Apple upgrades its iMac lineup with more cores, graphics, and a lot more memory

Moneycontrol News

Apple seems to be in a hurry to update its hardware lineup before the event on March 25. On Monday, the company updated its iPad lineup and introduced two new devices — iPad Air 10.5 and iPad mini 5. Yesterday, Apple decided to upgrade its iMac lineup with latest processors and more RAM options.

Apple updated its 4K and 5K iMac with latest Intel Core CPUs and AMD Radeon Vega GPUs. The 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac are now available with an eight-core 9th-generation processor and Radeon Pro Vega graphics. With this new update, there are three variants each of the 21.5-inch iMac and the 27-inch iMac.

Starting with the 21.5-inch iMac, it would be available in Core i3 and Core i5 processors. All the three variants come with 8GB RAM as standard. The standard non-retina 21.5 inch iMac is available with 2.3 GHz dual-core Intel i5 processor. It comes with 8GB of 2133MHz DDR4 memory which is configurable up to 16GB. For graphics, the standard display comes with Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640.

The Retina 4K display has two variants— 3.6GHz quad‑core Intel Core i3 and 3.0GHz 6-core Intel Core i5. Both these variants can be configured to 3.2GHz 6-core Intel Core i7 processor, and memory upgrade options include 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB. The 3.0GHz model comes with Radeon Pro 560X GPU with 4GB of VRAM which can be upgraded to Radeon Pro Vega 20. The 3.6GHz model, on the other hand, has Radeon Pro 555X GPU with 2GB RAM.

The 27-inch iMac has three variants - 3.0GHz, 3.1-GHz, and 3.7GHz. It has Retina 5K display as standard across all three variants.  The first model is a 3.0GHz 6‑core Intel Core i5 processor which comes with 2- 4GB RAM of 2666MHz DDR4 memory. It is upgradable to 16GB and 32GB RAM. For graphics, it has a Radeon Pro 570X with 4GB VRAM. The base variant of the 27-inch iMac comes with 1TB Fusion drive which can be configured to 2GB or up to 1TB SSD.

The second model has a 3.1GHz 6‑core Intel Core i5 processor paired with 2- 4GB RAM of 2666MHz DDR4 memory. It is configurable up to 3.6GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 processor, and the memory can be upgraded to 64GB. AMD Radeon Pro 575X handles the graphics department with 4GB VRAM. For storage, the mid-variant offers 1TB Fusion drive as standard. It can be configured up to 3TB Fusion drive or 1TB SSD.

Lastly, the top-end variant of the 27-inch display has a 3.7GHz 6‑core Intel Core i5 processor. It can be upgraded to a 3.6GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 processor. In terms of memory, it comes with 8GB RAM as standard and can be upgraded to 64GB. The high-end variant has a Radeon Pro 580X GPU which can be upgraded to Radeon Pro Vega 48 with 8GB VRAM on board.

Apple upgraded the 27-inch iMac Pro as well. Users can now buy the top-end variant with a massive 256GB 2666MHz DDR4 RAM which would cost them an additional $5,200.

The new updated lineup would be available in India starting next week.