Apple unveiled an iMac with M6 today, bringing up to 12 CPU cores, Wi-Fi 7 and claimed on-device AI speeds up to five times those of M4 to its 24-inch desktop. Preorders open tomorrow, October 28, and availability is scheduled to begin Friday, November 6. The computer comes with macOS 27 and a 4.5K Retina display, with seven colors available.
M6 offers two additional cores apiece for the CPU and GPU compared with the previous generation, with graphics configurations reaching 12 cores. Apple says Excel performance can reach 1.5 times that of M4, while photo editing in Affinity can run up to twice as fast. For owners moving from what Apple describes as the most popular Intel-based iMac, the company claims performance gains of up to 18 times.
The fivefold AI performance claim concerns prompt processing using LM Studio, while Apple puts the Dual 16-core Neural Engine’s AI compute improvement at up to twice the previous generation. Neural Accelerators sit within each GPU core, and memory bandwidth reaches up to 170GB/s. Apple says those components help the iMac handle AI models locally.
For connections and storage, the iMac adds Bluetooth 6 and offers 2.5Gb Ethernet, alongside SSD read and write speeds Apple says can reach twice those of the previous generation. Configurations offer as many as four Thunderbolt 4 ports and support two external 6K displays. The built-in screen reaches 500 nits, and the 12MP Center Stage camera supports Desk View for showing a workspace from above.
Earlier reports pointed toward a different potential iMac: leaked internal files referenced an M5 Max configuration, though those references could have represented hardware used for testing. Separate reporting described development work on a 24-inch OLED model targeting 600 nits, with availability considered likely in 2028 or 2029.
On the M6 model, Apple says Siri AI can search personal messages, emails and photos, perform actions across apps and handle follow-up questions through Spotlight. A keyboard shortcut for Visual Intelligence lets users ask Siri about onscreen content. Safari also gains Apple Intelligence features for grouping tabs by topic and alerting users when websites change, including product restocks and price reductions.
