iMac Pro
Apple’s goal with professional hardware has always been to inspire creatives and developers to produce new things. That’s not an altruistic objective; the more creative things get made on Macs, the more other creatives and developers are drawn to the platform, and the more Macs are sold. To that end, the iMac Pro is available to order today, so we spoke with Apple and several third-party developers who were introduced to us by Apple. We learned more about the iMac Pro and how people expect to use it to improve performance or add new features to their applications.
It’s still not upgradeable in any significant way, apart from external GPUs. And of course, it starts at $5,000. Still, Apple has made a compelling case for the device by allowing the use cases to speak for themselves. We’ll go over the specifics about the machine and then explore some of the use cases we saw. Externally, the new iMac Pro is indistinguishable from the existing iMac, apart from its darker color. But inside, it is a much more powerful machine, with CPU options up to 18 cores and up to 128GB of RAM.
As alluded to when discussing the specs, the I/O lineup has changed, and that is visible on the back of the computer. The most noticeable difference in the computer’s appearance is the color; like the newer MacBook Pros, the iMac Pro is available in a “space gray” color, which closely matches the dark gray themes used by many pro apps, from Adobe Photoshop CC to Apple’s own Final Cut Pro X.
Accompanying this new color scheme are new, darker versions of the Apple Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad—pictured above. Apple also plans to offer a VESA mounting kit to allow industrious owners to prop the device up on stands of their choosing, not just the standard one. This will be welcomed by some, as the existing stand is not very adjustable compared to some other monitors and all-in-ones.
The display is the main thing that, in the absence of any other specs, sets the iMac Pro aside from the Mac Pro. However, we do know that Apple is intending to launch a separate display to go with that machine when it launches and we expect to be suitably impressed when it arrives.
In the meantime, the 27in screen on the iMac Pro will offer the same 5,120x2,880 resolution 5K Retina display, with the same 500 nits of brightness across its 14.7 million pixels, P3 colour gamut and support for over a billion colours, as the standard 27in iMac.
Apple has announced no plans to make the iMac Pro screen a superior choice. The iMac display is capable of supporting 10-bit colours despite being limited to 8-bit (Apple says 10-bit displays are prohibitively expensive). Apple achieves this via 10-bit spatial and temporal dithering - which essentially means the iMac shows extra colours by changing the colours it's displaying so quickly your eye can't see it and just registers all the colours as if they were shown at the same time.
Who will this matter to most? It will be great news for photographers because it should reduce banding on photos, for example. However, as we said above, this display is no different to that of the standard 27in iMac, so no reason to buy the Pro version.
Could Apple look at producing a 10-bit display for the new iMac Pro? Probably not yet, but it could be something to look out for in a future update. There have also been calls for Apple to offer a bigger screen on the iMac Pro: 28, 29, or 30in being the dimensions requested.
However, since you will be able to hook up four displays to your iMac Pro (depending on their resolution) the size and quality of the display may not matter to you. You could, for example, hook up four 4K displays or two additional 5K displays. And because High Sierra supports 10-bit colour you can hook up a 10-bit display if you want to.
Speaking of which, it would be incredible if the new display Apple is intending to launch alongside the Mac Pro is 10-bit. Read more rumours about the new Apple display here.
As we mentioned before, AMD Radeon Pro Vega graphics are also on the docket. Offering up to 11 teraflops of single precision and 22 teraflops of half precision compute power, you can anticipate the choice of a Vega 56 or a Vega 64 graphics processor featuring up to 16GB of HBM2 graphics memory.
Given that the iMac Pro doubles as a screen, all of this hardy graphics power is bolstering a 27-inch, 5,120 x 2,880 display with a 60Hz refresh rate that’s 43% brighter than previous iMac displays at 500 nits. 10-bit dithering, on the other hand, makes it possible to render a billion colors on the screen at once.
All of this is backed up by up to 128GB ECC memory, up to 4TB 3Gbps SSDs, four Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) ports and a 10GB ethernet port. In case those aren’t enough, there are two pairs of USB 3.0 Type-A ports as well, for anyone not prepared to convert to the #donglelife.
The regular iMacs have also seen their own fair share of upgrades including updated 7th-generation Intel Kaby Lake processors. Graphics-wise, the 21.5-inch iMac features Intel Iris graphics and AMD Radeon Pro 555 or 560 graphics with up to 4GB of VRAM on the 27-inch iMac. The 27-inch 5K iMac tops out with Radeon Pro 570, 575 and 580 graphics with 8GB of VRAM.
The 2017 iMacs have also gotten twice the standard memory capacity for both the 21.5- and 27-inch model with 32GB and 64GB of RAM, respectively. Apple also promised it has equipped its latest Fusion Drives 50% faster SSDs and the maximum capacity has been elevated to two terabytes.
While the standard 27in iMac offers two Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C ports, the iMac Pro offers four Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C ports. You can connect two additional 5K monitors for a whopping 44 million pixels. Alternatively, you could hook up two high-performance RAID arrays and enjoy 40Gb/s transfer speeds.
One thing it offers that the standard iMac doesn't is 10Gb Ethernet. The standard Mac offers a Gigabit Ethernet socket. This means that sharing files between desktops, or working with high-performance network storage, will be up to 10 times faster
The iMac Pro will also support Nbase-T industry standard 1Gb, 2.5Gb and 5Gb link speeds. It will offer four standard USB slots, along with four Thunderbolt 3 (USB C) ports on the rear, two more than the standard model, alongside a SDXC card slot and a headphone jack.
Other enhancements include enhanced stereo speakers, which Apple says deliver broad frequency response, rich bass and more volume. Until we test this we won't really be able to comment further.
iMac Pro doesn't just come in space gray, it comes with space gray. That includes the new, extended version of Magic Keyboard with numeric pad, and the Magic Mouse. If you, like me, you're not a huge fan of the Magic Mouse or mouses in general, you can choose to replace it with the awesome Magic Trackpad — or get both.
You can't buy the space gray versions of the Magic accessories separately, at least not yet, which is a downer for people who own the space black MacBook Pro and would love them on their desks. It also remains to be seen how or if Apple will handle replacement space gray accessories for those who somehow lose or damage the ones they get at purchase.
All that aside, the space gray Magic accessories are otherwise identical to their silver predecessors. They work wirelessly to keep down clutter, but instantly pair and recharge with the included Lightning to USB-A cable. Which, for iMac Pro, is black..
The entry-level iMac Pro configuration starts at a kingly sum of $4,999 (about £3,870, AU$6,680), but at that lofty price point you get a hardy all-in-one that includes a 27-inch Retina 5K display, 8-core Intel Xeon processor, AMD Radeon Vega graphics, 32GB ECC memory and a 1TB SSD.
Apple has announced its long-awaited, super-powered iMac Pro will go on sale on December 14, meeting its promise to get it to power-hungry Mac lovers before the end of 2017,
Apple had already revealed that the Mac Pro addresses the need of a very small niche, so the iMac Pro will shave off some of these users which are likely to include video editors, 3D animators, audio engineers, software developers, and scientists.
We expect the iMac Pro will suit people who do 3D modelling, work on large 4K and HD projects, design simulations, render large files in real time, edit 4K video, create real-time audio effects, produce high frame rate content and create VR worlds from scratch.
Our only concern is that Apple may have done too much damage to its reputation when it failed to update its Mac Pro. And even worse, the fact that it was the beautiful design of the Mac Pro that meant that Apple couldn't update it. Is Apple too hung up on how the machine looks from the outside to consider the practicalities of keeping up with the technologies on the inside?
We certainly hope that the iMac Pro proves that Apple has learned its lesson and future-proofed the design of the machine.
First Impression
Apple’s goal with professional hardware has always been to inspire creatives and developers to produce new things. That’s not an altruistic objective; the more creative things get made on Macs, the more other creatives and developers are drawn to the platform, and the more Macs are sold. To that end, the iMac Pro is available to order today, so we spoke with Apple and several third-party developers who were introduced to us by Apple. We learned more about the iMac Pro and how people expect to use it to improve performance or add new features to their applications.
Speaking of the Mac Pro, should these creative pros be wary of signing up for a machine that might not be upgradable in the future, as was the case with the Mac Pro?
iMac Pro Design
\The iMac Pro's appearance doesn’t change much from the standard iMac. It has the same display and the exact same dimensions—it’s just 0.7lbs heavier. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; few people have been complaining that the existing iMac looks bad or outdated yet.
As alluded to when discussing the specs, the I/O lineup has changed, and that is visible on the back of the computer. The most noticeable difference in the computer’s appearance is the color; like the newer MacBook Pros, the iMac Pro is available in a “space gray” color, which closely matches the dark gray themes used by many pro apps, from Adobe Photoshop CC to Apple’s own Final Cut Pro X.
Accompanying this new color scheme are new, darker versions of the Apple Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad—pictured above. Apple also plans to offer a VESA mounting kit to allow industrious owners to prop the device up on stands of their choosing, not just the standard one. This will be welcomed by some, as the existing stand is not very adjustable compared to some other monitors and all-in-ones.
Heat management is key for an all-in-one with up to 18 cores and a workstation-class GPU. Apple has employed a dual-blower solution with a large heatsink and a large fan vent on the back. The company claims 80-percent better cooling capacity than the existing iMac and also claims that, when running in a room at normal temperatures, little to no performance throttling should occur. It might throttle when running in an abnormally hot environment. Since the iMac Pro now uses only flash storage, the space previously occupied by the standard HDD has been used for heat management.
We observed one machine running numerous, CPU-intensive virtualization tasks and checked to see if it was hot. Even with all 10 cores in heavy use over several hours, the aluminum body felt no warmer to touch than room temperature. However, there was hot air coming out of the fans on the back of the device. We could hear the fans running in a quiet room, but it seemed comparable to the existing iMac and would usually not be audible if music or conversations were going on nearby.
We observed one machine running numerous, CPU-intensive virtualization tasks and checked to see if it was hot. Even with all 10 cores in heavy use over several hours, the aluminum body felt no warmer to touch than room temperature. However, there was hot air coming out of the fans on the back of the device. We could hear the fans running in a quiet room, but it seemed comparable to the existing iMac and would usually not be audible if music or conversations were going on nearby.
iMac Pro Display
In the meantime, the 27in screen on the iMac Pro will offer the same 5,120x2,880 resolution 5K Retina display, with the same 500 nits of brightness across its 14.7 million pixels, P3 colour gamut and support for over a billion colours, as the standard 27in iMac.
Apple has announced no plans to make the iMac Pro screen a superior choice. The iMac display is capable of supporting 10-bit colours despite being limited to 8-bit (Apple says 10-bit displays are prohibitively expensive). Apple achieves this via 10-bit spatial and temporal dithering - which essentially means the iMac shows extra colours by changing the colours it's displaying so quickly your eye can't see it and just registers all the colours as if they were shown at the same time.
Who will this matter to most? It will be great news for photographers because it should reduce banding on photos, for example. However, as we said above, this display is no different to that of the standard 27in iMac, so no reason to buy the Pro version.
Could Apple look at producing a 10-bit display for the new iMac Pro? Probably not yet, but it could be something to look out for in a future update. There have also been calls for Apple to offer a bigger screen on the iMac Pro: 28, 29, or 30in being the dimensions requested.
However, since you will be able to hook up four displays to your iMac Pro (depending on their resolution) the size and quality of the display may not matter to you. You could, for example, hook up four 4K displays or two additional 5K displays. And because High Sierra supports 10-bit colour you can hook up a 10-bit display if you want to.
Speaking of which, it would be incredible if the new display Apple is intending to launch alongside the Mac Pro is 10-bit. Read more rumours about the new Apple display here.
iMac Pro Performance
Apple was expected to put an Intel Xeon chip inside its all-in-one, but we didn’t think the iMac Pro would come with anywhere between an 8- and an 18-core Intel Xeon processor. But perhaps what we expected even less was the inclusion of Apple’s own A10 Fusion chip dedicated to triggering the “Hey Siri” command, even when the machine itself is powered off.
Given that the iMac Pro doubles as a screen, all of this hardy graphics power is bolstering a 27-inch, 5,120 x 2,880 display with a 60Hz refresh rate that’s 43% brighter than previous iMac displays at 500 nits. 10-bit dithering, on the other hand, makes it possible to render a billion colors on the screen at once.
All of this is backed up by up to 128GB ECC memory, up to 4TB 3Gbps SSDs, four Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) ports and a 10GB ethernet port. In case those aren’t enough, there are two pairs of USB 3.0 Type-A ports as well, for anyone not prepared to convert to the #donglelife.
The regular iMacs have also seen their own fair share of upgrades including updated 7th-generation Intel Kaby Lake processors. Graphics-wise, the 21.5-inch iMac features Intel Iris graphics and AMD Radeon Pro 555 or 560 graphics with up to 4GB of VRAM on the 27-inch iMac. The 27-inch 5K iMac tops out with Radeon Pro 570, 575 and 580 graphics with 8GB of VRAM.
The 2017 iMacs have also gotten twice the standard memory capacity for both the 21.5- and 27-inch model with 32GB and 64GB of RAM, respectively. Apple also promised it has equipped its latest Fusion Drives 50% faster SSDs and the maximum capacity has been elevated to two terabytes.
iMac Pro Ports
While the standard 27in iMac offers two Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C ports, the iMac Pro offers four Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C ports. You can connect two additional 5K monitors for a whopping 44 million pixels. Alternatively, you could hook up two high-performance RAID arrays and enjoy 40Gb/s transfer speeds.
One thing it offers that the standard iMac doesn't is 10Gb Ethernet. The standard Mac offers a Gigabit Ethernet socket. This means that sharing files between desktops, or working with high-performance network storage, will be up to 10 times faster
The iMac Pro will also support Nbase-T industry standard 1Gb, 2.5Gb and 5Gb link speeds. It will offer four standard USB slots, along with four Thunderbolt 3 (USB C) ports on the rear, two more than the standard model, alongside a SDXC card slot and a headphone jack.
Other enhancements include enhanced stereo speakers, which Apple says deliver broad frequency response, rich bass and more volume. Until we test this we won't really be able to comment further.
iMac Pro Accessories
You can't buy the space gray versions of the Magic accessories separately, at least not yet, which is a downer for people who own the space black MacBook Pro and would love them on their desks. It also remains to be seen how or if Apple will handle replacement space gray accessories for those who somehow lose or damage the ones they get at purchase.
All that aside, the space gray Magic accessories are otherwise identical to their silver predecessors. They work wirelessly to keep down clutter, but instantly pair and recharge with the included Lightning to USB-A cable. Which, for iMac Pro, is black..
iMac Pro Pirce and Relese Date
The entry-level iMac Pro configuration starts at a kingly sum of $4,999 (about £3,870, AU$6,680), but at that lofty price point you get a hardy all-in-one that includes a 27-inch Retina 5K display, 8-core Intel Xeon processor, AMD Radeon Vega graphics, 32GB ECC memory and a 1TB SSD.
Apple has announced its long-awaited, super-powered iMac Pro will go on sale on December 14, meeting its promise to get it to power-hungry Mac lovers before the end of 2017,
Early Verdict
As for who the iMac Pro is intended for, it was during the April 2017 briefing where Apple announced its plans for the new Mac Pro that Apple also announced that the iMac had proven to be popular with the traditional Mac Pro audience and as a result it was planning to create an iMac with those users in mind.
Apple had already revealed that the Mac Pro addresses the need of a very small niche, so the iMac Pro will shave off some of these users which are likely to include video editors, 3D animators, audio engineers, software developers, and scientists.
We expect the iMac Pro will suit people who do 3D modelling, work on large 4K and HD projects, design simulations, render large files in real time, edit 4K video, create real-time audio effects, produce high frame rate content and create VR worlds from scratch.
We certainly hope that the iMac Pro proves that Apple has learned its lesson and future-proofed the design of the machine.
Comments
Post a Comment
LEAVE A COMMMENT