Skip to main content

New iMac vs Old iMac: Is it Worth It?

Just in time for the upcoming back-to-school season, Apple has given its iMac line its perennial update. Although the newest iMacs look identical to their older cousins, a bit of retooling under the hood leaves them faster and more capable than ever. Will you notice? Here’s a rundown of what’s new, and what it means to you.

Core i3, i5 and i7 Processors

The trusty Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad designations have disappeared in favor, appropriately enough, of Intel’s new i-branded Nehalemn-architecture chips. Although they share the same clock speeds, the new chips use a 32nm fabrication, which improves both performance and efficiency. Other technologies, including hyper threading and smart cache, should also improve performance, albeit incrementally.

Recommended Videos

ATI Radeon HD Graphics

Apple has jumped ship on the GeForce 9-series cards found in the last iMacs and switched to AMD’s Radeon HD cards. You’ll also notice no “mobility” or “M” designation tacked on there. These are the full-power desktop versions of the new cards, not the neutered notebook versions the last-generation iMac was using. Long story short: They should offer significantly improved gaming performance for folks hoping to install Bootcamp and get their Crysis on. Especially if you opt for the big-daddy Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB of onboard GDDR5 memory.

Support for dual hard drives

It used to be you could order an iMac with a standard magnetic drive, or a speedy solid-state drive. This time around, Apple has eliminated the either-or proposition with the option to equip your new iMac with both a 256GB solid-state drive and a conventional drive. Sound like overkill? For many users, it might be, but loading the operating system and certain programs onto the SSD can significantly improve load times, while a conventional drive keeps a terabyte or two handy for large video and music collections.

The Apple iMac continues to remain one of the most powerful all-in-one systems available. While it is not as upgradeable as a full on desktop system, Apple gives users the ability to upgrade most major components including hard drive and RAM. In our book, the new iMac gives users an experience worth paying for!

Nick Mokey
As Digital Trends’ Editor in Chief, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team covering every gadget under the sun, along with…
The M3 iMac is here, but it’s missing its most requested change
Someone using an iMac at a salon.

At its Scary Fast event, Apple announced a refresh to the 24-inch iMac, bringing the M3 to its popular all-in-one desktop. The M3 is a big deal, especially since the iMac was the only Mac to not get an M2 update.

There were some things Apple didn't announce that many were hoping for: new accessories. Rumors leading up to the event pointed to a new Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, but that didn't come to fruition. With the iPhone's recent change to USB-C, some speculated that the Mac peripherals would also move away from Lightning. That didn't happen.

Read more
Apple’s refreshed iMac may be coming sooner than you think
A new folder is created on a blue iMac desktop.

The will-they-won’t-they saga around Apple’s likelihood of releasing a refresh of the 24-inch iMac anytime soon took another twist on Sunday after prominent Apple analyst Mark Gurman suggested the machine could land at the end of this month.

It follows a report last week via another Apple specialist, Ming-Chi Kuo, who claimed that the updated iMac won’t appear until 2024.

Read more
Want a new iMac? It’s just been delayed to 2024, says analyst
Man using a 24-inch M1 iMac.

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like Apple could launch a whole slate of new Macs in October. Now, the pool of expected Macs is getting smaller and smaller. That’s because a prominent analyst has put the final nail in the coffin of the idea that new iMacs are just around the corner.

According to industry expert Ming-Chi Kuo, the 24-inch iMac is due for an update in 2024. That might sound encouraging given they could only be a few months out, but it actually represents a delay compared to what we thought we knew previously.

Read more