It's not really that strange of a resolution, it is just double the dimensions of 1440p (2560x1440) . That means that 5k resolution will scale at a perfect 4:1 ratio with 1440p.
I'm looking forward to when the Korean versions of the monitors start to hit ebay.
In my opinion they could have stayed at 4K and been fine but for the price tag and what you get, it's really not worth the price. I work at a consumer electronics store and you won't believe how many people bought into the Apple hype and then ended up hating their iMacs because they aren't as fast as their old PC. Anyway as for the hardware an i5 and M 290X is really shitty even if the 5K display takes up most of the price tag. You think that for $2500 you would have an i7 and the new GTX 980M since most iMacs are marketed to designers in the first place. Oh well I don't feel sorry for the people that buy this heap and end up frying that AMD chip trying to render 4K footage. On the other hand OS X Yosemite looks nice.
Apple sells them, for ungodly prices. You're better off getting the RoG Swift. If Apple can sell a 1440p monitor for $999 imagine a 5K monitor without the innards of the iMac...Also nice tremors pic, good movie but terrible tv show.
The reason to why Apple hasn't released 5k cinema displays is that Thunderbolt 2 doesn't have the bandwidth to drive them. Apple will probably release some whenever Intel releases Thunderbolt 3 which will have 40gb/s transfer speeds as opposed to Thunderbolt 2's 20gb/s.
A lot of new semi-pro cameras are starting to shoot 4k. The Panasonic GH4 ($1,700), the consumer Panasonic LX100 ($800, released in less than a couple of weeks) and the full frame Sony A7s ($2,500). Next year there will be even more.
So even enthusiast video people, never mind pros, will need a system that can handle their 4K files natively. Shooting at 4K means you can crop to 1080p and change your composition easily (important for interviewers or video noobs). Also, 4K acquisition scaled down to 1080p for the final video product tends to look quite nice.
For photographers, most cameras shoot at 4K or higher megapixels. So editing on a large 5K display would be lovely. You don't need to zoom in and out as much to pixel peep or do touch ups.
Apple are quite smart with this product. The other manufacturers will really have to step up to maintain solutions for the content creation market that actually work. Hopefully they'll step up and give us some proper options that we can use linux for.
5K isn't about gaming. It really is about 4K video editing and similar content creation.
1080p displays for the iPhone should be pretty cheap I guess ;)
I think TB 2 should handle 5k with no problem. The thing is Apple wants its TB to be modular, so you can connect additional storage devices/displays on one wire, that could reach the limits of Thunderbolt 2.
I think as iMacs are workstations, they shifting to Radeons like with the Mac Pro. They use Open Gl now in Final Cut and at Adobe afaik.
Radeons should be cheaper too. And should guarantee a good 5k experience.
2500 is too much? Have iMacs been cheaper in the past? No, they became cheaper with this upgrade. I don't know if you are comparing Apple to custom builds, because this is a good deal for an iMac.
Edit: I don't think Apple build something that will fry while rendering. I guess you don't like Apple much.
According to ExtremeTech.com(http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/192305-analyzing-the-imac-5k-retina-display-how-do-you-squeeze-5k-out-of-a-last-gen-gpu), 4k (3840x2160) at 60hz requires around 17.2Gbps bandwidth. 5k (5120x2880) has 1.77 times more pixels than 4k (3840x2160), which would mean that the required bandwidth of 5k at 60z is around 30.4Gbps.
My current line of thinking is this, a Dell 5k screen alone is this much and replacements/surplus come on the market pretty quick. So will it be possible soon to just buy the panel fro the new Mac for 300-400 dollars soon? I am sure some of us could knock out a frame if we wanted and hook some display adapter.
That is the only thing interesting to me, And even at that it is a thought experiment as nothing could run it for gaming, just for the fun of building really.
Okay sorry, I wasnt expecting that much bandwith usage. 30.4 GBps seems crazy much :D
I agree, I think it would a fun project and if it works, a great productivity monitor for sure.