Sell my current PC and get a Mac Pro?

[Alaska_guy]

I am currently running a PC for my main rig.

I7 4770k
16gb ram
240gb ssd
Gtx 1080

It scores 5k single core and 16k multicore with geekbench 4.

The rig is fine. I have no complaints I am just ready for a change...

My plan was to look at selling my mobo/memory/processor on ebay to recoup some cash and then buy a mac pro 4,1 or 5,1 with dual sockets. I have spare ddr3 ecc memory laying around... 64gb or so, I could transfer my 1080gtx into the mac...

What do you guys think?

The wife has a 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 running mojave with 32gb ram a six core with a 290x. My main rig is dual boot hackintosh, but with the 1080 it's just been a hassle with kext files and stuff. Sound doesn't work properly etc. Just looking for a plug and play solution.

I do game from time to time. Mainly Pubg. I assume I am going to need to boot camp it to get a decent experience for this?

 

[mcnallym]

Really wouldn’t be buying into a 5,1 now.

If already got one then fine but these are old machines now. Also with a 1080 then still going to have to do a certain amount of playing, sorting suitable power, and going to be stuck at high Sierra. Plenty of information on the forum about this.

Amd is where apple is now if want that plug and play experience these days. Unless using cuda apps then no real reason to stick with Nvidia in a Mac/hack. Still need to sort power cables for the gpu though.

There’s quite a few nice z390/i9 9900k hacks over at tonymacx86 now, that people pretty much got documented what to do. Pretty much all amd these days though.

Depending upon what the next iMac is like then probably going that route myself when replace my 5,1 which is starting to show it’s age.

 

[pl1984]

Without a specific use case I have a difficult time recommending any Mac Pro. The 4,1 and 5,1, while great systems, are built upon technology that's at least 10 years old. The 6,1 utilizes newer technology but even it is built on technology that's at least 6 years old.

If you can get a great deal on one then it may be worth considering. However I feel prices are out of line with the technology they're based upon. A 2018 Mini offers performance exceeding or matching many Mac Pro configurations except in certain configurations on certain tasks. Even its weak GPU performance can be overcome through the use of an eGPU.

 

[flowrider]

If already got one then fine but these are old machines now. Also with a 1080 then still going to have to do a certain amount of playing, sorting suitable power, and going to be stuck at high Sierra. Plenty of information on the forum about this.

The GTX 1080 does not require any special power mods. They typically have one 8 pin connector. As far as HS, yes, until Apple/Nvidia get off their buts and TALK, you will be stuck on HS.

Lou

 

[mcnallym]

The GTX 1080 does not require any special power mods. They typically have one 8 pin connector. As far as HS, yes, until Apple/Nvidia get off their buts and TALK, you will be stuck on HS.

Lou

Confusing with the 1080Ti which hasn’t the 1 x 8 and 1 x 6.

 

[Alaska_guy]

Without a specific use case I have a difficult time recommending any Mac Pro. The 4,1 and 5,1, while great systems, are built upon technology that's at least 10 years old. The 6,1 utilizes newer technology but even it is built on technology that's at least 6 years old.

If you can get a great deal on one then it may be worth considering. However I feel prices are out of line with the technology they're based upon. A 2018 Mini offers performance exceeding or matching many Mac Pro configurations except in certain configurations on certain tasks. Even its weak GPU performance can be overcome through the use of an eGPU.

Yea, using geekbench for reference single core is above the mac pro and multi-core is right on par with a dual xeon mac pro. Pretty impressive for a mini.

https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/434

Though it is $1300, I've seen dual socket mac pros for $400.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1441909-REG/apple_z0w1_mrtr21_bh_mac_mini_late_2018.html

 

[pl1984]

Yea, using geekbench for reference single core is above the mac pro and multi-core is right on par with a dual xeon mac pro. Pretty impressive for a mini.

https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/434

Though it is $1300, I've seen dual socket mac pros for $400.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1441909-REG/apple_z0w1_mrtr21_bh_mac_mini_late_2018.html

I am not a fan of Geekbench. Having said that real world application benchmarks, at least the limited number I've compared in the Mini forum, show the Mini to outperform my 2010 and 2013 Mac Pro in many tasks.

I like both the cMP and the nMP but it's difficult to justify the price for what is now old technology. In fact I almost bought a second 6,1 MP today but decided the money would be better spent upgrading my Z440 system.

 

[troy14]

I couldn't decide between my 5,1 mac pro and gaming PC so I use both with a dual monitor setup. My Mac obviuosly is for daily computer usage (safari, mail, messages) and my PC for everything else.

I don't know why you'd sell your strong PC for an incredibly old mac. just pick up a mac mini or something

 

[mattspace]

a real consideration is, how well is your software optimised for multicore? To give a recent example from my own machine - I'm processing a 200+ page graphic novel from pdf to epub. Because of issues with Sierra's graphics subsystem, I can't use Automator to do it (convert pdf pages to jpg images), so I went through Photoshop's batch processor. It never uses more than 150% out of 1200% available CPU - takes ~10 minutes or so to process the whole batch.

Tried the same process in Affinity Photo, which does the same task in under 10 seconds, pegs all cores up to 100% and tears through it.

 

[ipponrg]

I am currently running a PC for my main rig.

I7 4770k
16gb ram
240gb ssd
Gtx 1080

It scores 5k single core and 16k multicore with geekbench 4.

The rig is fine. I have no complaints I am just ready for a change...

My plan was to look at selling my mobo/memory/processor on ebay to recoup some cash and then buy a mac pro 4,1 or 5,1 with dual sockets. I have spare ddr3 ecc memory laying around... 64gb or so, I could transfer my 1080gtx into the mac...

What do you guys think?

The wife has a 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 running mojave with 32gb ram a six core with a 290x. My main rig is dual boot hackintosh, but with the 1080 it's just been a hassle with kext files and stuff. Sound doesn't work properly etc. Just looking for a plug and play solution.

I do game from time to time. Mainly Pubg. I assume I am going to need to boot camp it to get a decent experience for this?

Ideal solution would be to keep the PC for most things, and get a Mac Mini to satisfy your mac craves.

You've never really stated what you would be using your Mac for.

I think the dual booting aspect is great but also a hassle. On my Mac, I do Mac things such as Affinity Photo / coding / handbrake / FCP / surfing the net. On my PC, I just game on it. FWIW, for my mac setup, I have 2015/2016/2018 Macbook Pros. For my PC setup, I have a I7 6700K w/ 32 GB ram, GTX 1080, and several SSD drives.

 

[Alaska_guy]

Would use my mac as my main rig.

Browsing
Video and picture editing
Vmware stuff

My PC would be used only for "Player Unknown" gaming from time to time.

To be honest my r9 280x was plenty for that purpose. Upgrading to a 1080 was a waste of $$.

 

[Alaska_guy]

Decided to format my hackintosh install and start over using high sierra and see if I can get my video card to work properly with Web drivers. I figured out my sound issue, so getting the gtx 1080 to work properly and the OS to detect I have a 1440p monitor is the last piece to the puzzle. It always wants to default to 1080p monitor resolution.

 

[Alaska_guy]

Well, that didn't take long. Current rig is up and running with High Sierra. The only thing that doesn't work is hdmi sound pass through. No big deal as the only thing I use that for is my monitor speakers. I can simply run external speakers off the onboard sound card. Nice to have 1440p again.