iMac Pro iMac Pro - Surely, more of every thing is better

[bxs]

Subject: iMac Pro - Surely, more of every thing is better

IMO.... bar some very special use cases

In simple terms...

• More Processors and more cores will always be better than less of these
• More RAM is better than less RAM
• More SSD space is better than less space
• More VRAM in the GPU is better than less VRAM in the GPU

We can argue at infinitum about more Processors and more cores being beneficial or not, but the fact remains more of these will provide an overall better experience and make the system far more responsive for the user and will minimize the work flow time to provide a better overall throughput. For example, I have a 12-core Processor MP6,1 at the office and can vary the core/thread count from 1 up to 24. With just 1 configured the system is a real dog (i.e., slow, sluggish). As I increase the count to 2, 3, 4 and up to 24 the system gets progressively more and more responsive at doing things in a shorter time period.

RAM size and RAM space is an extremely sought after resource by the OS all the time.... there's no exception to this. What's not demanded by applications for their exclusive use can be used by the kernel's buffer cache to hold data that otherwise would need to be immediately written out to make space for more data. The more buffer cache will normally mean a better buffer hit-ratio, meaning data that's needed is readily available in RAM and there being no need to go out to the SSD or some external media to fetch it. The speed for retrieving data from RAM is many many times faster than any other media. It minimizes the i/o wait time and lessens the appearance of the spinning beach ball.

SSD size/capacity is always better if large and can be justified/needed.

More VRAM is akin to more RAM being better.

With cost in mind the user is faced with how to balance the benefits of each of the above components and stay within a specific budget.

Let's use some examples for various budget amounts... (ignore taxes for time being). I also will, favor higher core count in the selections as best I can.

Using a budget of $12,000
Select 18-core, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD, Vega 64 for $11,599

Using a budget of $11,000
Select 18-core, 128GB RAM, 2TB SSD, Vega 56 for $10,599

Using a budget of $10,000
Select 18-core, 128GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Vega 56 for $9,799

Using a budget of say $9,000
Select 18-core, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD, Vega 56 for $8,999

Using a budget of say $7,000
The 18-core goes above the budget, so select 14 core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and Vega 56 for $6,599

Using a budget of say $6,000
Select 10-core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and Vega 56 for $5,799

Now use a budget of $5,000
Select the standard configuration of 8 core, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and the Vega 56 for $4,999

In my case I had a budget of $9,000 and this is what I ordered.

14-core, 128GB RAM, 1TB SSD and Vega 56 for $8,999. I chose the higher RAM size over the 18 core configuration as my objective was to get at least a 2x performance boost over my home 6-core MP6,1 with 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD knowing that my workload demands more than the 64GB RAM on the MP6,1 and was in my mind the real bottleneck. I opted for the Vega 56 to keep within my budget knowing that the Vega 64 would add little to meeting my 2x performance requirement.

 

[bplein]

Congrats on the purchase! You are going to love it.

More RAM (at the same speed) and more storage (at the same speed) I can agree with. But more CORES is definitely NOT necessarily better. In general, more cores come at a lower base speed. Also there are apps that are actually WORSE when run on machines over 4 cores (this was talked about extensively in another iMac Pro thread). It all depends on the apps.

For example, if all I wanted to run is the game Factorio, I want the highest clock rate computer I can get. It only uses a single core. More cores doesn't help at all.

iMovie exports on default settings (High quality, Faster compression) run faster on a 4 core 2012 iMac 3.4GHz system than they do on the 8-core iMac Pro. But if you run it with Pro-Res at best quality, it uses a different engine and that engine is optimized for multicore and the iMac Pro smokes the 2012 iMac.

But I'm sure you are going to be happy with your iMac Pro and are going to love it, and it's going to be a big step up from your current system. Mine certainly was.

 

[bxs]

I agree that the number of cores/threads is a factor for any single application's performance. In my case I run CFD codes, but not all the time. There are gaps in my heavy-duty use. The CFD application can make use of as many cores as possible, requires 6 GB of RAM for each of the 14 cores, writes huge checkpoint files out every 15 minutes and can run for days on end before the computation converges to a specified number.

The off-hours, so to speak, are used for any number of things ranging from menial tasks such as Mail and Web browsing, dealing with my Photo collections, FCPX at times, iMovie at times, FaceTime with friends, co-workers and family around the world and so on. You would be surprised at how well these sorts of every day applications love to use as many cores in the machine as they can get their hands on. My Mail.app (all kept in my iCloud) for example will grab as many cores as it can when I want to view Email and having to move it from the Dock to display. Having cores readily available means very little wait time along with 100s of small processes running around that need the CPU occasionally and that Apple has launched and launches as default. I just checked how many processes were running on my Mac and it was 359. So, Time Machine wants to run, Calendar Event Alerts need displaying, Various Notifications need displaying, and on and on; lots of cores readily available allows these sort of things to happen quickly without delays or at least minimizes the delays. This all translates into a very responsive system, greater enjoyment in using the machine, little to no spinning beach balls, and so on. It's kind of like, 10 men (10 cores) can mow a lawn much faster than one (a single core) man can.

In my world, cores are good little soldiers and more the merrier. Speed is good. The iMac Pro provides all of these things.

I embrace the Apple eco system.

 

[haruhiko]

Enjoy the great machine and do share more with us!