Apple has revealed a new addition to its desktop offerings – the upgraded 24-inch iMac, now equipped with the M3 chip. This latest iMac model, announced at Apple's recent Scary Fast event, bypasses the M2 chip, signaling the tech giant's attempt to carve a niche in the gaming industry. The incorporation of hardware-based ray tracing and mesh shading technologies has enhanced the system's rendering capabilities.
New M3 Chip Boasts Significant Improvements
As I reported earlier today, the M3 chip sports key upgrades, including an 8-core central processing unit (CPU), a 10-core graphics processing unit (GPU), and a 16-core neural engine, along with support for up to 24GB of memory. Apple states that these enhancements allow the system to achieve 2x the performance of the M1 chip. However, the newly announced M3 Pro and M3 Max chips will not be integrated into the refreshed iMac, as they are reserved for the forthcoming Mac Studio and potential upgrade to the iMac Pro.
iMac Users Can Look Forward to Increased Productivity
Apple's new 24-inch iMac supports greater efficiency in video editing, allowing users to edit and playback up to 12 streams of 4K video, three times more than its predecessor. Processing of images in applications such as Adobe Photoshop is anticipated to be twice as fast, while video projects in Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro can be completed in half the time.
The new iMac features a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime camera, a six-speaker system with support for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 compatibility, four USB-C ports, and Gigabit Ethernet support. The desktop is available in an array of colors to incline to customer preferences. The M3 iMac with an 8-core GPU and 8-core CPU is priced at $1,299, with an upgrade available at an extra cost. Preorders are available now with shipping beginning next week.
