Apple Updates The iMac After Two Years: Should You Upgrade To M3 iMac From An M1 iMac?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) finally updated the iMac after two long years at the ‘Scary Fast' event on Oct. 30, and the biggest upgrade is undoubtedly the M3 chip. With no other major changes in tow, the question is, should you upgrade to the M3 iMac from an M1 iMac?

What Happened: Apple upgraded its all-in-one desktop computer, the iMac, for the first time in two years. If you are wondering what has changed between the 2021 iMac and 2023 iMac, read on to find out.

The 2021 iMac was a massive change – it was the first Apple desktop computer to be powered by the company's own silicon. It allowed Apple to make the iMac extremely thin, and the company also introduced a colorful lineup to go with the slim profile.

See Also: Apple Kept Comparing The M1 Chip With M3, But Should You Upgrade From M1 Mac To An M3 Mac?

Two years later, Apple has a new iMac powered by the M3 chip. But is that it? Before we get into the M1 iMac vs M3 iMac debate, here's everything that the new M3 chip brings to the table.

Apple M3 Chip Vs M1 Chip: How Better Is It?

Apple says the new M3 chip delivers up to 50% faster CPU performance when compared to the M1 chip. The M3 chip is also 60% faster in neural performance than the M1 chip, and its GPU is 50% more power efficient than the M1’s.

Overall, Apple claims that the M3 chip’s rendering speeds are up to 2.5 times faster than the M1 chip, which has a direct improvement in productivity if you are a video or graphics editor.

Apple has also improved connectivity – the M3 chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which works on the more powerful 6GHz spectrum, while the M1 chip supports Wi-Fi 6, which is restricted to 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

The new M3 Macs also support Bluetooth 5.3, which comes with improved signal stability. M1 Macs are restricted to Bluetooth 5.0.

M3 iMac Vs M1 iMac

Let's talk about the actual question now – should you upgrade to the M3 iMac from an M1 iMac?

The 24-inch 4.5K Retina display, seven color options, and the 2TB SSD remain the same. Both the iMacs also have the same 1080p FaceTime HD camera, 3.5mm audio jack, and TouchID.

What's Changed?

The changes are relatively fewer when compared to the M1 MacBook Pro vs the M3 MacBook Pro.

While the CPU cores are the same at 8 cores, the M3 chip has a 10-core GPU compared to the M1's 8-core GPU.

This is paired with up to 24GB of RAM, compared to 16GB on the M1 iMac.

Lastly, connectivity has seen a minor improvement, too – with Wi-Fi 6E compared to Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 from Bluetooth 5.0.

But that's about it.

So, should you upgrade? The M3 iMac offers only a few minor upgrades over the M1 iMac, so if you have upgraded recently, you might want to hold out for now.

Image Credits – Apple

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