Mac Pro

[Ronstar]

I'm thinking about a BTD for a Mac Pro.

I have a 2013 iMac and a 2018 MacBook Pro. I do a lot of photo processing in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Many times with Lightroom and Photoshop running simultaneously. And I do some editing of small videos.

My iMac wasn't performing well, so I put it in storage and started using my MacBook Pro. And I bought a 32" Dell monitor to go with the MacBook. Great monitor size, but performance isn't much better on the MacBook Pro compared to the old Imac. MacBook Pro is 2.6 Ghz processor, 16 mb ram and 500 gb storage. It doesn't crash, but its slow and I get popups saying I should shut down some apps.

I've been looking at the new iMac and Mac Pro. I can get a 27 "iMac, 3.3 ghz with 32mb ram and 1 tb ssd for about $3k.

Mac Pro is 3.5 ghz, 32 mb ram, 1 tb ssd for $6400.

Not sure if the Mac Pro is worth $3400 more than an iMac, but I'm not sure I could live with the 27" monitor on an iMac. I'm not computer savvy enough to evaluate the specs comparisons beyond the basics.

Anyone have a Mac Pro? If so, how do you like it? Same with new 27" iMac. Thoughts?

[PaunchyPirate]

Until earlier this year, Apple also offered an iMac Pro. They discontinued it, but there is some speculation that an upgraded version featuring the new M chips might be around the corner. It might be a more powerful M chip than the one in the regular iMac. Apple is gradually updating all computers to M chips that they manufacture themselves. They have amazing performance. There has also been some rumor of Apple increasing to monitors in the 32” area. I’d probably suggest you see what Apple’s September product announcements offer. They appear to be working on more than one announcement event - not just the one for the newest iPhone.

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaunchyPirate Until earlier this year, Apple also offered an iMac Pro. They discontinued it, but there is some speculation that an upgraded version featuring the new M chips might be around the corner. It might be a more powerful M chip than the one in the regular iMac. Apple is gradually updating all computers to M chips that they manufacture themselves. They have amazing performance. There has also been some rumor of Apple increasing to monitors in the 32” area. I’d probably suggest you see what Apple’s September product announcements offer. They appear to be working on more than one announcement event - not just the one for the newest iPhone.

Thanks - I want the M chip and at least a 32" monitor. And I really don't need a Mac Pro because I'm not doing heavy video processing. Apple doesn't currently offer what I need - so I'll wait.

[braumeister]

I have read that the 27" iMac is nowhere near as capable as the 24" model, so I wouldn't even consider it for your needs.

As PP said, between now and December there will most likely be a number of new product announcements.

[PaunchyPirate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar Thanks - I want the M chip and at least a 32" monitor. And I really don't need a Mac Pro because I'm not doing heavy video processing. Apple doesn't currently offer what I need - so I'll wait.

Have you considered the new Mac Mini (also now M1 based) used with your existing 32” monitor? A much lower cost option.

[Midpack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronstar Thanks - I want the M chip and at least a 32" monitor. And I really don't need a Mac Pro because I'm not doing heavy video processing. Apple doesn't currently offer what I need - so I'll wait.

As you know, the 24” iMac has the M1 chip (I have one) and it replaced the Intel 21” iMac.

The M1 has 8 CPU cores (4 performance/4 efficiency, 7-8 GPU cores and 8 or 16 GB RAM. The M1X or M2 is rumored to have 12 CPU cores (8 performance/4 efficiency), 16 GPU cores and 32-64GB RAM.

The YouTube gurus seem to think the 14” and 16” MacBook Pros will be the next M updates and the first to have M1X or M2 chip SOC (the 13” MacBook already got an M1), maybe before the larger iMac. Later this year, maybe announced at the Sept 14th event?

Rumor has it the Intel 27” iMac will be replaced with a 30-32” iMac with an M1X or M2 chip sometime late this year, early next year. Some saying the bigger iMac will have a mini LED display. [The current Intel 27” iMac is way overdue for replacement, I wouldn’t buy an Intel 27” iMac now with the M version coming in 3-9 months]

The Mac Mini got the M1 already but there are rumors of an M1X or M2 Mini to come. While people say the Mini is a bargain, some fail to account for the cost of a mouse, keyboard, trackpad, and display. You can’t buy an M1 Mac Mini with a mouse, keyboard and comparable 24” display for the cost of an M1 24” iMac. Only if you already have peripherals, display, etc. is the Mini a bargain.

All the rumors are the Mac Pro will be the last to get M (Apple AMD) chips, could be a year or more away? And presumably pretty expensive.

[homestead]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaunchyPirate Have you considered the new Mac Mini (also now M1 based) used with your existing 32” monitor? A much lower cost option.

I bought a mac mini M1 last year. It seems to be about the same speed as our older 2013 mini Intel with quad core I7. It was $599 at Costco. It has one sync problem with our older monitor only during boot up, after boot up no difference.

[Ronstar]

I checked out the Mac mini specs a month or so ago. The M1 chip version can only be had up to 16 mb ram. The Intel chip model up to 64 mb ram. I would prefer the M1, but would like 32 mb ram. Otherwise the mini would work. Don't know why the M1 version doesn't come with as much ram as the Intel. Maybe it doesn't need it.

I'm a little wary now after seeing homestead's post saying that his M1 is about as fast as his 2013 Intel based mini.

I'll keep researching and hopefully something new comes out from Apple this month or so.

[Ready]

Now is not a good time to buy a Mac. Wait until the next round of product announcements. Intel models are being phased out and the M1 models are now a year old and will likely be replaced soon with the next version of their chip. The MacBook Pro is most likely the next model to be refreshed. It may be a while before we see an upgraded Mac Pro.

[someguy]

The big problem in Apple world right now is that the M1 chip doesn't support more than 16GB of RAM, which isn't enough for a power user doing photo and video editing. If you're set on the Mac space versus Windows, I would wait for the products likely to be upcoming the rest of this year.