These are insane. I had no idea the new version was that starkly different. Thanks for the links, will review them in more detail.
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imac vs imac pro
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These are insane. I had no idea the new version was that starkly different. Thanks for the links, will review them in more detail.
Not really. See below.
No, and maybe. After sale upgrades of memory or SSD on the iMacPro are discouraged by Apple, in that there are no accessible doors to allow easy upgrades, which is different from the iMac. If you aren't interested in disassembling the display yourself, that means taking it in to a repair center.
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Are you referring to the new MBP or the iMac Pro? In either case, it is fairly difficult to upgrade the SSD later on. If the 4 TB option is not needed or out of the price range of what you want to spend, you would be far better off going with 2 TB of SSD storage for now and then a couple of years down the road, if you want more ultra-fast SSD storage space, you can add external SSD RAID storage for a lot less money than what you would pay now. As a matter of fact, I'd be willing to wager that in 2 years time, SSD storage will be 40-50% cheaper than what it is now.
Hi Bryan, HDFan,
The question was for both the MBP and the iMac Pro. I am familiar with upgrading a normal iMac, done harddrive upgrades myself on an old (out of warranty) 2011 iMac. Though its a pain and would get a professional to do it next time.
Kind of surprised you can't replace/update the MBP hard-disk. Is it welded directly to the motherboard?
P.S. Thanks all for answering my MBP questions. Though I own a plethora of Apple products - including 3 iMacs - I have never bought a laptop from them so totally ignorant about them. One advantage of the MBP for me is I can actually claim a chunk of it on tax as I would use it for work. The only thing that held me back previously is the gaming performance.
The question was for both the MBP and the iMac Pro. I am familiar with upgrading a normal iMac, done harddrive upgrades myself on an old (out of warranty) 2011 iMac. Though its a pain and would get a professional to do it next time.
Kind of surprised you can't replace/update the MBP hard-disk. Is it welded directly to the motherboard?
P.S. Thanks all for answering my MBP questions. Though I own a plethora of Apple products - including 3 iMacs - I have never bought a laptop from them so totally ignorant about them. One advantage of the MBP for me is I can actually claim a chunk of it on tax as I would use it for work. The only thing that held me back previously is the gaming performance.
Macbook Pro doesn't use a harddrive. it uses a proprietary SSD module. The module is in the slot (not soldered-in).
What makes the upgrade complicated is sourcing a suitable upgrade SSD module. Different MacBook generations often use a different interface. Aftermarket modules can be sourced online (usually originating from laptops broken down to parts) but they aren't cheap, especially large capacities. There are 3rd party vendors who offer upgrade parts, but they are usually inferior to stock Apple parts and could have some unexpected issues. The part from most recent models (2017+) aren't available at all....
So while upgrading is possible, it isn't easy.
What makes the upgrade complicated is sourcing a suitable upgrade SSD module. Different MacBook generations often use a different interface. Aftermarket modules can be sourced online (usually originating from laptops broken down to parts) but they aren't cheap, especially large capacities. There are 3rd party vendors who offer upgrade parts, but they are usually inferior to stock Apple parts and could have some unexpected issues. The part from most recent models (2017+) aren't available at all....
So while upgrading is possible, it isn't easy.
Noted and thanks. So will get the maximum capacity I can afford in this case. This breakdown video makes it sound worse as the proprietary SSD is soldered to the logic board:
Would still like to see benchmarks of the graphics card, but nothing online yet. Hopefully see some after the release.
Would still like to see benchmarks of the graphics card, but nothing online yet. Hopefully see some after the release.
After watching the video I think your getting a lot more stuff for the money when you are buying a Imac or imac pro. One motherboard with everything soldered on. Amazing technology.
Cinebench numbers are in. For the integrated graphics on the 13":
https://www.pcmag.com/news/362510/apple-macbook-pro-benchmarked-fast-but-surprise-youll
For the Radeon Pro on the 15":
https://www.macworld.com/article/32...ew-a-laptop-that-pro-app-users-will-love.html
Potentially but I have two compelling reasons that are luring me to buy a MBP over an iMac - over and above the great spec which I am sure will be translated to the iMac in the next update:
- I would use the MBP for work which means I can deduct the entire purchase price from my taxable income which works out to be about a 40% discount when fully depreciated.
- I could extend the life of my iMac if I could drive the internal display with an eGpu but I can not. While a 2012 MBP (same year as my iMac) can. And its just easier to have an eGPU setup with a laptop because you already have the external display.
These are a great reference. So I ran the same tests on my 2012 iMac so I could get a feel for the differences I am looking at (2012IMC/2018MBP:
CPU Single: 4,063/5,619 -> 28% improvement
CPU Multi (Quad): 13,646/23,140 -> 41% improvement
Geekbench OpenCL: 34,986/57.148 -> 39% improvement
Cinebench (Nvidia 680MX 8gb)/FPS: 70.4/103.8 -> 32% improvement
Overall, a 35% averaged improvement over my stalwart 2012 iMac.
I would also expect the HD performance to be significantly better (fusion vs SSD) which would impact the performance of Bootcamp as well, which always sits on the platter on fusion drives. So another performance gain for gaming.
These numbers give me a bit more confidence that it is a significant improvement, even in the gaming area.
Thanks everyone for this info, advice and help.
There is a huge factor people are missing. The iMac Pro in particular has far better cooling than a MBP, which - especially in the i9 case- will always throttle down. There are in fact rather severe heat issues with the i9 in the new MBP which are causing it to underperform the i7 under load.
If you want sustained speed - the iMac will always be faster than the MBP, and the iMac Pro faster than the iMac due to better cooling.
If you want sustained speed - the iMac will always be faster than the MBP, and the iMac Pro faster than the iMac due to better cooling.
Very well said! MacOS issues aside, I'm loving the power of my iMac Pro and there is no way a laptop will perform anywhere close to the power I have. Don't get me wrong, a strong laptop is mandatory for the road, but back in the editing suite, more power is required...at least for my needs...others may vary!
