They are built using a 16nm or 14nm FinFET production process, compared to 28nm on AMD’s earlier chips, which means that the chip maker can fit more transistors in a given space (which makes the chips ideal for ultraportable laptops and ultraslim desktops – the latter fittting recent iMac designs) and, because the transistors are closer together, less power is needed to move a signal across them. The Polaris chips offer improved graphics performance compared with previous generations (as much as twice the speed per watt) and potential reductions in both power consumption and waste heat. That means in the second half of this year and going forward more people will be able to run those headsets.” “This means we can produce GPUs that will run the minimum spec of VR at a lower cost, in larger volume, consuming less power and running faster. “AMD has just completed the shrink to 14nm ,” he said. At present Macs are basically unusable for VR, as we discuss in our articles Can you use Oculus Rift with Mac? and How to use a Mac for VR, and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey specifically cited underpowered Mac GPUs as the reason why the company was focusing on Windows:ĪMD’s Roy Taylor thinks the company’s new GPUs are about to massively expand the available market for VR. It’s believed that Apple’s next generation of iMacs (or its higher-specced models, at least) will feature graphics chips from AMD’s Polaris set, which were announced at the start of 2016.ĪMD has consistently talked up its Polaris graphics chips as a way of bringing VR within the reach of a wider market of PC users.

That’s understandable given that iMacs have used less powerful mobile GPUs for ages.īut gamers might be very happy indeed with an iMac Pro, if it ships with AMD’s Polaris graphics chip.Īshleigh Allsopp reports on Polaris for Macworld UK: One of the biggest complaints about the iMac is that it doesn’t pack enough graphics power for some users, particularly gamers. I find the idea of an iMac Pro to be intriguing, to say the least. More at Apple World Today The iMac Pro could delight macOS gamers The caveat to this situation is if Apple decides to discontinue the Mac Pro line and offer an “iMac Pro” with a Zen chip, which boasts eight cores and 16 threads Right now there’s some question as to whether that will happen.

It will pack a Kaby Lake processor - IF they’re available in time in bulk. It won’t pack a Zen processor (powerful, but pricey), but will include a Polaris graphics card. My take: we’ll certainly see an updated iMac, probably in October. A new rumor says a new iMac will launch in the last quarter of the year with either the latest Intel chipset, Kaby Lake, or AMD’s Zen processor, as well as AMD’s Polaris Graphics set.

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