Apple’s $1,499 M6 iMac Raises the Entry Price by $200

By Grace Kim

Apple’s new M6 iMac starts at $1,499, effectively raising the entry price by $200; preorders open October 28, and the first machines arrive Friday, November 6.

Faster silicon

The M4 topped out at 10 CPU and 10 GPU cores; the M6 reaches 12 each, with two more cores in each category. Every GPU core now includes a Neural Accelerator, and Apple specifies a “Dual 16-core Neural Engine” rather than the M4’s 16-core unit.

Top-model memory bandwidth reaches 170GB/s, up from 120GB/s. After debuting in the Mac mini in August, the M6 now reaches the iMac.

Apple claims “up to 2x faster graphics” than the M4 for photo editing in Affinity, SSD read and write speeds up to 2x faster, and on-device AI up to 5x faster. Those are manufacturer claims: Adobe has published no M6 results, so independent Lightroom, Photoshop and Affinity tests remain necessary before assigning a workflow a specific gain.

Technically, the higher GPU throughput and 170GB/s bandwidth should matter most to Lightroom’s AI Denoise and masking tools, heavy Photoshop filters and large RAW files. That is an engineering expectation, not a measured speed gain for a particular catalog or image.

The Media Engine remains the same, with hardware support for H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW, plus AV1 decoding. The update preserves codec acceleration rather than adding a new media block.

What does this change for photographers?

The display does not change. Apple retains the 24-inch 4.5K panel at 4480 by 2520 pixels, 218 ppi, 500 nits, P3 wide color and True Tone. There is no HDR mode and no brightness increase; the anti-glare nano-texture option now appears only on the 12-core model.

For working photographers, the practical gain is processing headroom rather than a display upgrade. The 10-core machine drives one 6K external display, while the 12-core model drives two, matching the M4’s maximum. Thunderbolt remains version 4, not 5, with two or four ports depending on configuration, as before.

Connectivity improves where local file movement matters: Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 replace Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, while Ethernet increases from Gigabit to 2.5Gb. The Ethernet change helps photographers pulling files from a NAS; the wireless specifications alone do not establish faster real-world transfers.

The price and configuration catch

At $1,499:

• 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU.
• 16GB unified memory and 256GB storage; configurable to 24GB and 1TB.
• Two Thunderbolt 4 ports.
• Gigabit Ethernet as an add-on.
• Magic Keyboard without Touch ID; no nano-texture glass.

At $1,699:

• 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU.
• Four Thunderbolt 4 ports.
• Built-in 2.5Gb Ethernet and Touch ID.
• Only this model can reach 32GB memory, 2TB storage or nano-texture glass.

Across the line, memory and storage retain the M4’s ranges: 16GB to 32GB and 256GB to 2TB. Education pricing is $1,449 and $1,599. At publication, Apple’s store had not posted prices for memory, storage or nano-texture upgrades, leaving configured-system budgets incomplete.

The M4 iMac’s $1,299 eight-core entry model has disappeared. More consequential, the prior $1,499 M4 configuration included four Thunderbolt ports, Gigabit Ethernet, Touch ID and nano-texture glass. Buyers wanting those features with M6 now spend $1,699, making both ends of the lineup effectively $200 dearer.

The 32GB memory ceiling remains the larger limit for photographers. It covers most Lightroom catalogs, but large Photoshop composites and stitched panoramas can exceed it; a Mac mini with more memory and a separate display remains the more flexible setup.

The upgrade case

For an Intel iMac, Apple claims up to 18 times faster performance than its most popular Intel model and up to 3.3 times faster graphics for Affinity photo editing than the M1 iMac. The comparison baselines differ, so neither figure represents a universal gain over every Intel machine.

M4 owners have the weakest case for switching: Apple retains their screen and 32GB memory ceiling while adding faster silicon. The iMac remains available in the same seven colors: blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange and silver.

Announced next, rumored later

Apple also announced a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 but gave no availability date. It scheduled a hands-on press “Pro and Tell” event for October 28 at 10 a.m. Pacific in Los Angeles.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman expects that a high-end MacBook Pro with an OLED display could launch as soon as November 6. Separate rumors suggest it could become Apple’s first Mac with a touchscreen. Neither report establishes a shipping date or final specification.

For photographers, the M6 iMac offers faster local editing and file-transfer potential, not a display upgrade. The $200 configuration shift and unchanged 32GB ceiling matter more than headline benchmark claims, and independent Adobe application tests will determine whether the $1,699 model earns its premium.