Question for Poser users with Mac Pros (and/or 5K iMacs)

[Hirakata]

For the past 4 years, I've been using a 2011 27" 3.4 GHz iMac (32GB RAM, 512GB 840 Pro). It serves me well, but as my Poser scenes get larger and more complex (I render static scenes, no animation), renders now take quite a bit of time. So I’ve been mulling a possible upgrade.

While I use Poser a lot (for entertainment purposes, not business), I also work in Photoshop with rendered images, and game via Bootcamp. (Used to be a “Gamer”, but not much anymore. Now I might average an hour or two a day…)

Here are the options I was thinking of:

Buying (from eBay) an upgraded cMP (5,1, 12 Core, 3.46 GHz) which I would then upgrade with a PCIe card for SSDs and a nice video card. Final price would be between $3900 and $4600, depending on the video card. (A monitor would be an additional cost.)

Another option would be buying a new nMP (6 Core, 1TB) for $4800. (I’d probably wait for the next Rev., and a monitor would be an additional cost.)

A third would be a 5K iMac (1TB SSD, 295X) for $3600.

Again, the main reasons would be for rendering, Photoshop, and some (graphic intensive) gaming.

TBH, the choice is really between the cMP and the nMP. The iMac was really just an afterthought. Would it be worth buying a 5-ish year old cMP? Will it still be a beast in 5 years? Or do you think the nMP would suffice? And will that too still be a beast in 5 years?

Ideas? Suggestions? Advice?

 

[dorsal]

If by "c" you mean "cheese grater", I like the joke.
Seriously, it doesn't sound like you upgrade much. (not a problem)
My concern with not upgrading often is that software is progressing faster than hardware nowadays.
I would be concerned than your cMP would not run the current OS X in the next few years vs a newer Vader Mac which should be compatible for a few years more than the cMP.
How about a refurb Vader Mac? I've been eying the
3.5GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5
16GB memory
512GB PCIe-based flash storage
Dual AMD FirePro D500 graphics processors with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM each
for $3649 for some time. You save about $900 over new and I'm hoping it drops more when (if) the machine is updated.

 

[wheelhot]

If rendering, I guess you're referring to 3D render?

So then you got not much option except Nvidia cards (that'll rule out the nMP) unless your renderer makes use or will make use of Metal/OpenCL either now or in the near future then the nMP will be a better pick.