Apple's New iMac Gets a Dual Neural Engine and the Fastest Desktop Mac Memory Yet

Apple announced a new iMac on October 27, 2026, built around the M6 chip — the first Mac to feature a dual Neural Engine. Pre-orders opened October 28, with availability set for November 6.

The M6 chip comes in two configurations: a 10-core CPU with a 10-core GPU, and a 12-core CPU with a 12-core GPU. Both are two cores ahead of the M4 models they replace. The headline spec, though, is memory: M6 delivers up to 170 GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, up from 120 GB/s in M4 — a 42% jump. The chip also packs two separate 16-core Neural Engine blocks — the first dual-Neural-Engine design Apple has shipped — which more than doubles the on-device AI throughput available to the machine.

RAM starts at 16 GB and tops out at 32 GB. Storage options go up to 2 TB. The design and color lineup are unchanged from the M4 model, and the display remains a 24-inch Retina panel. Connectivity is WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6, with optional 2.5 Gb Ethernet (included by default on the 12-core model). The 10-core base model gets two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports; the 12-core gets four Thunderbolt 4 ports.

Pricing: $1,499 for the 10-core model, $1,699 for the 12-core. The machine ships with macOS 27.

The dual Neural Engine is the part that matters most if you use any of Apple's on-device AI features. Tasks like live transcription, on-device image processing, and local model inference are constrained by Neural Engine throughput, so doubling it has real consequences for everyday performance — not just benchmark slides. Apple has been shipping on-device AI capabilities for two years now; M6 is the first desktop Mac with enough Neural Engine headroom to run them without conceding on anything else.

It's a straightforward generational update otherwise: faster chip, more bandwidth, same enclosure. For anyone who's been waiting on an iMac refresh, the decision got easy.