iMac 2017 Updates: AMD RYZEN Chips Preferred Over Intel’s Kaby Lake Chips; Powerful & Effective For A Lower Price, But Comes With Downsides

Apple has been notorious for having very little updates with every product launch. However, its seamless integrations and user interface, as well as security features, still have many of its users hooked over the decades. After marginal upgrades being rolled out year after year, it is high time for the tech giant to be competitive once again. There have already been rumors circulating about a powerful 2017 iMac and it looks like Apple might officially be putting in some effort to make its pioneering machine the top performer of its category.

There are a lot of speculations that the iMac 2017 would sport Intel's 7th generation Kaby Lake processors. If true, these processors would make their machines very competitive. However, AMD has recently launched the RYZEN 7 chips and this might cause some sort of strain between Intel and Apple's relationship.

Intel is still at the top of the pyramid, but the AMD RYZEN 7 series boasts a formidable performance per watt. It also has been setting records in benchmark tests. A thread on Reddit shows that what is particularly remarkable was its power per watt. AMD's RYZEN 7 is not only a powerful processor but an efficient one as well. This is what makes it perfect for Apple's computers.

However, PC Gamer reports that while the AMD RYZEN 7 series boasts power and efficiency, it has an underwhelming gaming performance. It has been proven before that benchmarks are not always the most trusted source since it does not always show where the chips lose. Also, everybody wants to know if the early test results are indicative of real-world performance -- and this is not always the case.

When AMD's RYZEN 7 was compared to Intel's i7, it was shown to look as potent as was earlier suggested. Typically, processors with eight cores and sixteen threads go with a starting price of $1000, but AMD has taken on that price tag head on and bumped it down to $500. It even offers some units for as low as $400 and $330. The downside here is that RYZEN's single-threaded performance and its clock speeds are not as impressive.