Mac Pro.
old-gregg 9y ago
To all of you who're disappointed by this not being a "proper Pro": "4x larger L2 cache" and "2x wider AVX" suggest they're going to use the upcoming i9 X-series chips [1] that are based on Skylake design with ~15% better instructions-per-clock (IPC) performance than Broadwell-based Xeons, plus they'll clock much higher than Xeons too: with turbo boost up to 4.5Ghz for even the 10-core model!. Quad channel DDR4 at 2666Mhz is also an improvement. All this promises a much better single-thread performance vs the current Pro line. IMO that's insane amount of power, it can even probably handle Slack desktop client! :) [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/11464/intel-announces-skylakex-bringing-18core-hcc-silicon-to-consumers-for-1999 http://www.anandtech.com/show/11464/intel-announces-skylakex...
- symfoniq 9y ago
  With ECC support, these are almost certainly Xeons, not Skylake-X.
  - floatboth 9y ago
    They literally said "Xeon" on stage.
- fliptables 9y ago
  The Core i9 X-series chips are basically cut-down Skylake Xeons (the new "xeon gold" line, probably)
Quequau 9y ago
I'm still using my Mac Pro from 2008 and a still older 30" cinema display. I really need a new set up but so far I've not found the iMac or Mac Pro offerings really compelling. I'm not really sure I want to sign up for an all in one design because displays are often useful for much longer than workstations and the last generation of Mac Pro didn't really seem like they were worth the cost.
microcolonel 9y ago
I think this is the first time Apple has advertised the specific GPU vendor and product line in their product since... the powerbook maybe? I might have missed out on a few examples. Vega must be really something.
- floatboth 9y ago
  They always listed the GPU for everything, down to "Intel Iris Pro whatever". But yeah, Vega hype train!
jarym 9y ago
They wouldn't need this rushed excuse for a 'Pro' machine if they hadn't totally taken their eyes off the MacPro for the last 3+ years! It's like they woke up one day and realised 'oh crap people are pissed and when we asked them why we were surprised that we have upset customers because we haven't updated this MacPro thingy in a few years' and then Tim Cook must have decreed 'let's get SOMETHING out there to stop the masses turning out with pitchforks!' Really should never have come to this.
- Eric_WVGG 9y ago
  I can't tell if you're being snarky or serious, but 1) the thermal dissipation on a 12-core (or is it 18? I forget) Xeon and a GPU like that is nuts, to fit that into an iMac must have taken years, and 2) you know that Apple prefers all-in-ones and has been wanting to take the industry in this direction for years. I'd prefer a new version of the cheesegrater too but to suggest that they rushed this together is ludicrous. If anything, it's another reason why the Mac Pro got neglected for so long.
  - jarym 9y ago
    Here's the rub: people who actually buy Xeon CPUs and high-end GPUs want those parts to be replaceable and upgradeable. It's why the G5 MacPro lasted as long as it did, and why the 2013 MacPro was comparatively a straightjacket! If Apple are targeting the same demographic then they're in for another public backlash. Sticking all this high-end gear into a sealed $5k device is baffling. Make no mistake, this iMac Pro will be another 'Pro' product that's put out into the market and forgotten about for a few years. It also did not take Apple 'years' to come up with this - while it probably existed as a concept for a while I am convinced they started focussing on it after the grumbling about lack of MacPro updates. Otherwise why wait until December to release it.
    - Eric_WVGG 9y ago
      Yes and no. I'm like you and I agree that this is not the computer for us. This is a computer for Pixar artists. This is for some architects I know that do very technically demanding renders but shouldn't be trusted swapping out their own gpus. One can be a "Pro" and be qualified to or care about internals, and money is no object. The problem isn't that computers like this exist, it's that our needs were misjudged. They acknowledged that a couple months ago, and the product is coming. Meanwhile it's dumb to deny that a market exists for Pro all-in-ones.
runesoerensen 9y ago
Apple's own product page is online now with a lot more information https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/ https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/
tcarn 9y ago
"As you’d expect from a pro machine, there are plenty of high-speed ports to create a high-performance workstation." haha, except for your Macbook Pro.
dbg31415 9y ago
Wait wait wait... the last thing I want as a "Pro" is a single monitor. Feels like Apple is just repeatedly telling me to go somewhere else.
- floatboth 9y ago
  They showed TWO external 5K displays, so up to three 5K monitors total
  - dbg31415 9y ago
    They won't line up cleanly. I'm left with a desk that looks all cobbled together. This is another "pro" in name-only machine I suspect. The fact that it's an all-in-one implies to me that I can't upgrade any part of it. I don't want an all-in-one... I want a computer, with upgradable parts, and at least two monitors that match -- preferably the can use the same stand.
- genericpseudo 9y ago
  Has Thunderbolt ports. The existing iMacs can drive external displays in addition to their internal one.
AdamN 9y ago
It will be awesome if the Space Gray keyboard/mouse are only available with the iMac Pro and not independently. Then they'll be must-haves :-)
ksec 9y ago
If you need and cares about Display Quality, the Pricing for these iMac and iMac Pro are surprisingly attractive. I have yet to see anyone deliver 21" 4K Screen at a reasonable price. And all the listed spec for iMac Display aren't simply best in the industry apart from OLED.
rl3 9y ago
@dang @sctb Dupe detection just killed my iMac Pro submission with an Apple URL after it reached over 60 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14491068 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14491068 Perhaps a thread merge is in order? Official links tend to always be preferred for Apple announcements, hence my posting it. Sorry if I caused any extra work! :) It's worth noting that dupe detection also killed off salimmadjd's submission linking to the hyphenated product URL (mine is just the non-hyphenated Apple redirect to that same URL).
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
notadoc 9y ago
No Touch Bar on the keyboard. Let's hope that is a sign they will do away with it on the MacBook "Pro" as well.
Shivetya 9y ago
Okay, this is just bad. The memory cannot be upgraded by the user. https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/871852155455537152 https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/871852155455537152
midnitewarrior 9y ago
"The most powerful Mac ever" - what kind of tech company would release a new product that's worse than the previous one? Apple's Unnecessary superlatives are tiring.
meesterdude 9y ago
$5K for a machine that's still tied to their display. I have a large display I already love, and no room on my desk for anything else. I suppose there's a market for this - Probably Disney or related shops. But there's no way I would blow $5K on this. That's just insane. Maybe the Mac Pro will be more worthwhile.

194 points by runesoerensen 9y ago

I’m disappointed they chose “pretty” over a “functional” metal box like the old Mac Pros. They ran into thermal issues with the fancy design of the trash can, despite their promises of cutting edge thermal design. These iMac Pros are probably going to be soldered-CPU, soldered-RAM beasts with low repairability. It's a bit of a small victory that they support external GPUs, but I think they are missing the boat here.

maxxxxx 9y ago
Agreed. Pretty is not everything. Many of us just need a practical and flexible machine to work with.
- vosper 9y ago
  There are plenty of nice looking PC cases out there these days. I'm hoping to build a Hackintosh into an NZXT Manta case [0] (the windowless, matte black one) so that I can have practical, flexible, pretty, and quiet [0] https://www.nzxt.com/products/manta-matte-black-windowless https://www.nzxt.com/products/manta-matte-black-windowless
  - maxxxxx 9y ago
    Nothing wrong with pretty. The problem with Apple these days seems to be that they compromise extensibility for prettiness.
    - nas 9y ago
      I think their real target market is no longer pros. The pros are vastly outnumbered by people with a lot a money that will buy the latest shiny thing Apple puts out. As a company strategy to make the most money, its smart. If you are a pro looking for a serious work computer, Macs are just not very compelling.
      - maxxxxx 9y ago
        You are probably right but I think that's pretty shortsighted. I think one of the main reasons for the rise of the Macbooks was the fact that suddenly a lot of developers started using them. Once developers start moving away from Mac their ecosystem will hurt a lot.
    - vosper 9y ago
      Absolutely - and OSX is still the king of HiDPI compatibility, along with some other niceties. That's why I think a Hackintosh is the way to go - though it's a lot of work to build your own machine. If I had the skill and time I'd start selling compact PCs with hardware that just happened to be compatible with OSX. Might be a small market, but I think it's there.
      - maxxxxx 9y ago
        A "Certified for Hackintosh" product line could sell pretty well for developers. Or being able to run a Hackintosh as VM in Linux. You probably would need a good lawyer though.
mpweiher 9y ago
This is the stopgap. They said there'll be a real Pro in 2018.
- kilroy123 9y ago
  Then why should anyone buy this one?
  - _ph_ 9y ago
    It is available earlier, and perhaps, with those "power" upgrades, it does the job for a large part of the audience. The iMac is a really great computer for all, who don't need to exchange components. Now with real workstation class power.
  - fredsted 9y ago
    It's a different product for a different audience. And it has a screen.
usaphp 9y ago
This is not a Mac Pro, it's an iMac pro...
phlowbieuq 9y ago
Historically, Apple has been verrrrrry anal about making their x-ray marketing images reflect the real design that is hiding inside their units...and I definitely saw RAM sticks in slots when they were showing off the fans. So maybe they have changed course just a little?
- Joeri 9y ago
  The 27 inch imac has always had slotted ram.
floatboth 9y ago
DIMMs were visible in the cooling system animation they showed on stage. Also I doubt that Intel will even make non-socketed Xeons.

Keyframe 9y ago

From what pro users wanted - this makes it worse, not better.

cupofjoakim 9y ago
Atleast it's a relatively powerful all apple option. Earlier we'd have to go for a hackintosh, which is a no go in many professional environments. Still not good enough tho - it's not upgradeable.
- Keyframe 9y ago
  It would be a great thing if screen was a cintiq, like Surface. This.. it feels like a stopgap - expensive one at that.

sz4kerto 9y ago

I'm watching this iMac announcement and .. hm, I still find it underwhelming. The top-spec'd iMac will be less powerful (when it comes to CPU) in Jan/2018 than my current desktop I bought in mid-2015. We'll see the actual pricing though. I don't think that forcing high-perf components into a small desktop chassis makes a lot of sense, but it might me only me.

shams93 9y ago
For starting at 5k the pricing requires a bank loan for most people when you could pick up a refurbished desktop for $300-400
- 36bydesignBL 9y ago
  Which is why it isn't aimed at "most people."
- always_good 9y ago
  I bought a suit from Goodwill for $50 in uni. Doesn't mean there isn't a market for more expensive suits.
- spike021 9y ago
  I don't think this is for the average consumer.
- empath75 9y ago
  The market for this is enterprise users.
smitherfield 9y ago
>The top-spec'd iMac will be less powerful (when it comes to CPU) in Jan/2018 than my current desktop Your current desktop has a more powerful CPU than an 18-core Skylake Xeon?!
mrweasel 9y ago
I think there a VERY small subset for users that need anything that the current line of iMac can't deliver. At my previous employer I had a 2012 iMac as a developer workstation. It would still be more than sufficient today. Even my 2011 MacBook Air would still be fine, if it wasn't for me wanting a better screen and more than 128GB of storage. People buy Macs for the operating system, not the hardware. The hardware has been sufficient for at least five years in a row, for all but a very small subset of consumers. I would agree with you that the Mac isn't a particular cost efficient way of getting high performance hardware, it's just that I don't think that matter any more. Windows is still a bastard operating system and Linux is not nearly as polished as MacOS. Personally I'm not sure that I'll necessarily get a Mac next time, but there's also not a whole lot of other options out there. Maybe I'll built an OpenBSD box, at least that OS is consistent.

mtgx 9y ago

I just can't believe they chose the 18-core 2018 Intel vaporware chip [1] over this year's 16-core AMD Threadripper. Very strange decision on Apple's part. Not to mention they could've sold the iMac Pro for like $1,000 less. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWFzWRoVNnE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWFzWRoVNnE

knd775 9y ago
Thunderbolt.
- redtuesday 9y ago
  Yeah, probably the biggest reason. Maybe this will change when Thunderbolt will be royalty-free next year. AMD has the advantage of being the only company on this planet which can combine a high performance x86 CPU and high performance GPU.
  - fliptables 9y ago
    I'm kinda hoping for Thunderbolt PCIe cards that aren't tied to a specific brand or board. Would be nice to just throw an x4 or x8 card into an existing system to get one or two TB3 ports for stuff like external storage.
deleted 9y ago
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endorphone 9y ago
18 core Xeon chips have been available for 3+ years. There is nothing particularly odd about Apple's choice -- AMD has not been a serious competitor in the workstation market for years, and even with their newest entrant are only nipping at the very bottom of the market.
- masklinn 9y ago
  Also, no Thunderbolt from AMD.

danieldk 9y ago

It is interesting that they have gone this direction, since Pros were clearly asking for something more akin to the cheese gater. The price for the entry-level model is also pretty bad. It's also a shame that the Mac Mini seems to be dead (at least no updates in the keynote). At least the MacBook and iMac line got nice bumps.

kogepathic 9y ago
> It's also a shame that the Mac Mini seems to be dead (at least no updates in the keynote). Yeah which is really too bad. I bet there's a larger market for a "Mac Mini Pro" with similar specs to this iMac, but without the integrated display (and hefty price premium Apple exerts). I seriously don't understand how Apple supposedly have time to design an advanced cooling system for the iMac Pro yet can't come up with a bog-standard cheese grater case like the previous Mac Pro design...

colept 9y ago

This is Apple's answer to their negligence to the Pro market, and it's hugely disappointing. The iMac was already supposed to be a Pro machine. And then they "New Coke"'d it by making it too thin and susceptible to overheating. Performance suffered and now they're compensating with this machine. At $5000 the iMac Pro falls just short of a ~$2000 Hackintosh. It's still locked into the thin form factor that can't be upgraded and does not vent heat well enough. I'm sure this works for big companies like Disney where machines are replaced every few years. However as a developer, a Pro user, I've never felt more validated in my choice to switch away from Apple's hardware.

goodroot 9y ago
Why do you assume that heat ventilation will be an issue with the iMac Pro?
- WalterSear 9y ago
  * 8 Core Intel Xeon * Radeon Vega graphics * 500 Watt power supply
- sp332 9y ago
  They mentioned this during the product announcement. It has completely different cooling, with dual centrifugal fans. http://live.arstechnica.com/apples-wwdc-2017-keynote-liveblog/images/DSC00077.JPG http://live.arstechnica.com/apples-wwdc-2017-keynote-liveblo... (From the Ars liveblog http://live.arstechnica.com/apples-wwdc-2017-keynote-liveblog/ http://live.arstechnica.com/apples-wwdc-2017-keynote-liveblo... )
  - foobarbazetc 9y ago
    Anyone buying a $5000 rev 1 Apple product knows what's going to happen...
    - greedo 9y ago
      The liquid cooled Mac Pro G5 I used to own agrees with you...

heliumcraft 9y ago

I don't think an equivalent PC really costs $7000 USD....

rbanffy 9y ago
A Dell Precision 7000 will set you back US$3000 at a configuration similar to the iMac Pro. Add a good 27" 5K display, PCI-based SSD and you are close to US$ 6000 with a GPU that's a generation behind. And it comes with Windows. Nobody deserves that.
- heliumcraft 9y ago
  Wait, but Dell Precision 7000 is a laptop? you can't compare with a desktop. I just built a good gaming PC that can be overclocked including a GTX 1080 for just $2300 (monitor excluded). I'm sure with $4700 more it's possible to get something still better than this new imac pro.. yet with a good cooling system and upgradable at any time. edit: $2300 INCLUDING 15% taxes
  - rbanffy 9y ago
    Sorry, the Precision 7000 is the "Fixed workstation". You'll probably can get something with higher performance, but it'll probably also take up more space, generate more heat and make more noise. It'll also demand more time to select the components and assemble it. If you enjoy doing it, OK. If you don't, your time is more expensive than the difference. I selected a Dell because I want a single phone number to call when something goes wrong.
    - heliumcraft 9y ago
      You're right about that, I installed 6 fans on the computer case alone and it can be noisy at times, but I'm happy with what I'm getting and I can upgrade later. This is for desktop, for laptops I might still go with apple however.
  - ProblemFactory 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

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cupofjoakim 9y ago

Well, atleast it has a VESA mount?

aspirin 9y ago

I hope this isn't the "Mac Pro successor" Apple was alluding to earlier this year...

masklinn 9y ago
No it's not, in April they both talked about a modular Mac Pro which would ship "not this year" (the iMac Pro is slated to ship in December), and they did specifically refer to this iMac Pro: > “great” new iMacs in the pipeline, slated for release “this year”, including configurations specifically targeted at large segments of the pro market. https://daringfireball.net/2017/04/the_mac_pro_lives https://daringfireball.net/2017/04/the_mac_pro_lives

ravitation 9y ago

Keep in mind, that this sits between the iMac and the Mac Pro. A new iteration of the actual Mac Pro is expected in 2018.

rocky1138 9y ago

Is this the VR-capable one?

rocky1138 9y ago
Honestly, I have no clue why I got downvoted. I was genuinely asking. People keep talking about the VR Apple computer.
tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
Yes, it is.
Geee 9y ago
On their page they advertise it as capable of VR development. I hope it delivers.

toufka 9y ago

How is this not another Trashcan Mac Pro? It is a beautiful, expensive device at launch but has no capability of being upgraded, expanded or experimented with. It looks to have same thermal conundrum as the trashcan needing to dissipate the heat of the screen - all while trapped in a consumer-level shell designed specifically for exterior looks at the cost of performance. Is it not just philosophically incorrect for the pro market? And compared to the enthusiasm for their iOS here, the pro customer is clearly no longer of value to Apple.

goodroot 9y ago
I'd say an external GPU introduces pretty significant upgrade potential.
- toufka 9y ago
  That was the exact statement made about the Mac Pro when it was released in 2013. Look how well that went.
  - Joeri 9y ago
    The mac pro did not feature external GPU, just external storage. The only thing you won't be able to upgrade in this machine is the CPU. The RAM is not soldered on those high end iMacs, and disk and gpu can be external over TB3.
    - toufka 9y ago
      Thunderbolt promised there would be external GPUs, but IIRC there were licensing and corporate disputes that prevented such hardware from ever materializing (after the design and debut of the Mac Pro). But it definitely was the promise of such a compact machine: "external everything!" Non-soldered RAM is a good start, but what about multiple ethernet ports, what about any standard scientific/medical/experimental PCI card, what about the new SSD/HDs that come out in 3 years? What about upgrading the CPU? What about upgrading the screen! Much less using Apple's "most powerful computer" headless?

dharma1 9y ago

How is the Radeon Vega going to be used for machine learning without framework support?

arcanus 9y ago
https://streamhpc.com/blog/2016-12-15/amd-gets-machine-intelligence-mi-range-hardware-software/ https://streamhpc.com/blog/2016-12-15/amd-gets-machine-intel... "AMD will be delivery HIP version of Caffe, Tensorflow, Torch7, MxNet, Theano, CNTK, Chainer, all supporting our new MIOpen – our new Deep Learning solver."
- dharma1 9y ago
  Theyve been saying "will" for a long while now. I'll believe it once they post the github link but expect there to be a long wait

tomduncalf 9y ago

Gonna leave this here from the official press release as it seems quite a few people have missed this point: "In addition to the new iMac Pro, Apple is working on a completely redesigned, next-generation Mac Pro architected for pro customers who need the highest-end, high-throughput system in a modular design, as well as a new high-end pro display." https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/06/imac-pro-most-powerful-mac-arrives-december/ https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/06/imac-pro-most-powerfu... Also, I want that black keyboard!

slg 9y ago
That is just confusing. There will be a modular Mac Pro that is totally different from this iMac Pro? That leaves me to wonder who exactly this iMac Pro is targeted at.
- spike021 9y ago
  I'm sure there are still professionals who would prefer pre-packaged solutions. Sure, many prefer being able to continually upgrade and add to their setups as well. Just a different kind of sub-market, I think.
  - jordache 9y ago
    how is a mac pro not a pre-packaged solution? You choose from a few pre-configured setups if you wish.
    - spike021 9y ago
      For one, it doesn't have a display included that is already proven to work precisely with the components that are packaged.
    - coldtea 9y ago
      In that the iMac displays are some of the best in the industry in a very competitive price (competitive displays cost nearly the same for the display alone).

gigatexal 9y ago

Maybe I'm a sheep but I think it's great. Up to 128GB ECC, up to 18 cores, large NVMe SSDs with up to 3GB/s speeds (likely reads, but probably also writes), and it's in that beautiful grey / black. Really cool. The 8-core model at 5k seems reasonable to me since the monitor is likely 2k itself. You'll probably see a lot of them being bought for upper eschelon developers at hip startups. And the TCO of a mac vs. a beige box PC is said to be much lower by way of lower incidents of issues, failures, etc. Edit: the one processor e5 16xx chip is less than a grand. That changes the value proposition of the iMac pro but if I had the cash I'd still get one.

Joeri 9y ago
Yeah, if I had that kind of money stuffed between my couch, I'd totally buy it. I don't care that it's a ridiculous machine and that single thread performance with that 18-core monster won't be anything to write home about. I still want it, because it is awesome.
- gigatexal 9y ago
  I agree. I think the sweet spot for my workload (not encoding much video just compiling stuff) the 8-core model with higher clocks makes more sense for me.
  - seanp2k2 9y ago
    "Finally, you can `npm install` in mere minutes!"
MitjaBezensek 9y ago
The cheapest 5k iMac is $1799, so just the screen is probably closer to $1000.
- gigatexal 9y ago
  so say for the imac pro which comes with 32GB ddr4 standard and a 1TB nvme ssd, an 8 core chip, and the higher end panel: 1k for the panel, 750 for the cpu, 200 for the ram, 650 for the ssd (samsung 960 pro?) comes to: 2600 before labor and other overhead. Solid margins there for sure, but I maintain still not a ripoff. As I have earned more in my career (I'm still not wealthy by any means, but I like nice things -- those things are probably related...but beside the point) I have tended to opt for nicer more upscale things and Apple usually fits the bill. Again the iMac for me is the non-pro line, but I want a pro iMac.

Jyaif 9y ago

Not very hard to release the "most powerful Mac ever" when you haven't updated your top of the line for 4 years.

goodroot 9y ago

Given the support for major gaming engines, Steam VR, and changes within Metal 2, is it wrong to be optimistic for Mac gaming? If the takeaway from this WWDC could be potential gaming parity with Windows, that's a really big deal for me. Me being the segment of Pro users who need to work on a Mac and want to game natively on one, too.

dkonofalski 9y ago
This is where I am and I'm already doing VR dev and playing lots of VR stuff. If this is where Apple jumps in, then I'm super excited.
modeless 9y ago
Optimism would be warranted if they announced Vulkan, OpenGL 4.5 and a commitment to update their product line with new internal GPUs more frequently and at reasonable prices. Thunderbolt 3 has less than half the bandwidth of PCI Express 3.0 x16 so that's a lame solution for GPU upgradability.
- floatboth 9y ago
  GPUs don't really use the whole 3.0 x16 bandwidth, x8 is enough. It is sad that they didn't drop Metal in favor of Vulkan, yeah.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - squaredpants 9y ago
    I think some do now... And even if they do not, they will in the near future!

dasloop 9y ago

Any idea about what nCU (New Compute Unit) is? Was listed as one of the new features of the iMac Pro.

jra101 9y ago
That's a feature of the graphics card, AMDs new Vega GPU architecture.
deleted 9y ago
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IE6 9y ago

Not a Mac user but do they ever release a top-end product that was less powerful than last year's top-end product? If not hasn't ever top-end mac ever been the most powerful mac ever?

ex3ndr 9y ago
MacMini 2013' are better than a new one.
- handedness 9y ago
  You mean 2012 (Macmini6,x), right? The last of the quad-cores.
  - ex3ndr 9y ago
    Yes, thank you for clarification.
zild3d 9y ago
This is just common marketing, "new and improved" is slapped on everything

benologist 9y ago

I hope they sell the dark peripherals separately.

shmerl 9y ago

Still no OpenGL 4.5 support?

kuon 9y ago

I am so happy I switched to Windows, ha! My 7048A supermicro is running double E5-2650 (2x 10 cores) with 1TB ram, quadro P4000 and it was around 5000$ (not counting displays, which I had).

zymhan 9y ago
No one runs a Mac because they just want powerful hardware.
kuon 9y ago
To be fair, I had a really good wholesale price on the memory, so I guess it doesn't count.

JohnJamesRambo 9y ago

Space isn't gray?

clhodapp 9y ago

Hrm.. Folks here keep acting like this means Apple still doesn't get the Pro market (or that there is still a pro market).. This really seems to me to be a "what can we get out sooner" product released as a stopgap to next year's preannounced new Mac Pro. I suppose it's still valid to fault them for the reality of their product line and for having gotten themselves into this position in the first place, but I think it's pretty clear that this is not Apple's actual attempt to fully pent-up demand for a good traditional workstation from Apple.

intoverflow2 9y ago
>This really seems to me to be a "what can we get out sooner" Feels the opposite to me, feels like they've considered this the Mac Pro killer. But then at the last minute back at the start of the year realised there was still a place for a Mac Pro. Probably because this solves none of the real issues with the last Mac Pro.

old-gregg 9y ago

To all of you who're disappointed by this not being a "proper Pro": "4x larger L2 cache" and "2x wider AVX" suggest they're going to use the upcoming i9 X-series chips [1] that are based on Skylake design with ~15% better instructions-per-clock (IPC) performance than Broadwell-based Xeons, plus they'll clock much higher than Xeons too: with turbo boost up to 4.5Ghz for even the 10-core model!. Quad channel DDR4 at 2666Mhz is also an improvement. All this promises a much better single-thread performance vs the current Pro line. IMO that's insane amount of power, it can even probably handle Slack desktop client! :) [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/11464/intel-announces-skylakex-bringing-18core-hcc-silicon-to-consumers-for-1999 http://www.anandtech.com/show/11464/intel-announces-skylakex...

symfoniq 9y ago
With ECC support, these are almost certainly Xeons, not Skylake-X.
- floatboth 9y ago
  They literally said "Xeon" on stage.
fliptables 9y ago
The Core i9 X-series chips are basically cut-down Skylake Xeons (the new "xeon gold" line, probably)

Quequau 9y ago

I'm still using my Mac Pro from 2008 and a still older 30" cinema display. I really need a new set up but so far I've not found the iMac or Mac Pro offerings really compelling. I'm not really sure I want to sign up for an all in one design because displays are often useful for much longer than workstations and the last generation of Mac Pro didn't really seem like they were worth the cost.

microcolonel 9y ago

I think this is the first time Apple has advertised the specific GPU vendor and product line in their product since... the powerbook maybe? I might have missed out on a few examples. Vega must be really something.

floatboth 9y ago
They always listed the GPU for everything, down to "Intel Iris Pro whatever". But yeah, Vega hype train!

jarym 9y ago

They wouldn't need this rushed excuse for a 'Pro' machine if they hadn't totally taken their eyes off the MacPro for the last 3+ years! It's like they woke up one day and realised 'oh crap people are pissed and when we asked them why we were surprised that we have upset customers because we haven't updated this MacPro thingy in a few years' and then Tim Cook must have decreed 'let's get SOMETHING out there to stop the masses turning out with pitchforks!' Really should never have come to this.

Eric_WVGG 9y ago
I can't tell if you're being snarky or serious, but 1) the thermal dissipation on a 12-core (or is it 18? I forget) Xeon and a GPU like that is nuts, to fit that into an iMac must have taken years, and 2) you know that Apple prefers all-in-ones and has been wanting to take the industry in this direction for years. I'd prefer a new version of the cheesegrater too but to suggest that they rushed this together is ludicrous. If anything, it's another reason why the Mac Pro got neglected for so long.
- jarym 9y ago
  Here's the rub: people who actually buy Xeon CPUs and high-end GPUs want those parts to be replaceable and upgradeable. It's why the G5 MacPro lasted as long as it did, and why the 2013 MacPro was comparatively a straightjacket! If Apple are targeting the same demographic then they're in for another public backlash. Sticking all this high-end gear into a sealed $5k device is baffling. Make no mistake, this iMac Pro will be another 'Pro' product that's put out into the market and forgotten about for a few years. It also did not take Apple 'years' to come up with this - while it probably existed as a concept for a while I am convinced they started focussing on it after the grumbling about lack of MacPro updates. Otherwise why wait until December to release it.
  - Eric_WVGG 9y ago
    Yes and no. I'm like you and I agree that this is not the computer for us. This is a computer for Pixar artists. This is for some architects I know that do very technically demanding renders but shouldn't be trusted swapping out their own gpus. One can be a "Pro" and be qualified to or care about internals, and money is no object. The problem isn't that computers like this exist, it's that our needs were misjudged. They acknowledged that a couple months ago, and the product is coming. Meanwhile it's dumb to deny that a market exists for Pro all-in-ones.

runesoerensen 9y ago

Apple's own product page is online now with a lot more information https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/ https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/

tcarn 9y ago

"As you’d expect from a pro machine, there are plenty of high-speed ports to create a high-performance workstation." haha, except for your Macbook Pro.

dbg31415 9y ago

Wait wait wait... the last thing I want as a "Pro" is a single monitor. Feels like Apple is just repeatedly telling me to go somewhere else.

floatboth 9y ago
They showed TWO external 5K displays, so up to three 5K monitors total
- dbg31415 9y ago
  They won't line up cleanly. I'm left with a desk that looks all cobbled together. This is another "pro" in name-only machine I suspect. The fact that it's an all-in-one implies to me that I can't upgrade any part of it. I don't want an all-in-one... I want a computer, with upgradable parts, and at least two monitors that match -- preferably the can use the same stand.
genericpseudo 9y ago
Has Thunderbolt ports. The existing iMacs can drive external displays in addition to their internal one.

AdamN 9y ago

It will be awesome if the Space Gray keyboard/mouse are only available with the iMac Pro and not independently. Then they'll be must-haves :-)

ksec 9y ago

If you need and cares about Display Quality, the Pricing for these iMac and iMac Pro are surprisingly attractive. I have yet to see anyone deliver 21" 4K Screen at a reasonable price. And all the listed spec for iMac Display aren't simply best in the industry apart from OLED.

rl3 9y ago

@dang @sctb Dupe detection just killed my iMac Pro submission with an Apple URL after it reached over 60 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14491068 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14491068 Perhaps a thread merge is in order? Official links tend to always be preferred for Apple announcements, hence my posting it. Sorry if I caused any extra work! :) It's worth noting that dupe detection also killed off salimmadjd's submission linking to the hyphenated product URL (mine is just the non-hyphenated Apple redirect to that same URL).

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

notadoc 9y ago

No Touch Bar on the keyboard. Let's hope that is a sign they will do away with it on the MacBook "Pro" as well.

Shivetya 9y ago

Okay, this is just bad. The memory cannot be upgraded by the user. https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/871852155455537152 https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/871852155455537152

midnitewarrior 9y ago

"The most powerful Mac ever" - what kind of tech company would release a new product that's worse than the previous one? Apple's Unnecessary superlatives are tiring.

meesterdude 9y ago

$5K for a machine that's still tied to their display. I have a large display I already love, and no room on my desk for anything else. I suppose there's a market for this - Probably Disney or related shops. But there's no way I would blow $5K on this. That's just insane. Maybe the Mac Pro will be more worthwhile.