Apple iMac 2017 chipset: Intel's Kaby Lake Or AMD's RYZEN; Tech Buffs Now On A Stalemate
A lot has been heard about Apple's upcoming devices such as the expected iPhone 8, MacBook Pro, and the iPad, but not so much with the Cupertino tech firm's all-in-one PC - the iMac. As the 2017 Worldwide Developer's Conference is fast approaching, quite a number of fans are crossing their fingers that a new iteration of the AIO would be unveiled alongside a tweaked chipset.
Currently, information about Apple's next desktop - presumably named as iMac 2017, are quite difficult to come by. However, in the advent of AMD's Ryzen and Intel's Kaby Lake, Apple consumers are on a debate on which of these two SoCs would be used by the new iMac if such would come to fruition.
Apple buffs know for a fact that the company has always chosen Intel's highly trusted chipsets. Many are even expecting that the yet to be announced iMac 2017 will still be carrying an Intel processor, though it will be dependent on what chipset Intel will be releasing by then.
Kaby Lake has been rolled out in 2016 with its low-powered versions of the chip while its powerful renders were introduced early January of 2017. It will then be followed by the Cannonlake whose launch/release date was pushed until the second half of 2017, the Ice Lake in 2018, and the Tiger Lake in 2019, Macworld UK has learned.
AMD's Ryzen, on the other hand, is also a tough contender for the next iMac. The Zen-based SoC was made known in 2016 as it dons eight cores alongside 16 threads under its belt. The chipset even made quite a buzz in late February after one of its models - AMD Ryzen 7 1800X, did an impressive benchmark performance that made tech analysts arrive at a conclusion that an AMD Ryzen chip inside Apple's next AIO is plausible.
If speculations are anything to go by, the iMac 2017 will have a 5K retina display for the top end variant, an aforementioned Intel or AMD chip, a Polaris 10 or 11 GPU with VR support features, Touch ID, full flash support, and Thunderbolt 3 hubs, according to Science World Report.
The 2017 WWDC will be held in San Jose, California and will run from June 5 to 9. Watch a video about the upcoming event here:
