Apple M6 iMac Hands-On: Same Design, Faster Chip and Wi-Fi 7

In Japan, the 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU model starts at ¥249,800 including tax. The 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU version starts at ¥289,800. The base model has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, while the higher model has four. Thunderbolt 5 is not offered, even as an option.

What the M6 adds

Apple says the M6 is up to 18 times faster than Intel-based iMacs. A direct comparison with the M4 iMac was not possible at the demo, but in tests on Mac mini systems, the M6 delivered an average 32% CPU gain over the M4 in some benchmarks, along with a large GPU improvement. The same chips suggest a sizable jump for the iMac, though that remains an estimate until it is tested.

The chip can also run mid-size AI models on the device, which may appeal to people interested in local, agentic AI. Since the M5 generation, Apple has built a Neural Accelerator into each GPU core, and the M6 continues that approach. The new Apple N1 chip brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and Ethernet rises from 1Gbps to 2.5Gbps. Storage read and write speeds are said to be up to twice as fast as before.

Still to be tested

The game Mixtape ran smoothly for a few minutes, but demanding titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 have not been tried. The speakers could not be judged either, because the demo area's HomePod mini 2 units were doing the playback. Apple has not highlighted any audio changes to the iMac's six-speaker system.

The higher-end chip looks like the more appealing option, particularly for apps running at the native 4480×2520 resolution, where small performance differences are easier to notice.