The 24-Inch iMac Gets an M6 Brain in the Same Colorful Body
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It’s day two of Apple’s “exciting week” of product announcements, and as widely expected, the company has just unveiled an M6 refresh for the 24-inch iMac, making for a healthy update over the two-year-old M4 version.
Sadly, even after two years, the most significant change in the new iMac is the chip inside. In 2024, Apple upgraded the front camera and added a nano-texture glass option to the M4 iMac. Those improvements carry over into the current model, of course, and while the 12 MP Center Stage camera is certainly no slouch, it’s not really an upgrade for anyone who’s already taken the plunge on the current model.
The bulk of what you’re actually getting in the M6 iMac is right in the name: Apple’s new M6 chip, but that’s actually a pretty meaningful upgrade by itself. Apple introduced this in August with the M6 Mac mini, so we already know what it’s capable of. It’s the company’s first 2-nanometer chip, which brings new levels of power and efficiency, with up to 12 CPU and 12 GPU cores, a Dual 16-core Neural Engine, and up to 170 GB/s of memory bandwidth.
That’s a nice boost over the M4, which topped out at 10 cores in the 2024 iMac with only a single 16-core Neural Engine and 120 GB/s memory bandwidth. In practical terms, Apple says that delivers up to 2x faster graphics “for more intensive tasks like photo editing” and gaming, plus 2x faster AI compute for running on-device LLMs and other AI tasks.
“iMac is the world’s best all-in-one, and today it raises the bar yet again,” said Shelly Goldberg, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering. “With the blazing performance and AI capabilities of M6 supercharging every workflow and the next generation of Apple Intelligence with Siri AI — combined with its stunning 24-inch Retina display, its gorgeous design in seven vibrant colors, and macOS 27 — the new iMac has everything users need to run their businesses, manage their lives, and bring their ideas to life.”
Measuring it against the original Apple silicon iMac that launched with an M1 chip in 2021, the M6 promises to deliver 2.5x faster performance in apps like Microsoft Excel, and up to 3.3x faster graphics performance for tasks such as photo editing, and up to 12x faster on-device AI performance.
The only catch is that you’ll have to spring for the higher-end model to get the full M6 performance. As before, Apple is selling the 24-inch iMac in both two- and four-port versions, referring to the number of Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports. The two-port model only offers 10 CPU and 10 GPU cores in the M6 chip, sacrificing one performance core and one efficiency core, although it still includes the Dual 16-core Neural Engine.
You’ll also need to opt for the four-port model if you want to move above 24 GB of RAM or a 1 TB SSD, as only the higher-end model can be configured with 32 GB of RAM or 2 TB of storage. It also comes with 2.5 Gbps Ethernet by default — a $30 configure-to-order option on the two-port model, which otherwise only offers Wi-Fi.
That said, you’ll get Wi-Fi 7 on both models now, as Apple is packing in its N1 wireless networking chip, which also delivers Bluetooth 6 and Thread connectivity.
The design remains unchanged from the M4 model, and Apple hasn’t even revised the color palette. It’s still available in blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, green, and silver, and the dimensions and accessory options remain the same.
The M6 iMac starts at $1,499 for the two-port version or $1,699 for the four-port version. Preorders open tomorrow, October 28, with retail availability slated for next Friday, November 6.
