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top of the line iMac 27" 5k vs base iMac Pro


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I'm trying to ascertain which iMac I should buy in the next few weeks. My late 2012 iMac works well for most tasks but bogs down in multiple pane mode and when doing final quality renderworks. I make a lot of open GL animations and often have to have long waits. I guess the fastest video card might help here. I understand 2d work is a function of single core speed. Does the 4 additional cores but slower clock speed justify spending an additional $1300 for the comparable iMac Pro?

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Yes.

 

10 core seems to be the sweet spot. Highest single core speed too.

Vega 64 seems to be ok,

less for speed increase but for the double of VRAM, for the future.

RAM, as much as you need. For many 32 GB may be ok for the next years.

I keep my data on an external drive, but having that on a larger SSD option

is faster too.

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So Jim W, VW Guru replied (below) that increase of VRAM is key to faster rendering

Regular RAM is important but maxes out at 32GB

Zoomer has the correct review of 

 

It appears you can add an 8GB Vegas graphic card as an external component at $800 US, but I have not seen a 16GB card as mentioned below except as an upgrade to the new iMac Pro but the cost of $5,600 US-

BTW the base iMac Pro has a 8GB Vegas graphic card at $5,000 US

 

Good Luck

 

The following thread was from Mac Recommendations thread in the General Discussion area:

Jim W replies that's the way i'd go

 

So if given a choice between 64GB of RAM and an 8GB graphics card, or 32GB of RAM and a 16GB graphics card, sounds like the 16GB graphics card might be the way to go

That's the way I'd go!

 

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Here is a nice Cinebench single/multi core comparison.

It shows that the low frequency Xeon Ws aren't much slower in

single core against the i7s because of their similar single core

turbo frequency.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Cinema-4D-CPU-Comparison-Skylake-X-vs-Threadripper-1017/

 

And a few days newer multi core Cinebench including i9s up to 18 core.

Where the Xeon Ws as used in iMac Pro are usually a bit slower in Multi core tests.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Cinema-4D-CPU-Rendering-Comparison-New-14-16-and-18-core-Skylake-X-Processors-1038/

 

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5 minutes ago, Andrew Pollock said:

Thanks for the input everyone. This is my professional desktop. I want to get the right one to last me the next 5-7years.

I'm in the Mac ecosystem so I cant get a dedicated top of the line windows machine even though the value might be better.

In the same boat here, need to upgrade in the next year or two and not happy with the Mac choices.

 

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1 hour ago, J. Wallace said:

need to upgrade in the next year or two and not happy with the Mac choices.

 

You are lucky, so you can wait for the mMac Pro.

 

Not sure if I can wait that long.

Honestly I wait since 2010, but cheese graters weren't fast enough to justify an upgrade.

I missed the last 2012 and had to take an interims nMac Pro which was never my choice :)

Also completely Mac Ecosystem here.

But when I switched to Mac in 2007, it took only 4 month to move from bootcamp over

VMWare, Parallels to plain OS X, including changing all main Apps.

Now, all my 4 Main Apps are cross platform or even Linux. If I will not be pleased by the

coming mMac Pro, another switch may happen quite fast.

 

But for everyone working mainly with VW, the iMac Pro is a great machine.

Even the standard 2017 iMacs, if you don't do too much RW Renderings.

 

 

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