Apple may incorporate the AMD Ryzen chipset in the upcoming iMac 2017, instead of an Intel chipset. There are speculations that the new iMac 2017 will forego of the Intel Kaby Lake chipset for the AMD Ryzen to be more power efficient.
However, Apple has remained tight-lipped about this rumor. The iMac 2017 will likely take advantage of the AMD Ryzen's proven performance and power efficiency. In fact, the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X has set a new world record in a benchmark test. Apple is now prioritizing energy consumption over maximum performance.
The AMD Ryzen 7 is a 3.4 GHz+ chip with 8 cores, 4 MB of L2, and 16 MB of L3 cache. It aims to beat Intel's clock speed as it improves by 40 percent per clock cycle compared to AMD's Excavator core. The boost in performance is partly from its 14nm process that fits more transistors on a silicon piece. The new "Simultaneous Multi-Threading" also helps in handling multiple tasks.
New AMD Ryzen 7 technology includes the Neural Net forecast, which speeds processing by forecasting instructions, and Smart Prefetch, which forecasts the data's future location and store in the cache. AM4 Platform is found in Ryzen including DR4 RAM, PCIe Gen 3, USB 3.1 Gen 2, NVMe, and SATA Express. However, there were earlier reports that the Apple iMac 2017 will come with S-Series desktop chips such as Core i5-7500, Core i5-7600, and Core i7-7700K on the 27-inch Mac.
The Apple iMac 2017 could be unveiled in March, and it is likely to come with revolutionary specs like VR support and Thunderbolt 3. Best Buy has hinted that the 27-inch iMac with 2 TB Fusion Drive and 32 GB of RAM will likely be priced at $3,199.99. Apple CEO Tim Cook has also confirmed that a 5K all-in-one iMac will be launched soon.
"The current generation iMac is the best desktop we have ever made, and its beautiful Retina 5K display is the best desktop display in the world. Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we're committed to desktops. If there's any doubt about that with our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our roadmap. Nobody should worry about that," Cook said during a question and answer session on Apple's internal employee network.