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Would you buy a current Mac Pro or go for a Macbook Pro?

D

darkus

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 5, 2007
388
164
So I've always wanted a MacPro for the sheer powah. But like many of you, i've been waiting in limbo for the new one. Doesn't seem like its coming any time soon but I do need something new within the next month.

What do you guys think? Should I just go for the Macbook pro or does the Mac Pro still outperform the 2.7 i7 macbook pro?
 
If you need a computer to hold you over, buy a used Mac Mini on eBay & then make up your mind when the next Mac Pro comes out. Then sell the mini if you want. Or a used Mac Pro. Both hold their value well.
 
The iMacs have been the highest performing machine these days, but it hasn't been updated in a while (still the most powerful, though)
 
chrfr said:
There's nothing "future proof" about the current Mac Pro.
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There's nothing "future proof" about any current Mac. The pattern of Apple's technology pathways is to sell you a system based upon the promise of some fundamental new technology, which won't be mature until a couple of generations after the machine you bought is obsolete. And with non-replacable graphics (unless you hold out for the fantasy of eGPU being a thing on macOS) that obsolescence has only accelerated.

Thunderbolt 3 was the first revision where GPUs were officially blessed as a part of the spec from Intel, and even then, it's starved for PCI lanes, compared to having a card in a slot all of its own. Not really surprising for an expansion bus created by a company whose driving ambition while developing it, prior to catching the low-power religion, was to kill off the dedicated GPU as a concept.
 
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"You want the power for what" is actually important.

cMP has the best GPU / SSD (sequential, RAID 0 required) with proper upgrade (e.g. TitanX / 4x SM951). Best cooling system, and internal storage/ expension options.

nMP has best CPU power (12 cores option, multi thread), and can easily drive six displays natively.

MBP has fastest SSD (4K random), USB-C (thunderbolt 3), touch bar. And it's portable.

iMac has fastest CPU (single thread), best 5k monitor support (it's a bit hard to get stable / reliable 5k display on Mac Pro)

None of them is sure winner for everything. If you want best Performing "Mac" in all area, Hackintosh is the way to go.
 
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darkus said:
Powah for powahs sake to be honest.
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Go to the closest store.
Turn your back to the store.
Close you'r eyes.
Imagine 1000 people screaming "run darkus run!"

Honestly, if you want "sheer powah",  is not the way to go.

Personally, I like both the 5K iMac (i don't even have the top-spec model) and the cMP (ditto).

RGDS,
 
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h9826790 said:
"You want the power for what" is actually important.

cMP has the best GPU / SSD (sequential, RAID 0 required) with proper upgrade (e.g. TitanX / 4x SM951). Best cooling system, and internal storage/ expension options.

nMP has best CPU power (12 cores option, multi thread), and can easily drive six displays natively.

MBP has fastest SSD (4K random), USB-C (thunderbolt 3), touch bar. And it's portable.

iMac has fastest CPU (single thread), best 5k monitor support (it's a bit hard to get stable / reliable 5k display on Mac Pro)

None of them is sure winner for everything. If you want best Performing "Mac" in all area, Hackintosh is the way to go.
Click to expand...

Possibly the best answer I have seen in ages.
 
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Most of the time the answer to this question is a Buch of questions:

- What do you want to use it for?

- Does it need to be portable?

- what software do you use?

- etc

But the sad truth is there is no reason to buy a Mac Pro right now. It's a terrible idea. That doesn't mean it will always be so. That's not Apple hate. It's a bad machine and the fact that they still will sell you a new one is bad for everyone involved.
 
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I have a MacBook 'Pro' - barely ever use it, except on business trips. Much too limited. Using a 2013 MP and a bunch of cMP's (all 12 core). If all Apple makes are crippled portable boxes I will be forced into the PC world, which nauseates me. It also means no more Apple products, no way I'll be trapped in a company that is slowly killing its ecosystem, as opposed to expanding it. I easily switched from my Motorola phone to my Nokia phone to my iPhone. It's cheap to dump a 'phone' ecosystem.

Tim Cook is making the whole company dependent on throw-away devices that purposely are made to be replaced every year (phone) or every few years (iPad, laptop). The serious computers gave them one hugely important thing - true loyalty - because when you commit to an operating system, you really have long term loyalty.

But Tim doesn't really get it as he flits around the globe trying to be popular with celebrities and China's slave overlords. He is a study in stupidity. He is surviving on inertia alone - and he just doesn't understand it. If he doesn't produce a decent machine to do actual work he will lose that deep loyalty which acts as an anchor that the throwaway products are built around.
 
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jjhny said:
Tim Cook is making the whole company dependent on throw-away devices that purposely are made to be replaced every year (phone) or every few years (iPad, laptop)...
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They did that with the mac mini 2014. Everything soldered on motherboard. Basically you throw it out if you didn't get enough ram while the mac min 2012 is very upgrade-able. Apple wants everything including the mac line to be disposable after 1 or 2 years. I find this disgusting. We are generating too much ewaste. We need to put a stop to this.
 
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Honestly, if I were starting fresh without any peripherals and wanted the best bang for the buck then I would get a cMP 5,1. Like the one I bought for my wife recently. Lots of "power" and the ability to upgrade the GPU and such without much fuss.

Since I have a TB display and TB RAID for my own setup that limits me on what I can do, so I'm waiting to see what happens with the Mac Pro. My current nMP is fine for what I do, my only complaint is with the GPUs and only having TB2 means adding an external GPU isn't going to give the best performance, plus I'd need a new display.

A MacBook Pro for "power" is great on paper, in use it's not that great once the fans kick on high so it sounds like a jet engine and you end up with thermal throttling.

I have one of everything except for an iMac in this house; Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, cMP, nMP. I use my nMP the most, wife uses the cMP, and the MacBook Pro doesn't get much use unless I decide to work outside of my office.
 
If you have to stay with Macs any MP (5,1 or even 6,1 with its limitations) is a better choice than a MacBook, for demanding usage.

If you want it just to have the most powerful Mac, simply wait or "stay tuned"...
 
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Synchro3 said:
Build a Hackintosh with this board and a I7-7700K: http://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITXac/index.de.asp#osW1064

Thunderbolt 3, M.2, 6 SATA 6 G ports and 8 USB 3 ports included. And one PCI-E 3 port for a graphics card.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-hackintosh-thread.1900326/page-20#post-24274152
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Nice, I was wondering about the compatibility with the Z270 boards since I didn't see much on them. Thinking I might build myself a Hackintosh with one of the Z270 boards and a GTX 1070 or 1080 once there's support/drivers for them. Whatever I build I want to be able to use a vanilla install of macOS to get it working, I've done the kext and other hacks before and I don't have the patience to deal with that anymore. Just make it work. :)
 
darkus said:
So I've always wanted a MacPro for the sheer powah. But like many of you, i've been waiting in limbo for the new one. Doesn't seem like its coming any time soon but I do need something new within the next month.

What do you guys think? Should I just go for the Macbook pro or does the Mac Pro still outperform the 2.7 i7 macbook pro?
Click to expand...

This really depends on your needs.

I personally for work faced this question. It was a very tough choice but I ended up going with the 6 Core 3.5GHz Xeon, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and D700 Mac Pro. The reason I decided on it was because my work no longer requires me to be nearly as mobile since I moved to a software developers position rather then a boots on the ground programmer. I elected for the Mac Pro because it is quite and doesn't kick up a lot of heat while I work. I have three 4K monitors that I use and the Mac Pro does well with the screen Realestate.

That said I could also argue that if I was working in the field even part of the time I would prefer the MacBook Pro for the mobility. I also must admit I'm curious about the touch bar.

I have a Late 2015 iMac as well that I bought with my own money that I was using for work when I wasn't in the field and for my own things on my time. It's also a fantastic machine. I know it can handle another 4K screen easily. I haven't tried it with a second 4K screen but I thin it would be ok outside of games. The only issue with it is that it has to contend with heat more then the Mac Pro and it can be noisy. When I say noisy it's a relative noise that sounds like wind that doesn't stop. It's way quieter then my gaming machine when it is going full tilt in a game at 4K max settings so I don't want to make it sound like the iMac is egregiously loud. It's just louder then the Mac Pro which I have yet to hear at all. It's just that quite.

I guess like the other people helping you have said you will need to consider your personal requirements and then find the Mac that works best within those requirements.

h9826790 really summed up the decision very well.
 
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