DECEMBER 2021 MACWORLD 9system can keep it cool. It seems possible
Apple might update the 24-inch iMac to
offer some new, high-end configurations
that use the M1 Pro–but I wouldn’t be
surprised if Apple’s more focused on
shipping the new, larger iMac right now. In
the long run, I wouldn’t be surprised if the
smaller iMac gets a more powerful
processor as an option—but it might need
to wait until the next chip generation.
And then there’s the Mac mini. Apple
released a new M1-based Mac mini last
November, alongside the MacBook Air and
13-inch MacBook Pro. What you might notWith such
power, Apple
could brand the
larger iMac as an
iMac Pro. Or
perhaps Apple
will reserve that
name only for
high-end iMac
models with the
M1 Max. Or
Apple could
keep it simple
and call it the
new 30-inch
iMac. But
whatever it’s
called, I expect
that the new
iMac will be
available in a configuration with a 10-core
M1 Max processor with 32 GPU cores and
64GB of RAM. It’ll cost a lot, but it’ll
probably be worth it.
MAKING ROOM FOR THE MAX
The smaller iMac could be in line for a
faster chip, too. In the past, smaller iMac
models have been configurable to be
pretty powerful, if not as powerful as the
larger iMacs. I think the question comes
down to just how much room there is
inside the very thin 24-inch iMac for an M
Pro motherboard–and if the iMac’s cooling
The high-end Mac mini still has an Intel CPU. It would be interesting to
outfit it with a M1 Pro and offer it as a Mac that fits between the M1 Mac
mini and the Mac Pro.