Apple Silicon iMac Pro coming early 2022, says leaker
Apple's next iMac could be an iMac Pro arriving in the first half of 2022, a leaker claims, one that could sport an M1 Pro or M1 Max and has a chance of having Face ID in the display.
Apple officially discontinued its Intel-based iMac Pro on March 19, pulling the product from its website after the last of its stock was sold. According to a new rumor, its seems a replacement for it could be on the way within months.
According to leaker @Dylandkt on Twitter, Apple is preparing to create an "iMac (Pro)," with Saturday's tweet seemingly proposing the next iMac could be a "Pro" model due in the first half of 2022. The tweet continued that the model would be similar in design to the 24-inch iMac and Pro Display XDR, with a mini LED display and ProMotion support.
The screen would also have dark bezels, though no word on a notch. According to the leaker, Face ID was apparently tested, though admits it's "not confirmed" for the model.
For other specifications, it is claimed to run on an M1 Pro or M1 Max with 16GB of memory in the base model, along with 512GB of storage. The port selection includes HDMI, USB-C, an SD card, and an Ethernet port on the power brick.
Dylan claims the internal name candidate for the model is "iMac Pro," but warns the marketing team "can change gears very quickly." The rationale for the name would be to "better distinguish" it from the 24-inch iMac, as it's a "Pro device with a Pro chip."
The leaker adds that the model will most likely have a 27-inch display, and replace the existing 27-inch iMac. Rumors ahead of the launch of the 24-inch iMac launch claimed that a larger iMac model was planned, though it didn't pay off during the launch event itself.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple officially discontinued its Intel-based iMac Pro on March 19, pulling the product from its website after the last of its stock was sold. According to a new rumor, its seems a replacement for it could be on the way within months.
According to leaker @Dylandkt on Twitter, Apple is preparing to create an "iMac (Pro)," with Saturday's tweet seemingly proposing the next iMac could be a "Pro" model due in the first half of 2022. The tweet continued that the model would be similar in design to the 24-inch iMac and Pro Display XDR, with a mini LED display and ProMotion support.
The screen would also have dark bezels, though no word on a notch. According to the leaker, Face ID was apparently tested, though admits it's "not confirmed" for the model.
For other specifications, it is claimed to run on an M1 Pro or M1 Max with 16GB of memory in the base model, along with 512GB of storage. The port selection includes HDMI, USB-C, an SD card, and an Ethernet port on the power brick.
iMac (Pro)
Promotion and Mini Led
Base model 16gb Ram 512gb Storage
M1 Pro and Max
Dark bezels
HDMI, SD Card, Usb C
Similar design to iMac 24 and Pro Display XDR
Starting price at or over 2000 dollars
Ethernet on brick standard
Face ID was tested (Not confirmed)
1H 2022-- Dylan (@dylandkt)
Dylan claims the internal name candidate for the model is "iMac Pro," but warns the marketing team "can change gears very quickly." The rationale for the name would be to "better distinguish" it from the 24-inch iMac, as it's a "Pro device with a Pro chip."
The leaker adds that the model will most likely have a 27-inch display, and replace the existing 27-inch iMac. Rumors ahead of the launch of the 24-inch iMac launch claimed that a larger iMac model was planned, though it didn't pay off during the launch event itself.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
CPU-wise the M1 Pro and Max perform really well against Intel and AMD chips:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
There's no need to have an artificial split between mobile and desktop chips like Intel does. Intel does it so they can remove or lower the integrated graphics under the assumption an external dedicated GPU will be used. Apple will be using the integrated graphics chip.
The highest i9 chips are faster than M1 Pro/Max but only by around 1.5x. Everything else higher are the bigger Threadripper/Epyc/Xeon chips. The highest is the Threadripper Pro 3995wx. This is around 3.5-4x faster than M1 Pro/Max. They'd have to quadruple the cores in some way to reach that level but every chip from the M1 Pro up can be used in an iMac Pro. Anything capable of 32GB of video memory, 7GB/s SSDs, 5TFLOPs+ GPU is pro-level hardware.
The highest Xeon in the Mac Pro is around 1.5-2x faster than M1 Pro/Max. This is regarded as a pro machine so just doubling the M1 Max cores will reach this level.
There's no reason for pro-level hardware to be more expensive for the sake of it. It should only cost as much as it costs Apple to build with healthy margins. Given that Apple charges $1100 to jump from lowest Pro to highest Max chip, they will likely charge a bit more than this doubling it up again e,g an extra $2200. If the base 27" iMac replacement is $1999 (16GB/512GB), the 2x chip would be around $5k, same as the old iMac Pro. Doubling again could reach $9k - this would be equivalent to the current $24k Mac Pro.
30” would be the minimum in 2022. I’m thinking Apple will go big and make it 32”. The challenge with getting some really big monitor size is the aspect ratio creates a giant block of screen. This can cause issues with neck ergonomics as well as figment in a work area. Easy solutions though. Lower where the screen sits on the stand or go ultrawide, which would be insanely cool. But do ultrawide in such a way as to stay 5k or more vertical and add the pixels as needed horizontally. Most ultrawide are a mess. But it’s s great concept. Apple could usher in sn era of high quality ultrawide glory as part of a high performance iMac with hopefully higher cpu and GPU core counts.
The iMac 24 should have the M1 Pro, at least, as a SoC upgrade option too.
Either way, I told myself NOT to buy into Apple Silicon until the 2nd generation at a minimum. That means M2. I don't expect to see an M2 anything until late 2022 which is fine. I know my iMac is getting old, but if there are people running Monterey using OCLP on 2010 Macs, I think I can tolerate it another year or two.
Regarding the 27" versus 30 or 32 inch, I really don't see Apple releasing THREE iMac sizes if the next one is a 27 (meaning there will not be a 32 inch).
What does high power mode do to these SOC's and wouldn't the iMac Pro be engineered thermally to run in that mode most the time if demanded.
Wouldn't need to be a switch to accept the trade-off it would just kick-in automatically. I'd think that maybe they could get those chips in that range with a bigger better cooling path and power supply.
In the past Apple has added screen sizes shortly after design changes like this but generally they've kept the old large size around for a while and added a larger size.
An iMac 24 with M1 Pro would be rather attractive to our office especially if they offered a matching Display.
30" Promotion/miniLED 6K Display
M1 Max/"Ultra" (12+4 CPU / 48 GPU; binned version of actual "Ultra" 16+4 / 64 coming to the MacPro)
4 full TB4 ports
Space Gray
Should be two more M1's in the pipeline, still based on A14 cores; M1 Ultra, and M1 Extreme. Just as there are still two more systems that need to transition to Apple silicon. The new higher end iMac will be released this Summer and get a binned "Ultra" (12+4/48) and the Mac Pro will be released in the Fall with full "Ultra" (16+4/64) and "Extreme" (32+8/128)
M2 will be based on the A16 and released in the Fall. I'd guess in new 12" and 14" MacBooks and an iPad Pro.
In the meantime, this Spring, MacBook Air will a colorful update. Mac mini will get M1 Pro/Max upgrade options. Highest-end 24" iMac may get a low-end "binned" M1 Pro (6+2/14)