Apple gives the iMac a major CPU upgrade, SSDs across the lineup and a better camera

Pocketnow

By Nadeem Sarwar

Published Aug 4, 2020

Apple has also announced that the 21.5-inch iMac now comes with SSDs as standard storage across the range, and the iMac Pro gets a CPU boost as well.

Apple has announced today an update to the 27-inch iMac, giving it some serious processor upgrade, a much better 5K Retina display, an improved webcam, faster AMD graphics, and SSDs as a standard across the lineup. Even though the design remains the same as last year’s iMac series, Apple is calling the new 27-inch iMac its “most powerful and capable iMac ever.”

To start things, you can get the 27-inch iMac with an optional 5K Retina (5120 x 2880 pixels) display that is configurable with nano-texture glass which reduces reflectivity and glare for an improved viewing experience. It also gets a 1080p FaceTime HD camera – an upgrade from the FaceTime HD camera on the previous gen – that also uses the T2 security chip’s ISP to add tone mapping, exposure control, and face detection to the mix for an improved output.

Talking about the internals, you can configure the new 27-inch iMac with up to a 10-core 10th-generation Intel Core i9 processor paired with up to an even higher 128GB of RAM and 8TB SSD, which is again an improvement. Over in the graphics department, you can go from the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 with 4GB VRAM to the Radeon Pro 5700 XT with 16GB of GDDR6 memory. Apple has also improved the mic and speaker on its latest Mac.

The new 27-inch iMac starts at $1,799, while the top-of-the-line model will go north of $8000 in the US. It is now available to purchase starting today from the official online Apple Store, while retail availability and shipments will begin later this week.

In addition to the 27-inch iMac, Apple has also announced that the 21.5-inch iMac now comes with SSDs as standard storage across the range, and users also get the option to equip it with Fusion Drive. It starts at $1,099 for the base variant with a dual-core Intel processor, while the 6-core variant has a starting price of $1,499.

Apple has also given the iMac Pro a spec bump, as it now comes equipped with a 10-core Intel Xeon processor as a standard, with an option to go all the way up to an 18-core processor complemented with up to 256GB quad-channel ECC memory.