10/20 new products (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

I totally agree with Mancuso. As I posted in the other "nerd-dom" thread (thanks Sam), the closest thing to the 27" IPS panel Apple is using is a Dell 27" VA panel (TN being the cheapest type of panel). Most consider IPS superior to VA, and the Dell only has a resolution of 1920x1200 vs. Apple's 2560x1440 (60% more pixels!). The Dell sells for $929 direct, so it's not unreasonable to project out that the 27" IPS Apple display would go for over a thousand dollars.

For another grand you can get a CTO quad-core i7 Nehalem w/ HT (8 virtual cores), 1TB HD, 4GB RAM, decent graphics, magic mouse, wireless keyboard, two-way mini displayport, all built into the back of the monitor in a stylish and compact shell.

I've never been tempted by the older iMacs, but I will have the 27" i7 in my place within a month or two, pending supply and good initial word of mouth (I still try not to buy first major revs of any product without reading the community's response).

The new dual-core 27-inch iMac is $1699. The 30-inch Cinema Display is $1799. As Jeff Mancuso notes, it’s like buying a nice display and getting a built-in Mac for free.

 

[KeithAP]

The new iMacs are nice. However, it is a real shame that Apple decided to stick with the 4850 512MB GPU as the top video choice (and even that is only available on the 27" model). The 4850 is a rather low end part for an otherwise nice machine.

ATI just released new GPUs. Surely, there was a more powerful, less power consuming option that could have been used instead. Hopefully an iMac refresh will happen next spring or summer with better GPU options.

-KeithP

 

[Sam Posten]

You just gotta get over on the idea that iMacs are 'nice' for gamers but they arent going to be AWESOME for gamers. That's not the market at all. And you are lucky to get a 4 month old part on a new release. That's pretty amazing for an iMac launch.

And they will still play Crysis just fine at pretty decent graphics levels.

If it's that important to you, there is always the Mac Pro.

And hard core gamers who care about such are like 1% of the market, which is probably even less than a market segment of those who care about BluRay...

PS: Show me ANY OTHER all in one system whose graphics cards come close to what these have in them... And if you can find them, compare the prices....

 

[Carlo_M]

As a Mac fan, I've always recommended to my gamer friends to steer clear of Macs if your primary goal is high FPS frame rates at high resolutions.

Given that there is no BD capability, I think that's why they went with the 4850. In a refresh or two, when BD does make it onto the iMac, that's going to be when we'll see the higher capability cards (out of necessity).

 

[Sam Posten]

Slam dunk 4th quarter news.
Home Run new iMacs.

Stock an all time high
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2009/10/apple_stock_hit.html

Can it keep going or is this the big rush before another December 2007ish fall?

 

[KeithAP]

Given that OpenCL was one of the major new features of Snow Leopard, it will be increasing difficult to write off a powerful video card as just something that a gamer would want. The software isn't there just yet. Maybe after developers get some time with OpenCL and start producing useful apps Apple will rethink its options. Of course I suppose OpenCL could end up going nowhere.

The recently released ATI 5770 and 5750 draw less power than the 4850 and in most cases perform much better. I guess they were just too new to be included. The 4870 and 4890 might have drawn too much current and generated too much heat for the iMac enclosure.

Don't get me wrong, the new iMacs are the best ever. It is just that when you look at the entire package, the options for its GPU seem to stand out as being a bit behind when compared to the rest of the machine, gamer or not.

-Keith

 

[Carlo_M]

Keith, I could be wrong but aren't the 4870 and 4890 desktop solutions (i.e. an actual PCIe card)? I was unaware that there was a mobile chip solution. Because the iMac, to fit inside its enclosure, uses largely mobile parts not desktop parts. I know the 5770 and 5750 PCIe cards recently came out and the reaction was mixed, in some instances they performed better than the 4850 but not all. But I was unaware that ATI had put out new mobile video solutions...

[edit - I checked AMD's website and the top of the line mobile solution on it is the 4850/4870 line, no mention of a 5xxx line yet. Still one wonders why we weren't given the 4870...]

 

[Sam Posten]

Heat / efficiemcy

 

[Ken Chan]

Originally Posted by DaveF ">[/url]

I guess I don't understand what "swipe" is versus "scroll" in an app.[/QUOTE]Swipe is the physical action; scroll is the effect. What constitutes a swipe is a matter of degree. The other main factor is the number of fingers.

Slowly moving one finger around scrolls. Swiping with one finger scrolls with momentum, "throwing" the viewport, as on an iPhone.

Swiping with two fingers does Back/Forward in Safari, for example. Dunno if slowly moving two fingers does anything (anything different, anything at all...)

The video on the

 

[Parker Clack]

Well, I ordered a 21.5 iMac yesterday. Should be here Monday or Tuesday. I am going to give my present iMac to my in-laws so we can use iChat. I will let you know what I think of this new model vs. last years after I fire it up.

 

[DaveF]

Parker, as it will be running 10.6, are you also upgrading to CS 4 to fix your CS 3 problems?

 

[Parker Clack]

Well. Actually it came in today. I couldn't believe it. I ordered it on Tuesday. They shipped it on Wednesday and I got it today. I wasn't expecting it until Monday or Tuesday next week.

Bummer is I have to work today through Sunday so I won't be able to get it all set until then. I couldn't wait to plug it in through and so far it works just like a Mac should. I am getting used to the new mouse. Also the 1920 x 1080 screen size takes a bit of getting used to. Next week I am getting WIndows 7 and loading VM fusion on it.

Dave: At some point I will be loading CS 4 but I have to wait a bit on that one.

Parker

 

[Sam Posten]

If you are gonna put it off even a little, if you can wait till January 18th that might be for the best!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Congrats on your new iMac, Parker. The reviews on
these babies have been very positive.

I have to wait another 4 weeks until the 27" iMacs ship.

Meanwhile, this is one of the best reviews I have seen
on the new 27" models (though not testing the i5 or i7):

http://gizmodo.com/5388567/apple-imac-review-27-inches-and-less-chin