Chipmaker AMD is debuting its latest GPU offering for the refreshed 27-inch iMac, which Apple dubs the “most powerful and capable iMac” to date. AMD’s Radeon Pro 5000 GPUs are expected to bring in more efficient transistors, GDDR6 memory, and RDNA architecture — all elements focusing on content creation.
Aside from the Retina 5K display and upgrades brought to the camera and speakers, Apple boosted the graphics performance of its premium desktop with AMD’s new GPUs. The 7nm Radeon Pro GPUs feature new transistors that use less power but perform faster, even though the size is greatly reduced. GDRR6 memory also enables a higher peak bandwidth compared to its predecessor, the GDDR5.
“AMD Radeon Pro 5000 series GPUs bring new levels of performance and flexibility to the updated 27-inch iMac. The new AMD GPUs offer the optimal combination of compute performance, energy efficiency and outstanding graphics features to power a wide range of applications – from consumer to pro – wherever graphics matter the most,” said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager for the graphics business unit at AMD.
There will be three price variants for the 27-inch iMac — $1799, $1999, and $2299. Both the $1799 and $1999 version will be coming with the Radeon Pro 5300 with 4GB of GDDR6 memory, while the most expensive version gets the Radeon Pro 5500 XT with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. The latter can also be configured for the Radeon Pro 5700 with 8GB of GDDR6 memory or the Radeon Pro 5700 XT with 16GB of GDDR6 memory.
The AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT GPU has a total of 40 compute units and 2,560 stream processors, has a peak engine clocking at around 1499MHz, and can reach up to 7.6 FP32 TFLOPS. When operating, it uses up around 130W of power, and is equipped with up to 16GB GDDR6 memory that has a bandwidth of 384Gbps and a speed at 12Gbps.
While the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 GPU requires the same amount of total graphics power, it has a slightly less number of compute units and stream processors, while the memory bandwidth and speed remains the same.
“Now more than ever, our customers are relying on the Mac. And many of them need the most powerful and capable iMac we’ve ever made,” Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of Mac and iPad product marketing, said in a statement.
“With blazing performance, double the memory, SSDs across the line with quadruple the storage, an even more stunning Retina 5K display, a better camera, higher fidelity speakers, and studio-quality mics, the 27-inch iMac is loaded with new features at the same price. It’s the ultimate desktop, to work, create, and communicate.”
