imac question from an idiot

[msl1983]

hi everyone,
I'm a bit of an idiot about computers so any help would be much appreciated. I've been running an upgraded mac pro for a while to do artwork and it's been moving slowly lately. I don't have the $ for a new mac pro nor do I have the time or knowledge to build a computer... Will a new iMac run Maya (esp. Mental Ray rendering), Photoshop w/ large files, and Zbrush faster than my old set-up? Specs are below. Thanks for any advice you could give me.

 

[roadkill401]

Chances are that any performance gain would not justify the outlay cost of the purchase. it would be minimal at best as the Intel Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz is not a slouch processor and the rendering will use all the 12 cores to full advantage.

I don't know if you'd be better off looking into upgrading the video cards inside the unit as chances are Maya / Mental Ray might take advantage from AMD (FCP-X) or CUDA GTX, processing on a faster more modern card.

 

[name99]

My guess is that you are better off (in terms of improved performance per dollar)
(a) at least doubling the amount of RAM you have, possibly even going to 64 GiB
(c) replacing your internal drive(s) with SSD drives

I don't have experience with Maya and ZBrush, but I made these improvements for a friend who does a lot of graphic design/photoshop work and she has been very happy with the result.