Apple gave the iMac a fresh new look in April 2021, the first major iMac redesign in a long, long time. While the new Apple Silicon iMacs are a multicolored throwback to the PowerPC era, they still retain an aluminum body with a glass screen, with a starkly different appearance. The new look changes the glass border to a white color, the aluminum and peripherals are offered in two color tones, and is far thinner than its predecessors. The main difference in the M3 iMac versus the M1 iMac, is the chip in and of itself. The entirety of the physical rest of the machine and options are all the same as the previous generation.

At entry level, there’s 4 choices of color: Silver/Green/Blue/Pink, no ethernet, an 8-core GPU, and Two USB-C style thunderbolt 3 ports. Ethernet is a $30 option, like the previous M1 iMac. By default, a color-matching mouse and keyboard are included with the iMac, and Touch ID is a $50 option. Touch ID is included standard on the $1499 model, as well as Ethernet. The new M3 iMac features updated 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E, updated Bluetooth 5.3, Thunderbolt 3 with USB 4/3.1 Gen 2 support, a 16-core neural engine, and a 10-core GPU as an option. Getting an 8-core 3nm CPU, 8-core GPU, with a 4.5K screen complete with peripherals is a pretty solid deal for $1299.

Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing

The M3 chip introduces Hardware Accelerated Ray Tracing. It is a technique used in computer graphics to create highly realistic lighting and shadows by simulating the way light interacts with objects in a scene. Unlike traditional rasterization, which processes polygons and textures to render images, ray tracing follows the path of rays of light as they travel through a scene. The idea is to create realistic shadows, detailed reflections, and make gaming more life-like without as much of a performance hit.

Speakers / Mics

There are six speakers in total, and two pairs force-cancelling sub-woofers. Each pair of subwoofers have a high-performance tweeter, and this is managed within an 11mm case. Apple touts this creates “deep, rich bass without unwanted vibrations”. Apple also touts a studio-quality 3-mic array designed to reduce feedback. Beamfoamig technology is also used to help ignore background noise. The focus is to make someone heard in an audio/video/FaceTime call, and channel out the background noise. There is support for Spatial Audio when playing music or video with Dolby Atmos.

FaceTime Camera

An updated, 1080p FaceTime HD camera is used in the M3 iMac, with a larger light capturing sensor. Image quality in stream and pictures are improved as a result of the M3’s Image Signal Processor.

What You Need to Know

• If you’re someone who’s transitioning over from an Intel Mac, or will be using Intel Mac apps, Apple has an app called Rosetta 2 for Apple Silicon Macs. Once installed, this isn’t something you directly interact with. Rather, you may simply open an Intel app, and it’ll open. Rosetta 2 does an Intel to Arm “ahead of time” translation, using an instruction set in the M3 chip. The first time the Intel app launches it’ll be noticeably slow, as Rosetta caches and stores code. Once this process is done, the App should work just as normal.
• These iMacs shipped with 8 GB of RAM which is fine for basic tasks, but is increasingly impractical these days. For a serious speed boost, opt for 16 GB of RAM, and more storage.
• Multiple NANDs allow for parallel processing/RAID, increasing Read/Write speeds. The base 256GB model consists of 2x 128GB NANDs. This contributes to the M1 iMac’s increased performance, in addition to the improved 3nm M3 chip. The storage is very, very fast!

Details

• Announced 2023.04.20
• Model Identifier: Mac15,4 (8-core GPU)
  • Mac15,5 (10-core GPU)
• Model: A2874 (EMC 8207) 8-core GPU
  • A2873 (EMC 8206) 10-core GPU
• Order Number: MQRC3LL/A (8-GPU)
  • MQRQ3LL/A* (10-GPU)

Mac OS

• Requires macOS Sonoma 14.1 (Build 23B2073) or later

Core System

• CPU: 8 Cores, 4x 4.05 GHz “M3” High Performance Cores: 768K L1i, 512K L1d, 64MB L2, 8MB System Level Cache
  • 4x 2.75 GHz “M3” energy efficient cores: 512K L1, 16MB L2, 8 MB SLC
• 16-Core Neural Engine
• 8/16/24 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR5-6400 SDRAM
  • 100 GB/s Memory Bandwidth

Video

• Integrated Apple M3 with 8/10-Core Metal 3 Hardware Accelerated GPU
• 23.5″ 4480 x 2520 (218ppi) Retina display, 500 nits, P3 Wide Color, True Tone
  • Support for 1 Billion colors
  • Simultaneous support for internal display and one 6K 60 Hz Display
• Thunderbolt 4 “digital video output” native displayport output over USB-C.
  • All other connections including TB2 requires adapters.

Drives

• Drive Bus: 256GB PCIe SSD ~2.8 GB/s, 2x 128GB NANDs in Parallel
• Configurable to: 512GB (+$200), 1 TB (+$400) on the base model
  • On the $1499/1699 model only: 2 TB (+$800)

Expansion

• 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E
• Bluetooth 5.3
• Two USB-C style Thunderbolt 4 Ports
  • Support for: USB 4 (up to 40 Gb/s), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)
  • Two extra USB-C style USB 3.0 ports (Up to 10 Gb/s) on $1499 option
• Ethernet Optional ($30)
• 3.5mm headphone jack

Included Peripherals

• iMac
• Power Cord (Power cord with Gigabit Ethernet optional)
• Magic Keyboard
  • Touch ID Keyboard Optional, but included on $1499+ models
• Magic Mouse
• Magic Trackpad Optional

Physical

• Size: 18.1 x 21.5 x 5.8 in/46.1 x 54.7 x 14.7 cm
• Weight: 9.83 lb./4.46 kg
• Power supply: 143W Brick