Mid-Range iMac Pro is Nearly Twice as Fast as High-End 5K iMac and Up to 45% Faster Than 2013 Mac Pro

[DesterWallaboo]

So just out of curiosity I went and started pricing out a system with the specs of that particular configuration. It's difficult to get a direct 1-to-1 comparison, but suffice it to say, if you're shopping for that performance with that monitor, you probably won't get a better deal than the iMac Pro, regardless of configuration.

You could easily get an EIZO monitor in the mix and it is a better than the iMac Pro's monitor. I think if you need a single workstation, the iMac Pro may be tempting. But the cost is pretty high considering I could by three fully loaded 5K iMac's for the same price. And use two of them as part of the render farm. I'm an owner in a studio with about a dozen animators. And although the performance is incredibly nice on these iMac Pros, the cost is high for what you get overall. Instead we would rather buy three regular iMacs and build a bunch of headless Hackintoshes for a render farm (which is what we do).

 

[adib]

So I just priced up an HP Z6 G4 workstation which is geared toward a similar market as the iMac Pro. Configured with a 10-core Xeon 4114 @ 2.2GHz, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and an equivalent GPU with 16GB of RAM, the price comes to $6,603. So the iMac Pro gets you all of this and with a newer faster Xeon and a 5K display for about $1,500 less.

Strange, I got $4493.44 for that configuration. Still room of about $500 for a monitor (sure that money won't get a monitor as nice as the one comes with a retina iMac, but still not "$1500 less" as per your quote).

• Windows 10 Pro 64 - HP recommends Windows 10 Pro
• HP Z6 G4 Workstation
• Intel® Xeon® Silver 4114 Processor (2.2 GHz, up to 3 GHz w/Turbo Boost, 13.75 MB cache, 2400MHz, 10 core)
• ENERGY STAR Qualified Configuration
• Z6 G4 90 1000 W Chassis
• 32 GB (2x16 GB) DDR4-2666 ECC Registered Memory (1 Processor)
• Operating System Load to SATA/SAS
• 1 TB SATA SSD
• NVIDIA® Quadro® P5000 (16 GB GDDR5X, 4 x Displayport 1.4 + DVI-D DL) No cable included Graphics
• Base - 4 x USB 3.0 Type A
• HP Remote Graphics Software (RGS) for Z Workstation
• 9.5mm DVD-Writer 1st ODD
• Business USB Slim Keyboard
• No Included Mouse
• HP Serial Port Adapter
• No Adapters Needed
• 3/3/3-Year Warranty
• Single Unit (Tower) Packaging
• HP Z6 G4 Country Kit

 

[GeneralChang]

You could easily get an EIZO monitor in the mix and it is a better than the iMac Pro's monitor. I think if you need a single workstation, the iMac Pro may be tempting. But the cost is pretty high considering I could by three fully loaded 5K iMac's for the same price. And use two of them as part of the render farm. I'm an owner in a studio with about a dozen animators. And although the performance is incredibly nice on these iMac Pros, the cost is high for what you get overall. Instead we would rather buy three regular iMacs and build a bunch of headless Hackintoshes for a render farm (which is what we do).

Well right, so the iMac Pro wasn't built to meet your specific needs. Like you said if you do need a single powerful workstation and the 5k iMac won't cut it, you won't be saving money by getting a different workstation and pairing it with a high quality 5k display. Basically all I was saying is that even building from scratch this thing is competitively priced. Especially since 3rd party retailers have started including them in sales.

 

[DesterWallaboo]

Well right, so the iMac Pro wasn't built to meet your specific needs. Like you said if you do need a single powerful workstation and the 5k iMac won't cut it, you won't be saving money by getting a different workstation and pairing it with a high quality 5k display. Basically all I was saying is that even building from scratch this thing is competitively priced. Especially since 3rd party retailers have started including them in sales.

I agree it's competitively priced for a workstation.

 

[ecommerceedward]

To me my 2016 Macbook is very fast, I could only see getting that desktop for long HD movie rendering or something.