Review: Apple 24-inch iMac (aluminum) - Page 3

Interesting. So a C2D at 2Ghz would be just slower (in Photoshop, Rosetta) than an iMac G5 at 2GHz. Which compared with a dual G4 at 867Mhz... would mean the iMac would provide an increase in speed overall (though not a big one).


One person for it, one against... damn

Oh, is that performance of CS2 or CS3?
(Private message me if you like since I'm taking the thread off topic).

The first generation 24" iMacs did not ship with ATI cards; you got an nVidia 7300GT if you bought off the shelf and could BTO with the 7600GT.

--JV

I should be more specific. Those users who have a g5 iMac who are considering a new machine should give these a serious look. I don't think there's any doubt that they'll see a dramatic difference in speed. If someone is happy with their g5 iMac then they have no reason to change.

The question that started all this was whether to upgrade to this model, and stay with CS2 through Rosetta, or whether it would pay to hold on a bit longer and get a more powerful machine that could either run CS2 better, or end up with CS3 now, with this, or wait and get both later.

At least, that's the concept as I remember.

The question wasn't whether this would run CS3 better.

You're late to the discussion.

Prior to that, the cs2 thing, I was commenting on how cinebench scores of the new iMacs vs. th old g5 iMacs.

It wasn't in response to your original post.

This started when someone asked if his wife should hold the G5 iMac with CS2 for a while longer, or run it under Rosetta with these new models.

I was the first to answer that question, and then people seem to have forgotten where it started as it wandered all over 'till we got here with it.

So this is confusing, why would an imac necessarily be faster than a Mac Book Pro? Off the shelf mine has a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo, 256MB Graphics Memory and 2 GB of RAM. That beats all bar one of the iMac's anyday, the only thing you can say is that the high end iMac has a faster processor than is found in the MBP but that is all.

Testing the 2.4 GHz iMac has shown it to be faster.

The 2.8 GHz model will be a fair amount faster.

Will Apple introduce the 2.8 for the MBP, or will it require too much power and run too hot?

Good question, eh?

And the iMac, even with the 2.8 is still substantially cheaper.

Mel, is that right? even with only 1GB memory in the iMac??

I do not understand that then, maybe someone with more knowledge can explain how a machine can be slower than a machine with identical processor and half the amount of RAM. Am i missing something that would make the iMac run faster than the MBP??

7200 RPM HDD always makes it (iMac) faster than 5400 RPM HDD (MBP), unless they compared with 7200 RPM HDD in MacBook Pro

Good point,

Mel, i have found the benchmark tests and indeed you are right (haha i don't say that often ;-)
Blow me down well that has disapointed me somewhat, i only bought my MBP thinking that was as fast as an iMac so the better choice. Maybe i should have hung on then, wonder if a month old MBP will sell for enough to buy a 2.8GHZ iMac? (only half joking!!)

Shanmugam is correct about the HHD. But, the computers are not the same. Even with the same chips, the circuitry is slightly different, as is the video subsystem.

Don't believe people when they say this is the MBP in a bigger case. It isn't. It's similar.

I agree. However, IF someone really needs to hang the remote on the computer, I have a suggestion. At times,
some adverts come with a magnet backing. Cut a small piece and glue it on the computer where ever you want it. If it's small enough, it won't be obtrusive. Personally, I wouldn't want a magnet on or near my desk or computer because of the USB drives and other media I use and are usually on my desk. Even a magnetized paper clip can cause a problem.

I will never ever undestand why anyone would feel the need to hang a remote control from the front of their PC, exactly what use does it serve having a remote control there? How many people have you ever heard complaining that they cannot stick their TV remote to the front of their 40" samsung?? None!

A quick count tells me i have got 5 Apple remotes in my front room (how sad does that sound?) and not once have i ever felt the urge to stick any of them to anything, they can be found in draws, on bookshelves, on the coffee table - i once even found one in the fridge trying to get cosy with half a cabbage!!

I remember my grandfather years ago when he got his very first TV with a remote control, he would leave it on the top of the TV so it would not get lost. If you wanted to change the channel he would have to get up, walk over the TV, change channel with the remote and walk back to his chair, he never understood why i used to laugh at him! Same thing really.

Like many here, I have been a long time Mac user... so amid the hype, last Friday, I stop by the Soho Apple store to take a look at the new iMac and judge for myself.

The glossy display with reflections is annoying to say the least. One can argue store lighting is bad but that isn't the complete truth. I suspect one need to dim lighting or turn it off completely to stop the reflection. The new iMac is just as responsive as the previous (I compare the new against my bro's old one from last year), but it's not noticeably faster.

Personally, this redesign is a major disappointment for me. As I stated in a different thread, it took Apple over a year to release this update neither the redesign nor hardware live up to the long expectation... this is merely a repackaging job for Apple. I will still be using Macs at work and still look forward to Mac OS 10.5 release... but as a home user, they lost me as a customer for now. If Apple prides themselves for leading the computing world for industrial design, this is not a step forward, but merely more eye candy.


p.s. on that day, Apple store's traffic mainly composed of people hugging up mac-stations to check their emails during lunch break was a lame sight.

Sure, but that's the problem. Apple leaves this GPU power dormant. It has probably a good reason to do so, but probably not. I don't know.

Yes, hardware MPEG-2 on the GPU is an old story, though Apple never used this feature. This is a mystery to me. Probably the decoding on the GPU was/is not standardized and Apple was/is not willing to adapt the algorithms each time a GPU change happens.

The last and only hardware decoding I can remember from Apple is from the OS 9 days, when there were available specialized PCMCIA decoders for the Powerbooks. I cannot remember what was the situation in the desktops.

Talking about performance, there is another point that I probably missed. We have yet to see comparisons between the previous and current generation iMacs running the same game. Apple too used to post such comparisons but this time the dedicated page is just empty. I think this tells much about the GPU performance advance with this update.

What about the noise level of the new 24"?

The reason I ask is that I have the previous version (C2D 2.33 GHz 24") and have two really irritating noises:

- A crackling sound, possibly from the power supply.
- A kind of hollow buzzing sound when I set the screen light intensity to minimum.

Possibly both can be attributed to cheap power supply parts and not a fault in my machine only (I have heard similar noises from other 24-inchers).

What about the 2.8 GHz version. Is it still a mobile processor (I got a bit confused when I saw it is called "Extreme")?

This may be old news to everyone, but I did a comparison on the weekend and the display panel in the new 20" model is noticeably inferior to that in the previous 20" Intel and G5 models-much like the old 17" panel the contrast is very sensitive to angle of view, and you can even notice solarisation effects if you look from above.
If anyone is thinking of buying one for graphics work then that should be a dealbreaker regardless of your feelings about the glossy display....

I hope the remote attaches to the iMac's side. I've already lost two -- from a Mac mini and a Hi-Fi. Maybe I should attach them to my wrist with a string ... or Apple could include an option for a beeper similar to when I need to locate my misplaced portable phone.

The iMac also has faster 3.5"hard drives instead of slower laptop drives. IME, drive speed makes quite a difference.

My point was more that the iMac gets sneered at often for not having the 'Pro' suffix when in reality it's at least on a par with the Mac Book Pros and faster in some respects. Plus, you can have a 1TB drive in there now. That's pretty mental. My first computer with a hard drive had 10MB.

Barefeats has started posting results.

It's not good if you're a gamer.

http://barefeats.com/imacal.html

I'm hoping they screwed up on the initial driver release like they did on the MBPs. Otherwise, it's going to be a long couple of years.

Maybe that was a valid concern with floppies but I doubt it's a problem with hard drives. You need a surprisingly strong magnet to disturb the data on a hard drive.

Apple does make some odd choices about things like this.

But, the point is that even a 950 CAN do it.

this doesn't tell us everything, and I don't know which gpu was in the old iMac (was it the upgrade, or not?), but what it doe show is telling.

88.7 FPS for the old 24" when running Unreal Tourn 2004, and 86.3 on the new 24".

Hopefully, the drivers need improvement, as that's not uncommon.

http://www.macworld.com/2007/08/revi...imac/index.php

Here's another interesting one. More complete.

http://www.barefeats.com/imacal.html

Overall, not good.

I wasn't referring to hard drives. USB thumb drives and such. My publisher still uses floppies and I'm careful with them around magnets. Not thinking, a friend laid a magnetized paper clip on a floppy and lost much of the file.

Ah, I didn't notice before I posted. You beat me on this.

I also think that the more options customers will have when they purchase a computer from Apple the more people will be able to get the configuration that best fits their needs.
To me glossy is not a problem, as I got used to it faster than I thought with my MacBook. Apple has recently gone a long way, it seems, to offer more options and I believe they'll go this way far enough to provide customers with a choice of displays as long as it doesn't make it much more expensive for them to have two kinds of iMac ready with different displays, or maybe the glossy gets cheaper to produce, that I wouldn't know.

The underpowered GPU is a real missed opportunity. As a games developer an iMac is the perfect machine - I can use Mac OS X for generaly document writing, graphic design, day-to-day stuff. Then boot up in Windows and do game development stuff.

As a games player - there's some exciting shifts - EA bringing it's catalogue to Mac etc. Why aren't Apple supporting this - with a decent spec'd machine. Things move so fast in the graphics world - that not only do you want the best your money can buy for performance, but there's the longevity as well - which is also vital in a system that cannot easily be upgraded.

A missed opportunity Apple - I'm now faced with still having to save up for a Mac Pro, or having two systems - one Mac and one PC.

the underpowered-ness of the GPU is possibly overstated? an interesting read:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=339616

Does it? I just got a new iMac 20 for my wife and completed the whole process in 2 hours with EVERYTHING via good old "firewire 400". Doesn't everyone on the planet have a firewire cable by now? Target Disk Mode is really quite easy to use. I just wish I could copy straight across through the finder, but a few Software companies might raise objections at that.

This is really really sad. Apple is loosing many potential customers because of thisand it's not only about games. A friends friend was asking for recommendations on a desktop computer for around $1500 to for her "graphical" school. A good graphics card was needed for 3D applications. Where's the Mac to match that?

Correct me if I'm wrong (I've been a Mac user for @ 5 years) , but didn't Mac gain its early reputation for being THE go to computer for GRAPHICS? What happened along the line? Is the ball in the PC court now (rhetorical)?
A travesty and a tragedy!

Define a "good graphics card...for 3D applications." Does this school have the very latest and greatest versions of 3d software? I've run Maya 8.5 PLE on my iMac for the last month and have been fairly impressed. Blown away? No. But it works as good as a three year old HP Xeon machine I have at work. And that was an expensive machine in it's day.

It may not be fair but GPUs these days are simply judged by their ability or inability to play games. If the frame rate for <insert game title> is below 60 frames/sec the the card sucks.

Macs are still the best machines for Graphic design, video etc. Including the iMac. IMO.

The graphics cards are also plenty for 3D architectural/design etc... but I don't know of the Mac being any better than PCs for this (anyone?). I'd guess the apps are more on PCs, which isn't fixed by a bigger graphics card since the hardware is plenty... it's an OSX byproduct.

What they are not the best for is 3D games - since they don't come with the best 3D gaming cards. IMO.

$150 for a 7300gt is rip off any way you look at it for that price you should at least get a dual dual link card with 256 of ram.

It's not that they need to include a 8800GTX.

Their last gpu on the 'white' iMac sucked. There was uproard. So they quickly issued the rather decent at the time, 7600GT.

If they'd have gone iwth the 8600GT this time? I'd have bought one.

Why no uproar this time? I don't know. But I suggest we all put the boot in on Apple's suggestion box on their site.

The gpu update is basically 2600 Pro. It's lame. They could have at least gone iwth the XT variant.

You go upto a 2.8 extreme cpu, a 1 terrabyte hd...but can't have a 'high-mainstream' card? eg 8600GT? It's not like the other components won't get 'warm'. Shakes head. Great cpu option. But you'd need a great gpu option to make it shine.

Shakes head. What happened? Ati is late to market and offered Apple a good deal. It's not the 1st time Apple has 'side graded' a machine. The mini mac got it on the transition to Intel. And the Macbooks.

Apple. Just offer a choice. How can you have no choice? HOW can you have the same gpu on all iMacs from £900-£1400? Oh. I have a choice of 2600 Pro...or...or...scratches...looks down list of options.

Poor. Very, very poor. Because the iMac is superb in every other aspect. The 24 incher is flat, out gorgeous. If I could get a 8600GT in there with a 2.8? I'd have bought one by now. Guess what? I'm waiting. AGAIN.

The thing is...the 24 inch iMac is pushing around way more pixels than the 20 inch version. IT NEEDS a more powerful GPU to run in it's native resolution.

And the crap gaming performance? Partly 2600Pro. Lame compared to 2600xt. See Tomshardware for comparative gpu table. Partly? Shocking AMD/Apple drivers. Go to barefeats and see gaming performance in Vista to Tiger. Shocking. Just shocking. 6 times slower in some instances.

Leopard better address this.

Lemon Bon Bon.