New iMacs - Graphics

There are plenty of sites that are carrying news about the new iMacs that Apple announced today. I just wanted to point something out for folks who may be unfamiliar with the new graphics on the basic entry level 21.5" iMac. The new graphics chipset is the Intel Iris Pro. In case you're not aware.... this is an integrated graphics chipset, not discrete as with former iMacs.

The better 21.5" iMac and the 27" iMacs do come with discrete graphics chipsets. My advice is if you're in the market for a new iMac, spend the extra $$$ and move up to either the better 21.5" machine or the 27" machines. Also keep in mind that the 21.5" machines are not upgradeable, so be sure to order one with plenty of memory. They come standard with 8 GB.

Thanks for that mate, as I, for one had no idea, and to be honest, i dont come from a 'build your own PC' background, so im not for one to keep up with what are the latest and greatest and what they do, but i might do some reading after this post.

I learnt something new

You beat me to it Charlie. I was going to post the exact same "watch out" on the new entry level 21.5" iMac.

- Nick

So what are the advantages of this upgrade? It probably absolutely does not affect me because I don't do gaming or any kind work with videos or photos, I assume.

OWC Blog Home

Both unboxing and teardown.

I thought those things were nearly impossible to open becasue the glass was glued on? Looks like by the 3rd step it was completely open. I sure would have liked to have seen how he separated the glass.

dotdotdot said:

I thought those things were nearly impossible to open becasue the glass was glued on? Looks like by the 3rd step it was completely open. I sure would have liked to have seen how he separated the glass.

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Glue Strips is what I call them. You purchase something that is like a Guitar pick from OWC or iFixit. You have to work it around and cut the glue. The LCD and the Glass are one unit and held to the iMac with the Glue Strips. Only issue is once inside to put it back together you have to clean off all the old strips that are now shot, and purchase new strips from iFixit or Maybe OWC. It's a pain but it can be done. Once inside it's easy.

I will also post this disclaimer to the above post. If you really truly don't know what you are doing, do NOT try it yourself!!! It's not for the faint of heart! I just with they would have put in a Memory door on the 21.5" also.

Also I would suggest never do it in Warranty . Wait till all Warranty is gone.

I just with they would have put in a Memory door on the 21.5" also.

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I couldn't agree more Dennis. Which is why I'm happy I have the last 21.5" iMac that is upgradeable and also has an optical drive.

The basic entry level 21.5" iMac is a throw away desktop... not upgradeable, and to add insult to injury, uses an integrated GPU.

chscag said:

The basic entry level 21.5" iMac is a throw away desktop... not upgradeable, and to add insult to injury, uses an integrated GPU.

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And its this model here that could give them a bad name from the unsuspecting people that dont do their homework, but need to rush out and buy a iMac, and because there will be pallet loads of them out the back, they will run out the door, then this person wants to upgrade it, and realises Oops cant do this . . . Rant, Rant, Rant, Rant . . . Blah Blah Blah we have heard it all before . . . Apple sucks !!!

What I don't like about this is...you're getting less (no dedicated graphics) for the same price someone would have paid for the previous entry level 21.5" iMac.

Apple could at least have knocked $50-$100 off the price.

Of course maybe the benchmark scores are still better for the new iMac's (Haswell processors)...than the previous generation iMac's. But still...no one likes having something taken away (dedicated graphics) and still have to pay the same price.

I think that this is the first iMac in a really really long time to not have dedicated graphics hardware. In fact this may be the FIRST iMac WITHOUT dedicated graphics.

Even the very first iMac from 1998 had dedicated graphics (Rage IIc with 2meg of VRAM).

- Nick

p.s. The new entry level 21.5" iMac could basically be a Mac-Mini with a built-in display.

wow.. i just seen this! that is disgusting lol, its nearly £200 more than what i paid for my entry level in 2011, admittedly it was only a 2.5ghz with 4gb of ram and 500gb storage but it had AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB all for £999

Nick, there was one iMac way back that was an educational model or something (I will find it and post it) that had a GMA 950 or something like that video. It was $200 less than the normal iMac as well. All I can remember but for the lower cost it did not bug me that much.

Here you go Nick,. there were 2 of them. This one is newer but still has integrated graphics in the form of Nvidia, the 2nd older one has the GMA950. They were both for education.

iMac for Education (Early 2009) | Low End Mac

17″ iMac (Mid 2006) | Low End Mac

dtravis7 said:

Here you go Nick,. there were 2 of them. This one is newer but still has integrated graphics in the form of Nvidia, the 2nd older one has the GMA950. They were both for education.

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Thanks for finding those Dennis. There have certainly been a lot of iMac models over the years. The "educational only" models have always been "oddballs". So it makes sense that they were the only ones (until now) with integrated graphics.

Maybe the best way to describe the new entry level 21.5" iMac is...the first mainstream iMac with integrated graphics.

- Nick

Agree 100% Nick. For the price they should not have gone integrated. I wonder how good that integrated new Intel graphics is for most people?

dtravis7 said:

Agree 100% Nick. For the price they should not have gone integrated. I wonder how good that integrated new Intel graphics is for most people?

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I was wondering the same thing. I wonder if we can assume anything from the name "Intel Iris Pro Graphics"...with "Pro" being the special word! Hopefully it's not all "bark" and no "bite"!

- Nick

I'm not positive about this Nick, but I believe the Intel Iris Pro is the next order of integrated graphics after the HD 4000. Actually, the HD 4000 has pretty good benchmarks for an integrated GPU, so it's not beyond reason to think that the Iris Pro will be even better. It just sticks in my craw that Apple has used it on its entry level 21.5" iMac. I can understand using it in the MacBook Air or even the 13" MacBook Pro line, but not a desktop machine.

This is for you Nick from a person who knows his stuff about the new intel Iris Pro.

"The big news of course is that Apple has dropped NVIDIA's GeForce GT 640M from the entry-level 21.5-inch iMac and replaced it with Intel's Iris Pro 5200. Iris Pro is Intel's largest on-die GPU implementation, featuring a full 40 EU implementation. The Pro 5200 version adds 128MB of embedded DRAM onto the CPU package itself (codename Crystalwell), which helps address one of the biggest problems of integrated graphics performance: memory bandwidth. We previewed Intel's Iris Pro graphics earlier this year and came away generally impressed. It's not necessarily faster than the equivalent NVIDIA solutions, but it should use less power and can obviously enable smaller board layouts."



Sounds very impressive. Does not use system RAM.

chscag said:

I'm not positive about this Nick, but I believe the Intel Iris Pro is the next order of integrated graphics after the HD 4000. Actually, the HD 4000 has pretty good benchmarks for an integrated GPU, so it's not beyond reason to think that the Iris Pro will be even better.

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I totally agree...next in the lineup/evolution of integrated graphics from Intel. Of course if it was "super good"...it wouldn't be in an entry level computer.

- Nick