MP All Models Mac Vs Nvidia, Windows

[aliaxos]

Hi everyone,


Long-time Mac user here, supporting the ecosystem since 2009.


I work in Digital Visual Effects and have been looking to dive deeper into Machine Learning and training workflows. Lately, though, it feels like Mac systems are falling behind Windows-based workstations when it comes to handling serious workloads.


Am I on the right track with this assumption? My entire pipeline is built around macOS, so switching to Windows would be a major shift. But at the same time, I can’t afford to fall behind, especially as so many tasks are now driven by training models and GPU-intensive processes.


The Mac Pro is a beautiful machine, but with Apple Silicon’s lack of support for external GPUs, it feels limiting. The iMac Pro is rumored, but nothing concrete has surfaced. The Mac Studio is solid, but it still can’t match Nvidia’s offerings in performance.


What’s the community consensus? Should I seriously consider transitioning to Windows, wait a bit longer to see if Apple makes a move, or is there hope for better support from Apple in the near future?


Thanks for your insights!

 

[Norbert Mikołajczyk]

Hi everyone,


Long-time Mac user here, supporting the ecosystem since 2009.


I work in Digital Visual Effects and have been looking to dive deeper into Machine Learning and training workflows. Lately, though, it feels like Mac systems are falling behind Windows-based workstations when it comes to handling serious workloads.


Am I on the right track with this assumption? My entire pipeline is built around macOS, so switching to Windows would be a major shift. But at the same time, I can’t afford to fall behind, especially as so many tasks are now driven by training models and GPU-intensive processes.


The Mac Pro is a beautiful machine, but with Apple Silicon’s lack of support for external GPUs, it feels limiting. The iMac Pro is rumored, but nothing concrete has surfaced. The Mac Studio is solid, but it still can’t match Nvidia’s offerings in performance.


What’s the community consensus? Should I seriously consider transitioning to Windows, wait a bit longer to see if Apple makes a move, or is there hope for better support from Apple in the near future?


Thanks for your insights!

No hope imho. You could only stick rtx 5090 into MP 7,1, but the cpus are limiting factor again.
On my MP7.1 I have Windows only for games for now and I think I'll be booting Windows for work soon.
MacOS lags behind: no new amd drivers, no new gpus, no blender, no cinema 4d support.
So when I'll switch for work to Windows daily, then I'll upgrade the gpu to rtx 4090 or 5090.
Some years later when I'll migrate fully to Windows I plan to build nice and modern PC.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

The community of Apple fans is going to confirm you are off track. If you hop into a political board for one of the parties and post the same message like you are thinking about switching to the other party, you'll get the same "NO" wave of responses from political loyalists. Hop into a PepsiRumors and post that you are thinking of switching to Coca Cola and get a wave of "NO" response from Pepsi lovers.

In short: ask a biased crowd and you'll get very biased answers. If that's what you want, you've asked at the right place. If you want objective, you can't get that anywhere that is biased.

That shared, I'll offer this:

• PC is still about POWER
• Mac is about Power Per Watt (PPW)

Power generally translates to "faster" while PPW generally translates to power efficiency. A moped will get you far more miles out of a gallon of fuel than a heavy duty truck. But if you have a big load to get up the hill, the truck will get the job done much better than the moped.

Apple people will try to convey that Mac is just as powerful as PC, which generally involves supporting "evidence" selected to back such a stance (while ignoring other evidence that doesn't). A biased argument always cherry-picks its supporting facts.

Advice: objectively run your key workflows on both and let your own outcomes drive your decision. If you are biased yourself, get a friend to execute and time them.

Else:

• Mac is farrrrrrr superior in every way.
• PC is farrrrrrr superior in every way.
• Either is better than the other in multiple ways.
• Neither is better than UNIX.
• UNIX is garbage.
• Etc.

I'm overwhelmingly an Apple tech guy... but when I embraced Silicon, I added a PC too for "old fashioned bootcamp" as ARM Windows emulation is not full Windows. As I've got reacquainted with Windows, I've rediscovered the key difference of Power vs. PPW... and find myself increasingly throwing heavy-demand tasks (including those that could also run on Mac) to the PC. Why? Because it gets them done faster. Yes, that draws more power to do that but when talking about a few hundred watts, we're forgetting (or just ignoring) that all lightbulbs in our homes used to involve that much wattage or more to much more. Yes, that involves feeling a little more heat on the PC... but not so much that I can cook breakfast. And no, contrary to popular pokes, I do not need my own nuclear reactor to power it. I don't even notice a difference in the monthly electric bill.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[Mac3Duser]

I've always had macs (since 1988)
I often had to use pcs.
I have a macbook pro silicon, and I find it is the best macbook pro of all the macbook pro's I've had.
I have a mac pro 7.1 and I find it is the best mac pro I've had.
but for anything that requires nvidia (3D, AI, deep learning, llm, etc), I have to work with windows, whether on pcs or on the bootcamp partition.
and that's fine for me.

 

[bmoraski]

My first Mac was the 17inch iMac core duo when it first came out. Ran boot camp for gaming and everything else in Mac OS. LOVED it. When the Trashcan 6,1 was introduced I built my first PC because of the price of said Mac. Even though I am a collector I absolutely love the Mac OS for many things. I built a Hackintosh which runs Mojave and have since expanded my collection. There is no reason you can't have a Mac and a PC side by side. I am able to run Mac, Windows and Linux when ever I need at the same time. You need to do what works for you. You have many options.

 

[avro707]

The Mac Pro is a beautiful machine, but with Apple Silicon’s lack of support for external GPUs, it feels limiting. The iMac Pro is rumored, but nothing concrete has surfaced. The Mac Studio is solid, but it still can’t match Nvidia’s offerings in performance.


What’s the community consensus? Should I seriously consider transitioning to Windows, wait a bit longer to see if Apple makes a move, or is there hope for better support from Apple in the near future?

Building a PC is ultimately necessary for certain workflows. A normal consumer Intel or AMD CPU with an RTX4090 or 5090 is a very very powerful/fast combination.

The price is also very competitive.

In my own experience Windows 11 Pro for Workstations has never crashed on me, it has been fast and stable. Better than macOS in that respect.

macOS is nice and easy to use, but Apple lags behind for workstations compared to what else is available already. No point in waiting for what they might build, just move. Then later you can sell the PC if you want to move back.

 

[richinaus]

I've always had macs (since 1988)
I often had to use pcs.
I have a macbook pro silicon, and I find it is the best macbook pro of all the macbook pro's I've had.
I have a mac pro 7.1 and I find it is the best mac pro I've had.
but for anything that requires nvidia (3D, AI, deep learning, llm, etc), I have to work with windows, whether on pcs or on the bootcamp partition.
and that's fine for me.

yeah I am similar and have no problems with windows.
I use a MacBookPro M1 max as they are the best laptops for mobile work and a specced up PC for all my 3D rendering work [that the mac cannot do] and access it at real time in Parsec.

In fact I have had the PC box running 2 days straight right now in a remote location [and I check in on Parsec to see if all is ok] whilst working away still on the mac laptop. It's a great solution, and means I remain in the mac ecosystem, and able to run a PC at full speed.