Mac Pro System Upgrade

[iJny9956]

Hi everyone,


I currently own a 2010 Mac Pro 2.8Ghz quad-core Xeon nehalem, 16GB Ram, 1GB Vram on ATi 5770.

now I'm thinking about upgrading it with a MacBook Pro Retina

2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
1GB Vram on GT650

Is the i7 anywhere even close to what the mac pro offers. Is this upgrade worthwhile? Im really concerned about the processor, Please help.

it's very attractive for me to go portable, necessity? hmm

 

[overanalyzer]

I believe the Geekbench scores for the quad-code i7 are substantially higher than for the Mac Pro 2.8GHz (10892 vs 8663).

http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

EDIT: Note that those are 32-bit metrics. The 64-bit scores are higher for both models, still with a similarly higher score for the MBP.

 

[BigJohno]

You could put the 3.33ghz chip in the mac pro for 600 dollars that will kill the new macbook pro. There is a thread on here talking about the install.

 

[strwrsfrk]

Hi everyone,


I currently own a 2010 Mac Pro 2.8Ghz quad-core Xeon nehalem, 16GB Ram, 1GB Vram on ATi 5770.

now I'm thinking about upgrading it with a MacBook Pro Retina

2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
1GB Vram on GT650

Is the i7 anywhere even close to what the mac pro offers. Is this upgrade worthwhile? Im really concerned about the processor, Please help.

it's very attractive for me to go portable, necessity? hmm

The Geekbench scores are very telling. In terms of pure performance, you will likely see an improvement with heavily CPU- and RAM-bound tasks that scale well to multiple cores.

Of course, you're giving up the ability to upgrade (as has been pointed out) to more cores in the future. Plus, your graphics options just keep improving, and I believe the 5770 is better than the 650M, anyway. Finally, your 16GB RAM is all you're getting forever. Your Pro will easily scale to 96GB (and beyond).

I'd keep the Pro, but then again, I'm not mobile with this kind of power. If you are, it might be worth it to you, after all.

 

[Zwhaler]

I would also recommend upgrading your pro to a hex... you'll get awesome performance from a 3.33GHz or 3.46GHz, and if you can afford getting a HD 5870 you'll get over 2x the GPU performance of any MacBook Pro and approximately 2x the performance of the 5770.

 

[iJny9956]

thanks everyone for the input. it was very helpful. I hope im doing the right thing. Now im thinking of getting rid of my 13" macbook pro as well. so i might just end up geting the higher end retina, the 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 + 16GB. however, man its so expensive!

 

[akadmon]

Unless you're going to do real work outside of your office (be your office at home or in a large building that someone else owns), laptops are a monumental waste! For 99% of what I'm likely to do when not sitting at my desk (web surfing, light email, killing time playing games), I'm fine with my iPad. It's a different story when you're working in the field, a freelance photographer always on the go, or a man who makes potions in a traveling show?

 

[iJny9956]

Unless you're going to do real work outside of your office (be your office at home or in a large building that someone else owns), laptops are a monumental waste! For 99% of what I'm likely to do when not sitting at my desk (web surfing, light email, killing time playing games), I'm fine with my iPad. It's a different story when you're working in the field, a freelance photographer always on the go, or a man who makes potions in a traveling show?

that is so true.

I'm a freelance designer, and I do a lot of pro audio on the side for fun. At the moment keeping data and all my files in sync over 2 computers just wastes valuable time (annoying). so having one powerful portable computer sounds fantastic. also, I will be moving more frequently in the next few years.

the reason I compared the MBPr to the MP is because I want something equivalent or slightly better. The MP has truly served me well! while the 13" MBP was a portable what you have described above.

I guess I just need the let go of the MP and move on