iMac Pro Compared to 5K iMac and MacBook Pro

[MacRumors]

MacRumors videographer Dan recently got his hands on the new 8-core iMac Pro, and he decided to compare it to his other machines, a 2015 5K iMac and a 2016 MacBook Pro to see how it measures up when it comes to his everyday video editing workload.

In the video below, Dan takes a look at how well the iMac Pro performs on tasks like editing video, exporting video, and reading and writing data. If you're wondering whether the entry-level iMac Pro is worth the $5,000 price tag when you've already got hardware on hand like an iMac or a MacBook Pro, this video is worth checking out because it might help you make a decision.

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Dan compared the entry-level 8-core iMac Pro with a 3.2GHz Intel Xeon W processor to a late 2015 iMac with a 3.2GHz 6th-generation Intel processor, 24GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive, and AMD Radeon M390 graphics card and a late 2016 MacBook Pro with a 2.7GHz 6th-generation Intel processor, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and AMD Radeon Pro 455 graphics card.

Unsurprisingly, the iMac Pro was much faster when it came to benchmarks and performance tasks, and compared to the iMac and the MacBook Pro, the overall experience is smoother due to the sheer power of the processor and the GPU. It's ultra quick when editing video, even with multiple system intensive apps open, and it's quiet as a mouse with no loud fans.

The 5K iMac did win out slightly on video exporting time over the iMac Pro, but the iMac Pro wasn't far behind and it came out on top in all other tests.

Pricing on the iMac Pro starts at $4,999 for the entry-level 8-core model with 32GB 2666 MHz ECC RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics card, but goes up to $13,199 depending on the upgrades you choose. Even at $4,999 it's a couple thousand dollars more expensive than an iMac or a MacBook Pro, but it has the potential to be fully worth the asking price if you do system intensive creative work like video editing.

For more details on the iMac Pro, make sure to check out our iMac Pro roundup.

Article Link: iMac Pro Compared to 5K iMac and MacBook Pro

 

[alphaod]

I'm interested in how it compares to a top-end Mac Pro.

 

[SecuritySteve]

Someday the near maxed out versions will arrive in the hands of customers like me, and we'll be able to talk about more than just the base model and the 10 core.

 

[Smartass]

...but goes up to $13,199 ..

"So honey, we have a chance to buy a new small car for our daily tasks in the city, or we can buy an overpriced garbage that has apple logo on it and it'll be outdated in about a year?"

 

[AcesHigh87]

It’s weird that a 2 year old iMac handled the video export better... encoding is almost all CPU based on this Xeon should be far stronger.
[doublepost=1516315801][/doublepost]

...but goes up to $13,199 ..

"So honey, we have a chance to buy a new small car for our daily tasks in the city, or we can buy an overpriced garbage that has apple logo on it and it'll be outdated in about a year?"

No one in the market for an iMac Pro would ever be having this conversation though. These are workstation machines, not consumer machines. People that need workstations will easily make up the cost with a few projects.

 

[contractcooker]

I'm interested in how it compares to a top-end Mac Pro.

Very poorly.

 

[labyrinth153]

My 2015 iMac is even faster than the one in the review! Yay! I was worried it would get outclassed quickly.

 

[jav6454]

It should be obvious a desktop should outperform a laptop. After all, a desktop has better thermal management, desktop class CPUs and GPUs (more cores) and more memory to work from.

 

[linuxcooldude]

It’s weird that a 2 year old iMac handled the video export better... encoding is almost all CPU based on this Xeon should be far stronger.
[doublepost=1516315801][/doublepost]
No one in the market for an iMac Pro would ever be having this conversation though. These are workstation machines, not consumer machines. People that need workstations will easily make up the cost with a few projects.

QuickSync hardware encoding gave the 5K iMac the edge over the iMac Pro. But anything other than H264 & Single pass I would think the iMac Pro would beat it out.

 

[kylelerner]

The gentleman in the video incorrectly stated that the disk speeds were measured in megabits per second rather than megabytes per second. Just to clarify, Disk speeds are almost always measured megabytes per second, including in this video. There is a huge difference.

100 MB/s (megabytes per second)
100 Mbps (megabits per second, which is 12.5 MB/s)
There are 8 bits in a byte.
Usually only networking speeds are measured in bits.



Sorry - just a pet peeve.

 

[ppdix]

I returned a $7500 10-core iMac Pro the next day. I'm a photographer and sometimes do video. My old 2014 iMac 5K was as fast or faster than the new one in photoshop and Lightroom. It might be great for video but I could only get perhaps $1500 for my old iMac. So I can't justify a $6000 premium for the same speed and a nicer color.

 

[Kobayagi]

The problem with your regular 5k iMac is the fusion drive. It needs a ssd. But I'm still surprised when you said ''this guy has been dragging a lot lately." about the MacBook Pro. I mean, it still has very impressive specs, it's not old and was hugely expensive, what kind of work are you doing...? If a $2000+ machine is not fit for work when it's 1,5-2 years old, why even bother...

I got a maxed out 2015 retina MacBook Pro 15" and it's still blazing fast, so I find it strange that your newer model is slow. Or the word "slow" just differs per person.

 

[BornAgainMac]

The speed test with Final Cut Pro doing an export to disk is mostly a CPU task. The disks could probably be a 5400 rpm traditional hard drive or the fastest iMac Pro SSD and the speed difference for the export would not be much different. You need a different real-world test for the drives.

 

[scottcampbell]

Just guessing here, but I think Dan likes comparing things.

 

[Smartass]

It’s weird that a 2 year old iMac handled the video export better... encoding is almost all CPU based on this Xeon should be far stronger.
[doublepost=1516315801][/doublepost]
No one in the market for an iMac Pro would ever be having this conversation though. These are workstation machines, not consumer machines. People that need workstations will easily make up the cost with a few projects.

Yes but people who need workstations still dont just "throw" 13.000$ in to a computer, just because they need a workstation. I mean, imagine you need to buy 10new workstations for your company, the price for that would be just insane for any reasonable company.

 

[Plutonius]

I have no interest in another Apple computer till they release the modular Mac Pro.

 

[25ghosts]

It’s weird that a 2 year old iMac handled the video export better... encoding is almost all CPU based on this Xeon should be far stronger.
[doublepost=1516315801][/doublepost]
No one in the market for an iMac Pro would ever be having this conversation though. These are workstation machines, not consumer machines. People that need workstations will easily make up the cost with a few projects.

Exporting Video is and should not be a benchmark. Who cares about 2 or 5 minutes more or less when exporting...

General workflow and speed is what counts. And if during editing and composing I am gaining hours due to faster speed then those small minutes are negligent.

It also depends on how the Software has been programmed. If it has been leveraged to deal with the new machine. I don't know which version the guy who tested this used with Final Cut Pro - although the newest version should be optimised for the iMac Pro..

Anyway, the iMac 5K has VERY bad thermal noises and I'd gladly pay 1000 or 2 more for a quiet machine...

Most iMac Pro Tests I have read and seen so far are done by 'Tubers' who live off making reviews. Like this one. To test a machine based upon how fast it does an export in FCPx is as amateur as it gets !

 

[JimmyBanks6]

...but goes up to $13,199 ..

"So honey, we have a chance to buy a new small car for our daily tasks in the city, or we can buy an overpriced garbage that has apple logo on it and it'll be outdated in about a year?"

Any new car for 13k is truly garbage, and a car is outdated each year as well.

I can read the jealousy in this post.

 

[ignatius345]

...but goes up to $13,199 ..

"So honey, we have a chance to buy a new small car for our daily tasks in the city, or we can buy an overpriced garbage that has apple logo on it and it'll be outdated in about a year?"

Given that the iMac Pro is clearly a tool for doing paid professional work, let's talk about how many billable hours (say) a video editor could rack up in a day with this machine, vs how many hours... you could drive for Lyft in that hypothetical cheap car?

Great comparison though, please keep posting.

 

[Gherkin]

I returned a $7500 10-core iMac Pro the next day. I'm a photographer and sometimes do video. My old 2014 iMac 5K was as fast or faster than the new one in photoshop and Lightroom. It might be great for video but I could only get perhaps $1500 for my old iMac. So I can't justify a $6000 premium for the same speed and a nicer color.

$1,500 for a ~4 year old iMac? What are the specs? The top of the line one sold now in 2018 is only $700 more than that.

edit: my bad... I guess you can spec out the current model up to ~$5,500

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

...but goes up to $13,199 ..

"So honey, we have a chance to buy a new small car for our daily tasks in the city, or we can buy an overpriced garbage that has apple logo on it and it'll be outdated in about a year?"

I believe you are talking to the wrong boss in this case, and the one at the office is probably going to want a more work-related business proposal.

 

[GoodWheaties]

It’s weird that a 2 year old iMac handled the video export better... encoding is almost all CPU based on this Xeon should be far stronger.

Like another poster said, I believe the difference is Quicksync which uses the integrated graphics in the regular iMac. The Xeon in the iMac Pro doesn't have integrated graphics so it can't use it.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I have no interest in another Apple computer till they release the modular Mac Pro.

What if Apple does something stupid like selling the drives, memory, CPU and GPU upgrades in proprietary modules that are only sold by Apple? Perhaps the memory is soldered in a module and you have to buy the module you need directly from Apple.

 

[0023828]

Did you use Compressor? What formats did you export to?

 

[CWallace]

Nobody should ever be jealous at anybody who pays 13.000$ for a computer that isn't light years ahead of competition and brings nothing new to the table.

An HP Z4 with an 18-core W-Series Xeon, 128GB of ECC RAM, a 1TB M.2 drive (largest available) and Quadro P2000 GPU (best available) is $12000. So for $1000 more, you get a 5K display, 3TB more SSD capacity and a better GPU.