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Mac Pro vs MacBook Pro

What should I buy?

  • Keep the Mac Pro and buy the 13 inch with Touch Bar.

    Votes: 13 50.0%

  • Sell the Mac Pro and buy the top of the line 15 inch

    Votes: 13 50.0%
  • Total voters
    26
kamran1998

kamran1998

macrumors member
Original poster
May 14, 2014
96
4
Irvine, CA
Hey Guys,

I currently have the entry level 3.7GHz, 12GB RAM, 256GB Late 2013 (Latest) Mac Pro. I need a laptop, so I plan on purchasing the entry level 13 inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar ($1799). However, since the Mac Pro hasn't been updates since late 2013, and my Apple Care for it will expire on March of next year. Should I purchase the top of the line 15-inch instead and sell my Mac Pro, and use the extra money for a USB-C Dock, etc... I use the LG34UM95 display for my Mac Pro currently.

How does the performance compare between the late 2013 Mac Pro and the top of the line 15 inch MacBook Pro. My most intensive task is perhaps editing on Final Cut Pro.

Appreciate your input, thanks!
 
You don't specific which graphics cards are in your Mac Pro. I have not touched the new macbook pros but I have a 6 core mac pro with the D700's and my guess is that these laptops can't touch it when it comes to FCPX.
 
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jwpoof said:
You don't specific which graphics cards are in your Mac Pro. I have not touched the new macbook pros but I have a 6 core mac pro with the D700's and my guess is that these laptops can't touch it when it comes to FCPX.
Click to expand...

Dual AMD FirePro D300 with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM, the entry level graphics.
 
kamran1998 said:
Hey Guys,

I currently have the entry level 3.7GHz, 12GB RAM, 256GB Late 2013 (Latest) Mac Pro.
Click to expand...
I have both. You just can't compare the nmp to a MacBook, they won't come close, not to mention that under stress the nmp will hold up easily while the MacBook will throttle.
 
jclmavg said:
I have both. You just can't compare the nmp to a MacBook, they won't come close, not to mention that under stress the nmp will hold up easily while the MacBook will throttle.
Click to expand...

I am comparing the Mac Pro to the MacBook Pro NOT the MacBook to the MacBook Pro
 
jclmavg said:
I'm talking about the exact same machines as you are. MacBook pro is not going to cut it.
Click to expand...

Even though my current Mac Pro is entry-level, compared to the top of the line upgraded as much as possible MacBook Pro 15inch? If that is the case, that would be awesome and I won't be tempted to sell my current Mac Pro to buy the new MacBook Pro.
 
kamran1998 said:
Even though my current Mac Pro is entry-level, compared to the top of the line upgraded as much as possible MacBook Pro 15inch? If that is the case, that would be awesome and I won't be tempted to sell my current Mac Pro to buy the new MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...
The single point compute performance of the top of the line 2016 15in MBP (Radeon Pro 460) is 1.86TFLOPS, while the a single D300 has ~ 2.2TFLOPS of single point compute performance, and there are two of them in the Mac Pro
 
I have much of the same setup like you do, though I do have 64 gigs of ram in my nMac Pro. I think you'd be wasting money and it would disappoint you when you're doing cpu intensive tasks and the whole thing starts throttling down. You'd be throwing 3 grand away imo. These new Macbook Pro's are not 'pro' machines imo. Best you just wait a bit and see if Apple will not announce a new Mac Pro early 2017.
 
kamran1998 said:
Even though my current Mac Pro is entry-level, compared to the top of the line upgraded as much as possible MacBook Pro 15inch? If that is the case, that would be awesome and I won't be tempted to sell my current Mac Pro to buy the new MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...

For FCPX, switching to macbook pro exclusively when you already own a 2013 nMP would be a mistake. The nMP's are beyond old but they are still the best apple product for FCPX.
 
maybe you will be better to wait and sell the mac pro to buy the new one since it will come with xeon E7 v4 and better gpu
 
Surprised the poll wants me to sell the Mac Pro and go for the top of the line 15 inch instead. The comments and replies on the thread differ from the results of the poll.
 
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If you're doing FCPX you definitely would do well to have a real GPU. Your Mac Pro will run circles around any Mac Laptop. You could consider buying a Macbook Pro with touchbar thingus and just buying a PC hackintosh if you don't have D700 in your Mac Pro.

I haven't looked much at the new Macbook Pro's but MAKE SURE you get one with a quad-core, apparently low-end are dual core (2005 called they want their processor back!).

IMO Apple may modify their OS to allow thunderbolt to use an eGPU breakout box some day. If that happens, connecting a GTX 1080 to a laptop will blow away even the Mac Pro at editing with many (all? most?) tasks.
 
I am fine with my current Mac Pro, it is not necessarily slow for the videos I post: http://youtube.com/mactechgenius

Just want to make sure the top end 15 inch MacBook Pro isn't slower.

Based on the responses so far, I will probably keep my Mac Pro and just buy the $1799 13 inch with touch bar.
 
kamran1998 said:
Surprised the poll wants me to sell the Mac Pro and go for the top of the line 15 inch instead. The comments and replies on the thread differ from the results of the poll.
Click to expand...

GPU is HUGE for FCPX, and the top of the line Macbook Pro is an utter ripoff unless you really need a portable GPU. The fact that you have a much better editing rig in hand means you should stick with it. I think the voters aren't reading your post where you said what you use it for.
 
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slughead said:
GPU is HUGE for FCPX, and the top of the line Macbook Pro is an utter ripoff unless you really need a portable GPU. The fact that you have a much better editing rig in hand means you should stick with it. I think nobody's reading your post.
Click to expand...

Good to know, will keep the Mac Pro for now.
 
slughead said:
If you're doing FCPX you definitely would do well to have a real GPU. Your Mac Pro will run circles around any Mac Laptop. You could consider buying a Macbook Pro with touchbar thingus and just buying a PC hackintosh if you don't have D700 in your Mac Pro.

I haven't looked much at the new Macbook Pro's but MAKE SURE you get one with a quad-core, apparently low-end are dual core (2005 called they want their processor back!).

IMO Apple may modify their OS to allow thunderbolt to use an eGPU breakout box some day. If that happens, connecting a GTX 1080 to a laptop will blow away even the Mac Pro at editing with many (all? most?) tasks.
Click to expand...

2005 called and they want their processor back? These dual core I7's are running circles around some of the last gen I5 quads, and even some of the I7's. I feel like you think quad core means better than dual core... and for that reason, you need to stop giving advice, immediately.
 
Mac Pro can be extended, and you might want to hold off until a new one comes, or the news that it won't.
And use the mac pro to do the heavy lifting, while the macbook pro is your every day machine for the fancy stuff that doesn't really require a beast machine.
 
kamran1998 said:
Good to know, will keep the Mac Pro for now.
Click to expand...

Your mac pro is indeed going to run circles around a macbook pro... when it comes to graphics, and rendering, and heavy tasks. However, you're going to get equally as good performance if you don't. I am a web developer. I have a macbook pro 2013 ( just got a 2016 ) but anyways, I run three screens, and my I7, 1TB SSD, and 750M do everything I need. I pay some games, I render videos, i get good battery life. I think you're comparing them hardware to hardware and you should be comparing them to lifestyle. I plug in a single cable when i get to my desk, and I instantly have three screens ( 27" ), and 20-40 tabs up in chrome, a multitude of different IDE's I'm coding on, I've got Virtual servers up with emulators.. these things are fine for that kind of stuff. If that's all you're doing, sell the Mac pro, grab a macbook pro, you'll never regret it :)
 
Here's just one example, I'm not sure where the new Macbook GPU stacks up but I bet it'll be even lower than the 7950 single card in this chart--the "7970s" represents a dual card in the chart. (Radeon 455 pro is 1.3 Tflop, 7970 is 2.3 tflop... GTX1080 is 9tflop, just FYI on how utterly obsolete Apples cards are :X )
http://barefeats.com/tube05.html

tube05_wat.png
 
yillbs said:
2005 called and they want their processor back? These dual core I7's are running circles around some of the last gen I5 quads, and even some of the I7's. I feel like you think quad core means better than dual core... and for that reason, you need to stop giving advice, immediately.
Click to expand...
yillbs said:
2005 called and they want their processor back? These dual core I7's are running circles around some of the last gen I5 quads, and even some of the I7's. I feel like you think quad core means better than dual core... and for that reason, you need to stop giving advice, immediately.
Click to expand...

Yes, unless he's exporting a video in FCPX (which he says he does) and then decides he would like to do.... anything at the same time. For browsing facebook and watching cat videos, he's going to impress the heck out of the budding novelists at starbucks. This is a "Pro" machine, unless Apples messing with the nomenclature. But I guess with their single best laptop topping out at a GPU with less than 2 Tflop and max ram of 16GB, I guess I don't know what that word means.

I kid, I kid. Like you said, if he wasn't doing video editing, a dual core is sufficient. Besides, it looks like you cant get a quadcore out of Apple for less than $2400 and that is totally not worth it.

edit: Just for fun: my PC laptop is a year old but was $2,500 after upgrades, has a 4k touch screen, GTX 980M 8GB (> 3 tflop), 16gb RAM expandable to 32GB, has 256gb PCIe drive + 2.5" drive (I put in 1TB SSD using 2 minutes + phillips screwdriver, came with 1tb platter), USB-C and 3.1 type A, 2 headphone jacks, gigabit ethernet, i7-6820HK quad core, boosts to 4.1ghz ... no thermal throttling and a better warranty (on site. oh yes... not that I need it). Oh, and I can hook up an external GPU which supposedly works pretty well. I'm sure you can get something better these days, nowadays you can get laptops with a full PC GTX1080 in them! Just a taste of the PC side of "pro" these days (which I'm no expert in).
 
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