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Then you don't NEED this computer to get your work done.

Why are you more-or-less repeating exactly what I said like it's an "aha, you got me"?

At least I'm not attacking the Mac Pro out of sour grapes because i can't afford it like a lot of people seem to do.

Judging by the rest of your response you have a serious trigger here, but nothing I said goes beyond this computer is way more than I need for way more than I can spend, and I'd love to see a higher tier consumer-grade desktop from Apple that is not an AIO.

Everybody was complaining that Apple was ignoring the "pro" market...well, here it is the "pro" machine, now everybody is complaining. When We purchased our 4 5,1 Mac Pros back in 2012 they were almost 12K each.

Hyperbole much? I wasn't complaining Apple was ignoring the "pro" market though I did find it funny, and I wasn't complaining about this machine. I also never said this machine is overpriced for what it is.
 
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Why are you more-or-less repeating exactly what I said like it's an "aha, you got me"?

At least I'm not attacking the Mac Pro out of sour grapes because i can't afford it like a lot of people seem to do.

Judging by the rest of your response you have a serious trigger here, but nothing I said goes beyond this computer is way more than I need for way more than I can spend, and I'd love to see a higher tier consumer-grade desktop from Apple that is not an AIO.



Hyperbole much? I wasn't complaining Apple was ignoring the "pro" market though I did find it funny, and I wasn't complaining about this machine. I also never said this machine is overpriced for what it is.


The point is Mac's were NEVER cheap, people always complained....but they still bought them and still will.
 
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If COVID continues the way it is right now, does Apple expect to have a market for these devices? Like, 16 million people filed for unemployment alone in the US. We haven’t even gone outside of the market. If I were Tim, I call up a FaceTime meeting with all the marketers and MBAs at Apple let them know the gig is up. We need to start charging reasonable prices and slim down our product lines to meet market realities. 2 iPhones, all below $500, laptops, all below $1,000 and all Desktops below 1,500.

After this subsided, no one will be rushing out to buy new gadgets.
 
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The reality is that computing has changed, crazy pro software no longer costs 100s of thousands of dollars
And crazy pro software used to require crazy pro hardware. Now vast swaths of professional work that required desktop power can be performed by laptops of varying power levels. That’s probably why there’s little focus from Apple on a minitower. Once a lot of those professionals figured out how to effectively do their work on a mobile device, they found that being mobile outweighed the benefits of an upgradable system that’s sitting on their desk at home. Many that used to be interested in a minitower will now NEVER go back.
 
Nobody here thinking that it is quite interesting that Apple has had so many units returned that they can offer them as refurbs?
Would be really interesting to hear the resons why they were returned. If this is the best thing since sliced bread for "pros" and that the price is by no means any problem for these "actual pros". The why were they returned?

Probably the pandemic.

Hollywood and most businesses are essentially closed so a bunch of machines probably got returned.
 
Much much cheaper to buy a brand new base model and upgrade it yourself, than to buy a refurbished pre-upgraded model.
 
Everybody was complaining that Apple was ignoring the "pro" market...well, here it is the "pro" machine, now everybody is complaining. When We purchased our 4 5,1 Mac Pros back in 2012 they were almost 12K each.

Because being a "Pro" is a spectrum. It is not limited to big video production houses.

It's funny because the people here were saying that people who create videos on the iPad Pro should be considered a pro. And yet the same people are saying that pros are only the big production houses 🤣
 
I know a lot of people gasp at the cost, but for those of us that need the speed and power, life is good. When it first came out, I purchased a fully-loaded iMac Pro, which came in around $13K. And after all this time I can honestly say it was a wise purchase and I'm very happy with what it has done for me. It's blazing fast and while I can't put an accurate figure on it, it has saved me dozens of hours that I've been able to allocate to other things which has increased my productivity. And it's still going strong....
 
For normal people and enthusiasts/hobbyists, I'd say yes. However, many of these Mac Pros are bought for commercial/industry/business purposes where they'll pay for themselves many times over, or they're a tiny portion of the project's budget.
Yuo appear to be saying that although an individual might mind over paying for something, that a business doesn't mind? Strangest thing that in these big businesses you can't get the boss to give you the measliest of pay rises which may make the workforce as a whole more productive.
 
Yuo appear to be saying that although an individual might mind over paying for something, that a business doesn't mind? Strangest thing that in these big businesses you can't get the boss to give you the measliest of pay rises which may make the workforce as a whole more productive.
Depreciation is a business tax deduction :)
 
Is it? Think long term (5-7 years) and the Mac Pro might be the better buy.

Yeah, for long term, considering there are more opportunities to upgrade the Mac Pro. Although you can get a used or refurbished iMac Pro for half the price of the base Mac Pro. It's possible you could pick up a replacement for the iMac Pro in 5 years for that price that is more capable than the 2019 Mac Pro, or you could pick up a 2019 Mac Pro at that time. So let's say you bought an iMac Pro for $3500 today and then sold it in 5 years for $1000 and then bought a 2019 Mac Pro for $2000. So the money you lost plus the Mac Pro would be $4500. That's less than you can buy a Mac Pro for today, so that makes the iMac Pro a better buy right now, assuming it meets your needs. Of course if your needs right now exceed what the iMac Pro is capable of, like the need for PCIe slots, then the only option is the Mac Pro.
 
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If you're looking at the base model, you should really consider the factory refurbished iMac Pro for $3500, very similar performance, with quadruple the storage space and a better GPU, plus of course comes with a 27" 5K display.

If you’re getting the base model iMac Pro, get a high-end iMac instead. It’s more than two grand less, and has a faster CPU. The one bug downside is inferior cooling.
 
$5k for an 8 core intel with an rx580! wow!
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I think only for the most narrow and specific commercial/business. There are other less expensive machines that make more sense for commercial settings. From the reviews I've seen, this machine makes more sense for the high end, large companies doing movies and what not.

Will be interesting to see how this pans out with coronavirus basically killing Hollywood's ability to make content in 2020 due to social distancing/quarantine, and most of our entertainment probably coming from indie film-makers working out of their bedroom.
 
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Nobody here thinking that it is quite interesting that Apple has had so many units returned that they can offer them as refurbs?
Would be really interesting to hear the resons why they were returned. If this is the best thing since sliced bread for "pros" and that the price is by no means any problem for these "actual pros". The why were they returned?

  1. I don't believe it's quite right that all refurbs are "returned". If a unit comes from manufacturing in too poor condition to be sold as new, they probably refurb that as well.
  2. It doesn't seem unusual based on other Mac products that refurbs would be available after four months of sales.
  3. The Mac Pro is probably hit particularly hard from the pandemic. A big kind of client is film studios, and those have mostly shut down for now.
 
If you’re getting the base model iMac Pro, get a high-end iMac instead. It’s more than two grand less, and has a faster CPU. The one bug downside is inferior cooling.

An iMac 3.6 GHz i9, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB Flash, Raden Pro Vega 48 costs $4,049 compared to the Apple certified refurbished iMac Pro base model is $3,499 and has the much improved cooling, improved speakers, improved mics, improved webcam, more Thunderbolt 3 ports, etc.
 
An iMac 3.6 GHz i9, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB Flash, Raden Pro Vega 48 costs $4,049 compared to the Apple certified refurbished iMac Pro base model is $3,499 and has the much improved cooling, improved speakers, improved mics, improved webcam, more Thunderbolt 3 ports, etc.

If you care about the GPU, maybe. Another thing the iMac Pro will do better is 10GigE.

But if you mainly care about the CPU, an 8-core iMac starts at $2,699 unrefurbished (compared to the iMac Pro's $4,999), and will beat the iMac Pro in single-core by 16%. So CPU-wise, don't get the iMac Pro unless the cooling really matters to you, or unless you want many more cores than 8.

Speakers, mic, and webcam are silly. If the difference matters to you, get those as external devices.
 
If you care about the GPU, maybe. Another thing the iMac Pro will do better is 10GigE.

But if you mainly care about the CPU, an 8-core iMac starts at $2,699 unrefurbished (compared to the iMac Pro's $4,999), and will beat the iMac Pro in single-core by 16%. So CPU-wise, don't get the iMac Pro unless the cooling really matters to you, or unless you want many more cores than 8.

Speakers, mic, and webcam are silly. If the difference matters to you, get those as external devices.

Again I am comparing the Apple Certified refurbished iMac Pro at $3,499. Watch any review or when the stores re-open try it out yourself, the speakers, mic and webcam are a massive difference over the standard model. Also read the forums here on MacRumors about the poor sustained performance and terrible fan noise on the i9 models of the iMac, vs the much superior cooling and sustained performance on the Pro. It's a no brainer to me.

Also you're comparing $2700 model with 8 GB RAM, spinning hard drive and outdated GPU
 
Not so nice to have that display inseparable from the computer, though. Also the graphics card is fixed and not replaceable. Plus no internal expansion for drives and PCI-e cards. No, I think a tower computer makes more sense in most cases. Too bad Apple doesn't offer one for the so called semi-pro's.
That display is bound to last forever... I’m still using an old iMac from 2013 (SSD’ed to revive it) and two Apple Thunderbolt displays from 2011, still up and running like new. The quality is, for real, insane.
Regarding GPU, you got a point, but I’m seriously thinking making the upgrade to an iMac Pro... with a good eGPU case the graphics cards can be kept upgraded.
 
Yeah, agree completely. I bought the iMac Pro when it first came out, after Micro Center did a really nice discount of $800 or so on the base config for a few weeks there. Still chugging along with it as my main desktop system at home today, and zero regrets.

Seems like the Mac Pro is just incredibly overpriced because it provides a "box of slots" to upgrade it in the future, and of course you're not getting a display at all with it either. I used to love the older Mac Pro towers - but they were priced more "down to earth" so they were costly, but worth it for enthusiasts, power-users, professionals, etc. Now, the iMac Pro really fills that general space and this Mac Pro is as high-end as Apple could build the thing, seemingly to say "Told you we could do it!"


If you're looking at the base model, you should really consider the factory refurbished iMac Pro for $3500, very similar performance, with quadruple the storage space and a better GPU, plus of course comes with a 27" 5K display.
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Most people who bought it likely had a need in the first place. My guess is most of them bought a certain config based on what they thought they needed, then had second thoughts. They wanted more or fewer cores, more or less RAM or SSD, and/or a different GPU config.

When you spend that kind of money you want to get it right, from the beginning. No one wants to live with a mistake for three or five or ten years.

Yep! But also, I wouldn't be that surprised if you had people who bought one of these for a special project, and when it was completed -- they resold the machine or traded it in someplace. It might have paid for itself for the one movie they needed to edit and produce, or ?? And maybe they didn't generally or normally use Macs for their work.
 
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