Apple’s Very Colorful iMac Gets the M6 Treatment
The iMac has been a core part of Apple’s Mac family for nearly 30 years, with the first model arriving in 1998. The newest iMac has arrived, powered by Apple’s latest chip, the M6.
Apple describes its new iMac, which sports the same thin, 24-inch design as the first Apple Silicon-powered iMac released in 2021, as “the world’s best all-in-one.”
Underpinning that claim is the move to M6, Apple’s first 2-nanometer chip, which it launched in August inside the new Mac mini. For those who like desktop computers but don’t want to fuss with an external display, the iMac has long been a compelling choice, one of the few options on the market, in fact.
As Apple explains, the M6 offers greatly improved performance across the board, thanks to Apple’s fastest CPU core to date, a more powerful GPU, and better memory performance. The new Dual 16-core Neural Engine also delivers up to twice as fast AI compute as the previous generation, ensuring better performance with AI models and LLMs. That, alongside the faster graphics, is good news for photographers and video editors.
Compared with Apple’s first M-series iMac, which had the original M1 chip, the new iMac with M6 delivers up to 3.3 times faster graphics performance for photo editing tasks in Affinity and up to twice the performance of the M4. The iMac skipped the M5 generation.
The updated iMac features Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, plus 2.5Gb Ethernet that delivers up to 2.5 times faster wired connectivity than the previous generation.
“This means faster transfers of large files, smoother streaming of high-resolution content, and even better performance for gaming and demanding business workflows,” Apple says. The internal SSD also offers up to twice as fast read and write speeds.
The new iMac features up to four Thunderbolt 4 ports, and users can connect up to two external 6K displays to go alongside the built-in screen. Speaking of the screen, the iMac still sports the same 4.5K display with up to 500 nits of brightness. It also keeps the same 12-megapixel Center Stage camera. On the sound side, it has two force-canceling woofers, a pair of tweeters, and supports Dolby Atmos.
“iMac is the world’s best all-in-one, and today it raises the bar yet again,” says Shelly Goldberg, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering.
“With the blazing performance and AI capabilities of M6 supercharging every workflow and the next generation of Apple Intelligence with Siri AI — combined with its stunning 24-inch Retina display, its gorgeous design in seven vibrant colors, and macOS 27 — the new iMac has everything users need to run their businesses, manage their lives, and bring their ideas to life,” Goldberg continues.
Pricing and Availability
The new Apple iMac with M6 comes in seven colors, blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, green, and silver, and ships with color-matched accessories. The new iMac starts at $1,499 with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. This base model ships with 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage. An upgraded configuration with 12 CPU and GPU cores starts at $1,699.
Customers can upgrade to up to 32GB of unified memory and up to 2TB of internal storage. A $200 nano-texture glass upgrade is also available. Users can also get the iMac with a VESA Mount Adapter at no additional charge.
Preorders start October 28 at 1:10 PM ET (10:10 AM PT), and the new iMac starts shipping November 6.
Image creditsApple
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