The most powerful iMac yet begs the question, who really needs a Mac Pro?

From a cost vs performance perspective, RAM is usually our favorite Mac upgrade. So we’re stoked that the new 3.06GHz iMac can handle up to 8GB, compared to just 4GB last time around. But be warned, taking advantage of that capacity is going to require some deep pockets--for now at least.

It's the same pretty face, but with better graphics, respectable RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. 

From the outside, the new 24-inch iMac doesn’t look different from the machine it replaces. It’s got the same ginormous, beautiful screen--though unfortunately still no matte option. Bean counters will lament the fact that the iMac now ships with the smaller, number pad–less aluminum keyboard, although this is sort of mitigated by a free upgrade to the extended keyboard if you shop online at Apple.com.

Under the hood, the new iMac sports a few important changes: This top-of-the line model has the same 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor as before, but it’s backed up by faster DDR3 RAM--and more of it--and improved graphics by way of the Nvidia GeForce GT 130, which means snappier performance all around. In fact, the latest iMac is so quick that it has us rethinking our traditional benchmarks, a few of which no longer pose the performance challenge they once did. Unfortunately, the newfound speed comes at a price, especially for upgraders. DDR3 RAM is still quite spendy, and Apple’s $1,000 price tag for the jump from 4 to 8 gigs isn’t too far off from what you’ll find from third-party vendors, though it’s still a simple DIY upgrade if you want to save a few bucks.

In keeping with the MacBooks, Apple has also eliminated the FireWire 400 port, although die-hard users will be able to outfit the FireWire 800 port with an adapter to use existing gear. The DVI port has also been replaced with a Mini DisplayPort, which can drive a second display with resolution up to 2560x1600.

Video Card Benchmarks:

Doom 3 - 126.72 FPS

Call of Duty 4 - 47.15 FPS

Xbench Test:

System Info       
        Xbench Version        1.3
        System Version        10.5.6 (9G2030)
        Physical RAM        4096 MB
        Model        iMac9,1
        Drive Type        WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0
    CPU Test    200.73   
        GCD Loop    357.60    18.85 Mops/sec
        Floating Point Basic    173.42    4.12 Gflop/sec
        vecLib FFT    133.91    4.42 Gflop/sec
        Floating Point Library    256.61    44.68 Mops/sec
    Thread Test    386.73   
        Computation    474.91    9.62 Mops/sec, 4 threads
        Lock Contention    326.16    14.03 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads

Memory Test    195.70   
        System    249.23   
            Allocate    397.74    1.46 Malloc/sec
            Fill    197.82    9618.65 MB/sec
            Copy    223.83    4623.02 MB/sec
        Stream    161.10   
            Copy    153.84    3177.43 MB/sec
            Scale    152.68    3154.28 MB/sec
            Add    170.54    3632.81 MB/sec
            Triad    169.05    3616.36 MB/sec
    Quartz Graphics Test    246.56   
        Line    228.61    15.22 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
        Rectangle    297.11    88.70 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
        Circle    241.86    19.71 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
        Bezier    241.12    6.08 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
        Text    234.89    14.69 Kchars/sec