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Replace 2010 Mac Pro with 5K iMac?

B

bobbydaz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 24, 2009
194
67
UK
I currently have a 3.33 6 core 2010 Mac Pro with SSD which performs fairly well, but just wondered how much better a top of the range iMac would fare against it. I would push for the 4.0 Quad + 3tb Fusion and 32gb ram.

This is my work mac used for design, lots of fairly mid to heavy Photoshop work.
 
bobbydaz said:
I currently have a 3.33 6 core 2010 Mac Pro with SSD which performs fairly well, but just wondered how much better a top of the range iMac would fare against it. I would push for the 4.0 Quad + 3tb Fusion and 32gb ram.

This is my work mac used for design, lots of fairly mid to heavy Photoshop work.
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In many tasks the iMac will probably do better—the higher clock speed for a single core makes the difference.

That said, I think you'd be better off waiting for the next revision to the iMac line, whenever that actually hits... though with the recent updates to the line that might be waiting until Skylake hits.

EDIT: To give one benchmark—Geekbench rates the 4.0 iMac retina at single/multicore scores of 3973/14620 versus the Mac Pro's 2551/14086. So it's significantly more powerful in single-core and matches the multicore performance with fewer cores.
 
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bobbydaz said:
I currently have a 3.33 6 core 2010 Mac Pro with SSD which performs fairly well, but just wondered how much better a top of the range iMac would fare against it. I would push for the 4.0 Quad + 3tb Fusion and 32gb ram.

This is my work mac used for design, lots of fairly mid to heavy Photoshop work.
Click to expand...

You could add PCIe-SSD SM951 and 64GB RAM along with GTX 970(s) and even then add 2nd 6-core before leaving Mac Pro for a short limited upgrade iMac (and investing in Thunderbolt storage)
 
You may benefit from the higher single core speed, if that's the bottleneck in your current workflow.

However, before you make any decision, you better check out the iMac forum. The max out 5k iMac is running very hot even with max fan speed. It may cause trouble later on.

If that will become your only working computer, better think twice before you move.
 
Like what h9826790 suggested check out the iMac section for feedbacks on heat management specially with heavy load. Since the 5k iMac uses a powerful GPU to power up 5K. it uses more energy so there is more heat.
 
I agree with the previous comments about heat. The problem with iMacs is that to keep the thin profile some of the parts are, essentially, laptop components. Don't get me wrong, iMacs look stunning, the benchmarks are good and the 5K screen is to die for. However, if you're hitting the machine hard then it will get hot and that will have an impact on your productivity.

I have a Late 2013 Mac Pro hooked up to a 4K display and throw lots and lots of work at it and it hardly gets warm whatever I do. Yes it was more money, however I don't regret spending the extra on it.
 
I had a maxed out 2008 dual 2.8 quad core with SSD etc etc. Was holding off waiting for next Mac Pro update and after using a 5K iMac decided to get one, maxed out everything. I am a photographer and graphic designer. Mostly photoshop, lightroom, indesign and illustrator. The iMac is awesome, smoking fast, i have had no heat issues at all. intact is way cooler compared to my 27" additional apple display that I have hooked up to it. maybe if you were running massive batches with intensive actions you would have heat problems but I am working with files up to 1gb and it doesn't even break a sweat. real world, this thing is great. My biggest issue is adjusting to only one internal flash drive and dealing with my other drives from my Mac Pro. Not quite sure I have found my setup. had a big drive enclosure for all them and was way too noisy, got individual usb 3.0 docks and much better. much slower than the internal drive which averages 700+mb/sec. I have 2 840 evo ssds that average 400mb/sec and a 3tb 7200 but the read write is painful around 80mb/sec.
 
IowaLynn said:
You could add PCIe-SSD SM951 and 64GB RAM along with GTX 970(s) and even then add 2nd 6-core before leaving Mac Pro for a short limited upgrade iMac (and investing in Thunderbolt storage)
Click to expand...

I'm also running a 2010 MP 6 core 3.3ghz with SSD and raided drives for editing work. Because of ongong projects I'm still using FCP7 on 10.8.5 and want to speed things up, especially renders and mp4 conversions.

Would a CPU upgrade help? You mention a 2nd 6-core. How would I go about getting and installing this? (I've also looked at GTX 780 card).
 
Uhm, excuse me, but all research I have done (I have a single 6-core 3.33Ghz myself) points to the fact, that the 6-core can not exist in a dual core setup. Am I mistaken? Would be a lot of wasted cash for the OT to buy an extra CPU + tray only to find out this won't work.
 
Simon R. said:
Uhm, excuse me, but all research I have done (I have a single 6-core 3.33Ghz myself) points to the fact, that the 6-core can not exist in a dual core setup. Am I mistaken? Would be a lot of wasted cash for the OT to buy an extra CPU + tray only to find out this won't work.
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you can use two 6 cores but not two 36xx you need 56xx meaning if you're going single to dual you need new processors.
 
The OP is using his Mac for Photoshop work and the iMac 5K will do that great. Sure, he can upgrade the Mac Pro, but that won't get him the 5K Retina display.

For Photoshop users, designers and artists the retina screen is, by far, a bigger upgrade than any additional core or GeForce 980 or whatever.

I say, go for the iMac 5K. You won't be disappointed. Even the base model would make you more productive.
 
lowendlinux said:
It's really not terrible pricing wise you just need to decide if you can use the additional cores.
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Well I certainly can, I am doing heavy music production in Logic and the more the merrier :)

I can see that an x5690 is about 300 a piece on Ebay. Then I need a new CPU tray, so probably not terribly expensive, no. But I am not very keen on doing such an upgrade myself, and MacSales charges about $2500 for such a trade-in job!
 
Simon R. said:
Well I certainly can, I am doing heavy music production in Logic and the more the merrier :)

I can see that an x5690 is about 300 a piece on Ebay. Then I need a new CPU tray, so probably not terribly expensive, no. But I am not very keen on doing such an upgrade myself, and MacSales charges about $2500 for such a trade-in job!
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5690's would be the most expensive route there are 70's 75's and 80's. If you can't do the swap yourself then the value proposition declines sharply.
 
lowendlinux said:
5690's would be the most expensive route there are 70's 75's and 80's. If you can't do the swap yourself then the value proposition declines sharply.
Click to expand...

Okay, let's see exactly what I need to do this.

So I have a 2010 MP 6 core 3.3ghz with SSD and raided drives for FCP7 editing work, the main business. The 16gb RAM should cover this because of FCP7's limited RAM use even though I often have many browser windows open as well as Photoshop, MPeg Streamclip, Preview and Word (do I need more RAM for these extra apps?).

Because of ongong projects I'm still using FCP7 on 10.8.5 and want to speed things up, especially renders and mp4 conversions.

AS far as CPU upgrade goes, what can I upgrade to and exactly what do I need that will help the above?

Another processor - ex Ebay, Macsales??

A second CPU tray - Ebay, anywhere else? What kind of price am I looking at?

Would a faster graphics card help FCP7? (I've spoken to Mac Cards and he said to fish around here etc for more info)
 
AfterglowMP said:
Okay, let's see exactly what I need to do this.

So I have a 2010 MP 6 core 3.3ghz with SSD and raided drives for FCP7 editing work, the main business. The 16gb RAM should cover this because of FCP7's limited RAM use even though I often have many browser windows open as well as Photoshop, MPeg Streamclip, Preview and Word (do I need more RAM for these extra apps?).

Because of ongong projects I'm still using FCP7 on 10.8.5 and want to speed things up, especially renders and mp4 conversions.

AS far as CPU upgrade goes, what can I upgrade to and exactly what do I need that will help the above?

Another processor - ex Ebay, Macsales??

A second CPU tray - Ebay, anywhere else? What kind of price am I looking at?

Would a faster graphics card help FCP7? (I've spoken to Mac Cards and he said to fish around here etc for more info)
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure why you quoted me but I'll have a go.

If you're on a single processor 3.33 (3680) there's no value in going with a 3.46 (3690). So to speed things up you'd need to find a dual processor tray and buy processors or find one with processors in it. The processor tray has to come out of a 2010 (5,1) you cannot use the 2009 (4,1) my last look through ebay showed those going for $800 or so with mid tier processors. My work Mac Pro is also on 10.8.5 and I use FCP7 because there is zero business case in upgrading nothing I do is shared and it mostly simple but no I don't think a new card will help with FCP7 but someone smarter will have to say for sure. If I were spending my money I wouldn't upgrade a single to dual unless work was stopped it's just to much money to throw at it. I think I'd focus on shifting away from the old final cut to something more modern and once that was complete I make a judgment call on what to do.
 
lowendlinux said:
I'm not really sure why you quoted me but I'll have a go.

If you're on a single processor 3.33 (3680) there's no value in going with a 3.46 (3690). So to speed things up you'd need to find a dual processor tray and buy processors or find one with processors in it. The processor tray has to come out of a 2010 (5,1) you cannot use the 2009 (4,1) my last look through ebay showed those going for $800 or so with mid tier processors. My work Mac Pro is also on 10.8.5 and I use FCP7 because there is zero business case in upgrading nothing I do is shared and it mostly simple but no I don't think a new card will help with FCP7 but someone smarter will have to say for sure. If I were spending my money I wouldn't upgrade a single to dual unless work was stopped it's just to much money to throw at it. I think I'd focus on shifting away from the old final cut to something more modern and once that was complete I make a judgment call on what to do.
Click to expand...

A poster here contacted me separately about a dual tray with 3.46 processors for a 2009 MP which will fit the 2010 5,1 but says the fans won't work well.

I guess you can appreciate since you're talking about business cases the need to research if there's anything that can be done to improve speed and stability on my current MP before I consider getting a new rig. I know a couple people have bought cylinder New MPs and installed FCP7 but, well, it's a gamble and in any case a lot of the plug ins won't work on the new MP in Yosemite. I wonder if there's anyone around here on macrumours running fcp7 on a new trashcan and if it's heaps faster and stable.
 
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