M4 iMac vs Intel iMac: Specs, options, value in contrast

Apple’s self-designed chip initiative, Apple Silicon, has been round for fairly a couple of years. Launched in 2020, Apple Silicon has systematically changed all of Apple’s Intel-based Mac fashions with variations utilizing its personal design of processor.

The iMac noticed its final Intel launch in 2019, a time when Apple continued to make use of an older iMac design.Two years later, Apple modified the sport by not solely bringing out an Apple Silicon iMac, however one which was radically redesigned.

Folks nonetheless utilizing an Intel iMac will discover issues have moved on significantly, and that an improve will make numerous modifications to their computing setup.

Whereas Apple Silicon has been in use since 2020, there’ll nonetheless be numerous Mac customers who’ve stayed on Intel all through. Analysts decided that 56% of recent Mac homeowners had held on to their older Mac for 3 years or extra, in a 2024 survey.

That is not a brand new pattern both. The identical survey from 2020 discovered that 40% of Mac patrons at the moment held onto their {hardware} for 3 or extra years.

There’s an excellent likelihood that a part of that 56% section consists of Intel Mac homeowners.

As to why they could be holding onto their {hardware} for therefore lengthy, there are a couple of causes, moreover value. For instance, they could have Mac software program that runs on Intel’s structure, and never Apple Silicon.

Then there’s reminiscence, as Intel Macs typically gave the choice so as to add extra. Apple Silicon customers are caught with what they initially configured, with no choice to improve the insides for themselves.

Here is how the final base Intel 21.5-inch iMac, which value $1,299 on the time, compares in opposition to its counterpart, the $1,299 M4 24-inch iMac.

The M4 24-inch iMac is a far cry from the design used within the final Intel iMac. When Apple converted to Apple Silicon, it made a substantial variety of modifications, together with an overhaul of its look.

Earlier than, there have been massive bezels to the perimeters, a tapered again part to the sides to present the phantasm of thinness, and a fairly restricted number of colours.

Now, the iMac shares the design aesthetic of the iPad Professional, with flat sides and minimal bezels, in addition to a really vast colour palette for customers to select from. The chin nonetheless persists, however all the things else has gone by way of numerous change.

M4 24-inch iMac vs Intel 21.5-inch iMac: The newer iMac has a skinny however slab-like building

On condition that there are two display sizes at play, and the novel design modifications, you possibly can anticipate the bodily dimensions to be very totally different.

The 21.5-inch iMac is 17.7 inches excessive and 20.8 inches vast total. The 24-inch iMac is a bit taller and wider at 18.1 and 21.5 inches respectively, however not by a lot.

The footprint on the newer mannequin is considerably smaller, because of a smaller base. That brings the general depth of the M4 iMac to five.8 inches versus 6.9 inches for the older mannequin.

Whereas barely greater, the 24-inch iMac is significantly lighter than its predecessor. The 21.5-inch iMac weighed 12.1 kilos, versus 9.74 kilos for the M4 iMac with two ports, 9.79 for the four-port model.

At 21.5 inches, the Intel iMac’s LED-backlit show supplied so much to customers. At 4,096 by 2,304 pixels, it supplied a pixel density of 219 pixels per inch.

The 24-inch mannequin’s bought the identical LED-backlit show expertise, however in an clearly bigger measurement. As a 23.5-inch, 4.5K show, it has a decision of 4,480 by 2,520, giving it the same pixel density of 218 pixels per inch.

M4 24-inch iMac vs Intel 21.5-inch iMac: The latest iMac’s show is larger than the Intel technology’s display

What hasn’t modified is the brightness, which rests at 500 nits for each fashions. There’s additionally Large colour (P3) help throughout the board, although you do not get True Tone on the older mannequin.

One different expertise change for the show is that it is attainable to get a Nano-texture remedy for the entrance glass to reduce glare and reflections. Nevertheless, that is solely obtainable as an elective additional on the four-port model of the M4 iMac, not the bottom two-port model.

The final technology of Intel iMac was bought with three CPU choices. The bottom was a 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 chip.

The mid-tier possibility was a 3.0GHz 6-core Intel Core i5, with a Turbo Enhance as much as 4.1GHz. Lastly, the best finish possibility was a 3.2GHz 6-core Intel Core i7, with a 4.6GHz Turbo Enhance.

In terms of reminiscence, the Intel mannequin began with 8GHz of two,400MHz DDR, with 16GB and 32GB improve choices.

The M4 is obtainable in two variants, relying on whether or not the consumer wants the two-port mannequin or four-port model.

The 2-port has an M4 chip with an 8-core CPU, with 4 efficiency cores and 4 effectivity cores. The four-port mannequin has a 10-core CPU, with 4 efficiency and 6 effectivity cores.

Apple makes use of unified reminiscence for its Apple Silicon chips, which permits all chip parts entry to the identical pool, with out segmenting and duplicating information. The 2-port begins with 16GB of reminiscence with a 24GB improve obtainable, whereas the four-port provides a 32GB possibility on prime.

Graphics on the Intel fashions included a Radeon Professional 555X with 2GB of GDDR5 reminiscence, a Radeon Professional 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 reminiscence, and a Radeon Professional Vega 20 with 4GB of HBM2 reminiscence.

The GPU on the M4 fashions are Apple’s personal designs, with 8 cores and 10 cores for the two-port and four-port choices, respectively.

The Apple Silicon chips additionally profit from issues the Intel mannequin merely does not have, together with the Neural Engine. The 16-core ingredient is used for duties the place machine studying is at play, equivalent to Apple Intelligence.

Then there’s the Media Engine, which supplies hardware-acceleration video encoding and decoding. That is historically a really CPU-intensive job, so handing it off to a devoted part is a big profit for some functions.

As for a way a lot better the M4 is over the Intel counterparts, there is no direct option to evaluate by benchmarking, as Apple’s newest chip hasn’t been examined but. Nevertheless, we are able to go by Apple’s claims.

Apple says the M4 chip makes the iMac 1.7 instances quicker than the M1, in relation to the CPU. The GPU can also be claimed to be 2.1 instances quicker, able to double the body fee in video games.

M4 24-inch iMac vs Intel 21.5-inch iMac: Geekbench single-core and multi-core figures

Utilizing the M1 iMac as a information, Apple’s declare signifies that the M4 ought to attain about 3,987 for single-core checks in Geekbench, and about 14,224 in multi-core testing.

Against this, the bottom Intel i3 can get 1,205 and three,442 respectively, whereas the i5 goes to 1,358 and 5,006. The i7 chip, the Intel iMac’s quickest, remains to be nicely behind at 1,496 for single-core and 6,259 for multi-core.

The Intel chips are additionally soundly crushed by the M1 iMac, which will get 2,345 for single-core and eight,367 for multi-core.

M4 24-inch iMac vs Intel 21.5-inch iMac: Geekbench Metallic figures

In terms of the GPU, the M4 theoretically scores about 67,000 on Geekbench’s Metallic take a look at.

The Radeon Professional 555X is listed at 17,628, the 560X at 23,747, and the Vega 20 at 33,916. The Vega 20 is nowhere close to the M4’s potential rating, nevertheless it does a minimum of beat the M1’s 32,168 whole.

In contrast in opposition to the M1, the CPU and GPU capabilities of the Intel Mac are outclassed by Apple Silicon. No matter how correct Apple’s claims are, the M4 needs to be significantly higher.

The Intel iMac makes use of a FaceTime HD digital camera to deal with video calls and taking images from the perspective of the iMac.

The M4 has a superior one, branded as a 12MP Middle Stage digital camera. Able to 1080p video, it is also boosted by a sophisticated picture sign processor to computationally enhance the picture.

It additionally has Desk View, a characteristic that simulates a top-down view of the consumer’s desk, which may be helpful to point out bodily objects to different folks.

M4 24-inch iMac vs Intel 21.5-inch iMac: Exterior audio is the way in which to go, as usualM4 24-inch iMac vs Intel 21.5-inch iMac: Exterior audio is the way in which to go, as usualM4 24-inch iMac vs Intel 21.5-inch iMac: Exterior audio is the way in which to go, as regular

In terms of audio, the M4 iMac has a high-fidelity six-speaker system with force-cancelling woofers, full with vast stereo sound and Spatial Audio help. The Intel iMac has a lot easier stereo audio system.

The older iMac additionally makes use of a microphone to choose up audio. The M4 mannequin makes use of a studio-quality three-mic array with a excessive signal-to-noise ratio and beamforming.

This makes it so much simpler to choose up your voice clearly, which is useful for Siri queries.

Each fashions have a headphone jack, however the M4 iMac goes for one with help for high-impedance headphones, utilized by audiophiles.

The Intel Mac had, in its base configuration, a 5400RPM 1TB laborious drive, although you could possibly get variations with an SSD or a Fusion Drive. This latter possibility combines SSD and laborious drive tech to supply excessive capability and quicker learn and write speeds for a few of your information.

Fashionable Macs have, for some years now, converted to SSDs. It is a significantly quicker option to entry and write information, and quieter too because of the lack of spinning steel.

Within the M4 iMac, capacities begin off with 256GB, however you could possibly improve to 1TB on the two-port mannequin, or 2TB on the four-port.

In terms of ports, the 21.5-inch iMac provides a shocking quantity of flexibility. The again consists of the headphone jack, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, 4 USB 3.1 ports, an SD card reader, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

Against this, the M4 iMac is extraordinarily minimalist. The 2-port base mannequin has simply two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the rear, with out a card reader or Gigabit Ethernet, although you possibly can at all times go for the four-port mannequin with Gigabit Ethernet, or pay for the improve. .

After all, there’s an argument to easily including a Thunderbolt dock to the iMac to broaden its connectivity, however that will dent the uncluttered desk look a bit.

There’s Wi-Fi 6E help within the M4 iMac, so you should use wi-fi networking, however you possibly can nonetheless get Gigabit Ethernet if you’d like. You might both improve to the four-port mannequin, or pay the $30 improve price so as to add the port to the facility brick.

Wi-Fi on the Intel iMac is the a lot older 802.11ac. Bluetooth can also be an older model, with Bluetooth 4.2 in use in opposition to the M4’s Bluetooth 5.3.

All fashions ship with peripherals, together with the Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad, in addition to a Magic Keyboard. Nevertheless, the M4 iMac’s keyboard may be configured with Contact ID, bringing biometric safety to the desktop Mac, one thing utterly lacking from the older iMac.

The 2019 Intel iMac began from $1,299 with the Intel Core i3 chip, AMD Radeon Professional 555X graphics, 8GB of reminiscence, and a 1TB laborious drive.

M4 24-inch iMac vs Intel 21.5-inch iMac: The M4 provides an unlimited array of colorways

The M4 iMac at $1,299 has the 8-core M4 chip, an 8-core GPU, 16GB of unified reminiscence, and a 256GB SSD. The four-port model, with the 10-core GPU, 16GB of reminiscence, and 256GB SSD, is $1,499.

Reminiscence upgrades value $200 per improve tier. The storage upgrades begin at $200 for 512GB, one other $200 for 1TB, and one other $400 for 2TB.

Upgrading to Gigabit Ethernet on the two-port mannequin is $30, whereas including Nano-texture to the four-port mannequin is $200.

When Apple Silicon Macs got here out, they have been praised for providing appreciable efficiency beneficial properties over the Intel variations they have been changing. 4 generations of Apple Silicon later, and it is gone from a “ought to improve” to “should improve.”

Not simply due to the efficiency of Apple Silicon now, however due to the Intel chips it replaces. The Intel processors from 2019 are significantly gradual relative to trendy requirements, to the purpose that even a change to an M1 iMac can be helpful.

The argument of maintaining maintain of the Intel chip for some software program needs to be lifeless by now. You’ll anticipate most mission-critical software program would’ve been up to date to run on Apple Silicon within the final 5 years, so the argument should not apply anymore.

Add within the bigger 24-inch show, the advantages of SSDs over spinning steel discs, and a extra trendy design, and it turns into a no brainer to improve.

There was a concrete cause to maintain utilizing an Intel iMac. There’s much less of a cause to take action now.

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