18-core iMac with Vega

Atazhaia

Seems Apple is also jumping onto the 18-core hype train with the new iMac Pro coming this autumn. I guess that it's the replacement for their dustbin by creating an extra fat iMac with Mac Pro guts.

27" Retina 5K
8, 10 or 18-core Xeon
32-128GB 2666MHz ECC DDR4 memory
1-4TB PCIe SSD
Radeon Pro Vega with 8 or 16GB HBM2 memory
Built-in 10Gbit ethernet

Also, they're releasing a new iPad Pro with the usual nice and even resolutions of iDevices.
10.5": 2224x1668
12.9": 2732x2048

And in the available now section: new MacBook, MacBook Pro and iMac.

The MacBook is still an overpriced piece of shit as I can still get a vastly superior MBP for the same price. At least I can now equip it with the advertised i7, unlike the previous model.

MacBook Pro got a minor hardware upgrade. And they scrapped the old model with sane ports, so now you only get TB3/USB-C ports (and headphone jack). At least there's still models without the Touch Bar?

iMac got upgraded to Kaby Lake and DDR4, and all models but the cheapest now have Radeon Pro graphics. So now the 21.5" iMac is finally gaming-grade too!

hungrier

Polygeekery

I am failing to see the here. Apple makes high-end products with premium hardware. News at 11?

blek

@hungrier

Arantor

@Atazhaia it's gaming grade except for the operating system, and possibly the GPU

Atazhaia

@Polygeekery Well, that's why I didn't post it in the sidebar. :P The big I guess would be that Apple still thinks the new MacBook should cost as much as a MacBook Pro while using weaker hardware. I remember when that used to be their cheap entry-level laptop. Also, no updates for the Mac mini still. Or the MacBook Air, but I suspect the days for the latter one are numbered.

I was wondering what they were planning to do with the Mac Pro line, as the dustbin ended up with the wrong hardware for the direction the industry went in. I was hoping to see a return of the classic desktop, but as Apple hates user-upgradable computers I guess an iMac was the logical step.

 said:

Pros love iMac. So when they asked us to build them a killer iMac, we went all in. And then we went way, way beyond, creating an iMac packed with the most staggeringly powerful collection of workstation-class graphics, processors, storage, memory, and I/O of any Mac ever. And we did it without adding a millimeter to its iconic all-in-one design.

Also, it seems Apple is set to go all in with the Intel CPU + Radeon GPU combo now. Although considering they seem to be aiming hard for VR now it's only logical they want some beefier GPUs through their entire line. Also, macOS High Sierra (inb4 macOS just got high jokes) will be coming with Metal 2 which brings support for external GPU docks.

Jaloopa

@Atazhaia said in 18-core iMac with Vega:

as Apple hates user-upgradable computers I guess an iMac was the logical step.

I thought they'd said there was a brand new mac pro coming next year? The imac pro might be a stopgap to tide people over if they're getting sick of not spending thousands on new Apple hardware

blakeyrat

@Jaloopa I think the best we've gotten from them is "we realize that we've disappointed some of our professional users". That's a long way from announcing new hardware. (But it's also a long way from their weird pretending to have a complete hardware line for several years when they don't.)

Jaloopa

@blakeyrat I may be wrong but I thought they'd made comments hinting that they're totally working on a new pro machine but it's so new and magical and we think you're going to love it that it won't possibly be ready before next year

Atazhaia

@Jaloopa My guess is that iMac Pro is the new Pro machine. It will be released in December, which matches their hinting about when to expect the new Pro.