Absolute peak consumption with screen fully bright and processors at maximum, the 21.5-inch iMac drew 85W from the mains. Power consumption is incredibly low, given the potential performance available.
It’s only an Intel marketing guide anyway, but that MacBook Pro had a Core i7 part inside, not Core i5. Meaningless in isolation, these figures can nevertheless be compared to the result of last year’s 2.6 GHz Retina MacBook again, which scored slightly faster at 3254 and12,670 points respectively. In the Geekbench 3 test of processor and memory speed, this 2.7GHz iMac scored 3127 points for a single core, and 10,212 points in the multi-processor test. Consequently we weren’t expecting any particular speed boost. Instead the chip giant is gradually reducing power consumption in each revision, a crucial evolution in step with the modern world’s demands for mobile computing. The step up to Intel’s Haswell generation of processors was never about ramping up raw speed though. Apple iMac (Late 2013): Processor performance For context, the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, and its nVidia GTX 650M, when played at a similar quality setting allowed just 35 fps.
We edged the quality up to screen-native 1920 x 1080, and still saw an average rate of 47 fps at Medium detail, and 44 fps at High.Ī challenging test is the rather more synthetic Unigine Heaven test, and here the iMac managed a still-impressive 38 fps at 1280 x 720 and Medium detail. As important, the minimum framerate in the benchmark sequence was still 27 fps, indicating a very playable setup with no perceptible stuttering. Using our benchmart test of Batman: Arkham City, Feral Games’ OS X port of the game based on OpenGL rendering, we noted that at the game’s default settings of 1600 x 900 pixels and High detail, the smallest iMac could play at a very smooth average of 55 frames per second. And for the first time, Intel graphics can comfortably play games. Every generation of Intel Core-series graphics has shown useful improvements, and now we have a specially groomed version dubbed Intel Iris Pro. We tested the entry-level version of the 2013 Apple iMac 21.5in, and were pleasantly surprised by just how capable the integrated graphics proved to be. Apple iMac (Late 2013): Graphics performance Note: A new iMac may be set to launch this summer. The cheapest model, which at £1149 is £50 premium over last year’s counterpart, uses just the integrated graphics from the main Intel chip the dearer model has an nVidia GeForce GT 750M, one step up from that fitted to the current 15-inch MacBook Pro. The other differences between models lies in the main processor, either 2.7GHz or 2.9GHz Intel Core i5 ‘Haswell’. For memory, there’s the option of doubling to 16GB. Or you can cut straight to a purely flash-based drive, namely a 256 or 512GB SSD. You can opt for a 1TB Fusion drive, which melds the same notebook disk to a separate 128GB solid-state drive using OS X’s Core Storage technology.Īpple’s hybrid Fusion Drive gives most of the benefits of faster access, with plenty of storage space too. If you think you’ll ever want to expand either memory or storage in the future, you’d best do it at time of purchase. Neither storage nor memory is designed to be user replaceable, as they’re locked away behind a screen that’s literally glued in place. Both use 1TB hard drives – necessarily small laptop-sized 2.5in disks to squeeze inside – along with 8GB of memory. Two models of 21.5-inch iMac are offered ready to go. So Apple hasn’t taken the iMac line to Retina-class display just yet, although the pixel-per-inch count is still a little higher than most regular screens. It’s pixel resolution is still 1920 x 1080, which amounts to a pixel density of around 102 ppi. The smallest and most affordable version of the Apple iMac features a widescreen display that measures 21.5 inches on the diagonal, a comfortable size for desktop productivity.
Read our review of the 2014 iMac, low cost entry level consumer Mac.Read our preview of the rest of the iMac 2014 line up here.Read about the 2014 Retina iMac release date.
This year’s update is subtle, and introduces two principal changes in technology over last year’s major refit.
With all ports cleanly hidden behind, and free of the bluster and bolt-on fugliness of its imitators, the flat Apple iMac remains a design classic. But the essential physical layout is still the same – a widescreen panel set in single frame, with ‘chin’ below a screen that’s suspended on a single folded-aluminium foot.