Apple puts its M6 chip in a new iMac and entry-level MacBook Pro

Apple’s latest iMac looks much like the previous one, but the company has packed a new M6 chip into its 24-inch all-in-one desktop, promising faster graphics, more processing power and a substantial boost in on-device AI performance.

The new iMac is available to pre-order from Wednesday in 35 countries, with deliveries and in-store availability starting on November 6.

The familiar design remains intact, including the thin body and seven colour options: blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange and silver. Most of the changes are under the hood.

The M6 chip comes with up to 12 CPU cores and 12 GPU cores, two more of each than the M4 in the previous model. Apple claims it delivers the fastest single-core CPU performance of any computer, based on its own tests.

The bigger change is how the chip handles AI. Each GPU core now includes a Neural Accelerator designed to speed up AI workloads, working alongside a 16-core Neural Engine.

Apple says this combination makes on-device AI tasks up to five times faster than on the M4 iMac. Graphics performance in photo editing is up to twice as fast.

Apple’s other performance claims include spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel running up to 1.5 times faster, ray-traced games running up to twice as fast, and storage reading and writing data at up to twice the previous speed.

The company is also targeting people still using older desktops. It says the M6 iMac is up to 18 times faster than the most popular Intel-based iMac.

Compared with the M1 model released in 2021, Apple claims up to 2.5 times the performance in Excel and up to 12 times the on-device AI performance.

The 24-inch 4.5K display is unchanged, with a maximum brightness of 500 nits. Buyers choosing the 12-core configuration can opt for nano-texture glass, which reduces glare.

Connectivity gets a more substantial update as the new iMac supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, while the 12-core version adds 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and four Thunderbolt 4 ports. It can also drive two external 6K displays.

Moreover, the company has kept the 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, six-speaker sound system and three-microphone array. A matching keyboard and either a mouse or trackpad are included, with the 12-core model getting a keyboard with Touch ID.

“iMac raises the bar yet again,” said Shelly Goldberg, Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering.

The desktop ships with macOS 27, which introduces Apple’s new AI-powered Siri to the Mac. The assistant can answer questions, search through messages, emails and photos, and perform actions across apps.

Siri AI remains in beta, supports six languages, and comes with daily usage limits. Apple plans to offer additional access for a fee later. The assistant first arrived on the iPhone with iOS 27.2. macOS 27 also includes writing tools and a way to organise Safari tabs by topic.

Those prices match what the M4 iMac cost immediately before launch, but they are higher than the original prices for that model.

Apple raised iMac prices by $200 in June as memory and storage costs climbed amid demand from AI data centres, according to EveryMac. Before that increase, the cheapest model cost $1,299.

Apple also said the new iMac’s stand uses 100% recycled aluminium, while its magnets use 100% recycled rare earth elements.

The iMac was not the only Mac to get an update: Apple also unveiled an M6 MacBook Pro. Meanwhile, its new foldable phone has attracted complaints about cracked screens.