jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

To Jeff...
I had the 15" 12/2018 MBPro. Just traded it in for the 16" MBPro..M1 Pro. Almost $1,000 trade in value (inc. tax)...no brainer to make your change now. Whether you go with the 14" or 16".

Hereford Loc: Palm Coast, FL

I think it is really bad timing to replace your 27" iMac at this time, given that Apple is moving away from Intel processors to the M1 "system on a chip" (SoC) architecture with its everything RAM memory built into the chip. I hear this is the future of computing and produces great speed increases because the machine does not have to read between separate chips. You can google this up to get all the details if you like. A new Intel machine will be obsolete the day you buy it and will likely operate with the new operating systems using an emulator.

I don't know what you mean when you say the old 27" no longer meets your needs. I have the 2015 27" upgraded with 64 GB of RAM and it is still quite speedy. If yours is slow you might want to look at this guy's tutorial for help with a slow Mac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cN88fm7KS0 It may be enough to get you through until next year (when many of us hope) Apple will come out with an M1 27" or 32" iMac. They seem to moving more of their products to M1 each year. Problem is, there is no guarantee this will happen. I can wait to replace my 27" to see what Apple releases in the next year or two.

The new M1 24" iMac came out with a chip that only had 16 GB of RAM baked into the SoC processor. Most who have bought that 16 GB processor say it is blindingly fast and will chew up anything they throw at it. I still have my doubts when you consider that Photoshop (in preferences) wants users to allocate 20 GB of ram for its own use. Perhaps that is not so much of a problem if one has a fast SSD hard drive for additional virtual memory. Then consider that Apple just released the MacBook Pro this fall and offered different M1 chips with 16, 32, or 64 GB of everything RAM. Is that admission that 16 GB (as in the 24" iMac) is not enough ??

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Comprehensive, well thought out and sensible!! I suggest you go with TRIX's recommendation.
Mark

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The 27" may be coming mid-2022. The new one most definitely will have Apple Silicon in them, likely something more advanced than the M1 (Perhaps an M1 Pro or M1 Max or an M2).

The M1 is plenty fast for most of us. I have an M1 MacBook Air and love it for the portability. I plug it into a 27" LG monitor at home, which I color-match to the laptop using a Datacolor SpyderXElite calibration kit.

I would not hesitate to get a 24" iMac, although I would get the midrange model with 1TB storage and 16GB memory, plus the 8/8/16 core version of the M1.

Search YouTube for reviews of the M1 models. MaxTech is one of the better channels.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm surprised that Apple didn't put the M1 in their whole line. I think the M1 offers enough of an improvement that you'll regret sacrificing its performance for a slightly larger screen. I would get the iMac 24 M1.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

I agree with everything you said here especially getting the M1 24 inch with the minimum 1 TB 16 GB however I would up the GPU core to 1024 I think you will find your previews render much faster

scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

I would consider an M1 Mac mini with two monitors: BenQ makes excellent monitors that are ideal for photo processing. Apple is supposedly going to have an upgraded version sometime in 2022 with more ports and more memory. If you go with the current M!, also consider an expansion port with more Thunderbolt and USP-C ports for external hard drives. The M1 Mac Mini can drive two monitors, one via a Thunderbolt port and the second via HDMI.

CarolS

Just bought a new custom 27 inch iMac and have had nothing but aggravation from it. Took it to two Apple recommended tech companies. Now I am waiting to add some memory which they think will stop the crashing. Had to go back to Big Sur because Monterey crashes. I would definitely not buy the iMac.

brabold Loc: Nevada

I got a mini Mac with 2 TB storage and a nice gaming monitor to meet my visual needs. The mini Mac has the new chip. Working well for me.

brabold Loc: Nevada

Think about a mini Mac with the new chip and expanded storage. Then find a monitor to meet your visual needs. I have this system and it is great.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

1024 what?

The M1 has 7 or 8 cores. The unified memory is shared among all 32 cores (8 CPU, 8 GPU, and 16 Neural Engines), and all the sub-processors in the SOC.

The M1 Pro and M1 Max have a different, more powerful range of configurations. But they are not in iMacs yet. If you want them, the 14” and 16” MacBook Pros are the only options right now.

Capn_Dave

I don't think so. Unless you love to spend money

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The 27" is still an Intel model. Apple is abandoning Intel processors, so it probably isn't high on their priorities right now.

I hope you are able to get it going. MORE RAM isn't usually a necessity. But some third party RAM is just not fully compatible with Macs, and maybe you got some that isn't. I had a PowerBook G4 years ago. The Kensington third party RAM I bought with it was a faulty design. Somehow, it caused the LCD screen to go bad (43 vertical colored lines showed up on it, one by one, over a couple months' time). Apple repaired the screen and removed the RAM, telling me to contact Kensington (it had a lifetime warranty). Kensington apologized profusely (known issue on their part), and over-nighted me the right RAM (re-engineered), and I had no more problems.

That was probably the second or third time I had issues with faulty RAM. I've had a couple others, since. It's easy to buy stuff that fits that does not work properly due to timing issues. Dealers do not always know what you need. OWC has been a consistently good source. Crucial and Kensington have good support, but will sell you the wrong stuff (as I learned the hard way). They didn't mean to, they just mis-communicated with Apple or their dealers.

azted Loc: Las Vegas, NV.

Being in a similar position to the OP, I am going to wait for the 27" with an M1 chip. To those who preach "saving money" to go PC, you really do not understand the Apple mindset. I started using an Apple IIe back in 1980 or so, and I am not tech oriented, but rather business oriented. I had to use an IBM machine to start my business in 1985, and had to stay PC for so long due to software. I finally bought the iMac in 2012, and it has so much more lasting power than any PC I ever had. Yes, you initially pay more, but the quality is worth it in the long run!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I also started with an Apple IIe. I had both Macs and PCs on my desk for years, until Apple went with Intel and I virtualized Windows with Parallels Desktop. My take is that I'm a Mac person at heart, due to their ecosystem and deeper sense of intuitiveness. I could care less about the up front cost, because as you say, in the long run there is value.

My M1 runs flawlessly on Monterey MacOS 12.1. I'm very happy with this machine.