Well, we know Apple’s coming out with an ASi iMac sometime, and since the M1 already matches the iMac Pro’s performance there wasn’t much point in keeping it around. The big question is when the ASi iMac is released. I’m betting April.
Sorry, but even the 10-core iMac Pro with dedicated graphics blows away all of the low end M1 Macs. If you don't believe it, google it. The single core on the M1 is the only benchmark that is slightly faster at 600 points more. Multi-core is 2,700 faster with the iMac Pro. OpenCL and Metal are both 40,000 points faster in the iMac Pro. So stop pretending the M1 is the fastest computer, when it is not. The 18-core iMac Pro runs circles around the M1.
My 2015 iMac has become unusable since upgrading to Big Sur. Turns out their flagship OS is incompatible with Fusion Drives causing huge performance issues. I’m very disappointed they don’t even care.
You love to make the same comment on all social platforms, don't you? The problem is not Big Sur. The problem is the fusion drive. The tiny 128GB SSD is obviously maxed out so everything you do is pulling from the terribly slow spinning hard drive. Simple solution. Slice open the iMac and remove the hard drive and replace the tiny SSD with a 2TB SSD from OWC. You will see an amazing boost in performance once you get rid of that joke fusion drive configuration. By the way, this article is about the iMac Pro, not Big Sur and your 6-year old Mac. And Apple doesn't read forum comments.
MacQuadra840av said: OpenCL and Metal are both 40,000 points faster in the iMac Pro. So stop pretending the M1 is the fastest computer, when it is not. The 18-core iMac Pro runs circles around the M1.
Yeah, the M-series might be the future, but for a lot of us, it we're not to the future yet.
MacQuadra840av said: The problem is not Big Sur. The problem is the fusion drive.
Probably in this particular case... but Big Sur is also a pile of steaming you-know-what so far. So who knows? (For example, since upgrading - accidentally, thanks Apple! - to Big Sur on my wife's MBA, it won't last more than 10 minutes off the power adapter without crashing. Great user experience there! (My wife is already talking about her next phone/computer not being Apple. My son's MBP keyboard has gone bad - we're trying to figure out a time to send it away - he's no longer too happy with Apple either.)
Well, we know Apple’s coming out with an ASi iMac sometime, and since the M1 already matches the iMac Pro’s performance there wasn’t much point in keeping it around. The big question is when the ASi iMac is released. I’m betting April.
Not it's multi-core or GPU scores, just single core. The romped M1x will double the cores putting it on par with the 16-core Xeon but even with double the GPU it will fall short unless it can be clocked up or has even more GPU cores. Whatever it is it should not match but destroy the current iMac Pro. I hope they do away with 3rd party GPUs in all but the MacPro.
I would think (and hope) that an ASi iMac will have CPU's/GPU's running at much higher clock speeds and more robust cooling systems that will essentially make the current M1 offerings "slow" by comparison.
Well that is a given!
What will be interesting is the special sauce Apple might integrate into the SoC. Further acceleration for video editing is a possibility. Enhanced AI hardware another.
There is a lot of focus on the ARM cores but I see Apple dedicating a lot of die space to other tech. This might not happen until 3nm but the writing is on the wall, the average user benefits more from special function units as opposed to an endless collection of cores.
My 2015 iMac has become unusable since upgrading to Big Sur. Turns out their flagship OS is incompatible with Fusion Drives causing huge performance issues. I’m very disappointed they don’t even care.
I’m running Big Sur quite nicely on my 2014 Mac Mini with a Fusion drive I built myself from a 500 GB M.2 SATA drive along with the 1 TB hard disk drive. No complaints.
My hope is that Apple reuses some of the cooling tricks they learned from the iMac Pro on future iMacs.
What will be interesting is the special sauce Apple might integrate into the SoC. Further acceleration for video editing is a possibility.
I hope so, but over the years Apple always seems to disappoint me in terms of what they potentially could do and what they actually do when it comes to performance and blowing away the rest of the industry, etc. I really hope they make some ASi machines that make a bold statement that developers of high-end pro apps simply can't ignore (otherwise, this move means we'll be missing a lot of high end software we currently have access to).
But, yes, some the special capabilities will be interesting. If one is aware of what the T2 can do for video encoding, for example, you can see that potential. The problem there is awareness. I doubt a 1/10 of percent of Mac users know they can use the T2 chip to encode to h.265/HEVC in a fraction of the time.... unless certain software packages they are likely to use make it obvious or the default. I don't think most people are even aware the T2 does this, and while Apple talks about it, maybe not enough.
dewme said: My hope is that Apple reuses some of the cooling tricks they learned from the iMac Pro on future iMacs.
Me too, though I suppose with the M-series it isn't as necessary unless they go crazy with it. What I hope they don't do, is just decide the old cooling systems are plenty good enough for the M-series and prioritize keeping closer to the no-cooling-required end of the spectrum (which is something I could totally see happening).
Comments
You love to make the same comment on all social platforms, don't you? The problem is not Big Sur. The problem is the fusion drive. The tiny 128GB SSD is obviously maxed out so everything you do is pulling from the terribly slow spinning hard drive. Simple solution. Slice open the iMac and remove the hard drive and replace the tiny SSD with a 2TB SSD from OWC. You will see an amazing boost in performance once you get rid of that joke fusion drive configuration. By the way, this article is about the iMac Pro, not Big Sur and your 6-year old Mac. And Apple doesn't read forum comments.
Probably in this particular case... but Big Sur is also a pile of steaming you-know-what so far. So who knows? (For example, since upgrading - accidentally, thanks Apple! - to Big Sur on my wife's MBA, it won't last more than 10 minutes off the power adapter without crashing. Great user experience there! (My wife is already talking about her next phone/computer not being Apple. My son's MBP keyboard has gone bad - we're trying to figure out a time to send it away - he's no longer too happy with Apple either.)
But, yes, some the special capabilities will be interesting. If one is aware of what the T2 can do for video encoding, for example, you can see that potential. The problem there is awareness. I doubt a 1/10 of percent of Mac users know they can use the T2 chip to encode to h.265/HEVC in a fraction of the time.... unless certain software packages they are likely to use make it obvious or the default. I don't think most people are even aware the T2 does this, and while Apple talks about it, maybe not enough.
Me too, though I suppose with the M-series it isn't as necessary unless they go crazy with it. What I hope they don't do, is just decide the old cooling systems are plenty good enough for the M-series and prioritize keeping closer to the no-cooling-required end of the spectrum (which is something I could totally see happening).