1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,960 It's been two and a half years since I got my hands on the yellow iMac, and it was a 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:17,720 case of love at first sight, not just for me, but also a million of you too. 3 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,480 And now it's got its first upgrade, the M3 chip, and frankly the iMac is overdue for 4 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:29,160 an upgrade. The M1 is a great chip, but since the release of the upgraded Pro, Max, and Ultra chips, 5 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:36,600 become really hard to justify the iMac. And if I'm being honest, even before those newer chips came out, I found the iMac couldn't 6 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:41,600 handle everything I needed to do, and I found myself using another more powerful Mac whenever 7 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:48,520 I needed to deal with footage here. It's a damn shame too, because the iMac is so beautiful, and should be the only computer 8 00:00:48,520 --> 00:01:00,200 I need here. With the new version, is it? 9 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:04,600 We got the orange model this time, which, in my office lighting, appears perilously 10 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:09,760 close to pink. It's definitely in that salmon coral part of the spectrum. 11 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,800 The colors aren't new though. What is, is the M3 chip. 12 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:17,600 It's constructed using the latest advanced 3nm process. 13 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:22,560 This helps enable performance core clock speeds that now surpass 4GHz, and bring efficiency 14 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,560 core clock speeds even closer to the M1's performance cores. 15 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:31,560 There's also a couple more GPU cores with 8 and 10 available, and that GPU now supports 16 00:01:31,560 --> 00:01:38,840 hardware accelerated ray tracing. But crucially for me, there's the media engine with ProRes decoding and encoding, and new 17 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:55,800 for M3 and AB1 decoder. The jump from the M1 to M2 isn't that notable, but the jump from the M1 to this is. 18 00:01:55,800 --> 00:02:00,000 For instance, just walking outside a house in Resident Evil Village, I got frame rates 19 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,880 ranging between 40 and 60, whereas our M1 model peaked at 40. 20 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:09,440 But you'd really have to lock it at 30. Game looks decent on this screen though. 21 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:14,200 When I do my DaVinci Resolve export test, the M3 takes nearly a third of the time. 22 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:18,680 That's an improvement, and though it does get the fan running on the Orange iMac, you 23 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:24,520 can barely hear it. Single core performance is always where the latest Apple Silicon chips shine, irrespective 24 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:30,960 of tier. And certainly in Lab's LZ4 compression test, which uses only one core, you can see just 25 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:39,080 how far the new architecture goes. When translated into our Blender Barbershop test, the M3 is over 12 minutes faster than 26 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:45,320 the M1. But interestingly, it's only 4.5 minutes slower than the Pricer M2 Pro, which has two 27 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:53,320 more performance cores. Because I want this to be the only computer for my desk, we expect a 16GB model. 28 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,520 Memory is important as I've discovered. 29 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:01,760 I once tried to get Maria Sanabria to use the base model M2 Mac Mini for her thumbnail 30 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:06,720 photoshopping, and it wasn't enough. 31 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:11,920 Whenever I use this M1 iMac to deal with our footage, it can get bogged down. 32 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:16,320 Premiere would hang on my mouse pressed down long after I release the mouse, which is really 33 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:26,080 annoying when you're trimming a clip. And Cadillaz Browse, which lets us view our Sony footage easily fills the memory. 34 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:30,060 To be honest, I was really pushing things here, because strangely both have been working 35 00:03:30,060 --> 00:03:35,160 much smoother on this old iMac, which I think can be attributed to better app optimization. 36 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:39,800 That being said, the new upgraded M3 iMac is much better. 37 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,880 The new chip, along with the $200 RAM upgrade, means there's no waiting when you move the 38 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:50,320 playhead to another part of the timeline and hit play. In fact, when I see the editors struggle with their Threadripper systems, it makes me wonder 39 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:56,440 if they'd be better off with this. Though I don't think I have the influence capital to try and experiment in there again. 40 00:03:56,440 --> 00:04:00,840 How much slower is it? 9 to 1. It takes 9 times longer. 41 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:06,760 I definitely have a lot of confidence in the new iMacs abilities, but I do have a few niggles. 42 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:12,400 One thing I'm really disappointed about is that the Ethernet port doesn't support the much faster 2.5 gigabit speeds. 43 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:18,240 Yes, Apple added support for Wi-Fi 6E, but wireless is too unreliable for multi-cam editing. 44 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:24,760 It's one big chink in this iMac's armor. And so if I want to add faster Ethernet, I'd have to spring for an extra dongle instead 45 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:29,960 of the clever port hidden under the desk that I already paid extra for. 46 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:35,040 While I'm griping about ports, the iMac oddly doesn't have Thunderbolt 4 either. 47 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:38,640 Sure this won't matter too much to the majority of people who buy this thing, but consider 48 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:44,920 that the M2-powered $600 Mac mini has it, and 10 gig Ethernet too. 49 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:51,440 Ah yes, the price. Though the iMac starts at $1300, for that you get the base model, which doesn't come 50 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:54,760 in orange, or yellow, or purple. 51 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:59,920 That means you only get 8 GPU cores and 8GB of RAM, which I'm having trouble justifying 52 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:07,080 for even grandma these days. You also only get 256GB of SSD storage. 53 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:12,800 Furthermore, there's no Touch ID on the keyboard, no extra USB ports at the back, and no Ethernet 54 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:19,760 on the floor. If you want those last 3 bonus features and the 10 core GPU, it's another $200. 55 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:25,520 This orange iMac with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is $1900. 56 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:29,880 And phew, that's not an insignificant sum, but still a bit less than how much an equivalent 57 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:34,120 Intel power 27 inch iMac cost back in the day. 58 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:40,120 Ah yes, the long departed iMac. I just want to take a moment and note that I like this screen size. 59 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:44,440 I'm a bit of a weird person here at LMG because this is the only screen I use. 60 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:49,480 Whereas everyone else either has 2 or 3 massive screens taking over their desk, or one unbelievably 61 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:56,040 long one. I don't get it. Yes, I am flicking my fingers between workspaces if I'm researching and writing at the same 62 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:58,960 time, but I've never ever felt cramped. 63 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:02,040 Something I've felt using a 1080p ultrawide. 64 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:05,040 Which I think was the first screen I was given when I started working here. 65 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:12,280 God, that yellow iMac was an upgrade. And God is this iMac an upgrade from that. 66 00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:19,120 But you will pay for it. With the release of the M3, Apple has shaken up their lineup, and so things are kinda weird. 67 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:23,960 You can get an M3 MacBook Pro with 16GB of memory for $1800. 68 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:29,560 This is $100 more. And if you want more power, an equivalent M3 Pro is $2000. 69 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:34,560 It really seems like this is the price range Apple wants to sell their computers for. 70 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:38,880 Back when we did the Pick Your Dream setup video, I picked an upgraded M1 iMac and then 71 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:44,720 guessed way less than the setup was worth. I don't know if you could tell at the time, but I regretted my pick because I knew the 72 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:49,480 iMac just wasn't up to snuff anymore. You can still get it in the refurbished store. 73 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:54,000 At a little over $1000, it's not much less than a refurbished model cost last year. 74 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,040 That computer is only suited for grandma or decoration. 75 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:01,640 And if you look at the more upgraded spec models, it's worth considering the shorter 76 00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:11,800 lifespan these old iMacs have now. The M1 was introduced 3 years ago, and the savings are less than 20%. 77 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:17,040 So for me, I feel like the M3 has more life in it for the tasks I do, and because we upgraded 78 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:21,920 the memory this time, I do believe I have the one desktop computer that can do everything 79 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:26,840 I need it to. There's no need for me to set up a Mac Studio or Pro on the other desk anymore.