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> I assume they will have higher end iMacs later this year or early next year I wouldn’t be so sure. Unless their M1 strategy changes, I think they’ve temporar

by srik 5y ago

> I assume they will have higher end iMacs later this year or early next year I wouldn’t be so sure. Unless their M1 strategy changes, I think they’ve temporarily gotten rid of iMac Pro entirely and are probably going to rely on the Mac Pro to fill that void instead.

_ph_ 5y ago
The M1 was a stunning upgrade for the MB Air, but it is already bottom line for the 24" iMac, especially in the GPU department. Apple is lacking any desktop-grade hardware based on ARM, so a larger iMac with more cores and much more GPU power is desperately needed. Unless they plan to reintroduce the Mac Pro as a desktop Mac :).
orangecat 5y ago
Not just the iMac Pro. They can't replace the Intel 27" iMac with the M1 because it would have worse multicore performance.
- alwillis 5y ago
  They can't replace the Intel 27" iMac with the M1 because it would have worse multicore performance. Based on all the benchmarks we've seen with existing M1 Macs, that's clearly not the case. The issue of being limited to only 16 MB is likely more the issue with replacing the 27-inch Intel iMac.
  - codezero 5y ago
    I am not getting one of these because of the ram limitation but only because I currently have 16GB and it "feels off" At this point I'm convinced that 16GB M1 isn't comparable to 16GB DDR3/4 simply because of the architecture and that the RAM is so close to the CPU. We've already seen that they are doing some crazy efficient stuff with memory, but all that said, it still feels anemic for a desktop, and I suspect the response will be the same as it was for MacBooks: normal people don't care, tech people who love Apples will wait for the inevitable upgrade.
    - alwillis 5y ago
      From what I’ve read, with the M1’s unified memory and the ability to swap extremely quickly, it’s like the SSD is more of a cache, making the limited RAM much less of an issue— https://singhkays.com/blog/apple-silicon-m1-black-magic/ https://singhkays.com/blog/apple-silicon-m1-black-magic/
  - orangecat 5y ago
    Based on all the benchmarks we've seen with existing M1 Macs, that's clearly not the case. It's closer than I thought, but on Geekbench the 8-core i7 iMac is 10% faster than the M1 MacBook Pro, and the 10-core i9 is 25% faster (https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/imac-27-inch-retina-mid-2020 https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/imac-27-inch-retina-mid-2... and https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-13-inch-late-2020 https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-13-inch-late-...). The issue of being limited to only 16 MB is likely more the issue with replacing the 27-inch Intel iMac. That's also important, yes.

by srik 5y ago

_ph_ 5y ago

The M1 was a stunning upgrade for the MB Air, but it is already bottom line for the 24" iMac, especially in the GPU department. Apple is lacking any desktop-grade hardware based on ARM, so a larger iMac with more cores and much more GPU power is desperately needed. Unless they plan to reintroduce the Mac Pro as a desktop Mac :).

orangecat 5y ago

Not just the iMac Pro. They can't replace the Intel 27" iMac with the M1 because it would have worse multicore performance.

alwillis 5y ago
They can't replace the Intel 27" iMac with the M1 because it would have worse multicore performance. Based on all the benchmarks we've seen with existing M1 Macs, that's clearly not the case. The issue of being limited to only 16 MB is likely more the issue with replacing the 27-inch Intel iMac.
- codezero 5y ago
  I am not getting one of these because of the ram limitation but only because I currently have 16GB and it "feels off" At this point I'm convinced that 16GB M1 isn't comparable to 16GB DDR3/4 simply because of the architecture and that the RAM is so close to the CPU. We've already seen that they are doing some crazy efficient stuff with memory, but all that said, it still feels anemic for a desktop, and I suspect the response will be the same as it was for MacBooks: normal people don't care, tech people who love Apples will wait for the inevitable upgrade.
  - alwillis 5y ago
    From what I’ve read, with the M1’s unified memory and the ability to swap extremely quickly, it’s like the SSD is more of a cache, making the limited RAM much less of an issue— https://singhkays.com/blog/apple-silicon-m1-black-magic/ https://singhkays.com/blog/apple-silicon-m1-black-magic/
- orangecat 5y ago
  Based on all the benchmarks we've seen with existing M1 Macs, that's clearly not the case. It's closer than I thought, but on Geekbench the 8-core i7 iMac is 10% faster than the M1 MacBook Pro, and the 10-core i9 is 25% faster (https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/imac-27-inch-retina-mid-2020 https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/imac-27-inch-retina-mid-2... and https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-13-inch-late-2020 https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-13-inch-late-...). The issue of being limited to only 16 MB is likely more the issue with replacing the 27-inch Intel iMac. That's also important, yes.