Apple has launched the iMac with M6 at $1,499 in the US, with pre-orders opening October 28. It starts arriving on Friday, November 6, in the same seven colors as the iMac with M4.
Apple announced two versions on Tuesday, a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU model at $1,499 and a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU model at $1,699. The 12-core model adds two CPU cores and two GPU cores over the top iMac with M4. Pre-orders run through apple.com and the Apple Store app in 35 countries and regions, including the US.
The $200 step up on the iMac with M6 adds two ports and a second display
The 12-core model is where most of the hardware extras sit. It has four Thunderbolt 4 ports against two on the 10-core model, supports two external 6K displays against one, and includes 2.5Gb Ethernet, which costs $30 extra on the 10-core model. Only the 12-core model offers nano-texture glass, and it also comes with a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID as standard.
That is $200 more at $1,699, or $150 more with education pricing, which is $1,449 for the 10-core model and $1,599 for the 12-core model. I would start with the 12-core model if you plan to connect a dock, fast storage and a second display, since it has four Thunderbolt 4 ports and supports two external 6K displays.
Apple Upgrade leases the $1,499 model from $28.99 a month for 36 months, or $40.99 a month for 24 months, before taxes and any trade-in credit. Apple Card Monthly Installments run at 0 percent APR in the US, with 3 percent Daily Cash back on the purchase.
Local AI is where the iMac with M6 pulls furthest ahead of the iMac with M4
The M6 chip has a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU at the top, with a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core and a Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Memory bandwidth goes up to 170GB/s, up from 120GB/s on the iMac with M4, and the SSD is up to 2x faster at reading and writing.
Apple’s own September tests, run against a 10-core iMac with M4 with 32GB of memory and a 2TB SSD, put the iMac with M6 ahead in every category. I would wait for independent benchmarks before treating these figures as final.
- Microsoft Excel runs up to 1.5x faster than on the iMac with M4 and up to 2.5x faster than on the iMac with M1.
- Affinity photo editing gets up to 2x faster graphics than the iMac with M4 and up to 3.3x faster graphics than the iMac with M1.
- LM Studio handles prompts up to 5x faster than the iMac with M4, and up to 12x faster than the iMac with M1.
- Gaming performance with ray tracing is up to 2x higher than on the iMac with M4.
Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 are new, up from Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 on the iMac with M4. The 24-inch 4.5K Retina display, the 12MP Center Stage camera and the six-speaker sound system carry over, and the colors are blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange and silver.
Siri AI is still in beta and has daily limits
The iMac with M6 runs macOS 27 Golden Gate, with Siri AI built into Spotlight for questions and follow-ups. Visual Intelligence has a dedicated keyboard shortcut for asking about anything on the screen, and Safari sorts tabs into topics and flags restocks and price drops.
Siri AI is in beta on macOS Golden Gate 27.2 in English, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, and it is not available to users under 13. Apple Intelligence features that use server-side models, including Siri AI and the intelligent photo editing tools, have daily usage limits, and Apple says expanded access will be available for a fee in the future.
Our Take
Anyone on an Intel iMac gets the biggest jump here, with up to 18x faster performance than the most popular Intel-based iMac. M1 owners have a clear case too, with gains over the iMac with M1 that reach up to 12x in LM Studio prompt processing.
If you already own the iMac with M4, the gains are up to 1.5x in Microsoft Excel, Wi-Fi 7 and 2.5Gb Ethernet on the 12-core model, and I would not upgrade for that alone. The same 12-core chip is in the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6, which also goes on sale November 6.
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