Apple Introduces 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K Display

[Cristian_25H]

Apple today unveiled the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display, featuring the world's highest resolution display with a breathtaking 14.7 million pixels. At this amazing resolution, text appears sharper than ever, videos are unbelievably lifelike, and you can see new levels of detail in your photos. With the latest quad-core processors, high-performance graphics, Fusion Drive and Thunderbolt 2, iMac with Retina 5K display is the most powerful iMac ever made - it's the ultimate display combined with the ultimate all-in-one.

"Thirty years after the first Mac changed the world, the new iMac with Retina 5K display running OS X Yosemite is the most insanely great Mac we have ever made," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With a breathtaking 14.7 million pixel display, faster CPU and graphics, Fusion Drive, and Thunderbolt 2, it's the most beautiful and powerful iMac ever."





iMac with Retina 5K display delivers an amazingly immersive user experience. With a resolution of 5120 x 2880, iMac with Retina 5K display has four times more pixels than the standard 27-inch iMac and 67 percent more pixels than a 4K display. Text looks as sharp as it does on a printed page, and you can see more of your high-resolution photos with pixel-for-pixel detail. In apps like Final Cut Pro X, you can view 4K video at full size while still leaving plenty of room for your assets and editing tools.

The display on the new 27-inch iMac has been engineered for performance, power efficiency and stunning visual quality. iMac with Retina 5K display uses a precisely manufactured oxide TFT-based panel to deliver vivid display brightness from corner to corner. A single supercharged Apple-designed timing controller (TCON), with four times the bandwidth, drives all 14.7 million pixels. iMac with Retina 5K display also uses highly efficient LEDs and organic passivation to improve image quality and reduce display power consumption by 30 percent, even while driving four times more pixels at the same brightness. To improve the contrast ratio, iMac with Retina 5K display uses a new photo alignment process and a compensation film to deliver blacker blacks and more vibrant colors from any viewing angle. In addition, every iMac with Retina 5K display is calibrated using three state-of-the-art spectroradiometers to ensure precise and accurate color.

Not only is iMac with Retina 5K display more beautiful on the outside, it is also more powerful on the inside. It comes with a 3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, and for the first time can be configured with a 4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.4 GHz. Every new iMac with Retina 5K display also comes with AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics and can be configured with AMD Radeon R9 M295X graphics, delivering up to 3.5 teraflops of computing power, the most powerful graphics ever offered on an iMac. iMac with Retina 5K display comes standard with 8 GB of memory and a 1 TB Fusion Drive for the first time. The new iMac can also be configured with up to 32 GB of memory, a 3 TB Fusion Drive, or up to 1 TB of super-fast, PCIe-based flash storage. In addition, iMac with Retina 5K display includes two Thunderbolt 2 ports that deliver up to 20 Gbps each, twice the bandwidth of the previous generation.

Every new Mac comes with OS X Yosemite, a powerful new version of OS X, redesigned and refined with a fresh, modern look, powerful new apps and amazing new Continuity features that make working across your Mac and iOS devices more fluid than ever. OS X Yosemite is also engineered to take full advantage of the iMac's Retina 5K display, delivering stunning clarity across all your apps.

iMovie, GarageBand and the suite of iWork apps come free with every new Mac. iMovie lets you easily create beautiful movies, and you can use GarageBand to make new music or learn to play piano or guitar. iWork productivity apps, Pages, Numbers and Keynote, make it easy to create, edit and share stunning documents, spreadsheets and presentations. iWork has been redesigned with a new look, support for iCloud Drive and a host of new features, including a new comments view in Pages. iWork for iCloud beta lets you create your document on iPad, edit it on your Mac and collaborate with friends, even if they're on a PC.

Pricing & Availability
iMac with Retina 5K display begins shipping today with a 3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics and a 1 TB Fusion Drive for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US). Customers can order iMac with Retina 5K display through the Apple Online Store.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[MxPhenom 216]

The pricing is actually pretty good for what it offers.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Once again, Apple is ready to drive innovation. I'd love one of these - but just can't escape from my Windows-based infrastructure. How many months/years until this trickles down to Windows/PC world (at similar price). I am very very tempted.

 

[Crap Daddy]

Once again, Apple is ready to drive innovation. I'd love one of these - but just can't escape from my Windows-based infrastructure. How many months/years until this trickles down to Windows/PC world (at similar price). I am very very tempted.

I am also amazed how on earth none of the PC makers can't come up with something similar. Maybe there is and I'm not aware or maybe most of the windows users don't care about a machine that has mobile parts stuck inside a big shiny monitor.

 

[rak526]

Once again, Apple is ready to drive innovation. I'd love one of these - but just can't escape from my Windows-based infrastructure. How many months/years until this trickles down to Windows/PC world (at similar price). I am very very tempted.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2RY1DK9756

One of many 4k monitors. You can certainly build a much better machine with a 4k monitor at a better price.

 

[erixx]

The best part is seeing Crap Daddy returns!!! Man I missed you! Who cares about Apple....

 

[dj-electric]

Just to clerify to some people - 5K is not 4K.
4K isn't even near the monsterous, astronomically heavy 5K.

While 4K is 8.29MP, we're talking about a 5K 14.7MP here. This is immense.
To drive new games even at medium settings through this, you will need the GPU power equal to about three GTX 980s

 

[Growly]

Once again, Apple is ready to drive innovation. I'd love one of these - but just can't escape from my Windows-based infrastructure. How many months/years until this trickles down to Windows/PC world (at similar price). I am very very tempted.

You know Dell released a 27" 5K monitor like 5 weeks ago, right?

 

[Urobulos]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2RY1DK9756

One of many 4k monitors. You can certainly build a much better machine with a 4k monitor at a better price.

You can build a much more powerful tower with a 4K monitor for a better price, but that's not really relevant. I'm not really in favour of an All in One form factor, but comparing a tower, even a mITX one is hardly fair against an AIO. Furthermore, you could build a PC to drive a 4K display, but there is no interface to support 5K signal. Thunderbolt 2 and latest DisplayPort revision don't have enough bandwidth to do that over a single output. Until we get faster DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, 5K monitors will end up as tiled monstrosities. This is why there is no Apple Thunderbolt 5K display or why the new iMac does not accept external 5K signal. Inputs fast enough to enable that do not exist yet. For this panel to work, they had to do a completely integrated machine because they can ignore output specs and create a custom solution when they have total control over all processing going on between the GPU and the display itself.

Also, far more importantly, 5K is nothing like 4K in terms of pixel density and usability. First of all the pixel difference is vast and will help to pave over the problems with current 4K implementations. Right now, cheap 4K panels are TN 60Hz 28 inchers. Trying to use them at native res is a struggle as everything is comically small. You can try 150% scaling, but that is a world of hurt in terms of blur. You can do 200% scaling, but then you end up with information density of 1920x1080 on a 28 inch screen and everything ends up comically huge. Especially if you are used to 2560x1440 or something similar. And even if you use 200% scaling Windows still does a worse job at displaying scaled content than OSX. Both Apple and their dev community have been pushing software development to take advantage of super high resolution displays and they are ahead of Microsoft on that. The main idea behind a 5K display is that it will enable you to run a super sharp version of 2560x1440. Similar to how the Macbook Pro screen is mostly used like a 1440x900 pixel grid, but displayed in much higher quality on a 2880x1800 panel. Native res will likely be used only when photo editing and maybe in certain (light) games. Maybe also multimedia, though there is a dearth of content at such high quality levels and storage demands or internet bandwidth demands are going to be massive for 5K video.

You know Dell released a 27" 5K monitor like 5 weeks ago, right?

Dell released nothing 5 weeks ago. They previewed it with no firm info on launch date or price. Even in your own link it is stated that the display will be available "by Christmas" and the price for the monitor alone is expected to be around 2500$. You can order a 5K iMac right now and if Anand's price rumours are correct then someone at Dell is frantically readjusting pricing and profit margins on those monitors right about now. We will also see how they'll resolve connectivity issues. It will likely be a tiled display using two outputs since there is no DisplayPort standard capable of carrying a 5K signal over one output. And tiled displays plain suck.

 

[Cheeseball]

Dell released nothing 5 weeks ago. They previewed it with no firm info on launch date or price. Even in your own link it is stated that the display will be available "by Christmas" and the price for the monitor alone is expected to be around 2500$. You can order a 5K iMac right now and if Anand's price rumours are correct then someone at Dell is frantically readjusting pricing and profit margins on those monitors right about now. We will also see how they'll resolve connectivity issues. It will likely be a tiled display using two outputs since there is no DisplayPort standard capable of carrying a 5K signal over one output. And tiled displays plain suck.

If it's a tiled display like the UP3214Q, then HOLY SHIT this UltraSharp is going to fail hard.

 

[Growly]

Dell released nothing 5 weeks ago. They previewed it with no firm info on launch date or price. Even in your own link it is stated that the display will be available "by Christmas" and the price for the monitor alone is expected to be around 2500$. You can order a 5K iMac right now and if Anand's price rumours are correct then someone at Dell is frantically readjusting pricing and profit margins on those monitors right about now. We will also see how they'll resolve connectivity issues. It will likely be a tiled display using two outputs since there is no DisplayPort standard capable of carrying a 5K signal over one output. And tiled displays plain suck.

You are right, it wasn't released, it was announced. My mistake. But the inaccuracy is irrelevant to my argument: the "amazing" 5K resolution is not the exclusive domain of Apple nor is it particularly innovative. The Dell screen probably uses the same panel. Maybe they're waiting for DisplayPort 1.3. Anandtech here speculates that the iMac internal interface is probably a careful stopgap. Either way, the interface seems far less important than how your OS actually takes advantage of the higher resolution, or (hypothetically) masks the underlying tiling, and that's what OSX has been "winning" for a while. (I don't consider it "winning" to only simulate up to 1920x1200 on 15" rMBP. Some people do.)

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The pricing is actually pretty good for what it offers.

Not really. Excepting the screen, the rest is mediocre at best. I figure about $1500 for the display, $500 for being Apple, $500 in other hardware.

I am also amazed how on earth none of the PC makers can't come up with something similar. Maybe there is and I'm not aware or maybe most of the windows users don't care about a machine that has mobile parts stuck inside a big shiny monitor.

Oh they could, but they know PC users are cheap bastards for the most part. About the only people interested in 5K monitors are professionals (health imaging, photographers, videographers, etc.). They can't sell 5K to the masses because of the sticker shock.

Apple consumers, on the other hand, don't care about the specs. They care that it is Apple, it is a Mac, and it is "new."

"Retina" displays really haven't caught on anywhere except at Apple and then, only because Apple often doesn't give users a choice.

MPAA and TV manufacturers are going to start pushing 4K hard soon which should drive the prices down just as has happened with 1080p.

 

[capolavoro]

They didn't even put i7 as a first choice for the retina display and they are using GTX 700m series.. that's sounds old for me... at least they use 800m series if can't catch up with the 900m series..

 

[wickerman]

They didn't even put i7 as a first choice for the retina display and they are using GTX 700m series.. that's sounds old for me... at least they use 800m series if can't catch up with the 900m series..

Well they can't really offer much in the way of CPU options..they are offering an i5 4690 and i7 4790. These chips are pretty much what everyone here would suggest to someone building their own system, provided the person building it had the budget and performance requirements. Only cpu options above that i7 would really mean squeezing an LGA 2011 V3 socket in this thing. And I am not sure where you got your information, but the new 5k iMac only has the R9 290X and R9 295X as the GPU options, both of which seem to be based on AMD's latest Tonga silicon. Sure having a GTX 970 or GTX 980 as an option would be a great choice, but I do not see the GTX 700m on the new 5k iMac. The GT 750M is the GPU choice for the high end 21.5" iMac (1080p). The 27" (2560x1440) iMac has a standard GT 755M, and the higher end variants have the GTX 775M and GTX 780M as options. These iMacs were introduced a while ago and simply not refreshed yet. But I wouldn't consider those GPUs out dated to drive 1080p or 1440p.

 

[Steevo]

The Mac paid trolls have descended from upon their mountain to spew PR spin. Careful not to get any on you, it smells terrible.


The 290X is barely capable of driving 4K. let along 5, and it has nothign to do with the interface, and everything to do with the pixel driving power, but I imagine Apple has some magic pixie dust that makes 30hz seem wonderful, so as long as you don't game on it, which isn't much of a problem anyway you will be fine.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

And I am not sure where you got your information, but the new 5k iMac only has the R9 290X and R9 295X as the GPU options, both of which seem to be based on AMD's latest Tonga silicon.

Mobile variants which are less than half of the equivalent desktop variants. The form factor doesn't allow for 300W cards (well, Apple's standards for the form factor anyway). Read: no vents, no fans.

The 290X is barely capable of driving 4K. let along 5, and it has nothign to do with the interface, and everything to do with the pixel driving power, but I imagine Apple has some magic pixie dust that makes 30hz seem wonderful, so as long as you don't game on it, which isn't much of a problem anyway you will be fine.

No graphic card on the market could handle serious gaming on 5K. I hope that display does 1920x1080 well. If it doesn't, it belongs in the trash.

 

[Tonduluboy]

This pc is not for everyone... eventhou it look cheap by Apple Standard...
Nevertheless, the price is still consider expensive in my country...
In my state, there is only ONE Apple store serving over 3 millions people. And the store is always empty compare to next door store selling windows system...

 

[NC37]

Mass number of overheating complaints filed in...5...4...3...2...

 

[btarunr]

Mass number of overheating complaints filed in...5...4...3...2...

Luckily, you don't put an iMac on your lap. It sits on your desk, and an R9 M290X has the juice to drive 5K for non-gaming tasks.

 

[techy1]

only content in 5K is your cat pictures (or maybe opther pictures - of your choice - I do not judge ) and supersharp desktop icons... on 30 frames... yea - a rebranded HD 7970M (for two years rebranded to M290X) can handle that... price is not too steep either (for apple).... so good deal for those who wants to view and work with photos on high MegaPixels... but talking about something inovative or "amazingly immersive user experience" - I call it a typical PR BS

 

[chinmi]

but it only use the mobile version of a 290x, will it be powerful enough to drive games at 5k ??
if not, then this imac is only good for spreadsheet and not for gaming.
that looks like a waste of 5k technology

 

[JDG1980]

The 290X is barely capable of driving 4K. let along 5, and it has nothign to do with the interface, and everything to do with the pixel driving power, but I imagine Apple has some magic pixie dust that makes 30hz seem wonderful, so as long as you don't game on it, which isn't much of a problem anyway you will be fine.

This system isn't designed for AAA gaming. It's mostly aimed towards people who do a lot of photo and/or video editing (Macs are pretty popular with graphics design professionals). These people want a high-resolution, high-quality monitor with good color reproduction. The GPU in the Retina iMac is more than adequate for these kind of tasks.

I know that gamers like to think they're the most important people in the world and that any advance in the IT industry should be judged by how it affects them, but that's not actually how things work in reality.

 

[Jetster]

The Dell UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K is $2500 just for the monitor

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Either Dell is gouging or Apple is taking a hit; Apple never takes a hit so...

 

[Frick]

MPAA and TV manufacturers are going to start pushing 4K hard soon which should drive the prices down just as has happened with 1080p.

So 1440p is a lost cause?