From Ars Technica · · 4m
Apple's M6 iMac: pretty, pricey, and still the same
The new iMac gets faster internals but keeps its retro design. It costs more than before and offers little reason to upgrade from older models.
In brief
The new iMac gets faster internals but keeps its retro design. It costs more than before and offers little reason to upgrade from older models. Apple's M6 iMac is faster than its M4 predecessor but costs two hundred dollars more, making it a harder sell for budget-conscious buyers seeking a clean desktop. Originally…
The iMac gets its fourth refresh
Apple released a new M6 iMac this month, the fourth update to its Apple Silicon desktop since the line launched. Other Macs have evolved more dramatically in design and capability.
Design stays locked in the past
The iMac keeps its thin screen-on-a-stand design inspired by the original Bondi Blue G three iMac. It remains a clean, pretty desktop computer popular in small offices and TV shows.
Who should upgrade from older models
If you own an Apple Silicon iMac and are happy with its performance, the M six offers little reason to upgrade. Even the M one from twenty twenty-one remains serviceable for daily use.
The base model is stripped down
The basic nineteen ninety-nine dollar iMac has two Thunderbolt ports, a headphone jack, ten CPU cores, ten GPU cores, maximum twenty-four gigabytes of RAM, and minimum two hundred fifty-six gigabytes of storage.
Touch ID costs extra on base model
The base iMac keyboard lacks Touch ID support. Getting it requires buying the version with a built-in number pad, an eighty dollar upsell that adds significant cost to the entry-level machine.
The sixteen ninety-nine model is the workstation
The sixteen ninety-nine dollar version includes the full M six chip with all CPU and GPU cores, options for thirty-two gigabytes of RAM, up to two terabytes of storage, and four Thunderbolt ports.
Ethernet hides in the power brick
A two point five gigabit Ethernet port can be added to any iMac for thirty dollars. It connects to the power brick rather than the iMac itself, keeping cables hidden beneath the desk.
You pay heavily for style and convenience
The Mac mini costs eight hundred dollars less than the iMac with the same chip, RAM, and storage. A nice four K monitor would not cost eight hundred dollars, even with extra features.
The M four was the real turning point
The brightest dividing line in Apple Silicon iMac history is between the M three and M four models, not the M four and M six.
M six brings real performance gains
The M six is fifteen to twenty percent faster in single-core CPU benchmarks, twenty to thirty percent faster in multi-core, and twenty to forty percent faster in graphics benchmarks than the M four.
The iMac version runs cooler than others
The iMac's M six consumes an average of eighteen watts under sustained heavy load, making it more power-efficient than the regular M six. It is five to eight percent slower in multi-core CPU tasks.
Neural accelerators boost AI workloads
The M six includes neural accelerator hardware in the GPU cores, boosting speed for local AI workloads compared to the M four. This includes MetalFX upscaling and frame generation in games.
Memory bandwidth varies by RAM tier
The sixteen gigabyte M six offers one hundred fifty-three gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth. The twenty-four and thirty-two gigabyte versions offer one hundred seventy gigabytes per second, a minor difference.
The iMac is best for cable-averse users
The iMac is ideal for people who do not want a laptop, need a friendly office computer, or want something pretty without fussing with screens and cables. It minimizes the cable mess most desktops create.
Price increase makes it a harder sell
The M six iMac costs two hundred dollars more than the M four model did at launch. Base storage remains two hundred fifty-six gigabytes, and the base model still supports only one external display.
A box-ticking upgrade for the design-conscious
The M six iMac changes almost nothing about who it is for or what it is technically capable of.It is a box-ticking upgrade where the box being ticked is keeping the insides up to date.
The headline
Apple's M6 iMac is faster than its M4 predecessor but costs two hundred dollars more, making it a harder sell for budget-conscious buyers seeking a clean desktop.
