Help deciding - which device for desktop theater + gaming?

[OneToughSOB]

Mac mini

• 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz)
• 16GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
• 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Graphics

Mac Pro

• 2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache
• 64GB (4x16GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
• 1TB PCIe-based SSD
• Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

PLUS

• install windows 10 64-bit boot camp
  
• nvidia geforce gtx 1080 ti

for:


desktop theater + highest quality pc gaming like GTA V mods , red dead redemption 2 etc



if is it possible

which device do you recommend

 

[InuNacho]

Buying a brand new 12 Core MP from Apple is $7k. I'm not sure thats the wisest decision for playing GTA and watching movies.

 

[h9826790]

Mac mini

• 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz)
• 16GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
• 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Graphics

Mac Pro

• 2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache
• 64GB (4x16GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
• 1TB PCIe-based SSD
• Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

PLUS

• install windows 10 64-bit boot camp
  
• nvidia geforce gtx 1080 ti

for:


desktop theater + highest quality pc gaming like GTA V mods , red dead redemption 2 etc



if is it possible

which device do you recommend

For your usage (and OS), if you really want a small form factor desktop. This one may be a better choice.

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/corsair-one-pro-compact-gaming-pc-gtx-1080-ti-na

 

[OneToughSOB]

Buying a brand new 12 Core MP from Apple is $7k. I'm not sure thats the wisest decision for playing GTA and watching movies.

Thanks for passing by

The money won’t matter to me as long as I can get an apple device with the stuff that I mentioned
I want definite answers about my question as much as possible from a knowledgeable experience please

 

[h9826790]

Thanks for passing by

The money won’t matter to me as long as I can get an apple device with the stuff that I mentioned
I want definite answers about my question as much as possible from a knowledgeable experience please

If you really need a small form factor Mac, then nMP with fastest (clock speed, not high core count) CPU should be your choice. Both gaming and PS are very single thread limiting, high core count doesn't help, but the low clock speed will decrease your gaming performance / PS productivity.

And since you looking for 1080Ti eGPU, IMO dual D700 or not doesn't really matter. But if you prefer that, and money is OK, then nothing wrong to go for that either. At least if in any situation that the eGPU doesn't work, you still has dual D700 (equals to dual downclocked 7970 6GB VRAM) Crossfire for gaming. Or very worst case, a single D700 for any software that cannot utilise multi GPU.

Of course, few AMD optimised titles may work better on dual D700 then external 1080Ti. It's hard to tell. If money OK, not a bad idea to keep this backup option.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

If you have funds to spec the correct solution, I believe it would be this:

- 4 core Mac Pro with d700s
- professionally swap the CPU to the fastest 8 or 10 core models listed here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibility-list.1954766/

You won't give up much in single threaded performance for gaming, and for background home theater tasks (serving to other devices, encoding, generating thumbnails) you still have contemporary multi core performance (plus 7 TFLOPs of d700 in reserve).

Mac mini is not the right machine for this job. The first time Plex decides to scan your library while you're in a tournament deathmatch, you'll know why.

Get the Mac Pro - for as much as it's maligned, I think it's going to find cult status as a private server. Practically perfect for what you need if they'd only update TB3, etc.

 

[OneToughSOB]

What if I used this solution

I am not that good with computers
So please be patient with me

 

[h9826790]

What if I used this solution

I am not that good with computers
So please be patient with me

You better study more about eGPU first. I have no experience on this matter, however, from memory, it was not that easy to make an eGPU work in Windows on a nMP. Not sure if it has been improved now.

Even install the "correct" AMD driver to activate Crossfire is a challenge.

Also, nMP only has TB2, not TB3. The 1080Ti will be bottlenecked a bit more.

 

[AFEPPL]

Neither.
Mac mini is so dated now.
I'd go 27" iMac with the 8GB R580 or for a windows gaming rig built around the 1070 or even better 1080 if you want real performance (R580 is about that same as a 1060ish).

You could also wait for the iMac pro...!