2015 Mac Pro > 2013, again, sorry.

[dmodo]

Sorry to start another chain on this.

Essentially, I'm looking to buy a nMP, primarily for use with Adobe CC suite, Ocasional Rhino for Mac and mild gaming via bootcamp so I can make the most of both those graphics cards.

I not hugely rushed, but need to purchase before June due to the looming end of the student discount I can get, mainly for the saving on Apple care.

I have an Apple 27'' Led that im happy with. And with the reports of troubled gaming on the Retina iMac coupled with the being throttled when over heating and a fear of the fogging on imac screens. (Work iMac did this in second year) I'm set on going Mac pro, and settling down with a machine I can, over time, upgrade and hope to get 5+ years out of.

My actual question is. Do I continue to twiddle my thumbs waiting for a 2015 nMP. Likely to be a base model, possibly with updated SSD and even more possibly updated graphics cards. Or:

Do I bite the bullet and get a referb 6core nMP with d500s and 500 SSD.

Just want to know wether a theoretical base model would have any tech that would help stretch the macs life span. Or are we still too far from big jumps in tech like skylake and thunderbolt 3 that an early 2015 release would be a negligible step?

Will DDR4 and the new AMD chips that'll likely make their way in to the nMP make sitting on my itchy wallet a bit longer, worth it?

 

[teagls]

I have the 6 core d700 model. Had it for about 7-8 months. I do a lot of GPU computing/graphics and I am disappointed with the GPU. They already feel like they are showing their age. The d700 gpu architecture I think is already 3 years old. So getting the 2013 and keeping it for 5 yrs will feel more like 8.

If the 2015 model has significant gpu upgrade I would wait.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

FYI refurb discount is better than student discount.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro

IMO you should just build a hackintosh. I'm running a 6 core 5820k CPU at 4.4Ghz with DDR4 ram and a GTX 980 for less than the cost of a base model nMP. The geek bench reports 25k which is the same level as the 8 core nMP and a GTX 980 destroys the D500s for gaming.

 

[MH01]

FYI refurb discount is better than student discount.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro

IMO you should just build a hackintosh. I'm running a 6 core 5820k CPU at 4.4Ghz with DDR4 ram and a GTX 980 for less than the cost of a base model nMP. The geek bench reports 25k which is the same level as the 8 core nMP and a GTX 980 destroys the D500s for gaming.

A hackintosh is always going to win versus a Mac pro, and certain people don't want the hassles in relation to updates and compatibility.

I have a 4970x 2xTitan, which in PC terms is showing its age already, though will humble a 6 Core NMP, the thing is, if I needed a MBP for productivity, I would buy it, the hassle of hackintoshing is not worth it if your are making money from your work.

 

[JesterJJZ]

the hassle of hackintoshing is not worth it if your are making money from your work.

That is true, but Apple no longer makes the machine that I need. If they don't make some changes to the tincan pro in the next couple years I think I see a HackPro in my future.

 

[VirtualRain]

Do I bite the bullet and get a referb 6core nMP with d500s and 500 SSD.

Just want to know wether a theoretical base model would have any tech that would help stretch the macs life span. Or are we still too far from big jumps in tech like skylake and thunderbolt 3 that an early 2015 release would be a negligible step?

Will DDR4 and the new AMD chips that'll likely make their way in to the nMP make sitting on my itchy wallet a bit longer, worth it?

The performance gains from the new v3 Xeons are minimal... 3% on average. DDR4 will offer zero to 1% improvement (large CPU cache sizes reduce dependency on RAM performance). In addition, 4 and 6 core CPU pricing remains unchanged from the last generation so don't expect to see any price reductions on the low-end.

The latest AMD workstation GPUs are roughly 20% faster than those in the current model but they run hotter so we don't know if they will need more aggressive down clocks to reach the nMP's thermal requirements. More VRAM is a possibility, but to what benefit?

There are no other new technologies available right now that might find their way into a nMP refresh this year. There is the possibility that Apple might double the SSD slots or adopt Samsung's latest SSD controller which offers a boost in sequential performance, but the current 1TB SSD is still among the best performing SSDs available.

So you're really not likely to see any noticeable improvement.

In my opinion, none of this is worth waiting for or paying a premium for but you now have the facts and can decide for yourself.

 

[MH01]

That is true, but Apple no longer makes the machine that I need. If they don't make some changes to the tincan pro in the next couple years I think I see a HackPro in my future.

Agreed. I'd have preferred a dual CPU config to dual GPU . For me the new Mac pro is more of a trendy shuttle PC.