Macworld
With the M4 chip making its debut within the iPad Professional, it’s not lengthy earlier than it makes its method into the Mac. The M3 iMac was launched almost a 12 months in the past in October 2023, so it’s fairly doable Apple will improve it with an M4. The rumors will probably decide up as the autumn of 2024 approaches, and no matter is reported now can change earlier than the brand new iMac is launched. We’ll maintain monitor of what’s being mentioned on this article so keep tuned.
M4 iMac: Launch date
The M1 iMac–the primary iMac to function Apple’s M-series chip–made its debut in Could 2021. This was adopted by the M3 iMac in November 2023. The 30 months between upgrades will not be typical however commonplace for Apple. On this case, Apple’s chip manufacturing course of was nonetheless recovering from the results of the Covid pandemic.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in August that Apple is planning to launch the M4 Macs within the fall of this 12 months, together with an iMac. When Apple does fall Mac releases, it normally does it in October or November, after the iPhone/Apple Watch occasion in September.
M4 iMac: Value
No experiences on the value for the M4 iMac have been made. Listed here are the usual configuration costs of the present M3 iMac lineup for reference.
- $1,299/£1,399: M3 with an 8-core CPU/8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 8GB unified reminiscence, 256GB SSD, 2 Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, Magic Keyboard
- $1,499/ £1,599: M3 with an 8-core CPU/10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 8GB unified reminiscence, 256GB SSD, 2 Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, 2 USB 3 ports, gigabit ethernet port, Magic Keyboard with Contact ID
- $1,699/ £1,799: M3 with an 8-core CPU/10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 8GB unified reminiscence, 512GB SSD, 2 Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, 2 USB 3 ports, gigabit ethernet port, Magic Keyboard with Contact ID
The costs didn’t change when Apple upgraded from the M1 to the M3 chips, and costs will probably keep the identical with an M4 improve. Nonetheless, if Apple provides an M4 Professional possibility as rumored, there might be a brand new larger tier.
M4 iMac: Design
We haven’t heard something about adjustments to the iMac. The present design is occurring its fourth 12 months and third revision, so Apple might introduce some new colours and different design tweaks, nevertheless it’s unlikely to see any main adjustments.
The upper-priced M4 iMac will probably be obtainable with two USB 3 ports and two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports.
Foundry
M4 iMac: Specs and options
The principle change that may occur with the upcoming iMac is with its chip. The iMac ought to proceed to have the bottom M chip–on this case, it’ll be a base M4 just like the one that’s within the iPad Professional. The iPad Professional’s M4 has a 9-core CPU with 3 efficiency cores and 6 effectivity cores; Apple might add one other efficiency core to make it a 10-core M4.
The bottom M4 within the iPad Professional has 8GB of unified reminiscence. Apple insists that 8GB is an sufficient baseline quantity of RAM and can probably not change this with the M4 iMac, particularly since 8GB is sufficient to run Apple Intelligence. This additionally helps maintain the costs down for the usual configurations. Clients have the choice to improve to 16GB or 24GB of reminiscence when ordering. The M3 mannequin additionally gained Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and help for high-impedance headphones.
The opposite options of the iMac ought to stay principally the identical. Meaning few if any adjustments to the ports, connectivity, audio system, SSD sizes, and show.