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iMac Pro iMac Pro Now?

OG_Macintosh

OG_Macintosh

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 11, 2015
28
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Dilemma: Mac Pro 2013 D500 has graphics issues. Apple will give me $1800 gift card for a new purchase rather than fix it. Graphics issues are partially solved by running MacsFanControl and manually pushing the fan speeds to about 1600 rpm at all times.

Considering: I am looking at a refurbished iMac Pro/1TB/64GB/Vega64X for approximately $5100 all in. $3300 after the Apple Gift card. Should I do that or hang on to the Mac Pro until it's absolutely dead?

Other Considerations: I photograph team and player portraits for youth soccer and football leagues (maybe coming in the fall), high school football player and team portraits and action (maybe coming in the fall) and youth basketball leagues in the spring. I do some graphic design/light video work as well and use Photoshop/ACR, Illustrator, Indesign, Photo Mechanic, CaptureOne, Final Cut and FotoMagico among others.

Some suggestions are appreciated and ask anything I may have left out. Thanks.
 
The iMac Pro is getting a bit dated at this point. You would be better served by getting a base model Mac Pro and upgrading as you go.
 
I actually vote that you get either a maxed out iMac OR the 16" MacBook Pro with an external monitor. :) I was considering an iMac Pro and decided that the maxed out iMac was more powerful than the base iMac Pro. Barefeats is a good place to check out speeds.
 
They are getting quite long in the tooth at this point. The value is just not there at this point. I would be very hesitant to drop $5k on a 3 year old computer.
 
It's "old" tech, but it is still "good" tech.

And at this point, while I believe there will be a refresh of the iMac Pro with new Intel Xeon CPUs and AMD GPUs, there might not be with Apple moving as quickly as possible to Apple Silicon. Apple may very well just retire the model and steer people who need powerful Intel / AMD solutions to the Mac Pro.
 
Refurb only. Strictly doesn’t worth it at full price.It‘s a very nice config. If rushed in time and really need it, I’d take it. If not rushed, wait for new iMac non-Pro or ARM iMac which will likely be better than this iMac Pro.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far. I’m thinking that I may not have all the work I’m anticipating so as attractive as the iMac Pro is to me, I may just gut it out and see what Apple is going to do in the iMac Pro space in the “near” future.

I’d like a Mac Pro but that may be a little too much for me to justify the cost. Especially if I don’t get all of the work because of this virus.
 
OG_Macintosh said:
Dilemma: Mac Pro 2013 D500 has graphics issues. Apple will give me $1800 gift card for a new purchase rather than fix it. Graphics issues are partially solved by running MacsFanControl and manually pushing the fan speeds to about 1600 rpm at all times.

Considering: I am looking at a refurbished iMac Pro/1TB/64GB/Vega64X for approximately $5100 all in. $3300 after the Apple Gift card. Should I do that or hang on to the Mac Pro until it's absolutely dead?

Other Considerations: I photograph team and player portraits for youth soccer and football leagues (maybe coming in the fall), high school football player and team portraits and action (maybe coming in the fall) and youth basketball leagues in the spring. I do some graphic design/light video work as well and use Photoshop/ACR, Illustrator, Indesign, Photo Mechanic, CaptureOne, Final Cut and FotoMagico among others.

Some suggestions are appreciated and ask anything I may have left out. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Im in the same boat. I’m giving Apple to the end of July to release a new iMac if nothing then I’m getting a 2017 iMac Pro refurb.

First off, I don’t think a new 2020 iMac will have nearly the features of the 2017 Pro. Do you really think a new non-pro iMac will have that cooling system, speakers, space gray chassis, that much Ram, i/o ports and more and still retain the price of a non-pro iMacEven if the processor is a little faster it won’t have the cooling system most likely and would hardly be noticeable.

the only thing you are really losing are a few years of upgrading since it’s a 2017...really 2018 machine. I still think you’d be good with that for at least 5 more years...just in time to trade in for an Apple Silicon Mac with all the bugs worked out.
 
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Mr. Warbles said:
Im in the same boat. I’m giving Apple to the end of July to release a new iMac if nothing then I’m getting a 2017 iMac Pro refurb.

First off, I don’t think a new 2020 iMac will have nearly the features of the 2017 Pro. Do you really think a new non-pro iMac will have that cooling system, speakers, space gray chassis, that much Ram, i/o ports and more and still retain the price of a non-pro iMacEven if the processor is a little faster it won’t have the cooling system most likely and would hardly be noticeable.

the only thing you are really losing are a few years of upgrading since it’s a 2017...really 2018 machine. I still think you’d be good with that for at least 5 more years...just in time to trade in for an Apple Silicon Mac with all the bugs worked out.
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Mr. Warbles,

That's my thinking exactly. A 2017 (2018) iMac Pro would certainly last me 5 years and would be an upgrade from my 2013 Mac Pro. I would wait for a new iMac Pro but then I would be paying full price for what may be an Intel-based machine. I think that the refurb I'm looking at is an excellent deal.

I'm not really a cutting edge person as I like to wait a little while before buying into something new. I used my 2010 Mac Pro until 2016 when I got an awesome deal on my 2013 Mac Pro. I'll use a "new" machine if I buy now for at least 4 years even if I'm cut off from OS upgrades.

Fishrrman, I have thought about going with a less expensive 2019 iMac and using that until I'm ready to buy into the Apple Silicon Mac line. It's actually a good idea and still in consideration.

Thanks again, everyone for helping me hash this out.
 
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OG_Macintosh said:
Fishrrman, I have thought about going with a less expensive 2019 iMac and using that until I'm ready to buy into the Apple Silicon Mac line. It's actually a good idea and still in consideration.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind the resell value will go freakingly down when Apple Silicon desktop get release and the transition is over.
 
Fishrrman said:
Have you considered a nicely-equipped 2019 iMac (non "pro")?
And pocket the savings?
Click to expand...

yes I have, the problem is I’d need an i9 and I hear those run hot and noisy with the fan kicking on a lot. I’m in Audio production so that’s a big deal for me.

I’m sure you meant that for the OP but I thought I’d weigh in. :)
 
Mr. Warbles said:
yes I have, the problem is I’d need an i9 and I hear those run hot and noisy with the fan kicking on a lot. I’m in Audio production so that’s a big deal for me.
Click to expand...

Then get the 2017 iMac Pro, IMO. Plenty of podcasters I follow have the 8-core iMac Pro because it offers great performance running various audio filters and it is very quiet while doing so.
 
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memo90061 said:
So y’all recommend the base iMac Pro over the iMac with an i9?
Click to expand...

I seriously regret getting my i9 iMac. Sure its fast, but it gets too hot too loud and it happens very quickly. Even though it beat the iMac Pro in benchmarks, I am extremely disappointed in getting it over the iMac Pro. Apple really needs to do something if they are planning on refreshing the iMac with the 10th generation i9.
 
memo90061 said:
So y’all recommend the base iMac Pro over the iMac with an i9?
Click to expand...

if you don’t care about heat or fan noise you’ll save some money on the i9. For me, I’m going with the base iMac Pro.

of course the savings gap starts to close if you want to add more RAM or other options to match the Pro.
 
Mr. Warbles said:
if you don’t care about heat or fan noise you’ll save some money on the i9. For me, I’m going with the base iMac Pro.

of course the savings gap starts to close if you want to add more RAM or other options to match the Pro.
Click to expand...

Get a refurbished model. It strictly doesn't worth it to pay a 3 year old computer full price.
 
I have a baseline iMac pro at home and a 2019 i5 27" 5K iMac at work. The iMac pro is quieter than the i5 iMac 27", and I imagine the i9 is a lot worse given its power consumption.

Edit: the iMac pro is the best Mac I've ever owned.
 
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pldelisle said:
Get a refurbished model. It strictly doesn't worth it to pay a 3 year old computer full price.
Click to expand...

2.5 years old, haha! I’m getting a refurb but even though it’s that old it’s still the best iMac. I can’t imagine the next intel non-pro will be better, especially in the cooling tech.
 
Thanks for the tip on the Macs Fan Control.
We have a D700 that went south here.
I used to brag about how our dozen or so D500/D700s fared well during the overheating crisis back in 2013/2014 and now I am just witnessing it at work.
We have a few of the new Mac Pros (mines a beast) but still feel that the D500/D700 with 64GB on Catalina does well in most graphic design work.
I do mostly CG/Video/MoGraph so I need the power.
In regards to upgrading, get what you can out of that D500.
Save your money, things might be different by the end of the year.
But heck if you have the money to get a new Mac Pro, don't skimp, get a beast set up so you don't have buyer remorse when the low-end ARMs come out.
LOL!
 
I purchased an iMac Pro for 3200 last week. I have no regrets. I believe if apple does decide to drop new iMacs I can still sell for the same price I got it for. Love the machine so far though
 
xWhiplash said:
I seriously regret getting my i9 iMac. Sure its fast, but it gets too hot too loud and it happens very quickly. Even though it beat the iMac Pro in benchmarks, I am extremely disappointed in getting it over the iMac Pro.
Click to expand...
Yep - Unfortunately if we look at respective teardowns, it's clear that the standard iMac has puny cooling design compared to the Pro.
 
DIMEZ said:
I purchased an iMac Pro for 3200 last week. I have no regrets. I believe if apple does decide to drop new iMacs I can still sell for the same price I got it for. Love the machine so far though
Click to expand...
The beauty of the Mac is that you just keep them forever. Well that's me maybe :)
 
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