Real world advantages of the nMP

[alphav]

Hi there.

I need to buy a new desktop computer for professional work in graphic design & multimedia (photoshop, illustrator, indesign, premiere, after effects, color correction, etc.) and 3d modelling and rendering in blender and similar. It is intended to be an all-around desktop instead of a machine to just do a certain type of processes (as some of the users in the forum that have several desktops) but only for professional work — no gaming.

My question is: What is the real advantage of the nMP to the iMac?

The two configurations would be something like:

iMac i7 3.5Ghz
16gb ram (to purchase another 16gb later)
1TB fusion drive
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB
2.848,99 €

-

Mac Pro Quad-core 3,7ghz
12gb ram (only 3 slots taken, can easily buy another one)
512 gb ssd
Dual GPU AMD FirePro D500 3GB Vram each
3.798,99 € (+ 1000 for the display)


Is the Mac Pro worth the extra € for this kind of work right out of the box?
Or the all-in-one solution is perfectly capable of getting the job done?
I'm also really interested in keeping the machine for as much time as possible.

Thank you!

 

[maflynn]

You're getting more storage, ram and a display with the iMac.

With the nMP you're getting a better GPU, a better CPU being Xeon and more upgradeability but you're paying about 900 dollars more for that

 

[alphav]

You're getting more storage, ram and a display with the iMac.

With the nMP you're getting a better GPU, a better CPU being Xeon and more upgradeability but you're paying about 900 dollars more for that

Thank you for the reply!

Is the CPU really better? having already used the i7 I know that is good and the multithreading is a factor of choice. But is the Xeon as capable of multitasking?
I'm assuming that has much better tdp and that's great for continuous use (my case, although sometimes the long use is not THAT intense).

And regarding the GPU, is ONE AMD better than the geforce 4gb? Because i can't know when all the software will fully support dual graphics. Anyhow, WHEN they do it must be better!
Again, i know that the geforce supports CUDA (and that's nice for blender and such), and AMD only openCL. In the mac pro i have to have faith that the blender community and all the software companies embrace the OpenCL for hardware acceleration.

Thanks

 

[AndyUnderscoreR]

If you are comparing the two 4-core machines, I think the big 'real world' question is: Will your clients want you to work on 4k video during the lifetime of your new machine?

If the answer is no, you might as well get the iMac.

If the answer is yes, then the Pro is the way to go... but you'll need to budget for a 4k display sometime in the future, and the 4 core option doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, if you can find another $100 (maybe by getting a cheaper 'just until I get my a 4k one' display) I'd drop down to the D300s and bump up the CPU to 6-core.

I wouldn't worry too much about CUDA vs openCL, as far as Mac software is concerned. Who's going to write CUDA software for Macs any more, knowing it will never run on a MacPro? If any heavyweight software company is going to bother, it's always going to be in addition to openCL.