Refreshed iMac lineup...

[Robert Ruffo New]

I could care less about 4K for working in post as I have never had a 4K deliverable client, ever, ever, ever - when I do, I'll invest in something.

However, I do hope the new cinema displays are out-of-the-box Rec 709 well-tuned, like Ipad screens are now.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Sharp / LG have a 29" 4K panel slated for mass production, actually I've heard that it is in full production and someone is buying large quantities. Apparently it's not going into the iMac.

Apple keeps yammering on about "retina" on the desktop and 4K+ (note the plus) support with the new Mac Pro. Will be interesting to see what they come out with. I'm thinking we'll see a "retina" Pro display along with the new Mac Pro. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it makes a lot of sense and Thunderbolt 2 is the right interface to handle it.

Words of Wisdom. I think this is the right prediction. Not only will we have thunderbolt 2, but I believe also HDMI2. This might be the reason we didn't see the Retina Macbook Pro refresh yet. I believe we will have a big PRO event with the Macpro, Macbook Pro, Final Cut Pro X and Cinema Displays, and probably a new aperture to the mix. Maybe even something else that I can't think of.

If they pull this off, it would be one heck of a statement to the professional community. Haven't been this excited for Apple computers in a long while.

 

[L. Langer]

Sharp / LG have a 29" 4K panel slated for mass production, actually I've heard that it is in full production and someone is buying large quantities. Apparently it's not going into the iMac.

The panel you refer to is a professional-grade 4K (DCI not UHD) 31-inch WLED panel from LG with 10-bit color and 60hz refresh rate. It entered mass production a few months ago. Sharp is sticking to 31.5-inch UHD-resolution panels and otherwise focusing on TVs.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I'm aware of that one and it's not the one of which I speak. There's a 29" UHD panel as well. Saw it recently at a tech demo and I believe it has a Hitachi label, if memory serves.

Back on the subject, I find this iMac refresh to be very odd the more I think about it. Why would they do a spec-bump now when Thunderbolt 2 is just a few weeks away? Then again, it's not much of a bump, perhaps they just had to update due to CPU supply and the new CPUs are drop-in replacement anyway. Nice to see the 780M 4GB GPU though.

 

[paul schefz]

how does the 780m compare to the 780? i am looking for benchmarks but can only find the 780 which somewhat compares to the titan (but only has 3gb vram?)...i am a little confused.....
afaik the iMac uses all mobile parts...is that the reason for lack of TB2? i guess then we won't see it in the next/new mbp either? or apple just did not want an imac to be the first TB2 system?
the price of the "base" 27 is pretty nice....a very well configured machine...maybe that was the reason for TB1?
i had just received an imac and was lucky enough to be able to return it...so i am waiting for this new one now.....still have the mac pro in the back of my head but if this imac had TB2, the extra expense would have been harder to justify....running an extra GPU externally is really the only expansion i would ask for.....

 

[paul schefz]

any input on the 4gb vram gpu of the new iMac? did some more research and it has the same amount of cuda cores as the (2gb vram) 680 in the "old" imac?
or am i mixing up desktop and mobile gpus?

 

[Shiblon Wixom]

Typically the GTX M (Mobile) variant is PCI-e x8 and has half as many cores as the full size GTX card, but that's only a generalization.

Nvidia spec shows Cuda cores at 1536 for the 780M and Cuda cores 2304 for the full GTX 780 card.