Apple refreshes iMac with R9 295X?! EDIT: It's the M295X

[alcoholbob]

PC monitor makers need to wake up. If Apple sells a full blown PC with 27" 5K monitor at $2.5K, we should have $1.3K 27" 4K IPS displays already, not those $3K 4K monitors like the Asus one.

The Samsung UD970 is $1999 for a 32" IPS 4K SST monitor. The Asus MST 321Q is down to about $1900 online and the Dell MST UP3214Q is down to around $1660, although was selling earlier for $1499.

Asus and Eizo both have 32" 4K IPS SST screens coming out at the end of the month for $1750-2000.

Benq's BL3201PH is a 32" 4K IPS SST monitor coming out in two weeks for $999.

 

[Subyman]

AMD is the clear choice for compute at the lower price point. However, Maxwell is very energy efficient. Curious to see how it pans out over the next year or so.

Now that Apple is using 5K in the iMac, I'll make the predication that we get 5k Korean monitors in about 6 months from the B-stock.

 

[RussianSensation]

The Samsung UD970 is $1999 for a 32" IPS 4K SST monitor. The Asus MST 321Q is down to about $1900 online and the Dell MST UP3214Q is down to around $1660, although was selling earlier for $1499.

Asus and Eizo both have 32" 4K IPS SST screens coming out at the end of the month for $1750-2000.

Benq's BL3201PH is a 32" 4K IPS SST monitor coming out in two weeks for $999.

Thanks for that post. I guess I need to start looking more closely at these movements in 4K IPS prices. My monitor has been going strong for 7.5 years and I want to upgrade to 4K.

 

[Qwertilot]

Asus are also meant to be doing an IPS like 28" 4k one (PB279Q) for ~1000, or even slightly less soon. Announced in July although no real information since.

Think 5k actually makes a lot of sense mind, because you can double up and keep the desk space from 2560*1440.

 

[RussianSensation]

Think 5k actually makes a lot of sense mind, because you can double up and keep the desk space from 2560*1440.

For photographers and video editors and 2D professional work, ya. For PC gaming though, 5K is 3-4 years too ahead of GPU hardware. Nearly 80% more pixels than 3840x2160 would wipe the floor with 980 Tri-SLI. 4K is a large leap over 1080p/1440/1600P without going too overboard as 4K is demanding enough as is.

 

[cboath]

Apple just gave Dell the big FU because the dell 5K monitor cost the same as this IMac lol

To a degree maybe, but they get to offset some of the cost with the margins on all the other pieces as well.

Is there a comparison between the two monitors? It may not be an even product. 4k monitors come on a variety of price ranges as well...You don't put an NEC against a Seiki for example...(I doubt it's that extreme).

It'll also help that Apple will make boatloads while Dell is making substantially fewer as they're not putting it on every machine they sell.

Finally, though, apple is also sitting on a pile of what? 60-70B in cash? They're using this as a 'buy our setup' tactic. Dell made a monitor and said 'we've got it if you want it'.

Just saying, there are a LOT of factors that go into determining each price.

 

[dacostafilipe]

5K is 3-4 years too ahead of GPU hardware.

It's still possible to play some games in non native resolution. The M290X should handle fullhd games on ultra without a problem.

 

[Qwertilot]

Eh, 5k more than crushing the graphics cards for non mac stuff. Insane cost when released, not running as a single panel until DP1.3 etc. I'm slightly torn between those 4k IPS's hopefully due soon and waiting a while.

Presume the retina iMac will just dial back to 2560*1440 for nearly all games.

 

[JDG1980]

The Samsung UD970 is $1999 for a 32" IPS 4K SST monitor.

It looks like a good monitor, but the price seems hard to justify when for $500 extra you can get a Retina iMac, which is a high-quality IPS 5K monitor with a whole mid-range PC crammed into it. After yesterday's announcement, the Samsung UD970 should really be $1499, tops.

The Asus MST 321Q is down to about $1900 online and the Dell MST UP3214Q is down to around $1660, although was selling earlier for $1499.

I won't buy a MST monitor. They're too buggy and glitchy and are a technological dead-end. I think it would be foolish to purchase one at this point unless they're being cleared out for under $500.

Benq's BL3201PH is a 32" 4K IPS SST monitor coming out in two weeks for $999.

Now that looks like it's going to be a good deal. I'll wait to see a review that indicates if it has decent color reproduction, low backlight bleed, etc... if it does, then it may replace my Dell U2713HM.

 

[weevilone]

It's still possible to play some games in non native resolution. The M290X should handle fullhd games on ultra without a problem.

And to this point, Apple has perfected scaling. That's one of the reasons they skipped 4k, so the new iMac would be 4x the old 27" iMac. That makes the math work out for their OS.

 

[BFG10K]

This is good news for AMD and for the consumer. We need AMD to score more OEM wins like this so they can stay in business and compete with nVidia and Intel.

 

[Mopetar]

Is it really that much of a win for AMD? Apple seems to alternate back and forth between both AMD and NV for their GPUs.

2007 - 2008: AMD (Option for NV)
2009: NV
2010 - 2011: AMD
2012 - 2013: NV
2014: AMD

You see the same pattern with their notebooks and Pro line as well. It's just AMD's turn again. The only way that they wouldn't get this is if they really pissed off Apple.

 

[Enigmoid]

Looks like Apple dropped the ball with the 295mx.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1815601

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6652345?start=15&tstart=0

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/747646-radeon-r9-m295x-114.html


Many other cases of overheating, throttling, and stutter playing games.

Doesn't appear to be a 100W chip.

Edit: 105 C Holy crap those >$2000 retina machines are gonna burn out badly. Here comes another slew of gpu and logic board failures (like the 6xxx series in the mbp and imac).

 

[ShintaiDK]

Its also listed as 125W here.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-R9-M295X.129043.0.html

Anyway, Apple dropping the ball again. Ouch ouch.

 

[el etro]

Looks like Apple dropped the ball with the 295mx.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1815601

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6652345?start=15&tstart=0

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/747646-radeon-r9-m295x-114.html


Many other cases of overheating, throttling, and stutter playing games.

Doesn't appear to be a 100W chip.

Edit: 105 C Holy crap those >$2000 retina machines are gonna burn out badly. Here comes another slew of gpu and logic board failures (like the 6xxx series in the mbp and imac).

Kepler cards running cooler(Nvidia cards have a better relationship of heat per clockspeeds and power consumption(makes less heat on higher clockspeeds and matching the card power target)) made things easier to the late iMac. It seems this 295mx is a little more power hungry and hotter than Nvidia counterparts(probably is really a 120w card), and the recycled cooler(from the 2013 and 2012 iMacs) could not cool well this card.

There's some guys on the topic stating the heat issues are only appearing in Windows, where the 295mx does not have a proper driver.

 

[USER8000]

There's some guys on the topic stating the heat issues are only appearing in Windows, where the 295mx does not have a proper driver.

So,not a problem when running the OS the iMac is meant to run and when running the proper drivers. LOL.

But I like how certain people are forgetting the problems with the Retina MacBook Pros and their Nvidia GPUs:

http://www.cnet.com/news/fix-poor-retina-macbook-pro-graphics-performance/

Got to make things sound as negative as possible right! :whiste:

A new Apple product having teething or QC problems. Never!

The iPhone 6 Plus never had any issues either,or the iPhone 4 or the Retina iPad overheating....!

Edit!!

Just wanted to give you guys an update with my 5K iMac. So before Apple replaced my unit, I experienced GPU heating from simply watching a 4K YouTube video and the fan would ramp up loudly due to that. Now my replacement that I received today is "heat-free". It runs cool when doing the same previous tasks and I've yet to hear the fan! So this might definitely be a hardware issue, at least in my specific experience. I also had some fan ticking noise before and now it's gone on this unit.

Seems to be a QC issue with some early units - a number of early MBPs had problems with excessive thermal compound usage which caused them to overheat.

Its not like its the first time Apple has skimped on cooling or had poor QC - it did not help all those 8000 series Nvidia GPU failures either.

 

[AnandThenMan]

I looked over those threads and there was only 1-2 people having issues most were happy with the system and said they didn't hear the cooling at all.

 

[Enigmoid]

Kepler cards running cooler(Nvidia cards have a better relationship of heat per clockspeeds and power consumption(makes less heat on higher clockspeeds and matching the card power target)) made things easier to the late iMac. It seems this 295mx is a little more power hungry and hotter than Nvidia counterparts(probably is really a 120w card), and the recycled cooler(from the 2013 and 2012 iMacs) could not cool well this card.

There's some guys on the topic stating the heat issues are only appearing in Windows, where the 295mx does not have a proper driver.

Nah, its appearing under both operating systems. Some people say its not affecting them but then this shouldn't be an issue in something like LOL which is not demanding at all. 290mx is fine.

105C is blisteringly hot.

 

[monstercameron]

wow so much fud out there, Lol a poster claimed that a 980m could match a 290x in performance. That is how bad it is for AMD.

 

[USER8000]

Nah, its appearing under both operating systems. Some people say its not affecting them but then this shouldn't be an issue in something like LOL which is not demanding at all. 290mx is fine.

105C is blisteringly hot.

Just wanted to give you guys an update with my 5K iMac. So before Apple replaced my unit, I experienced GPU heating from simply watching a 4K YouTube video and the fan would ramp up loudly due to that. Now my replacement that I received today is "heat-free". It runs cool when doing the same previous tasks and I've yet to hear the fan! So this might definitely be a hardware issue, at least in my specific experience. I also had some fan ticking noise before and now it's gone on this unit.

Nah,it seems to only a few people affected and the returned units are fine.

Seems to be a QC issue with some early units - a number of early MBPs had problems with excessive thermal compound usage which caused them to overheat.

I looked over those threads and there was only 1-2 people having issues most were happy with the system and said they didn't hear the cooling at all.

Yep,and the ones which had problems were exchanged and were fine.

Looks to be a QC issue.

 

[el etro]

I looked over those threads and there was only 1-2 people having issues most were happy with the system and said they didn't hear the cooling at all.

Yep, i got this too. Probably are the Nvidia voluntary PR machinegun saying nonsenses in the topic... but the 105C is true.

Anyway, one of the Guys on the topic is reporting that he Run Crysis 3 at 1440p VeryHigh/VeryHigh no AA with above 20fps minimum and average. This is shockingly awesome!

Nah, its appearing under both operating systems. Some people say its not affecting them but then this shouldn't be an issue in something like LOL which is not demanding at all. 290mx is fine.

105C is blisteringly hot.

105C is true. Maybe the card is truly 125W TBP rated(And the iMac cooler cools only 100w for the GPU), that is good news for AMD(they managed to reduce well the TBP of the Tonga cards) but bad news for iMac buyers.

 

[USER8000]

The Tonga GPU in the R9 285 has 256 less shaders than the M9 295X,and the maximum boost is only 68MHZ higher for the former. Makes me wonder why we never saw the fully enabled GPU for the R9 285.

 

[jpiniero]

The Tonga GPU in the R9 285 has 256 less shaders than the M9 295X,and the maximum boost is only 68MHZ higher for the former. Makes me wonder why we never saw the fully enabled GPU for the R9 285.

When nVidia cut the price of the 970 down to $320, it caused the 290 to be pushed down to the price point where the 285X was supposed to be.

 

[USER8000]

When nVidia cut the price of the 970 down to $320, it caused the 290 to be pushed down to the price point where the 285X was supposed to be.

Looking at the TPU figures the R9 285 is around HD7970 level(even both run at similar clockspeeds),and it has less shaders and bandwidth too.

If the fully enabled Tonga chip has the 384 bit memory controller rumoured earlier,and runs at around 1GHZ it would get close to a R9 290 I suspect.

Wouldn't it then make more sense to replace the R9 280 with the R9 285 and the R9 290 with the R9 285X?? They should be cheaper to make,and keep the R9 290X to fight against the GTX970??

 

[el etro]

Maybe Apple chose AMD because their traditionally very good performance at insane resolutions at above 1440p.

I'm reading many reports there of games playing at 1440p to 4k and even 5k res with very good settings(Cod:AW on medium-High-Max at 4k as a example).



BTW i'm starting to think that the high temperatures of this Macs are a engineering design problem...