Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Those who have a 2013 Mac Pro, what type of work do you do?

V

Viantef

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 20, 2013
67
0
What stopped you from purchasing a Maxed out iMac/MBPr?

I'm a 17 year old videographer/indie filmmaker with a 2013 Macbook Air 11" Base Model, and as of right now I'm just doing Music Videos/Small Business Commercials, but my gigs & interest will become much more extensive in terms of short films and working with visual effects/high-end music production.

I know the Air just won't be able to handle that, but would my needs still be far too little for even the base model Mac Pro as I start to shop for a different computer?

What do you guys think?

What work do you do with your 2013 Mac Pro?
 
I am an IT system administrator and have a base model for my desk. I use it for VMs and any Linux/OSX admin tasks. However we have a couple video guys that each have a maxed out model for editing/processing footage in FCPX from RED (5k and 6k) cameras as well as various other 4k and 1080P sources. They definitely are making use of the hardware.

If the work can justify the expense, the Mac Pro is a very nice piece of hardware, especially if using it with software that can take advantage of it such as FCPX
 
I'm a crappy motion designer :D but make some video for KFC, Burger King etc.

Work in Adobe AE, Ai, Ps and Cinema 4D.
 
I use mine for development. Granted multiple VM's at the same time could use some resources. I know not related to your decision, but I just say go for it! You'll love it! :)
 
I bought mine for VM's. Once I've done the install there's not much CPU activity on the VM's but they chew through a lot of RAM. the nMP is the only Mac in the current line up that can support 64GB. Plus it is quiet and small. For me it makes it the perfect lab machine for the prototyping work I do with Linux and Windows.
 
Graphic and web design with some photography and video work. Lots of gaming on the side. Wanted the best available video card/s, and you just can't get that in an iMac, otherwise I might have considered.
 
Logic based composer and music producer.
My choice would have been between the nMP or a maxed out iMac but I wanted a bit of 'future proofing' so I got a 6-core/32/1TB/D300. I can expand my sample libraries with Thunderbolt/USB 3 SSDs and add more memory when I need it.
I'll be keeping my oMP as a slave machine for bigger templates/projects.

The oMP never gave me any trouble and works today as well as it did when I bought it 8 years ago so I am confident I'll be set for a while.
 
Web Marketing & SEO

I bought my nMP to replace my aging 2008 MacPro. By trade I run a website marketing company which means I use my machine for a variety of tasks. Since I do some SEO for clients and certain SEO software is made only for Windows, I bought my machine for the VM performance. Secondly, I do some graphic design and mock up work in CS6 like Photoshop. I use a lot of the Omni suite software for wire framing (OmniGraffle), project management (OmniPlan) and I inconsistently use OmniFocus...I need to focus more on that :D THAT and the normal stuff like Office (Mac and Win) and a gajillion browsers, plugins and versions thereof.

Most of the stuff above individually wouldn't make my 8 core nMP break a sweat but since I collectively have a whole bunch of that stuff running at once, I wanted a machine that could handle any and all things I throw at it and not have to worry about shutting one thing down so something else "could go faster."

I'll say overall the machine is awesome. My only complaint is the unreliability of the external storage solutions. I never had an issue with losing a connection or issues with Time Machine when the drives were internal to my old '08 MP. Now, every few weeks something drops or freezes and I have to shut stuff down and reboot which usually does the trick.
 
Viantef said:
What stopped you from purchasing a Maxed out iMac/MBPr?
Click to expand...

MBPr is not powerful enough for Open GL, and both the iMac and the MBPr (I own one) are very loud under heavy load. I like to keep my workspace quiet. The noise was the deciding factor for me in the end, otherwise the iMac was my choice.


Viantef said:
What work do you do with your 2013 Mac Pro?
Click to expand...

I'm an academic researcher, and I use my Mac hardly for work. The most I do is type. But other than work I'm an amateur photographer, a composer, and a filmmaker. So basically I love playing around apps like Logic, Cubase, Lightroom, Final Cut, Photoshop, After Effects, etc. Oh and I also like to game.
 
The nMP is also a very good allround computer

Viantef said:
What stopped you from purchasing a Maxed out iMac/MBPr?



What do you guys think?

What work do you do with your 2013 Mac Pro?
Click to expand...
.....................................................
You will find a lot of opinions that the nMP is built for very special users and not for the so called prosumers. Maybe it's true.
I am not a pro and find that if you can afford one, it is a very good computer for almost everything most people do with a computer.
Unlike the previous Mac Pros you don't need a van and a lot of muscles to carry it if needed.
It takes little space, is very quiet and can do most of what a computer is supposed to do.
It is not ideal for gamers. I agree with that.
However I do not game and there are enough game consoles exclusively designed for that.
Then it has no inner room for anything besides additional RAM. Agree with that as well.
However the previous Mac Pro (and almost any other stationary computer) still needed a lot of external devices: keyboard, mouse, display, trackpad, printers, scanners, external HDs for backups and safety, web cam, microphone, loudspeakers, USB sticks, etc.
So I do not complain, like others do, that I still need external devices and cables.
I can live with that.

The iMac means to be fixed to a certain display. I prefer to be free in that choice.
For the moment my 7 years old 24" monitor is enough for me, but if it stops working I have a free choice of a replacement. With an iMac I would not have it.
If one part of an iMac must be repaired, you must send the whole machine and present day iMacs have BIG displays and are not easy to transport if needed.

For me the main problem was to pay the price of a nMP but I am 69 y.o. and I do not know if this will not be my last computer.
Therefore I wanted a good one and I believe that the nMP is truly very well built.
Perfect is nothing in this world but until now my nMP seems to me as near as possible to that ideal.
 
wedding photography and video... real estate marketing.

so i sit in my chair all day doing web based real estate advertising then at night i get to hang out at random peoples weddings.
3 thunderbolt displays for the millions of pages and apps i like to have open
 
Last edited:
I make the menus for a some porn studio vids and web design. Some small companies, some big. Evil Angel is the biggest.
 
I do fine art photography.

Probably more than I needed but I bought the base model 4 core and upgraded the SSD to 512GB and RAM to 16GB. Have the standard D300 GPUs.

I love that it's quiet and SUPER fast. Running PS CS6 CC and LR5CC. Do a lot of big files and stitching. Given that the CPUs, RAM and eventually the GPUs are user upgradable it is a great purchase and a viable 5-9 year workstation.

I use all CalDight external drives ( VR2 & T3 ) running USB 3 and TB. All tied together with one TB cable using CalDigit's great TB dock. Just one TB cable attached all externals to the nMacPro.:D

It's a great computer. Now I just need to get all my old files off my 2007 MacPro
 
Don't have a 2013 Mac Pro yet but plan to have one by the end of the summer.

I currently own a 2012 and I am a student teaching myself 3D Modeling, Rigging, and Animation. I plan to buy a 2013 and use it as my main machine and rely on my old one as a headless render node, and extra storage.

As for iMac vs Mac Pro, I prefer the Mac Pro because they're designed to be pushed hard and long, and the new one is whisper quiet compared to my 2012 Beast. My animation teacher has 2 and he uses them with Lightwave 3D and Premiere. Also I believe Premiere CC is has more openCL support and that is only going to increase as time goes on + Final Cut Pro X leverages the openCL as well.

Personally I feel if your doing Video the Mac Pro is a solid choice, even if you buy more then you need, in the future you may come upon a time where you do need to leverage that power.
 
I'm a professional photographer. Shoot mostly architectural work and of course portraits. Bought mine to replace my iMac setup.

I shoot with a Nikon D800 which has very large files so the nMP will be nice.
 
Last edited:
Pavel Borisov said:
I'm a crappy motion designer :D but make some video for KFC, Burger King etc.

Work in Adobe AE, Ai, Ps and Cinema 4D.
Click to expand...


how is it speed performance on AE complex project? I just worry it not as good as top of line iMac , as it use AMD video card .:confused:
 
wesk702 said:
I make the menus for a some porn studio vids and web design. Some small companies, some big. Evil Angel is the biggest.
Click to expand...

That's the sweetest thing on this forum lol what do you mean by menu? The bar on top where you click different categories?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back