iMac Pro Oh crap, I think I just ordered an iMac Pro

[sammyman]

I saw the sale on the new iMac for $4k from Microcenter and went out and bought this on a whim.

My current setup is:

3.2ghz 4-core iMac 1tb SSD, 5k 2015 with 32gb RAM

New setup is:

3.2ghz 8-core iMac 1tb SSD, 5k 2017 with 32gb RAM

So basically the same thing. I'd be more confident about the purchase if I was a video editor, but this is primarily used for Lightroom and Photoshop. I use Final Cut Pro and Logic for home projects, but use it for photography professionally. We process huge amounts of raw photos from a Canon 5d Mark IV every week.

I'm excited for read / write speeds to go from 700mbs to 3000mbs. Also excited about the 10gb ethernet, although I currently use Thunderbolt 3 to connect to external storage. 10gb ethernet gives expandable potential down the road. I am also excited that I can use my 5k LG as a second monitor.

I'm not excited that even on sale, this is a $4k machine with very similar specs. Planning on selling my old iMac for around $2k to help justify the purchase.

Will I see a big difference in Lightroom and Photoshop? Or will I regret this purchase even more?

 

[Fuchal]

Considering the geekbench of the slowest imac pro is 3X higher than the imac you have, twice the CPU cores (and each core is much faster), the striped SSD raid, faster ram, faster video, I don't see how the specs are similar at all.

 

[jerwin]

double the cores and a faster graphics card? If you find yourself waiting on your mac. and your software can take advantage of more cores, the iMacPro will make a difference.

 

[sammyman]

Considering the geekbench of the slowest imac pro is 3X higher than the imac you have, twice the CPU cores (and each core is much faster), the striped SSD raid, faster ram, faster video, I don't see how the specs are similar at all.

Single core benchmark goes from a 4386 to a 5016 on an iMac Pro. I don't know how many cores Lightroom and Photoshop use, but I don't think it's 3x with full multicore usage like geekbench suggests.

Striped raid SSD is interesting. I'll have to read about that. Didn't know that was a thing for the new iMac Pro. I just knew the read / write speeds have gone way up.

I guess I'm saying for single core applications, the specs are similar in that the processor is about the same at 3.2ghz. Maybe the difference is greater than I'm anticipating.

 

[burgman]

Read some of the reviews depending on software used it can be slower. Single core performance is not what the pro was designed for. It can be a nice toy, so that’s worth something

 

[Digital Skunk]

The biggest benefit you'll have is later on down the road. Two or three years from now your iMac Pro won't be a slouch. Right now, you're not going to see too much of a speed boost unless you're moving many hundreds of GBs of data from the OS disk to an external connected through TB3.

Photoshop and Lightroom don't take up as much processing power as they used to.

 

[BigBagaroo]

I bought my iMac Pro on Monday, and I love it. Base model with no extras.

What a machine! Absolutely silent so far, event with two virtual machines running. My best purchase since the Amiga 500

Hopefully I can get rid of most of the Windows VMs when all my customers are on .NET Core, but really, multiple VMs is not a PITA on this computer.

The screen is amazing, and I’m so happy I didn’t go for laptop with generix external monitor.

 

[sammyman]

The biggest benefit you'll have is later on down the road. Two or three years from now your iMac Pro won't be a slouch. Right now, you're not going to see too much of a speed boost unless you're moving many hundreds of GBs of data from the OS disk to an external connected through TB3.

Photoshop and Lightroom don't take up as much processing power as they used to.

Ok, this is what I was thinking. I do move hundreds of GBs of data to an external RAID with 24TB. However, normally I process on the boot drive, then every 3 months or so, move pics to an external RAID. So it's not every day. I may edit home videos etc on the external drive... We'll see.

So more future proof as applications turn to multi-core... Got it.

 

[CWallace]

I don't need that level of performance, but considering that an iMac 5K with the i7, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD and Radeon Pro 580 is $3700, why wouldn't you spend $300 more for the iMac Pro if you could get it for the $3999 price Microcenter is offering. If nothing else the thing will be far quieter.

 

[sammyman]

I don't need that level of performance, but considering that an iMac 5K with the i7, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD and Radeon Pro 580 is $3700, why wouldn't you spend $300 more for the iMac Pro if you could get it for the $3999 price Microcenter is offering. If nothing else the thing will be far quieter.

That’s a great point. Makes me feel better about the purchase.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Photoshop and Lightroom prefer faster clocks over more cores. Do you know what the boost clocks are for both CPUs? I suspect with the higher thermal headroom on the the IMP, you will likely see more sustained boost clocks. The other major factor is the much faster storage. Should be nice for RAW handling. My old cMP in my sig takes 3-4 seconds to zoom on a 20MP RAW, you shouldn't have that problem!

Just checked, and your 2015 iMac boosts to 3.6GHz max, while the 8-Core Xeon boosts to 4.5GHz. I think you'll see some improved single thread scores!

 

[potatis]

Is there a 9-core?

 

[CWallace]

Photoshop and Lightroom prefer faster clocks over more cores. Do you know what the boost clocks are for both CPUs?

For the 8-core iMac Pro, it's 3.2GHz base clock and 4.2GHz Turbo.
For the 4-core i7 iMac, it's 3.8GHz base and 4.2GHz Turbo.

Is there a 9-core?

No. They meant 8-core.

 

[potatis]

For the 8-core iMac Pro, it's 3.2GHz base clock and 4.2GHz Turbo.
For the 4-core i7 iMac, it's 3.8GHz base and 4.2GHz Turbo.




No. They meant 8-core.

Oh ok. Was thinking the T2 chip counted in as a core, or something.

 

[OBirder]

Photoshop and Lightroom prefer faster clocks over more cores.

Where is this coming from?

Here my activity monitor when I import RAW files on my 10 core iMac Pro with Lightroom Classic CC:


Looks and feels that Lightroom is using all 10 cores nicely.

While still importing and rendering 1:1 preview I can start working on developing. On my prior Windows based 6 core I7 Processor I had to wait an 1 hour or 2 to finish rendering since I basically couldn't work in the develop module at the same time.

 

[phobos]

For almost the same amount of money you got a far better machine.
Thermally the iMac Pro is so much better than the regular retina iMac Pro. Meaning a much quieter machine on all operations, and internals that are not close to frying when pushed to the limits.
That alone should be enough reason to upgrade. And that’s without even counting double the CPU power and the so much better graphics output.
Since I assume a) you could afford buying the computer without going in to debt and b) you’re going to recoup some of the money by selling the older computer I would say it was a good purchase.
You probably shouldn’t be so impulsive when it comes to purchases that require big sums of money but that’s a different topic!

 

[propower]

The new iMac Pro 8 core would run more than 4X the # of Audio Plugins than my i5 imac 2017. Only reason I don't jump on that is that I still only use 60% at most of my current machine! But if i had a MicroCenter Nearby - for $4K I would switch... LOL...

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Congratulations on picking one up for $3,999. That is huge! It's a great deal and you will have zero regrets.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

For the 8-core iMac Pro, it's 3.2GHz base clock and 4.2GHz Turbo.
For the 4-core i7 iMac, it's 3.8GHz base and 4.2GHz Turbo.




No. They meant 8-core.

According to everymac, the 2015 5K iMac that has the base 3.2GHz the OP mentions is the i5-6500 model, which Intel says boosts to 3.6GHz.
The IMP 8-core uses the Xeon W-2145. Intel claims it boosts to 4.7GHz, though it looks like Apple doesn't allow it to get that high. From what I can tell, it may only hit 4.2GHz briefly, and 3.9GHz seems more likely under heavy loads.

Where is this coming from?

Here my activity monitor when I import RAW files on my 10 core iMac Pro with Lightroom Classic CC:

View attachment 747727
Looks and feels that Lightroom is using all 10 cores nicely.

While still importing and rendering 1:1 preview I can start working on developing. On my prior Windows based 6 core I7 Processor I had to wait an 1 hour or 2 to finish rendering since I basically couldn't work in the develop module at the same time.

Sorry, I guess that comment wasn't very clear, as those programs will use multiple cores, but they also appreciate fast clocks in some circumstances. I was referring more to when you're actually manually developing, which doesn't load the cores, but does give them the opportunity to hit their max clocks. I didn't realize it would load that many CPUs when importing a large batch, but it makes sense, especially given the IMP's super-fast storage. Another factor is having GPU acceleration, which really takes the load off the CPUs in some circumstances.

 

[CWallace]

The IMP 8-core uses the Xeon W-2145. Intel claims it boosts to 4.7GHz, though it looks like Apple doesn't allow it to get that high. From what I can tell, it may only hit 4.2GHz briefly, and 3.9GHz seems more likely under heavy loads.

Yes Intel makes custom "B" series Xeons in at least the 8-core and 10-core models that have slightly lower clock speeds (the 14-core and 18-core models do not, so they may not be "B" series).

Per John Siracusa's discussion with an Apple representative, the reason the W-2140B and W-2150B are lower-clocked is because they have some functionality that supposedly is not in the "retail" W-2145 and W-2155 version, though it appears the W-2155 at least does. As the iMac Pro's fans never seem to speed up regardless of the load, it might also be to keep the thermal load low enough so that the fan speed does not increase to a noticeable level as might be the case if they were clocked at the same speed as the W-2145 and W-2155.

 

[sammyman]

Yes Intel makes custom "B" series Xeons in at least the 8-core and 10-core models that have slightly lower clock speeds (the 14-core and 18-core models do not, so they may not be "B" series).

Per John Siracusa's discussion with an Apple representative, the reason the W-2145B and W-2155B are lower-clocked is because they have some functionality that supposedly is not in the "retail" version, though it appears the W-2155 at least does. As the iMac Pro's fans never seem to speed up regardless of the load, it might also be to keep the thermal load low enough so that the fan speed does not increase to a noticeable level as might be the case if they were clocked at the same speed as the W-2145 and W-2155.

Do we know if these B chips are in the iMac pro? If so, I wonder if they could be over clocked, not that i’d ever do that.

 

[CWallace]

Do we know if these B chips are in the iMac pro? If so, I wonder if they could be over clocked, not that i’d ever do that.

Yes folks have run System Report and Geekbench and the CPU ID returns W-2140B for the 8-core and W-2150B for the 10-core. The "retail" models are W-2145 and W-2155.

As to overclocking, the multiplier is locked on I believe all Xeons so you would have to increase the base clock and that is not worth it as you won't get much performance gain and it introduces instability.

 

[pier]

So basically the same thing

Um what?

Double CPU multithreading performance and triple GPU performance is "basically the same thing"?

 

[sammyman]

Um what?

Double CPU multithreading performance and triple GPU performance is "basically the same thing"?

You’re right. What I was trying to say is for Lightroom and Photoshop, I’ve read that they are mostly single core applications. In this case, it’s only a slight bump in cpu, and slightly faster ram. But I’ve learned a lot from this thread and think the upgrade will be substatial. I’m excited.
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You probably shouldn’t be so impulsive when it comes to purchases that require big sums of money but that’s a different topic!

I just had to comment on this, because you’re right. I am impulsive. I have some rules that work for me. First of all, if I can make money on any purchase, I’ll always say yes.

Now I’m not “making money” on this, but it is for a business and is a nice write off. Next, it’s 20% off a brand new Apple computer. Tempting. But the crazy thing is that some people sell the keyboards and mice in space grey for $800-1000 on eBay since you can’t buy them separately.

So, I’ll sell my iMac ($2k) and I think I’ll sell the keyboard and mouse ($800), meaning the upgrade will be around $1600).

I also have 30 days to return it if I feel the upgrade isn’t noticeable or worth it. So no risk for now.

Lastly, $4k isn’t really a big sum of money to some people. It’s all relative I suppose.

Because it’s for a business, I think I’ll be happy for a few years to come. Next purchase will most likely be the 2nd revision of the new Mac Pro assuming they create nice apple cinemas to go with it.

 

[BeatCrazy]

So, I’ll sell my iMac ($2k) and I think I’ll sell the keyboard and mouse ($800), meaning the upgrade will be around $1600).

Nothing wrong with your strategy, but the space gray keyboard/mouse combo prices are falling, quickly. Expect to only get $300 after eBay/paypal fees.