I have the ability to upgrade only one option on the IMP, which one should it be. I am leaning towards just the graphics card upgrade. Was contemplating doing the CPU but concerned I would see decreased single core performance. Dollar to performance it appears the graphic card is not a horrible deal. I welcome your input.
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Help w/Imac Pro configure
- Thread starter duffer6
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Sure. Video (4k) editing, photoshop, video encoding, gaming (VR and traditional, play not create).
While I only have the 8-core, from what I have read the 10-core is the sweet spot. I did upgrade the GPU to Radeon Pro Vega 64 though I probably didn't need to, but I'm an old timer that always wanted the best GPU possible. If I had to do over I probably would had upgraded the CPU also. That is why wish the iMac Pro was a little more user friendly when it comes to configuration (by that I mean more options), but one can't have everything I guess. Just my .02 cents.
Thanks for the feedback. Curious do games benefit from multicore? I am set on doing the GPU upgrade based on the feedback but now I am wondering if I shouldn’t just go all in and go for the CPU upgrade. I am just concerned about degraded single core performance.
I am using just the base iMac Pro which isn't too bad for what I do (Lightroom, software development)
10-core won't compromise single core performance. In fact, it will be slightly faster due to the higher turbo boost.
I would go for the CPU upgrade if you like where to burn money.
The difference between Vega 56 and 64 is rather small and you can always use an external GPU enclosure for more compute power these days.
10-core won't compromise single core performance. In fact, it will be slightly faster due to the higher turbo boost.
I would go for the CPU upgrade if you like where to burn money.
The difference between Vega 56 and 64 is rather small and you can always use an external GPU enclosure for more compute power these days.
Don’t misdirect people about egpu. I’ve used Sonnet 550w + Sapphire RX 580 8gb connected to my late 2016 MacBook Pro 2.6/512/RP460 plugged to external monitor. To be honest, I didn’t get the performance I hoped. Probably it didn’t provide double the performance of Radeon Pro 460 although it is seen triple on the benchmark results. (Some programs still don’t use egpu like Final Cut Pro X)
For iMac and iMac Pro, Egpu setup is harder and simply doesn’t worth it. To get the optimum performance from egpu, you have to connect the egpu to an external monitor. So, you have to buy another monitor and put it next to glorious 5k iMac or iMac Pro. After getting used to looking at 5k apple display, which monitor would fulfill your joy? After selling my Dell P2715Q, I realized that even that monitor was considerably worse than macbook pro’s screen. LG 5K ultrafine monitor? That thing costs a lot and for now only Apple’s solution, blackmagic design egpu w/ Radeon Pro 580, is compatible with it and that is the worst egpu case you can buy since any upgrade is not possible in the future while with others you can swap gpu or psu inside.
Even an egpu setup with Vega gpus perform worse than imac w/ Radeon pro 580. So, for now, any egpu setup you will connect to iMac Pro will perform worse than its built-in Vega 56 or 64 gpu and will increase your expenses highly and make you buy a 2nd display.
I think, egpu is only beneficial for 13” MacBook Pro users today and maybe 15” users if the price you pay is not important for not so great performance gain.
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Congrats! You made a very, very good choice. The 10-core and Vega 64 will serve you well.
I know what you mean about throwing in more upgrades. When I was going through my decision-making process on what to order, I started with 10-cores, Vega 64, 64GB RAM, and 1TB SSD. Then I decided to go with a 2TB SSD, then I himmed-and-hawed about the RAM and finally went with 128GB of RAM...and then I finally said to heck with it: if I have such a premium machine, why not have more ultra-premium storage? I ended up with a fully-loaded iMac Pro. And now that I finally upgraded to 10.13.6, all of the software bugs that were plaguing me are gone. I'm plowing through work projects now like a hot knife through butter.
Congrats and enjoy your new machine!
P.S. No need to worry about single-core performance. Your 10-core will do great! I have 18-cores and I do not feel or experience any perceptible hit in the single-core department...
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