Two years after the presentation of the first model, Apple has finally updated the i.Mac with Apple Silicon. The 24-inch model introduced by the company in 2021 is now updated with the M3 chip, which offers faster performance and improved features. But, Is there anything else new besides the processor?
The truth is that both teams have a lot in common. For example, 2021 and 2023 models. They have exactly the same design. So Apple kept the metal body, which stands out for its thinness, just 1.15 cm thick. It also kept the front panel with a shiny bezel at the bottom, as well as the seven colors that the company introduced two years ago.
In terms of screen, the M3-powered iMac is also identical to its predecessor.. So we’re looking at a 24-inch Retina LCD panel with a resolution of 4480 x 2520 (4.5K equivalent) as well as 500 nits of brightness. The camera for FaceTime and video calling retains 1080p resolution and includes the same speaker system with spatial audio.
New M3 chip, the main difference between the new iMac
We’re starting to see differences in performance and connectivity, due in part to thanks to the new processor. The 2023 iMac includes the M3 chip, which the company announced alongside the M3 Pro and M3 Max that come with the new MacBook Pro. According to Apple, it delivers up to 2x the performance of an iMac with M1.
In particular, the M3 chip supports 8-core processor, but includes GPU with 8 or up to 10 cores, and M1 chip GPU with 7 or 8 cores. It also comes with up to 24GB of RAM, up from the maximum 16GB that was configurable on the previous model, and offers 100GB/s of bandwidth, up from 66.7GB/s in the 2021 version.
New M3 chip installed in this iMac It also allows the team to integrate new features., such as ProRes and ProRes RAW support, ProRes encoding and decoding engine and AV1 decoding. However, it retains a maximum capacity of 2TB in the case of the four-port model, as well as a 16-core neural engine.
In terms of connectivity, the 24-inch iMac now has Bluetooth 5.3 instead of Bluetooth 5.0, and also WiFi 6E compared to Wi-Fi 6 of the 2021 model.
Here’s how the M3 iMac prices compare to the M1 model
The new iMac with M3 is slightly more expensive than the iMac with M1. The base model, for example, now costs 170 euros more, reaching 1,619 euros in a configuration with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD. These are starting prices for the most standard configurations.
- M3 with 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB combined memory and 256GB SSD: 1619 euros.
- M3 with 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB combined memory and 256GB SSD: 1849 euros.
- M3 with 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB combined memory and 512GB SSD: 2079 euros.
- M1 with 7-core GPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD: 1449 euros.
- M1 with 8-core GPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD: 1669 euros.
- M1 with 8-core GPU, 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD: 1899 euros.
Source: Hiper Textual
I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.
