iMac vs iMac Pro (for Excel)

[sparkhill]

Looking for some help on deciding between a higher end spec iMac vs iMac Pro, with the primary processing need being for fairly complex Excel work. The spreadsheets are large and fairly complex, with VBA scripts, and usually take about 5-10 minutes to run.

The plan is to spec either system similarly: 1TB SSD, 32 GB RAM, etc. Beyond great looks, is there much value to the Pro for the above application? The rest of my work is pretty tame, standard business type, work. I am not really interested in using a PC. Thanks.

 

[jerwin]

well, you're in luck.

Excel for Mac was made multithreaded on 18-January, 2018!

whether it can use more than four cores is another question.

 

[Cashmonee]

I think Excel just got an update to use multi-core on the Mac version. To really know, you would have to see how fast each one would run your scripts. Is it possible to put them on a thumb drive and test a file on both machines in an Apple Store?

In theory, the iMac Pro would have much better multi-core performance than the vanilla iMac. However, you need to find out how well Excel on Mac utilizes that performance. Up until this last update, Excel was single core I believe.

Having said that, you really need to think about cost versus gain here too. You are talking in the neighborhood of a $1500 difference.

 

[jerwin]

The windows version of excel has been used to benchmark cpus.

https://us.hardware.info/reviews/76...ing-and-microsoft-office-word-and-excel-2016n

The imac 2017 has one of four processors: 7500; 7600; 7600k; 7700k;
The imac pro uses one of the following processors: W-2140B; W2150B; W2170 B or W2190B.

the 7980xe at the top of the table is an 18 core chip; and the 7960x is a 16 core chip. 7900x is 10 cores, and 7820 is 8 cores. (They are clocked higher than XeonW, though.)

that table says to me: "wait for an imac refresh"

 

[mikehalloran]

that table says to me: "wait for an imac refresh"

How long are you willing to wait?

 

[alien3dx]

Looking for some help on deciding between a higher end spec iMac vs iMac Pro, with the primary processing need being for fairly complex Excel work. The spreadsheets are large and fairly complex, with VBA scripts, and usually take about 5-10 minutes to run.

The plan is to spec either system similarly: 1TB SSD, 32 GB RAM, etc. Beyond great looks, is there much value to the Pro for the above application? The rest of my work is pretty tame, standard business type, work. I am not really interested in using a PC. Thanks.

Excel have limited 1 million record nor the ssd would improve the speed. Been try it before. NOT sure if excel can calculate via vsto . wait i reply back.

 

[jerwin]

Isn't VBA normally single threaded?

 

[sparkhill]

Thanks for all the replies. I am really just trying to discern if the raw processing opera of the iMac Pro might move things along more quickly.

Excel for Mac was made multithreaded on 18-January, 2018!

Isn't VBA normally single threaded?

As I understand it, VBA is single-threaded and calculations can be multi-threaded. I should have been more clear: I use VBA to manage a number of spreadsheet operations, so VBA does not do much heavy lifting - it is the multithreaded sheet calculations that are the current bottleneck.

To really know, you would have to see how fast each one would run your scripts. Is it possible to put them on a thumb drive and test a file on both machines in an Apple Store?

Not sure if the AppleStore has a higher spec iMac on the floor. It seems like I only see base models.

that table says to me: "wait for an imac refresh"

Probably the best advice.