Say hello to iMac Pro
Apple announces the most powerful iMac it’s ever made
For all the fanfare about the Touch Bar and better trackpad, the new MacBook Pro managed to alienate
a lot of people. In internet forums across the land, high-end users complained that Apple had copped out and forgotten about its professional users with a Mac that simply wasn’t powerful enough. Apple’s answer, it seems, is the brand new iMac Pro.
Spec-tacular
The specs in the entry-level model alone are something to behold… 8-core Xeon processor. 32GB of ECC memory. 1TB SSD. An as-yet unreleased AMD Radeon Vega GPU. And, of course, Apple’s signature 5K Retina display. Those internals get even more impressive the higher up the chain you go.
The CPU, for example, can be configured as either a 10-core or massive 18-core Xeon processor, capable of hugely demanding tasks and workflows. And if a 1TB SSD isn’t enough for you, Apple gives you options of 2TB and even 4TB for storage.
As for the GPU, that packs 16GB of video memory and 11 teraflops of performance. In contrast, the Radeon Pro 560 card in the ‘regular’ iMac (updated at WWDC) has a peak performance value of 1.9 teraflops, and 4GB of video memory. That’s quite a difference.
Perhaps the most impressive element, though, is that Apple managed to squeeze all of that power into the same slimline iMac design that has become so iconic. To do so, Apple’s engineers had to design a new architecture that delivered up to 80% more cooling capacity, to keep everything cold and quiet in such a confined space. The end result is that you get a computer that’s easy on both the eye and the ear, but that is still able to devour the most demanding of workloads.
Power inside and out
The power isn’t just limited to the inside of the iMac Pro. Bucking Apple’s recent trend for port austerity, on the outside you’ll get plenty of high-spec connections for your peripherals. The iMac Pro will come with four USB 3 ports, four Thunderbolt 3 ports, an SDXC card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There’s also a 10Gb Ethernet port for the first time on an iMac, meaning it’s capable of incredibly fast networking speeds.
All those ports make for a smörgåsbord of peripheral options. As well as the built-in 5K Retina display, the iMac Pro can support two external 5K displays running at 60Hz, or up to four 4K displays also running at 60Hz. And thanks to macOS High Sierra, you could hook up an external GPU enclosure, should a more powerful graphics card option come
All those ports make for a smörgåsbord of peripheral options on iMac
along in the future and take your fancy.
Of course, all that power comes at a hefty price: $4,999 for the entry level iMac Pro. Of course, this is not a consumer machine. For the type of users needing to do this type of work, that’s not actually a bad deal of a price. The 5K Retina display alone will make up a large part of the cost, and once you add in the 1TB SSD, 8-core Xeon CPU and incredibly powerful graphics card, it’s palatable.
With the Mac Pro not being updated since 2013, some people have questioned Apple’s commitment to high-end users. But with Apple recently confirming it is working on a high-spec, modular Mac Pro, and the WWDC announcement of the iMac Pro, that commitment appears to be intact.
The WWDC announcement was just a teaser, and the iMac Pro won’t go on sale until December 2017. The modular iMac Pro is set to go on sale some time after 2017.
And the most important part? The iMac Pro and all of its accessories come in serious Space Grey, of course!