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Sell Mac Pro buy eGPU for rMBP

Sell Mac Pro and buy eGPU kit

  • Yes

    Votes: 7 50.0%

  • No

    Votes: 7 50.0%
  • Total voters
    14
Ultracyclist

Ultracyclist

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 13, 2014
339
315
Zwijndrecht, Netherlands
Hi all,

I have come to the point that the wife asked me to make a decision.
Having a couple of mac's around (see thinks to many) I have been thinking of doing the following.


I now have a rMBP 2012 15 (2,6ghz 16gb ram 256 ssd) and a Mac Pro 2,1 (2x 3ghz 8 core 32gb ram HD 7950 3GB - multiple ssd and hdd)

I have been considering selling the Mac Pro and buying the developer egpu set from Apple.

Whats your idea of this? Would you do it? Why? Why not?

Thanks!
 
Ultracyclist said:
Hi all,

I have come to the point that the wife asked me to make a decision.
Having a couple of mac's around (see thinks to many) I have been thinking of doing the following.


I now have a rMBP 2012 15 (2,6ghz 16gb ram 256 ssd) and a Mac Pro 2,1 (2x 3ghz 8 core 32gb ram HD 7950 3GB - multiple ssd and hdd)

I have been considering selling the Mac Pro and buying the developer egpu set from Apple.

Whats your idea of this? Would you do it? Why? Why not?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Don't you need a thunder port 3 aka USB C to make it work?
 
Depends what kind of work you're doing, but the Mac Pro is considerably more powerful than a notebook. Even with an eGPU the notebook is going to struggle to keep pace with the Mac Pro.

If you're just using it for gaming and wanted a reasonably portable setup then sure. Otherwise you're loosing a lot of power over better graphics for the MBP.
 
New_Mac_Smell said:
Depends what kind of work you're doing, but the Mac Pro is considerably more powerful than a notebook. Even with an eGPU the notebook is going to struggle to keep pace with the Mac Pro.

If you're just using it for gaming and wanted a reasonably portable setup then sure. Otherwise you're loosing a lot of power over better graphics for the MBP.
Click to expand...
The power of the Mac Pro comes out lower then the rMBP. Geekbench 4 tells me the rMBP 12000 and the cMP 8000
 
Depends on the bandwidth required as big difference between TB-2 & TB-3. Personally I would keep both as they owe you nothing and you currently have the best of both worlds. Five year old notebook I'd be inclined not to put all my eggs in one basket with that one, not that I think the 2012 MBP is unreliable, just it's getting on and will be expensive to repair if any major issue arises.

Q-6
 
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Ultracyclist said:
No, just a dongle
Click to expand...
check to make sure that this dongle can connect TB3 gadgets to TB2 computers-- and not just the other way around.

Apple makes one, but it's specifically marketed as "use your old tb2 peripherals on your shiny new tb3 computer"
 
jerwin said:
check to make sure that this dongle can connect TB3 gadgets to TB2 computers-- and not just the other way around.

Apple makes one, but it's specifically marketed as "use your old tb2 peripherals on your shiny new tb3 computer"
Click to expand...
Apple’s is bidirectional. Many people, including myself, are using it to connect to a TB3 eGPU.
 
Queen6 said:
Five year old notebook I'd be inclined not to put all my eggs in one basket with that one
Click to expand...
+1

Laptops live a hard life, and often die young. (Both due to physical stress, and the fact that they often run hotter under load than desktop systems.)

I would factor in a "what if the laptop dies tomorrow" into your decision. If the eGPU and other bits can be easily attached to a new laptop - that would be a reasonable choice.

Only the other hand, if the price of the GPU and external cabinet would deplete your savings so that a sudden death of the laptop would be a big problem - perhaps you should reconsider.

Definitely consider the effect on your budget of the laptop dying on the day that the eGPU arrives. ;)
 
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I assume you have worked out what you would do for storage. Do you have things on the hard drives in your Mac Pro that would need to be moved somewhere else? The Macpro is worth about as much as an external storage solution.
 
devon807 said:
What do you use your machine for?
Click to expand...
Everything!

Video editing
Photo editing
Work
light gaming sometimes
[doublepost=1509359840][/doublepost]
AidenShaw said:
+1

Laptops live a hard life, and often die young. (Both due to physical stress, and the fact that they often run hotter under load than desktop systems.)

I would factor in a "what if the laptop dies tomorrow" into your decision. If the eGPU and other bits can be easily attached to a new laptop - that would be a reasonable choice.

Only the other hand, if the price of the GPU and external cabinet would deplete your savings so that a sudden death of the laptop would be a big problem - perhaps you should reconsider.

Definitely consider the effect on your budget of the laptop dying on the day that the eGPU arrives. ;)
Click to expand...

My rMBP has warranty ;-)
[doublepost=1509359884][/doublepost]
pertusis1 said:
I assume you have worked out what you would do for storage. Do you have things on the hard drives in your Mac Pro that would need to be moved somewhere else? The Macpro is worth about as much as an external storage solution.
Click to expand...
I have a NAS and some external enclosures so no problem there.
 
Considering your MBP has a warranty and is generally more powerful, I would keep the MBP and sell the Mac Pro. Although the MBP isn't as versatile it is still faster. I would also take into consideration the speed of Thunderbolt 1 vs PCIe 1.1 x16 and their limitations and bottlenecks.
 
im tempted to say sell the macpro before apple brings out a new one, I dont know how but the still sell for £300+ in the UK :eek:
may get better if you split the GPU, not shore tho.
and do you need an eGPU?

id relay think about that, you may be just fine as you are as that laptop is so much faster in general than you macpro.

if you can wait till spring you may find out your happy as you are or that buying a new laptop (or newer used laptop) is cheaper than an eGPU setup)

Video editing-
depends on app you use may be faster or may not, id gess not a huge difference. FCX is made for them laptops so that's fine and as the CPU has the video encoder to offload work which your macpro dose not as it's a xeon it may be a lot faster (i think only FCX uses that)
Photo editing-
dont care about no GPU
Work-
?id gess is ok as is
light gaming sometimes-
this is the only thing that seems to want a GPU but at same time may be fine as is if 'light' is light

Video editing & Photo editing will want fast storage tho and i gess that the best gains you can have is fast drives over usb3/thunderbolt.
 
it may not cost a lot but to me it's do you relay need it?
will your relay get gains from an eGPU?
(worth the cost compared to the gains from a new or newer laptop?)

most the apps you listed are not relay massively GPU dependent, apart from games and video work and relay video work GPU depends on the app and the workflow you use.
for adobe PP a gtx650 is fine, it will give you CUDA acceleration and past then you hit diminishing returns unless your doing more unusual things)

now some fast USB 3 or thunderbolt attached drives will help a lot (well relay just anything not USB 2 ;))
 
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