Is the Mac Pro really ideal for professionals?

[tekboi]

I love my 2010 iMac. However, when it comes to professional work, my iMac just doesn't hack it. My workload is increasing and the demands are getting higher for 3D Motion Graphic work. C4D takes FOREVER to render projects(and these are simple animations).

I considered buying a Mac Pro, but i'm not sure if this is a good decision based on the current state of apple.

• They Seem to be catering towards the consumer and pushing away developers and professionals
  
• Everything software they update actually takes it a step backwards (FCPX)
  
• All plug-ins for Photoshop, After Effects, VSTS, etc.. they are available for windows first & some of them don't even get ported over to the mac at all
  
• Apple waits to long to update their hardware line (ie. Mac Pro) and when they do update their hardware, it's still behind. I miss the days when apple was really "Cutting-Edge" in regards to hardware.

In short, apple has the consumer market mastered. But they have a long ways to go in the professional realm. I'm sorry if this thread has been created before.

I know that tons of professionals frequent this forum. I would like to know how you guys feel about apple and their current attention to the professional market.

 

[Apple...]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

It's called a Mac 'Pro' for a reason, so yes, it's for professionals.

 

[toxic]

I considered buying a Mac Pro, but i'm not sure if this is a good decision based on the current state of apple.

this is a tired, stale, and false argument.

They Seem to be catering towards the consumer and pushing away developers and professionals

sure, they're catering to the masses. I wouldn't say they're pushing away developers and professionals...Apple was always pathetic with business/enterprise support.

Everything software they update actually takes it a step backwards (FCPX)

the Logic 9 and Aperture 3 updates seemed fine to me...

All plug-ins for Photoshop, After Effects, VSTS, etc.. they are available for windows first & some of them don't even get ported over to the mac at all

that's not exactly Apple's doing, is it

Apple waits to long to update their hardware line (ie. Mac Pro) and when they do update their hardware, it's still behind. I miss the days when apple was really "Cutting-Edge" in regards to hardware.

Mac Pro updates depend on Intel processor updates. it's simple as that. if you think Mac Pros should be upgraded more often, tell Intel to hurry up.

I know that tons of professionals frequent this forum. I would like to know how you guys feel about apple and their current attention to the professional market.

Apple is pathetic in the professional market because it doesn't offer 24/7 and on-site support for businesses, hardly offers any workstation graphics (which is made worse by a lack of powerful NVidia offerings), has poor graphics drivers overall, and doesn't ever reveal its roadmap or intentions. but it's always been like that, so nothing's regressed.

 

[nanofrog]

Your post suggests to me you're not that satisfied with your professional OS X software, not just the iMac's performance, so it might be worth it to you to consider moving platforms (look at it from a long-term perspective in terms of both features and costs, as CS5.5 doesn't actually require Xeons and ECC memory).

As per Apple and professionals, it's always been a bit tenuous, as they don't offer the support and options you'd get from other vendors on the PC side (i.e. 3 year onsite service, more hardware options to satisfy specific needs from graphics to storage and anything in between, ...).

 

[Luis Ortega]

I love my 2008 MP and I'm still waiting for operating systems and software to make full use of it, and I have been doing video and animation on it with both FCS and CS5 software. It's easy to expand and upgrade.
But seeing how Apple is going toward ios, and how PCs and Windows are performing, I can't say that I will get another Mac Pro in the future.

 

[j-banana]

@ tekboi

Don't make a kid do a man's job you will just disappoint yourself. Sell that imac and buy a used 8 core 2008 mac pro or a quad 2009 you won't be disappointed.

 

[VirtualRain]

Forget all that nonsense about Apples direction, etc and focus on your specific needs. It seems your only real issue is performance. Are you making money from your work? If so, I would listen to j-banana. If not, then you may be best just suffering with long render times. Only you know your budget, priorities, and real needs. None of what's going on in the boardroom at Apple should dictate your next computer purchase IMHO.

 

[strausd]

I would say its for a select group of professionals. Considering the lack of support for professional GPUs, it is not for the professionals who do a lot of 3D work. I can say with confidence that I do not plan on buying another Mac Pro in the future. My next desktop will either be a Dell workstation with a Quadro card, or I will build it myself and put a Quadro card in. The main reason I plan on not getting another Mac Pro is because of awful GPU support. Although, that may actually be NVIDIA's fault...

But really, I don't think Apple really cares that much about GPU performance. Look at the MBP. All 13" MBPs have the integrated graphics, but they have pretty good CPU options. They don't even give you the option to get a better GPU until you spend at least 2 grand. It just seems to me that they care more about CPU performance than GPU performance.

 

[derbothaus]

In the end who cares who's fault it is. The options and performance are just not there in Mac land any more. Pretty much everything now runs faster on a Windows box than using OS X on same HW. Video games, maya, AE, Premier, Photoshop, Flash, Silverlight, Autocad, Cinema 4D, the list is so extensive right now it hurts my brain. The better question to ask is what runs better on OS X as it could be a single sentence answer. "The apps not available on Windows". Logic, FCP... um that's it actually. Yes it is a development issue. It is also an Apple "We do whatever we want and will level anyone in our way regardless of what you did for our platform previously" type of thing.
Sorry dude but putting "Pro" in the name means nothing. The HW is top notch. Best in class. No one wants to develop "real" apps for OS X. Either Apples implementation is garbage and slow or they hold back API's that are needed to get the best performance. Maddening. Feels a little intentional as well.

 

[strausd]

In the end who cares who's fault it is. The options and performance are just not there in Mac land any more. Pretty much everything now runs faster on a Windows box than using OS X on same HW. Video games, maya, AE, Premier, Photoshop, Flash, Silverlight, Autocad, Cinema 4D, the list is so extensive right now it hurts my brain. The better question to ask is what runs better on OS X as it could be a single sentence answer. "The apps not available on Windows". Logic, FCP... um that's it actually. Yes it is a development issue. It is also an Apple "We do whatever we want and will level anyone in our way regardless of what you did for our platform previously" type of thing.
Sorry dude but putting "Pro" in the name means nothing. The HW is top notch. Best in class. No one wants to develop "real" apps for OS X. Either Apples implementation is garbage and slow or they hold back API's that are needed to get the best performance. Maddening. Feels a little intentional as well.

Amen brotha!

Right now I am a firm believer that Apple is pulling away from the professional market, and I think Lion and FCP X are perfect examples. With FCP X you can import your iMovie projects, but not your old FCP projects. But don't worry, they have this really cool binocular filter!! Who gives a crap, that's consumer grade stuff and the reason so many people are leaving FCP.

And I've said this before on these forums, but I think Lion is an OS for the average consumer with a laptop. Snow Leopard had more features for the more advanced user, just look at Exposé and Spaces versus Mission Control. Mission Control is a just a dumbed down version of Exposé and Spaces so that the average consumer can better understand it. Spaces was too complicated for many SL users, and thats why they didn't use it.

Also, Lion doesn't even have a "Save as" feature!

 

[zephonic]

@derbothaus: Well said.

 

[Infrared]

Also, Lion doesn't even have a "Save as" feature!

It depends on the Application. From the Safari "File" menu in Lion:



For other apps you may use "Duplicate" followed by "Save..".

 

[strausd]

It depends on the Application. From the Safari "File" menu in Lion:

View attachment 295801

For other apps you may use "Duplicate" followed by "Save..".

Having it in Safari is completely different.

Whenever I turn in an assignment, I always take the .txt template the professor gave, and then put my stuff where it needs to go. So then when I am done, I have an edited version of the original template that I just go and click "Save as" and make that my turn in file. That way I don't save over the original template and I would always do that in TextEdit.

Now, instead of just starting right away, I have to go up to the menu, find duplicate, and click that. Then it keeps the old one open, so I go and close that next. Then I can finally start typing. Then when I am done, I save it and choose the directory for it to go in. This takes more time than just typing and using the keyboard shortcut for save as. Also, there is no keyboard shortcut for duplicate, kinda dumb if you ask me.