Apple updates iMac line with Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors - Page 5

Maybe its a button on the front of the iMac like crappy desktop PCS used to offer.



Welcome to the forum, but you shouldnt expect a Blu-ray drive from Apple. They have yet to add AACS to their OS which would allow 3rd-party Blu-ray drives, internal and external, playback protected Blu-ray content and theyve waited this long where other tech is advancing faster in capacity and speed over optical media (not to mention their competing digital download service) so its a wait of time to wait for Blu-ray.


PS: Has anyone seen Netflix latest stats on downloaded content verse physical content?

The new iMacs seem pretty decent for what is offered. As far as Blu-ray, it's pretty easy buy a ext BD drive and get Roxio Toast, I don't need to watch BD's on my computer, that's what my 52" tv is for.

What is disappointing for me and I have been waiting to upgrade for almost 5 yrs from a Quad G5 is the lack of USB 3.0 or something comparable. And here is why: I do both video and sound editing and when it comes to editing video especially HD video and layering that video with multiple layers you simply need some type of fast raid array. Even with a internal SSD which is great, you always want your audio/video files on a separate drive away from your program drive, this is where USB 3.0, esata or possible future coming light peak comes into play. I'm hopeful that maybe next year the Macbook pro's or iMac's will have some type of fast ext port to connect to say a fast SSD raid array.

Ok Apple you make some great computers can we get some type of fast ext port in the near future on either a Macbook pro or iMac instead of the only option being a Mac pro tower, which is overkill for me.

^^^^^^ That is far more embarrassing. Live a little.

"Lighten up, Francis!"

Does using cromulent words make your comment more snarky?

The 17" MBP still has the ExpressCard/34 slot.

Apparently. As intended.

That's a cromulent point.


Irregardless, Are you implyificating that what joelsalt just speakified should be refudiated?

Looks like a pretty healthy upgrade to me.

Yes, you are absolutely right and I considered buying one of those because it does have the increased speed for a ext. raid, but when I checked barefeets.com speed tests it is still a bit hampered.

I'm sure at some point in the future they will have something much faster for a ext connection, for now I'll stick w/my current set-up & see what they bring to market next year. The sandy bridge intel chips look promising for a future macbook pro, so we'll see.

Dude...the new Mac Pros with 12 cores don't even come with USB 3.0 yet....um....so being dissaponted about the iMac not having it seems kinda silly. It's gonna be awhile I would imagine.

"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"

not necessarily, with a mac pro you can get a fibre ch card which is way faster than USB 3.0, I just don't want to spend that much or go that high end, so I'd like to see a fast ext port on the lower end of either the iMac's or macbook pro's.

but your right it's probably going to be awhile

The iMac uses desktop CPUs, not laptop CPUs. Are these mobile graphics? Looking at desktop parts, the 4850 had a total bandwidth of 63.55 GB/s. The 5750 in the iMac has 73.6 GB/s. Not to mention a lot less electricity used. If these are laptop graphics being used then it's 54.4 vs 51.2, which would be a very small bandwidth decrease.

Yeah there is a problem with Apple and with Apple fanboys like you.



Steve Jobs isn't the God of tech that whatever he believes and does should be the ultimate standard and people can't question it. Perhaps people like you who have no idea of improving things can shut up and follow what Steve does. People like me will definitely point out what we think is right or wrong.


Yeah that's true Apple is all for making money and we are all for getting the most out of our money spent on Macs. We want to have more value for money spent and there is nothing wrong in it. I don't understand why you are shouting from the hips. Do you own Apple so you have a problem in giving more stuff on Macs. Why are you bothered so much?

Apple would say: Firewire 800 is right there, ready-to-go for you. (And it's pretty good). Firewire 800 drives are less diverse and more pricey, but they are made by reliable vendors and should be quality products.

What the heck does that mean?

There is no official primary update schedule and a lower-spec secondary update schedule.
Well, other than we can usually expect new iPods at the September point, just at the end of the usual Back-to-school deal that Apple offers on Macs with iPods.

The Mac models are released whenever Apple's development team (and whatever other certain person input) determines.

Looking back at iMac release history, I see that iMacs have been released in following months: January, February, March, April, May, July, August, September, October, November. (via the ever useful Everymac site)
http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...ndex-imac.html

Remember that one of Steve J. responses to their putting less emphasis on the January MacWorld Expo was that they did not want to be forced into an annual January Mac hardware release cycle.

Back to ATi Apple? Really? Lost me as a customer to the iMac. Definitely should have stayed with nVidia graphics.

I've seen a lot of posts here complaining about the "small" or "%10" CPU upgrade. I would beg to differ. The change from Core 2 Duo to the Core iX chips is much more than clock frequency (Ghz) indicates (Familiar story, G3/G4/G5 fans?). Go find some benchmarks, and you'll find the change from Core 2 Duo to i5 or i7 most remarkable, beyond just the change from 2 to 4 processor cores. The i3 is only slightly faster, in some cases, than a C2D, but is an upgrade never-the-less and should also draw less power.

These are very good chips.

9FPS. 7FPS. 5FPS. Most of those numbers were sub-30fps anyway, so neither card produces an awesome experience either way. (Yes I am aware that 21fps is 75% of 28fps, they're still in the same ballpark and many people wouldn't notice the difference most of the time) Those are the differences on that chart for Crysis, which of course you will only be playing on a Mac in Bootcamp mode as there isn't a Mac version.

I don't expect the ability to play Crysis is exactly a huge deal to most Mac buyers. A game by Blizzard who always releases games for both Mac and PC, more likely. I do hope Steam keeps moving along on teh Mac side. Initial numbers had it functioning at much lower frame rates on the Mac side than when people were booted into WIndows on the same machine.

My reference point of saying they were the same level was looking at http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...tx,2676-7.html I am posting from work and rather than taking the time to dig around looking for benchmarks, it is easier to just look at a basic chart, which I did. The performance of the graphics cards listed in that tier are all within a certain amount of each other and they're all beaten by stuff in the tier above. Simple.



There is no mention in the tech specs on the Apple site of shader count. There is a 5750 desktop variant. How do we know it is a mobile graphics chip?



Apple's site lists the improvements as being between 20 and 50% faster on the Mac Pro and that is just going from the 8core to 12core at the same clock rate. The i series is much more efficient than the c2d series.

I did a project awhile back on my 2007 macbook pro using firewire 800 and after about 5 layers of video which is nothing, the firewire 800 choked. And the reason I did the project on my macbook pro instead of my G5 was I wanted to use the latest vers. of FCS.

Apple needs something in the midrange w/fast a ext port or ports. If they think FW800 cuts it, then their out to lunch on this one. Maybe the option to put two separate SSD's in the iMac will be doable. I know you can order with a SATA drive and a SSD.

I can't believe people still think that Sony controls Blu-ray licencing. Sony isn't Blu-ray

I don't think you own a Blu-ray player.

If you don't want the Blu-ray live feature on your device, then turn it off. Or if you don't want the Blu-ray live stuff, don't choose that option in the menus.

What movie do you have that forces you to watch previews? I only own 200 blu-rays, so maybe don't have the best knowledge, but all the previews on mine are skip-able.

And the other reason I know you don't have a Blu-ray player, Sony isn't incharge of Blu-ray, so Sony didn't force you to do anything

I refuse to believe Apple thinks people who get the 21.5" model have no use for a quad-core processor.

Probably just a space + heat dissipation issue.

It's a switch from notebook-class to desktop-class chips too, right?



What is the TDP of Quad-cores in comparison to the Dual-cores?

No the last round of iMacs used desktop processors as well.

Here is the TDP of all the processors being used in the new iMacs

2.93GHz i7-875k TDP: 95w 27" top BTO option (Quad)
2.8GHz i5-760 TDP: 95w 27" top (Quad)
3.06GHz i3-540 TDP: 73w 21.5" entry (Dual)
3.2GHz i3-550 TDP: 73w 21.5" top / 27" entry (Dual)
3.6GHz i5-680 TDP: 73w 21.5" top / 27" entry BTO option (Dual)

Although the iMacs transitioned to desktop CPUs last year, their form factor requires MXM mobile graphics (GPUs make more heat than CPUs do nowadays).
So the graphics that we see are mobile GPUs which cannot be directly correlated to their desktop counterparts.
The 5770 in the 27-inch quad core is no match for the 4850 it replaces, which had a 256-bit memory interface and 800 shaders compared to the 128-bit interface and 400 shaders of the mobile 5770.

A Dell???You can't possibly be serious...just do what i did and at least build yourself a top of the line machine to run OSX on, like what's on my signature.

When did it ever?

Unless the GPU looks like this: http://www.ixbt.com/video3/images/ju...5770-front.jpg
it is a MXM module.

We know it is an MXM module because that is what the previous iMacs used (thanks iFixit) and we know how many shaders it has because we have the specs for the 5750 MXM module.
I am not trying to be critical, but as a hackintosh builder, I often find it frustrating the lack of knowledge of PC parts during these discussions. The lack of knowledge is completely understandable, though, because Macs are black boxes for the most part, with specifications disclosed only to understand where different models slot. A Mac user only needs to understand a 5770 is better than a 4670. As a system builder, I have to know better.
The Mobile 5750 is no match for for the Mobile 4850 in games when it comes to framerate, though it ought to run most games fluently.
If I were to buy an iMac today, however, I would get the new one because I don't play games and I would appreciate the larger framebuffer (1GB vs 512MB) for Adobe Creative Suite and for Final Cut Studio 3.
However, I am going to wait to replace my hackintosh (more headache than they are worth, really) with an Intel Sandy Bridge equipped unit next year. It should have USB 3.0, quad core will be in the low-end models (Sandy Bridge starts at quad core) and we should have another generation of ATI and Nvidia cards.
Still, these are great units and the only reason I don't want to upgrade is because they would still only represent an incremental improvement over my hackintosh pro.

I've done that before and Dell is always far cheaper, but I don't go for the all in one Dell as I have no need of such a design. All I want is a desktop PC, I'm not so short of space that I can't fit a PC case off to one side. As Apple's only non all in one desktops either cost as much as a small planet, or are little toy PCs with no power/expandability.... then the iMac is the only option.

I wouldn't object to Apple's crazy pricing as much (I'm in the UK by the way, where we pay special Apple prices (ie. about 50% higher than in the US) if at least they adopted the latest tech. Blu-Ray and USB 3.0 should have been absolutely top of their list.

I've thought about disconnecting it from the network, but that would be a hassle. When you load a disc, there's no knowing in advance if it's going to want to connect, for how long, or for what purpose. It's just like going to a movie theater, except you don't have the option of simply showing up twenty minutes late.

The problem for me is that the Blu-Ray standard permits its playback hardware to take control away from the user. I would find that unacceptable in a computer. I don't want to be forced to disconnect my computer from the network or go through all sorts of other conniptions just to watch a movie. Given Apple's attention to detail - not to mention its desire for complete end-to-end control regarding the user experience - perhaps they're simply not willing to cede that much control to a standard over which they have absolutely no control.

Who knows what caused Apple to decide against Blu-Ray support, but using a computer and watching movies are two separate goals for me - especially when it comes to Blu-Ray and the amazing theater-quality experience it offers. You simply can't deliver that experience in a computer. The option would be nice, but it's not a deal-breaker. Not even close.


Blu-Ray movies are all different from one another. It's apparently a very flexible media standard, so what you have to sit through depends how the disc is mastered. They simply disable whatever remote buttons they want. If there is a way to bypass all the nonsense, I don't know what it is. I've tried.


Feature for feature, there is no price difference. It's just that Dull and HP offer low, "teaser" prices for their PCs. When you add everything a Mac comes with out of the box, the price is the same. Always has been. Apple isn't stupid about pricing - they simply don't sell low-end gear.

Even if the PC makers were to give away their cheap junk hardware for free, you'd still have to pay Microsoft about $50 for Windows. I don't believe it's even possible to buy a PC without paying the license fee. That is a "tax".


But barely two years since it emerged as the dominant standard over HD-DVD. It will prove to be a transitional technology as well.

Consider the widespread adoption of MPEG-3. Not a particularly good audio standard, pretty poor in fact. Yet it's been universally embraced as "good enough". Lossless audio will always be preferable to the audiophile, just like 1080p (or better) video will be preferable to the videophile, but streaming 720p video is probably going to enjoy widespread acceptance for a long time. Analogous to MP3s, it will be "good enough" for most.

For others, a high-end home theater will be preferable. Playing Blu-Ray movies on a computer will never be "good enough" for them.


Pardon me kotatsu from the UK, but "it's" means "it is", even here in the colonies. I take it the King's English is not your native language?

It's hard to imagine DRM implemented more completely than it has been with Blu-Ray.

Alert the media! Apple abandons Blu-Ray! And the computer market! Altogether!

What an absurd statement.

Fortunately you're not me.

As for me, I'm laughing. At you.

Now I'm really laughing.

This is confusing. If the core i3 supported TurboBoost then it would be a low-end (dual core) i5 as I thought the only difference between the dual core i3 and i5 is the turbo functionality.

No matte BTO? Major disappointment. And a few more delayed (if not lost) sales here.

Seriously Apple, WTF? I'm not in the market for a $2000 mirror. Anti-glare glass IS available, and as Steve would say it'd be "not that hard" to offer a BTO option.

I wonder if this update is a f-you to those of us who NEED matte, or if this is just "more of the same" as Apple focuses on handhelds....

The Green Zone. Drove me nuts.

There have been others equally annoying, that was just the latest.

Can't say, but I did a comparison of the C2D and an iMac with an i5. It was noticeable - enough of a performance difference for me not to want the C2D. I'm glad to see them move on.

I would spend the extra $200 for the i5.

I'll go rent that in the weekend and try it. As I have said, I own around 200 Blu-rays, and all the previews are skipable.


I have never experienced any of those issues you mention on either of my blu-ray players. What brand of blu-ray player do you own?

I'm a previous purchaser - in fact I have bought around half a dozen Macs over the years - but I didn't ever try to upgrade in the way that was suggested. While I suppose it might work, I don't see why Apple should even consider it. There was nothing wrong with the computer the poster bought, and this industry has a four-decade long history of quick updates.



++

That other 95% is likely comparing this iMac to a much older version with far inferior specs, or thinking about it as their first Mac. The jump in performance, for them, will be significant.

I'd say the kind of DRM that makes you play the content on an Apple device. I like to buy my content once, not different times for what and where I want to view it.

* shrug * to each his own.

As for the Blu requiring you to download content, I think your just seeing the just terribly slow load times. Oppo 83 and the PS3 are smokin fast. I prefer the Oppo cause it's cool, quiet, the SE model has sick DACs analog outs and base management and aftermarket mods for better power supplies and clocks and does SACD.

I do have issues with all those previews some studios stick in front. Universal is good about them while Lionsgate and Disney make me want to discharge a firearm. Warner is getting worse. Some discs allow you to hit Top Menu to skip to the movie menu while others force you to keep hitting next track to finally arrive.

-Chris

I know this borders on being another thread, but..
It seems to me that the overwhelming discussion here about blu ray support
is about watching movies on computers.
This is not the issue really, Mac folks are in large part content creators.
The real need for BR is for back-up of large amounts of data ( on optical not motorized)
and the biggest issue is really this,

- a quote from previous poster-

"hi def video, what exactly are you supposed to do with your masterpiece? Break it up into little pieces and put it in DVD's? Share it with the Mobile Me web gallery?"

and this
"No other format delivers 45mbit 1080p video with lossless 7.1 audio."

Without ways to author a master Hi Def audiophile product on the Mac for the
1st time in Apple history Macs cannot author the content it creates!

what? have to buy windows to do this??..
take your project to someone with a PC..
unthinkable...

We need BRD to author and securely store large volumes of content.
Without this option Mac content creators are at a huge disadvantage..

Come on Steve... at least a BTO burner and a little support...

How tough can it be...