Mac Pro Buying Advice

[lbass]

Hey guys, I'd really appreciate some advice.

Back story; my mid 2013 15" MacBook Pro top spec model's displayed started having a number of dead pixels. My original MacBook Pro had a great display but I proceeded to have three very yellow Samsung replacement displays in a row. At this stage Apple completely replaced my MacBook with a new late 2013 top spec 15" but unfortunately it came with an equally yellow display. I have compared these units to the ones in my local Apple store and it the difference is night and day. I have even calibrated them with an i1 display pro and there's nothing that can remove that yellow bias. I know this wouldn't bother some people but I absolutely hate it.

Apple has offered me the new refreshed top spec 15" MacBook Pro (display lottery again) or to use the money towards another machine $3300 AUD. I have been thinking about going with a Mac Pro as I have two dell monitors I love that could hook straight up to it and I could be done with this whole ordeal.

My main uses for my machine is photo and video editing. I use lightroom/photoshop on the photography side and fcpx/premiere/davinci on the video side. I'm moving towards 4k for my video editing with my recent purchase of a Sony A7s (requires a Shogun recorder that I'll purchase when available). It will basically cost me $500 for the base model or $850 for the base model plus 16gb ram/512 ssd upgrades.

As I use my retina docked on my desk 85% of the time I like the idea of the mac pro. If needed I could get a small air for out and about but currently I'm using an ipad air with keyboard case.

I know the 6-core model seems to be the more favorable Mac Pro but what would you guys think of going with a 4-core for my situation?

 

[CASLondon]

see

http://macperformanceguide.com/MacPro2013-CPU-GPU-choice.html

I think if you are going to bother (and I think its a very good idea, and if it turns out you need portability just buy refurb/used or wait until next year for a bigger refresh), I would strongly suggest 6 core and be sure about your GPU choices.

Video editing, and driving 4k monitors, you will want at least the middle tier and probably the D700s would be ideal

 

[ixxx69]

lbass, from a performance standpoint, you seemed perfectly content with the MBP?

If that's the case, even the base 4C nMP will offer as good, if not better, performance than the MBP does. If you can swing the 6C and/or justify the additional cost based on your usage, then even better. You really can't go wrong.

However, if you really would appreciate more performance than the MBP was offering (which I think you will whether you know it or not), then you should of course shoot for the 6C.

That's my 2 cents.

 

[lbass]

The hard thing for me is I'm making the decision without fully understanding what I'll need coming up. I wouldn't be making this decision if I didn't have the issues with the retina. I have been very happy with its performance but I'm only really just getting started on video editing. This is the next thing I really am learning; mainly using the Adobe CC suite. Hence my main tag team will be premiere/speedgrade. Initially I'll just be grading and editing XAVCS 50 mbps codec from my A7s. Later in the year, I expect I'll upgrade to a shogun to capture 4k.

I can see that there are clearly a benefit to both the 6-core processor and even the d700 cards are very popular. What can I expect from the base configuration, for video editing? Where will this system limit me? I really can't afford the upgrades unfortunately. To get a base model with 512 SSD is going to cost me $1000. I could maybe stretch this to either a 6-core cpu or d500 cards but definitely not both.