I tested the M3 iMac again! You won't BELIEVE the results!

So... I listened and re-tested the M3 iMac with the 16GB version and... well, the video tells the story.

Thoughts, please!

“…attaching your man vegetables to a three phase mains outlet for three hours …”. HILARIOUS. Great expression. Brilliant content. Thanks!

Good update and interesting how increasing RAM made little difference. What about number of CPU and GPU cores? Would an increase make any significant difference? I’d like you to consider what happens when you buy a new M3 iMac how it handles an upgrade from Big Sur (on an iMac with Intel) to Sonoma on an M3 chip with a photos library around 1TB (photos and videos). The changeover for me literally made the Photos App freeze and shutdown many times over several days. It finally stabilized after a week and many hours with Apple Support who really offered no support because, “we’ve never seen this before” responses and failure to call me back to see if problem resolved itself. All that said, the Photos App has been running nearly continuously for 4 weeks and it still has not sorted through and collect all its data to put together something that I don’t know what it is yet.

Mark - You rave about the Mac Mini M2 Pro and also the iMac M3. So, between the two of them which one is the best and which one would you recommend buying? Im confused because you spoke highly of both models. I mostly use my computer for word processing, internet, email, zoom calls, storing photos, and editing photos and videos. Is it true the Mac Mini M2 Pro is more faster and powerful than the M3 IMac??

That has really tickled me! Great ‘review’ 😂 Oh, and happy New Year!

In terms of screen size, the iMac supports up to 6K @60hz external. Consider: 2 or 3 years after your iMac purchase, you "need" a much bigger display. TV specs/features are improving and getting cheaper each year.....so just attach a decent 4K HDTV.....up to 65" and beyond. Maybe not elegant for some...but you do have that "upgrade" path.

Good job on the videos and getting straight to the point with the resulting data on this one! Your previous Imac M3 comparison/review video was first I viewed on your channel. It all helps as I’m preparing purchase an IMAC M3, just waiting for USB-C to arrive on the accessories. Was on the fence about RAM but looks like 16gb is the way to go. Thank you and looking forward to future videos!

Great info presented in a funny and engaging way. Thanks!
Our CEO belongs to that "small group" which use the 24 GB version of the M3 iMac together with the Apple Studio Display. Her reasons for this combo are larger screen estate and the possibility to simultaneously use several applications and have a lot of Google Chrome tabs open. She is very content with this setup and when she travels she brings her M2 MacBook Air with 16 GB of "unified memory". She does the typical office stuff using MS Office and some light video editing with Descript, CapCut, Filmora and Camtasia, where I help her with the fine tuning.

Thanks for this Mark, a refreshing analysis. BTW what do you think about the reduction in hard disk space? I have 2tb on my 27 inch 2019 Intel iMac, I am hesitant to go down to 512Gb.

How much storage does the iMac M3s have?

EXPORT PERFORMANCE: If both Macs have the same SSD installed, that's the reason. A 256 GB SSD is generally a bad idea because it's only single-channel. With a 512 GB model, two 256 GB SSDs are used, thereby almost doubling the performance.

Great video! Glad you called out the salty comments on the last review. Honestly, I think the iMac is great for someone who just wants to use macOS as their personal desktop. I have a gaming windows desktop but trading that for a souped up iMac is not a good idea, so an entry level iMac for daily use would probably work for someone who’s already in the Apple ecosystem. Happy new year!

Happy new year Mark.

Was this the (apart from RAM) base model M3 with only 1 fan? I'm thinking thermal throttling

I can't argue with your conclusion - I have a 16Gb/512Gb M1 iMac, bought refurbished from Apple - but the point I keep drawing from all of these performance test reviews (here and on many, many other sites) is that actually, any Apple Silicon Mac will get the job done. So unless you're a pro for whom time is money, any modern Mac will be great. Juystr get what you can afford.

They were probably the same Apple fanboys that would tell you that 8GB Apple RAM performs as well as 16GB PC RAM

Happy New Year sir. This was a fascinating followup. I’ll be sticking to my M1 in that case 😊

The weirdest thing about the iMac is how beautiful they are for everybody else, but for the ones sitting in front of them.

It is really surprising that the export is not faster. We've had an Imac 24 M1 with 8GB for 2.5 years and it's a dream machine that the whole family loves. 16 GB is a waste of money

I see with all your recent Apple ecosystem remarks in your recent videos, you are rocking an Apple Watch Ultra on the wrist. All joking, nice Garmin. I have an Epix Gen 2 and really like it.

Great review...the M3 is a jewel...you summed up clearly and concisely the reasons why this iMac is the best desktop out there...

Great video as usual... but IMHO the iMac 24" design lacks the charm from the 27"/21" previous versions, it feels like a toy in comparison - Just talking about design, not performance-

Doesn't matter that the Intel machine had loads more RAM because Apple's whole schtick with Apple Silicon is that it's a system-on-a-chip design, where the processor is unified on the same silicon as the working memory and storage. All you can do is compare the end performance, which is why people use standardised benchmarking tests. It's like comparing an electric supermini's acceleration with a petrol Ferrari's acceleration. In the end it's the result (processing speed/time taken) that people are interested in.
And in any case, Apple Silicon is designed to have advantages over Intel chips, partly because they use RISC, and because they are built on a much smaller process (currently 3nm for M3) so are super quick and super efficient.

Every single person I am friends with, who is an imac user, has avoided all of these 24" iMac's ... and hasn't swapped out their 27" .. that tells you a lot even if it is anecdotal. Speed is important but my well specced 2018 imac does almost all I need most times BUT with a bigger display. I will stick with this until Apple launch a larger display unit. For many people cost just isn't a factor.

Mea culpa, Mark. Appreciate you making this video.

Apple just can't do nothing without a notch and chin, sadly

“ I asked for Vision Pro and they sent me an IMac “ 😢

A great video. I have no need to use rendering or exporting, but I do enjoy watching your results. You also get extra points for getting 'man vegetables' into a review. Love it.

Well done Mark another brilliant video
And you’ve now proved what I’ve thought for a long time all those benchmarks they do are totally pointless!
I agree with you the iMac is most beautiful product Apple has produced in a very long time

Is 2k expensive for a M3 computer with 16gb ram plus a 24” monitor, personally I don’t think so.

So for basic computing and amateur photo editing and processing, iMac 3 or Mac mini? I will need a bigger screen regardless so I’ve been leaning toward the mini and a dock for my SD cards.

Jesus mark the coffee machine is pricey 😳

Ok they are fast for develepors, but, what about gamers etc. I originally ordered M1 Max Studio and Display, then cancelled order and ordered a Apple Refurbished 27" iMac 8 Core/16 thread cpu, 16gb 5700xt, with 1TB nvme ssd integrayed and 8gb ram, which i ripped out and put in 64gb ram from Timetec. Now with this mac i can game either in windows or Mac OS. I play games like War Thunder which runs fluently under Mac OS now. It's not as fast as a develepor machine, but over all departments, It can do it all. Once Apple warranty expires, i'll be cutting open the back and putting in liquid AIO cooling on CPPU and GPU and upgrade to i9 max cpu.
24" iMac is just too small, I would rather get a Mac Stdio M3 Max, but only if I can game on it as well.

I wonder if you buy a Apple studio monitor 27", gut it out and take the M3 or M3 pro components and put inside Apple studio display, if it would work.

Thank you for this video. The key difference is the M3 has the media encoders that you only used to get in the M1 Pro or above. The RAM used to make more difference (and does in none optimised apps) with the M1 base series. Your Intel iMac will be using the GPU not the RAM too (I would imagine) for the second test (hence why the numbers are very close). So actually those calling idiot probably haven’t done their research 😂 If you did that test on a 21 inch iMac with a lower end GPU or integrated Intel graphics the difference would be massive!

Happy New Year!! Maybe the embedded video encoders are doing all the work in this test, so very similar results? But, I also agree the 16GB/512GB model is the sweet spot. In so many other workloads it will far exceed what your 8GB model can do, especially if you use it like a normal person, with lots of apps open in the background. Maybe compare some other operations while you've got both at hand, and see what you find??
My #1 reason to get an iMac is the perfect font rendering on the retina display. I write code, and this is a huge win. macOS is optimised for 218 pixels per inch, which almost no 4K monitor provides. Santa was kind to me this year, and I'm very happy with the M3 iMac - it's a beast! I'll be writing code on my new iMac for many many years to come, and I don't have to worry about insufficient memory or slow SSD speeds rendering the whole device obsolete any time soon, nomatter what I end up using it for.

Great video as always Mark. I have something to ask of you. I would like you to dig deeper into the iMac and discuss Sonoma.. I use my Intel Mac mostly for iTunes and Apple Music. I've been told that Sonoma doesn't play well with Apple Music. Before someone writes that iTunes doesn't work after Mojave, that just isn't true. I would buy a new iMac, but I would like to take the operating system back to the previous operating system. In the end, I really would like to hear your comments about Sonoma. Thank you.

Hi Mark! I do enjoy your perspective on Apple. I do find it annoying that Apple still considers 8GB and 256GB of storage a "base model". In my opinion, the base model shoudl be 16GB and 1TB of storage. This is 2024, not 2014. Keep up the great work!

noticed if doing comparisons, if other stuff is also processing like background scans. this will show differences in whats best.. i'd really like an m3 mac.. using a m1 14 mbp which i use daily.. does whats intended. looking for a homebase setup. for video also.. seeing 16gb running, i think it should be plenty.. the 24gb seems overkill. unless someones maybe using spectrasonics omnisphere , with 8 sound fx settings per plugin, and times that by 4. then ok.

Now compare it to a 16gb M1 iMac ! That’s what I recommend for the m1 series. I’m still keeping it.

Definitely no need for an iMac Pro. Pro users don't need their monitor attached to their computer. 

I would like to see them add a separate 24 inch monitor for the home user who wants a (somewhat) affordable monitor from Apple that works with the Mac mini. Being able to swap out the computer every 2-3 years and hold onto the monitor for 5 or more years would be a good way to simplify Mac upgrades.

Thanks for the video. Even though your example didn't show any difference in 8 GB vs 16 GB in my opinion it does show that Apple has done a good job of optimizing memory usage. You can get much perfomance from 8 GB and even more from 16 GB, etc.

Thanks for the great follow-up video! You've got me leaning that way. I'd love to see you take that 16GB M3 iMac and really dress it out for the needs of a photographer and/or videographer. Since it doesn't even come with an SD card reader, that would be one of my first purchases along with a fast external SSD. Push it to the max!

Great Job Mark! I totally agree with recommendation. Happy New Year!

This video helped me so much really wanted the all in one. Returning my Studio Display and keeping my 24 GB 512GB M3 iMac

couldn't watch all the video.. stress levels through the roof every time you span the iMac around on your desk with that cup of coffee right in front of you lol

I ordered a 16GB RAM M3 iMac back in November… still waiting for it to arrive here in Guatemala. Guys… it’s sad to live in the third world. Anyway, great review that made me feel good with my purchase.