Apple's Mac Lineups to See Significant Graphics Upgrades as New GPU Launches Loom

[hiddenmarkov]

Yes, and the standard version is still with a 7200t HDD. Thats a contrast huh? I am sure you would jump to the SSD variant so they can overcharge us on the options.

Nope, you cant buy al All in one PC like a iMac. Well, they are getting close. I dint say its a bad machine. I said macs are not the machines for the creative content makers anymore like in the days behind us. Apple has shifted their aim to consumers and it are nice but basic computers with average hardware (and a nice fancy screen.)

In PC business Ultra HD and 4K monitors are mainstream. Nothing wrong with that. And good affordable. Macs can blow their fans quite hard too. And thats not so weird when things getting hot. My iMac hits the 90 degrees daily with stutters all over. Maybe you havent noticed it, but there are very nice clean and good medium size cases on the markt where you can put your hardware in. With less is more in mind and nice looks and very quiet.

Just want to point out that Apple iMac is not the holy grail. Its a nice machine but there are many cons also. Me, being in the creative content making business, I am frustrated that i don't feel the love anymore between Apple and my market. I need to switch for a better configuration. 6-core i7, more memory, more SSD's and a powerfull videocard. But thats me.

Feel you on this. Didn't say main gear was perfect. I tbh am looking at their tower options. Or dusting off pc build skills and part shopping at some point. Former is where they make the money...money for what I don't want to do much these lol. PLus they do they wiring nice things I tried and failed at. Not my forte.

Rest I can agree on as well. Not sure where apple is going. the Mac Pro for real work not thrilling me. When I build workstations the core system tends to stay in place a while. Good mobo, proc and ram....this stays. Its video you change out say 2.5-3 years in for that jolt to carry it through. I can DIY this cheaper. I know NVidia's or AMD (I will offer the olive branch of peace lol) latest and greatest will be on the discount shelves 1-2 years from now...I don't need current bleeding edge. I can take buying bleeding edge 1-2 years later and buy what was bleeding edge 1-2 years ago today lol. It be better than my MBP for damn sure...

iMac and MBP...not sure what the angle is given price. Can't play games well, content creation can be limited with limited upgrade options. Writing off of games market is iffy really. That is has a presence in the home market can't be ignored. And like said earlier gaming tech can carry over to normal use. gaming cards with really good anti-aliasing (AA) don't go oh not playing a game, I will forget how to do AA really good. Assuming the work application UI dev cared...that AA technology will kill the jaggies there too.

Software wise...apple seems to all but given up in pro software. FCP is on the santa clause plan, Updates come once a year. And they are a stingy santa clause...that last update was a joke really. Apple is damn near saying go to 3rd party as we are not making this a focus anymore.

Which is fine but that is dangerous game they are playing. Make me go 3rd party at some point I go I can go PC windows again much easier. Content people can agree I think its the change of workflows that can keep us loyal. We tend to dread application changes. Aperture I did this with already. Several years of workflow just chucked out the window as new applications had to be found. PITA but it was done and I moved on. I can do this with video applications if needed.

All content workflows carried over to OS neutral applications (ie run on mac os and windows)....the biggest hurdle to system change already done. All I have left is missing MAc OS. I can live with that to get needs met. I am already OS neutral by an large now anyway. OS' are a tool...I use the right tools for the job. I use windows (client and server), Linux and mac os daily to meet needs.

 

[rezwits]

Man as far as video cards are concerned, if it was the year 2130, if guys around these parts were alive still, they would have a video card so insanely fast (like am a million times at least, 2130), BUT, they would be like "I am waiting for a video card that's just a little faster, and next year is going to be the year..." give this a break, seriously. Every year a video card comes out and then the next GAME pushes it in every direction and the FPS goes down to 58 fps or 117 fps. Then they are like I need it to be a little faster, then they get 4K and now this crap just goes on and on, boring as hell, haven't we figured these cycles out yet people? DAMN, just a "little bit more", again, just a "little bit more", you people get bored really easy, let me tell ya WOW...

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Nice. That would be a great computer. But as you point out not quite 5k. The iMac 5k really does stand alone at this point. And amazingly has been able to do so now for a year. Doing work (which for me is mainly reading and writing) on a huge "retina" monitor is going to be amazing when I eventually upgrade. My PC laptop screen is so terrible as is the external monitor I plug into at work.

It might stand out if it didn't have a POS for a GPU. If you don't believe that, just look at the comments made by the developers of the Oculus Rift. Not even the Mac Pro has a GPU that can drive it. Having a nice monitor doesn't make Apple's computer lineup the least bit acceptable in 2016. Apple hasn't offered a REAL GPU since the old Mac Pro line and even then Nvidia often had to provide their own driver to sell a newer model because Apple doesn't give a crap about graphics except FLAT 2D graphics (their new ugly GUI in particular). They had to make the Metal API to even get acceptable frame rates after the disaster that is Yosemite (I won't say OS X any longer since Apple, in an effort to destroy Steve Jobs' legacy, want to remove the name the modern OS has always had as the latest news report suggest). Why not? After all, we have a flat 2D interface, so why not have a flat 2D generic name like tvOS, watchOS, toiletOS, fridgeOS, etc. Go Tim Cook and Jony Ive! You guys RULE! NOT.)

 

[TallManNY]

It might stand out if it didn't have a POS for a GPU. If you don't believe that, just look at the comments made by the developers of the Oculus Rift. Not even the Mac Pro has a GPU that can drive it. Having a nice monitor doesn't make Apple's computer lineup the least bit acceptable in 2016. Apple hasn't offered a REAL GPU since the old Mac Pro line and even then Nvidia often had to provide their own driver to sell a newer model because Apple doesn't give a crap about graphics except FLAT 2D graphics (their new ugly GUI in particular). They had to make the Metal API to even get acceptable frame rates after the disaster that is Yosemite (I won't say OS X any longer since Apple, in an effort to destroy Steve Jobs' legacy, want to remove the name the modern OS has always had as the latest news report suggest). Why not? After all, we have a flat 2D interface, so why not have a flat 2D generic name like tvOS, watchOS, toiletOS, fridgeOS, etc. Go Tim Cook and Jony Ive! You guys RULE! NOT.)

The top of line iMac has had a top of line mobile GPU for several years now. I know when I bought my iMac in 2011 the GPU was very favorably rated against any other mobile (i.e., laptop) GPU. I believe the current AMD Radeon R9 M395X is considered a good laptop GPU, though not the best and not great for 2016. The Mac Pro's GPU was nice when it came out, it just hasn't been updated. But the thermal constraints of the iMac form limit the GPU that can be used. There is little that can be done unless you build a larger tower type enclosure, I think. But this only comes up in gaming and only high end current games at that, and I guess in some high level 3D production.

The thermal constraints that Apple puts on itself to make small and thin desktops is pretty frustrating. I really will get no value out of my next iMac being thinner than my 2011. And if I were to buy a Mac Pro, for the current price, I'd want an easier path to expansion and upgrades. But Apple will do what it does.

 

[thecorrected]

I genuinely suggest educating yourself. At this moment there are no differences in that between both companies and their GPUs in the same thermal envelopes.

Reason why people pick Nvidia over AMD is Reality Distortion Field that Nvidia creates with their software. Hardware is much worse than AMD. It is at least two years behind. Ask any game developer about this. Go to any technological forum, especially Anandtech, Guru3D. All this has been discussed for over 8 months there.

There is a big difference in both companies and their thermal envelope, the fact that most of Nvidia's lineup can be cooled using blower fans rather than open air designs or water cooling is confirmation of this. The only reason AMD has been able to compete to some extent this latest generation is because they have conceded this thermal weakness and have allowed companies to make none reference designs from the start.

What this means in reviews is nonreference AMD videocards are sold from the beginning and compared and reviewed against reference blowerfans, which push hot air ourside the case, reference clocked Nvidia cards. Compare overclocked AMD cards to ones which overclocked maxwells and they are behind everywhere.

Real techforums like beyond3d definitely don't think AMD is ahead of Nvidia. More like they are equally good. However Nvidia is superior at execution and marketing which tends to get them more success.

Maxwell is no doubt the superior gaming architecture at the moment over AMD. AMD just pushes their hardware which hides this difference.

I.e Titan x with water cooling like fury x and clocked within 100mhz of it's ceiling like fury x is like 30% faster.

Also Mahigan has a terrible case of confirmation bias as he used to work or still works at AMD. He makes assumptions based on prerelease data or alphas(like doom, aots, fable legends) and doesn't update proof when retail versions of the game come about. E.g he said driver improvements were not possible for Nvidia games in directx titles or when he used DOOM as a case of superior directx 12 AMD performance. Driver did improve performance of games or alphas like aots and performance for Doom for the beta is now better on Nvidia cards than AMD cards. AMD cards often perform better in pure console games off the bat(which is why mahigan likes to use alphas) when they are a bad console port because the architectures are similar, but these differences often don't last long. Nvidia driver team is usually quick to close up gaps in AAA games.

The fact that he posts on websites that are pseudo technical like anandtech and guru3d but not a true technical website like beyond3d(who would tear apart his pseudo proofs) and banned on some forums like hardocp should show what his intentions are.

[doublepost=1460410107][/doublepost]For laptops it will 100% be the Polaris 11 chips from AMD as Nvidia will not be launching anything that small or power efficient, 123mm 14nm. iMacs may get Polaris 10.
[doublepost=1460410276][/doublepost]
The Tonga chips in current iMac are fairly efficient, and the 14nm chips promise 2.5x performance per watt.

Tonga is not that efficient by contemporary standards. Most reviews performance per watt charts will show this. It basically gets as much performance as a 280x with the power consumption of a gtx 980.

If Apple stuck to Nvidia for the imac design. They likely could have fit the chip below into the imac since apple has always been able to fit designs above the 100w range into the their top end imacs.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980-Notebook.150599.0.html

This would have been 50-60% faster.

But Nvidia being a bit greedy asked for too much money while AMD on the other end was asking for too little money. Hence why they got most of the apple design wins.

If Nvidia has a weakness it's definitely greed and them basically curbing keplar performance by not updating drivers to bring up maxwell performance is suspect of them. But it makes sense business wise since they have dominated 28nm as far as marketshare goes and thus, most of their potential customers are nvidia owners.

 

[Steve Expat]

Apple still makes Macs? Wow. I thought it was all about cars and watches these days.

 

[rboerdijk]

I'm still using my 2011 iMac at home. Nice machine with the integrated DVD player. Every five years is about my desktop upgrade cycle. I'm going to hold off until end of year to see if I can get these better GPUs.

Writing this on my 2010 MBP (battery cycle count 2126)... Though the integrated nvidia is starting to die on me since last week, and since the repair-program on that apparently ended, I might consider an upgrade to a 2016 model.

 

[TailsToo]

How often do people upgrade their Macs?
I haven't since 2011 and 2014 (besides upping the RAM in the iMac)...

Should I be upgrading?

Still using my early 2011 MacBook Pro. I'm hoping Apple will give me reason to upgrade soon. USB-C, Thunderbolt 3, and better discrete graphics.

 

[TallManNY]

Writing this on my 2010 MBP (battery cycle count 2126)... Though the integrated nvidia is starting to die on me since last week, and since the repair-program on that apparently ended, I might consider an upgrade to a 2016 model.

I lucked out with iMac. The GPU died, but it is a known problem on that model iMac and GPU and there was a program for free replacement during first five years. I was a few months outside of that window, but Apple still replaced it for me for just the cost of the work (about $130 if I recall correctly). So I've got a new GPU in my 2011 iMac. But I'm still thinking it is time. If there are new iMac's this Fall I may bite the bullet and drop the near $3,000 to get a high level replacement.

 

[SteveW928]

It might stand out if it didn't have a POS for a GPU. If you don't believe that, just look at the comments made by the developers of the Oculus Rift. Not even the Mac Pro has a GPU that can drive it.

I guess it could be argued that VR isn't a concern of Apple's (and I'm not sure it should be), though I'd like a lot more powerful GPU (or at least the ability to expand/add one/many).

My *hope/prayer* is that we'll see a new Mac Pro and/or some other equipment with the capability for external GPUs, at least. TB3 is *finally* starting to get fast enough to support an external GPU or two. If Apple's going modular, I could live with that.

Apple still makes Macs? Wow. I thought it was all about cars and watches these days.

Heh, no kidding! My fear, is that within Apple leadership, there might be too much truth to that.

 

[NYMinute]

I lucked out with iMac. The GPU died, but it is a known problem on that model iMac and GPU and there was a program for free replacement during first five years. I was a few months outside of that window, but Apple still replaced it for me for just the cost of the work (about $130 if I recall correctly). So I've got a new GPU in my 2011 iMac. But I'm still thinking it is time. If there are new iMac's this Fall I may bite the bullet and drop the near $3,000 to get a high level replacement.

My 21 inch 2011 iMac had an issue were a dark stain formed on the upper right corner of the display. I read on forums that the glue that was use on the early panels would burn off and create this residue. I took it to the apple store and they clean it. The records only says they clean it but I am assuming they also remove the old adhesive and applied a newer one more resistance to heat. That is when the problem started. I started having issues with my display. A wide vertical line with color distortion would intermittently show up. It looks like the old atary 2600 game Yars' Revenge. Screen captures did not show the issue so it is the display. I took pictures of the display showing the issue and I took my i Mac to an authorize apple service provider. Of course, because it is an intermittent issue he did not see it. He change a cable just in case and noted in the record that the issue was intermittent. I think it happens when the iMac heats up when watching videos or playing a game. My son was playing a game on it and now the problem is there all the time. My model was not part of the replacement program, only 27 inch models were part of it and my apple care is expired. I am now reluctant to buy another iMac because of this experience. I am definitely not buying any computer with a Radeon card ever again.

 

[TallManNY]

My 21 inch 2011 iMac had an issue were a dark stain formed on the upper right corner of the display. I read on forums that the glue that was use on the early panels would burn off and create this residue. I took it to the apple store and they clean it. The records only says they clean it but I am assuming they also remove the old adhesive and applied a newer one more resistance to heat. That is when the problem started. I started having issues with my display. A wide vertical line with color distortion would intermittently show up. It looks like the old atary 2600 game Yars' Revenge. Screen captures did not show the issue so it is the display. I took pictures of the display showing the issue and I took my i Mac to an authorize apple service provider. Of course, because it is an intermittent issue he did not see it. He change a cable just in case and noted in the record that the issue was intermittent. I think it happens when the iMac heats up when watching videos or playing a game. My son was playing a game on it and now the problem is there all the time. My model was not part of the replacement program, only 27 inch models were part of it and my apple care is expired. I am now reluctant to buy another iMac because of this experience. I am definitely not buying any computer with a Radeon card ever again.

That sounds like the issue I had with my GPU when it failed. I was getting a wide vertical line. It is too bad. But your iMac is five years old. Having a part fail is bad luck, but it is also something that you should expect to happen from time to time in a lifetime of computer ownership. And this is one of the problems with owning an "all in one" computer. If you had a normal desktop (which would require Apple to actually make a normal desktop), your screen would be working fine and you'd probably have easier access to the GPU.

I wouldn't rule out iMacs or Radeon cards just because of this experience. There are no such things as computers with guarantees of never failing after five years. That is a pretty long time in a computer's life; certainly past middle age. Owning a computer is a bit like owning car; if you own it long enough you have to start replacing parts. At some point you have to make the call if it is worth it to replace another part or sell the car.

I believe if you have the GPU replaced it will fix your issue. This will probably cost several hundred dollars. But it should be a full fix of the issue. If I were you I'd have the GPU fixed.You could still have several years of trouble free use of that computer if you replace the GPU. On the other hand, it becomes a crap shoot. Something else could fail in two months. But you can't avoid dealing with this question unless you decide to just not keep your computers around for a long time.

 

[NYMinute]

T

That sounds like the issue I had with my GPU when it failed. I was getting a wide vertical line. It is too bad. But your iMac is five years old. Having a part fail is bad luck, but it is also something that you should expect to happen from time to time in a lifetime of computer ownership. And this is one of the problems with owning an "all in one" computer. If you had a normal desktop (which would require Apple to actually make a normal desktop), your screen would be working fine and you'd probably have easier access to the GPU.

I wouldn't rule out iMacs or Radeon cards just because of this experience. There are no such things as computers with guarantees of never failing after five years. That is a pretty long time in a computer's life; certainly past middle age. Owning a computer is a bit like owning car; if you own it long enough you have to start replacing parts. At some point you have to make the call if it is worth it to replace another part or sell the car.

I believe if you have the GPU replaced it will fix your issue. This will probably cost several hundred dollars. But it should be a full fix of the issue. If I were you I'd have the GPU fixed.You could still have several years of trouble free use of that computer if you replace the GPU. On the other hand, it becomes a crap shoot. Something else could fail in two months. But you can't avoid dealing with this question unless you decide to just not keep your computers around for a long time.

The reason I am sour with the iMac and macs in general is that their replacement program was too narrow. I remember lots of people complaining on the forums that their 21.5 inch iMacs were having very similar problems also and that it wasn't just the Radeon model on the 27 inch model.

The other thing is that the problem started year one not after five years. It was intermittent for 4 years and now is constant. I haven't try turning the iMac off for a few days to see if it cools off and the problem goes away. I think the problem is thermal expansion were a connection is getting loose so turning it off for a while may cool off the metal enough so it contracts again so it makes a connection, at least until I play video again.

It is on me that I did not keep taking the machine to the apple store. The closest store was a 90 minute trip one way and then I was going to be without a computer for almost a week every time. That is not an excuse of course. When apple care was about two months from expiring I went again and that is when they could not see the problem because it was intermittent. I can try contacting them and see if they give me a discount on the repair. When I took it last they say they put a note saying the problem was intermittent so if that is indeed there they may make an exception with me.

The iMac is the third machine I've had with a laptop class GPUs that goes bad on the first year. The other two were PC's, one HP and one toshiba. The new 21.5 inch iMac only comes with Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 integrated GPU. Is that good enough that I won't need to pay more (and find space in my home for) a 27 inch iMac with a dedicated GPU?

 

[TallManNY]

T


The reason I am sour with the iMac and macs in general is that their replacement program was too narrow. I remember lots of people complaining on the forums that their 21.5 inch iMacs were having very similar problems also and that it wasn't just the Radeon model on the 27 inch model.

The other thing is that the problem started year one not after five years. It was intermittent for 4 years and now is constant. I haven't try turning the iMac off for a few days to see if it cools off and the problem goes away. I think the problem is thermal expansion were a connection is getting loose so turning it off for a while may cool off the metal enough so it contracts again so it makes a connection, at least until I play video again.

It is on me that I did not keep taking the machine to the apple store. The closest store was a 90 minute trip one way and then I was going to be without a computer for almost a week every time. That is not an excuse of course. When apple care was about two months from expiring I went again and that is when they could not see the problem because it was intermittent. I can try contacting them and see if they give me a discount on the repair. When I took it last they say they put a note saying the problem was intermittent so if that is indeed there they may make an exception with me.

The iMac is the third machine I've had with a laptop class GPUs that goes bad on the first year. The other two were PC's, one HP and one toshiba. The new 21.5 inch iMac only comes with Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 integrated GPU. Is that good enough that I won't need to pay more (and find space in my home for) a 27 inch iMac with a dedicated GPU?

And if the problem is related to overheating, you almost can't duplicate it at the store. The iMac will be cooled off as it is unplugged when you take it to the store. And the Genius guy won't run you iMac for 8 hours and then launch a video game for two hours.

I think those integrated GPUs are getting more and more powerful and are basically good enough. But how they would handle gaming on a retina level screen, I have no idea. Though I'm pretty skeptical. And who knows how well they handle thermal loads. Replacing the entire board if the integrated GPU fails seems like even greater expense.

I'm happy I have the 2011 iMac as it is the last in the line of the larger form factor with its innate thermal advantages. But I also know I'm a bit on borrowed time at this point. The fact that I got a replaced GPU (probably refurbished, but still replaced) might end up being key to continued long life. But I lucked out with the replacement program.

 

[cdpage]

So my work has finally started budgeting for New Macs for everyone. Most people here are on Laptops, but i am on a MacPro

I thought I might ask anyone here what they think of buying a MacPro or an iMac

I'm currently on a Mid 2010 Mac Pro and would love dearly to get a new machine.

what would get me the best bang for the buck?

 

[DevNull0]

So my work has finally started budgeting for New Macs for everyone. Most people here are on Laptops, but i am on a MacPro

I thought I might ask anyone here what they think of buying a MacPro or an iMac

I'm currently on a Mid 2010 Mac Pro and would love dearly to get a new machine.

what would get me the best bang for the buck?

If you're in the Mac Pro range, intel just released 4 Broadwell-E chips that will replace Mac Pro class chips. The i7-6950x looks impressive, and I would either wait and see what Apple does with these new chips or suck it up and build your own workstation around one or two.

 

[Steve Expat]

So my work has finally started budgeting for New Macs for everyone. Most people here are on Laptops, but i am on a MacPro

I thought I might ask anyone here what they think of buying a MacPro or an iMac

I'm currently on a Mid 2010 Mac Pro and would love dearly to get a new machine.

what would get me the best bang for the buck?

The most bang for the buck? First your 2010 Mac Pro has a lot of potential for upgrades. Apple left the 2009, 2010 and 2012 MPs open for massive upgrades. This is what I did.

I have two 2009 MPs.

1) I bought a 512GB Samsung SM951 and a Lycom PCIe card and installed it in Slot 3 and made it my OS/Apps drive. It's FAST. 1500MB/s read times. Boots lightening fast. Everything runs so much faster than any SATA SSD I've ever used. I keep my home folder on that drive but al the apps that allow me to store items elsewhere - iTunes lib, Safari downloads, Photos lib, etc... point them to an internal HDD. Much more reliable than moving your Home Folder or building a stupid fusion drive.

2) If your a content creator there is a PCie card for Slot 2 (the 16 lane slot) called the "Squid" that allows you to install up to four SM951s and stripe them for a RAID 0. I get 5700MB/s reads and about 3000MB/s writes. It's unbelievable. A dream come true!

3) Add RAM. OWC makes 16GB DIMMS for the 2010 MP. You could install up to 128GBs if you wanted to. But I recommend getting three pairs of DIMMs (3x8GB) for 48GBs total, or 3x16GB for 96GBs of RAM. Three pairs will bput your RAM into triple channel mode which makes the Ram work a little faster by using the third pair as a sort of cache. Slightly noticeable.

4) I upgraded the firmware to 5,1 (2010) and installed two Westmere x5690s making my MP a 12-core running at 3.46GHz.

5) Install a USB 3 card.

My Geekbench score is 32000 (same as current 12-core nMP), and the boot SM951 is slightly faster than the one that comes in the nMP. And of course the Squid blows away anything out there by so much it's ridiculous. I also upgraded the graphics card and bought 4GB HDDs for the internal bays.

All in all I spent less than $3000 on the computer which I bought off ebay, and all of the SM951s, CPUs and other parts mentioned. I don't have Thunderbolt but I don't really need it now.

If you really want a Mac Pro wait until we find out what Apple is going to do with the MacPro line, but in the meantime upgrade your 2010 in the order I listed my upgrades (at least do #1). It was the best thing I could have ever done and I would do it again. Highly recommended if your a speed freak and really just want a Mac Pro and not a MacBook or iMac.

You wouldn't believe what your 2010 MP is capable of with these upgrades. Seriously, it could smoke anything Apple has right now.

 

[SteveW928]

I thought I might ask anyone here what they think of buying a MacPro or an iMac
I'm currently on a Mid 2010 Mac Pro and would love dearly to get a new machine.
what would get me the best bang for the buck?

I agree with the above comment about upgrading and waiting to see what Apple does, if at all possible. That said, I know how corporate budgets often work, and sometimes, you gotta spend it when it's available or lose it. And, you might not get any money for upgrades.

And... what do you use it for? (that would likely make a difference on which to choose)

Certainly, the most bang for the buck is the iMac. And, for a lot of things, it's probably going to do as well or better than the Pro. But, for things where you can really leverage multiple cores (supposing you get the higher end Mac Pros), or the *right* kind of GPU intensive stuff, the Mac Pro would be the way to go.

Also, don't forget that the Mac Pro has ECC RAM and proper cooling capabilities to run full-blast, 24x7. I'm not sure an iMac could do that w/o eventual damage/degradation. IMO, those are the big differences.

The most bang for the buck? First your 2010 Mac Pro has a lot of potential for upgrades.

Note: MacNN started into a series of potential upgrades to the Mac Pro before the plug was pulled. The site is still there, though, and there's a ton of info. The series is called "This Old Mac Pro" and the author indicated he wanted to find some way to finish the series, so it might pop up elsewhere.

 

[cdpage]

@Steve Expat thank you for the thorough response. I will for sure look into all of this.
I turns out they are not purchasing till October so i still have some wait and see time left. Hopefully Apple does come out with something a little more then little speed bump and connections.

@SteveW928

You are very right, we have that problem here too. So if Apple can't get off its lazy ass and update this crazy old MacPro, I'll be looking at some of Steve Expats options above, or possibly going with an iMac.

 

[Steve Expat]

@Steve Expat thank you for the thorough response. I will for sure look into all of this.
I turns out they are not purchasing till October so i still have some wait and see time left. Hopefully Apple does come out with something a little more then little speed bump and connections.

@SteveW928

You are very right, we have that problem here too. So if Apple can't get off its lazy ass and update this crazy old MacPro, I'll be looking at some of Steve Expats options above, or possibly going with an iMac.

IF Apple releases another MacPro I assume it will be the latest Xeons (which have gained some significant speed increases), and hopefully it can handle the heat an 18-core would produce and Apple offered that. Then off course an OpenGL/CUDA video card instead on just an Open GL card, but they won't do this as their apps are all Open GL. The internal drive will be slightly faster.

So, best case you'll get a nice CPU bump. BUT, it will still cost you $`10,000.

Seriously consider what I did and you won't regret it. Never crashes. Doesn't overheat. And I have complete fan control if it starts to get hot. Can swap drives however I want, etc etc... All for under $3000. If you want to see any Geekbench scores let me know.

Btw, all my apps need Xeons because they rely on multithreading to run as efficiently as they do. So the single core score for the X5690 is not the fastest in the world, but the SM951s really make up for that in some cases and the multi-core score is where it's at for me. If you ONLY need single core speed, then maybe an iMac is ok. If you need multi0core speed, you MUST go my route.

Anyway, that's enough evangelizing from me! If you decided to go that route, make sure you buy the right brands/models and do a little research before you do your installation. Not hard at all.

 

[Floris]

I have saved up the money, and am just waiting for the next update to the iMac before buying. Hopefully that's this October/November, as much as it sounds exciting that next year we maybe get much better graphics. I just can't wait any longer. If it was up to me I'd buy the current model right now. But knowing an update might be a few months away .. it's worth the wait maybe. ARGH. I hate waiting

 

[cdpage]

@Steve Expat
I presented my options to them and while they like the idea of the rebuild, they are concerned with the downtime, the warranties and any of the unknowns. So, they would rather buy a new machine.

•••••
@ Anyone
I was really hoping by now Apple would have updated this MacPro. It would have made this decision easy.
WHAT would you Choose for a heavy PHOTOSHOP/ILLUSTRATOR user?

Option 1 - MacPRO - $4459

3.7GHz Xeon (1620 Ivy Bridge?)
32GB 1866 RAM ECC
512GB Flash
Dual D300 2GB Graphics​

Option 2 - 27" iMac - $4019

4.0GHz Core i7 Boosted 4.2GHz (6700K Skylake)
32GB 1866 RAM
2TB Fusion
R9 M395 2GB Graphics​

Speed Bench (on the CPUs)
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-1620-v2-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6700K/m8354vs3502
and
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E5-1620-v3-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6700K
and
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac-5K-Versus-Mac-Pro-Speed-Test


GREEN is better
ORANGE I'm Guessing is the better option

The better value looks like the iMac. plus it comes with a beautiful 27" Monitor

I'm guessing the Graphics card will not make much of a difference for me, as my HD 5770 seems to be holding its own still.

Current - MacPro Mid 2010
3.2 Xeon
24GB 1066 ECC
Radeon HD 5770 1GB
1TB
1TB (Scratch)
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I have saved up the money, and am just waiting for the next update to the iMac before buying. Hopefully that's this October/November, as much as it sounds exciting that next year we maybe get much better graphics. I just can't wait any longer. If it was up to me I'd buy the current model right now. But knowing an update might be a few months away .. it's worth the wait maybe. ARGH. I hate waiting

I'm with you on this... I would rather wait too seeing as it might be 1 to 3 to 4 years before they update these models again. (if at all!!!)

[Edit]
added two more test pages.
Looks like the iMac CPU is significantly better in almost every way.

this is a sad day