Apple will reportedly release two iMac 2017 models and mass production is set to commence this coming May. Supply chain rumors indicate that unveiling of the machines will happen in the quarter of the year with the release date as early as July, specifically for the basic model.
From Taiwan, DigiTimes reported that the upcoming iMacs will mirror the screen sizes of the existing models - 21.5-inch and 27-inch - but a particular build will boast of premium specs and will be designed as Apple's answer to the well-received Microsoft Surface Studio.
"The new server-grade iMac is expected to feature Intel's Xeon E3-1285 v6 processor," the report said, adding that RAM provision will be up to 64GB with the memory chip making use of ECC RAM technology that ensures increased stability and better protection against data corruption. Also tipped as part of the refreshed iMac package is a 2TB NVMe SSD storage disk and a discrete graphics card.
It remains unknown if NVIDIA or AMD will be the GPU of choice for the next iMac release but DigiTimes indicated on its report that Apple intends to use the latest graphics card, somehow hinting that the beastly machine will get either the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or any of the Radeon RX Vega series.
In a related report, WCCFTech said the iMac AIOs will also release models that in run on Intel Kaby Lake processors, specifically the Core i5 and i7 variants and in quad-core configurations. Starting RAM support for these editions will be 16GB.
As the DigiTimes predicted that Apple will introduce the iMac 2017 line in the second half of year, the earliest launch date for the products will be between July and August.
However, would-be buyers of the server-grade iMac 2017 will have to wait a bit as the Taiwanese publication claimed the MacOS monster machine "is unlikely to become available in the market until the end of 2017."
No pricing details for the iMac 2017 release date have been provided in the same report but according to WCCFTech it is expected that the line will "carry a very high price tag."