Apple has announced a new 24-inch iMac powered by the latest Apple Silicon M3 Chip, at its Halloween-themed Scary Fast event. A refresh has been due since the 2021 iMac launched. Here's everything you need to know about the new all-in-one desktop computer.
Apple launches new 24-inch iMac with M3 chip
The new iMac sports a 24-inches 4.5K Retina Display with 11.3 million pixels and over a billion colors. The LED screen is backlit, and supports a resolution of 4480 x 2520 pixels, 500 nits brightness. It has a wide color gamut (P3), and supports True Tone technology. It is very similar to the previous gen model.
The star of the show is, of course, the new Apple Silicon M3 that the company announced. The 3nm chip that powers the 2023 iMac has 8-cores, with 4 of those being performance cores and the other 4 are efficiency cores. It also has a 16-core Neural Engine for on-device machine learning, AI tasks and video performance. Apple says that the iMac M3 is about 2x faster than Intel-based iMac models, which is not exactly the best comparison to go with. The new Mac is also 2.5x faster than the 27-inch models, and 4x faster than the 21.5-inch model.
Apple says that apps such as its Safari browser and Microsoft Excel perform up to 30 percent faster on the M3, and that games load faster. The new chip is capable of delivering up to 50 percent faster frame rates. The Cupertino company's announcement mentions noteworthy performance upgrades for studio work such as editing and playing up to 12 streams of 4K video. The previous gen model could only handle 5 streams at once. Performance in video editing tools like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro is up to 2x faster on the M3 iMac, while photo editing on Adobe Photoshop is up to 2 times faster than before. In its article regarding the M3 chip, Apple noted that the new performance cores in the CPU is 30% faster compared to those in the M1, and that the efficiency cores are 50 percent faster. Even the Neural Engine offers 60 percent faster performance than the one in the M1 chip.
The GPU on the M3 iMac has 8-cores (10 on the four port model), and thanks to Dynamic Caching, the new GPU supports Mesh Shading, Hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing, and a variety of media formats from H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW encoding and encoding, to AV1 decoding. The new iMac comes with 8 GB of Unified Memory (RAM) with 100GB/s memory bandwidth, but can be configured to support 16 GB or 24 GB. It will run on macOS 14 Sonoma out of the box, and supports Apple Pay, Siri, Continuity with iPhone, etc.
In terms of storage, the iMac has a 256 GB SSD, but you can customize it to come with 512 GB / 1TB, or even 2 TB if you opt for the higher-end model. The iMac has a 1080p FaceTime HD camera for video calls, and it supports an Advanced image signal processor (ISP) with computational video.
The M3 iMac has a high?fidelity six?speaker system with force?cancelling woofers, supports wide stereo sound. It is capable of Spatial Audio playback when Dolby Atmos is active (music or video). The desktop has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a studio-quality three-mic array with high signal-to-noise ratio and directional beamforming.
Connectivity-wise, the iMac supports Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax, and Bluetooth 5.3. The desktop computer has two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, and can be configured with an optional Gigabit Ethernet port. The pricier model has two additional USB ports, which are USB 3, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. The entry-level model comes with a color-matched Magic Keyboard and a Magic Mouse, while the higher-end version ships with a Magic Keyboard that supports Touch ID and a Magic Mouse. Both versions can be configured to have a keyboard with a numeric keypad, and a Magic Trackpad.
Apple 24-inch iMac M3 specs
- Display: 24-inches 4.5K Retina Display, LED-backlit, 4480 x 2520 pixels, 500 nits brightness, Wide color (P3), True Tone technology
- Operating System: macOS 14 Sonoma
- Chip: Apple M3, 16-core Neural Engine
- CPU: 8-core with 4 performance cores + 4 efficiency cores
- GPU: 8-core / 10-core (Four port model), Hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing, H.264, HEVC, ProRes, ProRes RAW, AV1
- Unified Memory: Up to 24 GB (8 / 16 / 24), 100GB/s memory bandwidth
- Storage: Up to 1 TB / 2 TB SSD (256 GB / 512 GB / 1TB / 2TB)
- Camera: 1080p FaceTime HD Camera
- Audio: 3.5 mm headphone jack, 6 speaker system, Stereo sound, Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos, Three-mic array
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.3
- Ports: Base model - Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, Configurable with Gigabit Ethernet; 10-Core GPU model - Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, Two USB 3 ports, Gigabit Ethernet
- Keyboard: Magic Keyboard / Magic Keyboard with Touch ID / Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad
- Trackpad: Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad
- Dimensions: 18.1 x 21.5 x 5.8 inches (46.1 x 54.7 x 14.7 cm)
- Weight: 9.75 pounds (4.43 kg)
- In the box: iMac, Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, 143W Power Adapter, 2M Power Cord, USB-C to Lightning Cable,
- Misc: Apple Pay, Siri
24-inch iMac M3 pricing and availability
The 24-inch iMac M3 price starts at $1,299 for the 8-core GPU model which has 8 GB RAM / 256 GB SSD / 2 x Thunderbolt ports, and comes with a Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse. The iMac will be available in 4 colors: green, pink, blue, and silver.
The iMac M3 with 10-core GPU costs $1,499. In addition to the features of the basic model, the higher-end version of the iMac M3 has two additional USB 3 ports, a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, and Gigabit Ethernet. This model of the iMac comes in 7 color options: green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. Please refer to Apple's website to learn more about the prices for customized models.
The prices of the 2023 iMac are similar to the 2021 iMac, which is rather surprising. What is actually surprising is the fact that the base model still comes with 8 GB / 256 GB, which is a let-down. On a side note, Apple is including a USB-C to Lightning Cable in the box, which is for the Magic Keyboard.
The new iMac M3 is available to order today, on apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in 27 countries and regions. The computers will start shipping to buyers from November 7, and will also be available in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers from the same date.
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