Hey guys, this is Vadim with Max Tech, and I’m extremely excited
because as all of you know by now, more and more leaks and rumors have been coming out
pointing to Apple releasing a new fully redesigned 24” iMac at Apple’s April event next month.
And just the other day, 9to5mac basically confirmed it! They did some digging into the
latest macOS big Sur beta and found references to two unreleased iMac models, the iMac21,1 and 21,2.
Now this is an absolutely huge deal for a couple of different reasons.
First off, they also found references to the unreleased A14X chip within the latest
iOS 14.5 beta which is destined to go into the iPad Pro, which at this point, we know is 100%
getting released within the next month, probably at Apple’s April event, no doubt about it.
And the second reason is that last year, the identifier for one of the M1 Macs was
leaked within macOS beta code, and then just a couple of weeks later,
the M1 Macs were officially released at Apple’s November event.
So based on that, there’s a very good chance that both of these leaked iMac
models are coming sooner than later, probably at Apple’s April event,
which is extremely exciting because we’ve been waiting for this for many many months!
However, there is still one question that remains unclear… Do those two iMac identifiers
automatically mean that both the 24” iMac and the larger 27 to 30” iMac are coming next month?
Well, I personally don’t think so, because of two main reasons.. So let’s get right into it.
First off, there have been quite a few leaks pointing to a 23 or 24” iMac
coming sometime around the 1st quarter of 2021,
but all of those leaks don’t mention anything about the larger iMac model.
At the same time, Bloomberg reported that they’re not expecting the iMacs until much
later in the year, but due to the massive amount of 24” iMac leaks we’ve recently seen,
it’s likely that they were talking about just the large iMac Model.
Last year, we also got a lot of rumors of Apple working on a dedicated custom GPU
which was destined for the larger iMac in the 2nd half of 2021,
which makes a lot of sense since that machine needs to be very powerful.
So in that case, I don’t think all of the super
powerful hardware is ready for a launch next month, and therefore,
I believe that the large iMac should actually be launching later in the year.
And for the second reason, the 27” Intel iMac that we got last year surprisingly
also came with two separate identifiers, yes, two code names for the same 27” iMac.
So we started to do some research, and we found that it’s likely not the 10gb ethernet
upgrade option because the Intel Mac mini offers that as well, and it only has one identifier.
It’s most likely not the nano-texture glass, since that doesn’t impact the internals at all.
But then, we dug into Geekbench results and found that every single iMac with the 20,2 identifier
has a different motherboard than the 20,1 models,
and then we also found that the 20,2 models always come with the higher-end 5700 and 5700 XT GPUs.
So the question is, why would it need a different motherboard for those
GPUs? Well, it turns out that the 27” iMac supports up to two 6K external displays,
but only if you get the Radeon Pro 5700 or 5700 XT graphics.
And then we dug deeper and found that you also need an extra Thunderbolt controller
to support that much display bandwidth, and yes,
an extra controller and larger GPU means that you need an entirely different motherboard,
and that’s where the second identifier for the same 27” model came from.
I then researched a bit more and found that the 2017 21.5” iMac actually has two
identifiers as well, one for the base 1080p model and one for the 4K model.
And if you look at the tech specs, you’ll notice that the base model
doesn’t get a dedicated graphics chip at all, it relies on the Intel CPU’s integrated graphics,
and therefore, it probably has a totally different motherboard without the socket and wiring used
by the dedicated GPU, hence why there is two different identifiers for the same 21.5” iMac.
So the point that I’m trying to make is that both of those leaked iMac identifiers could
actually be the same 24” model that’s coming next month, and that would make sense since a lot of
the rumors are pointing to the larger iMac only coming later in the year.
So here’s the big question we have to answer, why would the 24” iMac have two separate identifiers?
Well, my money is on it actually coming with two separate motherboard options,
just like we saw with those Intel models that we just looked at,
so NOW, the question is, what would warrant two separate motherboards this time?
Well, I did a lot of digging and I came up with this, the 24” iMac will most likely have
two Apple Silicon chip options, the M1 chip that we already have
and the new M1X chip as an upgrade option, which will require a totally different motherboard
due to the chip being physically larger, so let me explain how I got to that conclusion.
Many months ago, before the M1 Macs, Bloomberg reported that
Apple will reportedly use a 12-core 5nm ARM processor in the very first Apple Silicon Mac
in 2021, with 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, which is what we are calling the M1X chip.
However, the first Apple Silicon Mac was actually the M1, an 8-core chip,
and it actually came in 2020, earlier than Bloomberg expected.
So here’s what I think happened, Apple was planning redesigned MacBooks with
Mini-LED displays, but then they ended up getting delayed due to the pandemic,
so Apple just went ahead and tossed a less powerful 8-core chip into the MacBook Air,
the Pro and the Mac Mini, without making any other changes, knowing that they’ll give
that other 12-core chip to the redesigned MacBooks some time in 2021.
Now going back to Bloomberg’s original report,
they said that three Mac chip designs based on the 5nm A14 chip are in development.
So that’s the 8-core M1, the 12-core M1X, and one more mystery chip,
which I personally believe will be called the M1Z.
A few months later, after the launch of the M1 Macs,
Bloomberg gave us more juicy details on more chips.
Apparently, Apple is working on Apple silicon chips with as many as 32 high-performance
cores that could appear in a Mac in late 2021, which I honestly think is the mystery M1Z chip
that’s destined for the Larger iMac that’s coming later this year.
But the interesting detail I want to focus on is the report that Apple is developing a chip
with 16 high performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, essentially making it a 20-core chip.
And what makes it VERY interesting is that Bloomberg noted that Apple might choose to
release the 20-core chip with only 8 or 12 of the high-performance cores enabled,
depending on how mass production goes.
So that would mean that the same 20-core chip turns into a 12-core
or 16-core chip by using a method called binning, so let me quickly explain that.
When chip manufacturers start mass producing brand new chip designs, there are often some flaws
with the chip, with some of the cores failing to pass quality standards,
so instead of tossing out the entire chip and taking a loss on it, they’ll instead disable
some cores and advertise it as a slightly weaker chip to at least be able to make a sale on it.
And guess what, Apple is already doing that with the M1 chip,
which is intended to have an 8-core GPU, but the base model MacBook Air only comes with 7, so Apple
is already taking advantage of binning to sell the flawed chips instead of throwing them away.
Now getting back to that 20-core chip that Apple is said to be developing, Bloomberg says that they
could arrive as early as Spring 2021, which would be perfect to reveal at the Apple event in April.
And since this 20-core chip will be very ambitious, they can take advantage of binning
to make sure that every single chip that they create can be sold, and the only way to do that
is to disable at least 4 of those high-performance cores on every single chip.
And in the worst case scenario, they can disable 8 of those high-performance cores,
making it a 12-core chip in total, and it would be perfect to name it the M1X chip.
Now if you’re starting to lose me here.. Let me take those chips and apply it to the Mac lineup,
where it’s gonna make a whole lot more sense.
Let’s say the 24” iMac comes out next month at Apple’s event,
where they also announce the M1X chip.
If they decide to keep the very cheap $1100 base model for the 24” iMac,
then it will almost surely come with the same 8-core M1 chip that we already have,
but then you also have the option of upgrading to either a 12-core M1X chip, or a 16-core M1X chip.
That sounds like a pretty decent amount of upgrade options to me for the 24” iMac,
and it would make sense why it would need two separate identifiers, since the M1X chip might
actually require a different motherboard due to the larger size of the chip itself.
Now on top of all of that, keep in mind that the M1X will also have varying amounts of GPU cores as
well. Bloomberg reported that Apple is currently testing models with 16 and 32 GPU cores, so what
if the 12-core M1X chip comes with 16 graphics cores, and the 16-core M1X chip comes with 32.
Now that honestly sounds a bit too good to be true, so maybe Apple will utilize GPU binning
to bring it down to maybe 24-28 cores to be a bit more realistic.
And then later this year, potentially even as late as December, Apple could come out with a
higher-end iMac that comes with the 12-core M1X at the base price, which you could then upgrade to
the 16-core M1X, or ultimately, the 32-core model that Bloomberg reported that Apple was working on.
And then on top of that, I expect that larger iMac to also have an option for a dedicated GPU,
which we have seen leaks of for some time now, making it the ultimate iMac,
and that’s why I think Apple will take advantage of the iMac Pro branding, since I also think
it’ll be getting a Mini-LED display, like Ming-chi kuo reported on a while back.
So you’ll basically have one model of the iMac, the 24”, coming at the April Event next month,
and then a larger 27 to 30” iMac Pro coming at the end of the year.
Now of course, all of that is pure speculation, so if you disagree with me,
go ahead and comment your thoughts down below, but if you think everything matches up,
click that circle above to subscribe! Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next video!