The statement was that the i7 beats the nMP in single core, missing that this is true only for a time. After a bit it has to throttle down due to thermal limits where the MP keeps going. I believe it's also only true steady state, after turbo has kicked in.
First: An assertion made by a developer is not an argument, especially one without data. A mistake I see there is that TDP isn't a cut and dry thing. Just because 3/4ths of my cores are idle doesn't mean I can ramp up the remaining core to eat up all that thermal capacity that the other cores leave behind. Other effects limit how much I can boost. Intel's designs have to account for scenarios that aren't very real world, mostly so that the chips can't fail under unexpected loads.
Second: While we can discuss things like an ideal single-threaded load that saturates a CPU core, no such thing exists. So talking about "on paper" results regarding TDP does us no good when you want to say that synthetic benchmarks are not a real measure. By that logic, napkin math using ideal loads and TDP isn't a real measure either. What is interesting that even the synthetic benchmarks for single threaded can't really produce enough thermal load to trigger throttling on the iMac. Hell, it can't even spin up the fans.
I will note that I do expect the Quad Mac Pro to have a slight edge, even in single core. But the key word here is "slight". And in the end, that edge may not even factor in when you are buying for the home office.
If you are looking at primarily single-threaded workflows, you are not likely to be pushing loads that saturate that single core anymore. Heavy loads are becoming more parallel as time goes on, but remain surprisingly niche. So if you aren't pushing parallel processing in your workflows, aren't pushing OpenCL, why are you paying extra for the Mac Pro? The cost/benefit ratio is pretty terrible there.
My newer CPUs are faster than my 2009 quad core for transcoding but for general use the MP is still faster. So, my point is that it is more complex than simple benchmarks
You have to define general use here. Is it multithreaded or not? Is it burning 100% of at least one core most/all of the time? What other hardware/software differences are at play (SSD, GPU, background apps)? Your own argument seems to indicate that the Mac Pro's benefits appear in certain scenarios, so to have you suddenly suggest it is in general use as well is a little contradictory.
And yes, it is more complex than simple benchmarks, but the reality is that the Core chips are capable enough that jumping to a Mac Pro for some more demanding workloads is no longer a no-brainer like it was 4-5 years ago.
The MP was always specialized, nothing new there.
Which ignores the key word here "more". They are becoming
more specialized as time goes on, meaning their niche is shrinking in the face of more capable CPUs in the Core line, high costs, and higher-speed connections that make it possible to run more drives externally without taking on a performance cost.
I could justify a 2008 Mac Pro when it came out for my workflow, but in 2013, the picture is quite different for the same workflow. That's why one little word can be so important.
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Yea I've been torn about the whole thing. Based on some testing, this 2009 MP gets beat by the maxed out iMac sometimes and other times not. The real setback here is the I/O on the Mac Pro. If I drop USB3 card in here I'll give it some new life, and a new GPU at some point, plus SSD, but you're talking about spending another $800 or so for all that. Not sure it's worth it.
Either way I've tried to be more conscious of what I need and don't need. Working in 1080p/2k primarily still, I can work on this machine with current specs and FW800 until it dies on me without it hurting my business. With that in mind I'm trying not to spend a dime lol. But man is it tempting!
If you work with external drives often enough, and the PCIe cards are fast enough, USB3 could still be a worthwhile upgrade for the price.
But I wouldn't pass on an SSD upgrade. Drives can always be repurposed later in some way or another, and you can get the benefit now
and later. My Mac Pro at the office doesn't have an SSD, and I'm made painfully aware of that fact every day as I work. Actually, since I still have an old Intel 80GB SSD floating around, I'm kinda tempted to install that at work and make it my OS drive. Hmm....
