The Apple iMac has long been the darling of photographers, videographers, and other digital content creation pros; folks we call the Mac faithful. And after almost two years, Apple finally gave its iMac lineup a refresh at WWDC, adding Kaby Lake processors, more maximum memory at the top end, Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, and a brighter display.
NameApple iMac ProApple iMac 27-Inch With Retina 5K Display (2017) 
Lowest Price%displayPrice%%seller%$4999.00MSRP%displayPrice%%seller%$1799.00MSRPEditor RatingProcessor Name Intel Xeon Intel Core i5 Processor Speed 4.5 GHz 3.4 GHz Operating System Apple macOS Sierra Apple macOS Sierra RAM 32 GB 8 GB Storage Capacity (as Tested) 1 TB 1 TB Graphics Card AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 AMD Radeon Pro 570 Screen Size 27 inches 27 inches Resolution 5120 x 2880 5120 x 2880 Storage Type SSD SSD Read the ReviewRead the Review
During the keynote on Monday, Apple seemingly addressed concerns that its cylindrical Mac Pro desktop workstation, introduced in 2013, is rapidly becoming obsolete. It teased the iMac Pro, a 27-inch all-in-one desktop PC with a workstation-class 8- to 18-core Intel Xeon processor and AMD Radeon Pro Vega discrete graphics, all built into a familiar-looking space gray chassis. The iMac Pro will be available in December 2017, starting at $4,999.
Should you wait? Hopefully this primer will help you make a decision.
Screen and Body Are (Almost) the Same
Aside from the space gray color—which extends to the mouse and keyboard, too—the iMac Pro comes in the same chassis as the 27-inch iMac, with the same DCI-P3 color gamut, 5,120-by-2,880 (5K) screen resolution, and 500-nit brightness on its 27-inch display. Both measure the same 20.3 by 25.6 by 8 inches (HWD), and both weigh about 21 pounds. They'll fit in the same cube or open office desk setup you're using now.
You'll have to turn the screen around to see the most significant physical difference between the two: the iMac Pro has two extra I/O ports. For the record, the iMac has a headset jack, an Ethernet port, a SD card reader, four USB 3.0 ports, and two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports. The iMac Pro doubles the latter to four total. They'll come in handy on the kickass model, so you can connect two 5K external displays (or four 4K displays) along with a Thunderbolt 3 SSD or RAID array. The regular iMac only supports a single 5K or two 4K displays.
The Inside Story
The real difference between the two is under the hood. The $2,299 iMac comes with a four-core 3.8GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, 8GB AMD Radeon Pro 580 VR-ready graphics, and a 2TB Fusion drive. The base $4,999 iMac Pro comes with an eight-core Intel Xeon processor, 32GB of ECC RAM, 8GB AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics (also VR-ready), and a 1TB SSD. In addition to simply having more computing power, the Xeon and Radeon Pro Vega graphics processors are designed to work optimally with professional apps like AutoCAD, Dassault CATIA, and Maya.
It's much the same story with upgrades: The iMac can be upgraded to a four-core Intel Core i7 processor, up to 64GB of memory, and up to a 2TB SSD. The iMac Pro tops it with an 18-core Intel Xeon processor, 16GB AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPU, up to 128GB of RAM, and up to 4TB SSD. We'd surmise that you'd have to be editing multiple 4K video streams in real time, or working with complex 3D models in 5K or with a VR headset to justify all that power.
The fully upgraded iMac goes for $5,299, but we're not privy to the final iMac Pro pricing yet. An 18-core iMac Pro with all the bells and whistles could be close to—if not exceed—$10,000.
iMac Pro: for Demanding Professions
The regular 27-inch iMac is a dream machine for photo and video editors, designers using CAD software, and other graphics artists with deep pockets. While this group will certainly appreciate the iMac Pro, it's better suited to professionals with even more challenging workloads, like a CGI computer animator, an automotive designer, an oil/gas research scientist combing undersea strata for fossil fuels, or a medical research professor using VR to look at MRI brain imagery in a different way. Or a PC reviewer, of course; we're stoked, and look forward to reviewing both systems in the near future.
If you're wondering if you should upgrade your current iMac to a non-Pro iMac, check out this comparison.