Switch from MacBook Pro 15" + LG 27" Ultrafine 5k to iMac 27"

[fpenta]

Hi guys,

I'm a landscape photographer and currently using a MacBook Pro 2018 i9, 32GB, 1TB SSD and Vega 20 with LG Ultrafine 27" 5K in clamshell mode when I'm not traveling and editing on my desk.
I find this configuration useful but not the best for my needs.

I understand that it's very convenient to have one laptop to travel with and once home attach it to the 27" 5k and work with a large display BUT:

1) When traveling, everything can happen and I'm always worried that something can happen (get robbed, drop it, lose it etc..) and with a machine this fragile and expensive is a real concern.

2) I realize that when I'm traveling I don't need the maximum power.

3) I'm not 100% satisfied with the performance of the MacBook Pro when it's in clamshell mode driving the LG 5k Ultrafine when I work with LR and PS. The MacBook Pro starts to be super hot and noisy.

SO, I'm thinking to:

1) Buy an iMac 27" 8 core, 1TB, Vega 48, and upgrade the RAM by myself to 64GB
2) Buy an "inexpensive" MacBook Pro 13" for traveling
3) Sell the MacBook Pro 2018
4) Sell the LG Ultrafine 5K.

I think this is going to cost a little bit but it's the best configuration for my needs.

Now, I'm not sure if WAIT for an iMac refresh (since I don't need it right now), or buy the 2019 one.
The problem of waiting is that the resale value of my MacBook Pro 2018 will be worse.

What do you suggest me?

Thanks a lot

 

[Florida Gator]

I dig having a dedicated desktop that's really good at being powerful and a dedicated laptop that's really good at being portable.

If I were you, here's what I'd do:

1. Keep my 15" MacBook Pro and LG Ultrafine 5K display...for now.

2. Buy myself a Blackmagic or Blackmagic Pro eGPU. Those are the only ones that work with your monitor without hacks. They'll shift the graphical burden off of your MacBook Pro, improve performance, and reduce that fan noise annoyance.

3. Get an external drive for local Time Machine backup and sign up for Backblaze for cloud backup. So should you get robbed or lose your laptop, you'd have all your files somewhere.

4. When Apple announces the next standard iMac model in the next 6-18 months, sell everything and upgrade to that. Why? Because it'll likely come with improved cooling, a better screen, and possibly Face ID. And also by that time, they'll probably also have a MacBook without the terrible butterfly keyboard.

 

[Ledgem]

Since you already have the Ultrafine, why get an iMac instead of the Mac mini 2018? The Mac mini lineup was neglected for years but the 2018 refresh gave it some serious hardware again. The only real advantage of the iMac for you is the graphics chip being stronger than the integrated Intel graphics on the Mac mini, but if you're not opposed to getting a Blackmagic Pro (or rigging your own eGPU) then the performance should be the same, or possibly better depending on what graphics chip you go with (particularly future options). Reports are that the integrated Intel GPU isn't exactly a slouch, either, and is capable of dealing with single 4K video streams without difficulty.

In theory the other advantage of an iMac is getting that 5K display along with the system, but as you already have an Ultrafine that is a sunk cost for you. There is no benefit to an iMac display over the Ultrafine; if anything, you'll be forced to "re-purchase" the display every time you upgrade your iMac, compared with just changing boxes that are connected to an unchanging display.

I'd also second the suggestion for off-site backups. I favor Backblaze but there are other services as well. It's nice peace of mind that guards against more than just theft.

 

[fpenta]

I dig having a dedicated desktop that's really good at being powerful and a dedicated laptop that's really good at being portable.

If I were you, here's what I'd do:

1. Keep my 15" MacBook Pro and LG Ultrafine 5K display...for now.

2. Buy myself a Blackmagic or Blackmagic Pro eGPU. Those are the only ones that work with your monitor without hacks. They'll shift the graphical burden off of your MacBook Pro, improve performance, and reduce that fan noise annoyance.

3. Get an external drive for local Time Machine backup and sign up for Backblaze for cloud backup. So should you get robbed or lose your laptop, you'd have all your files somewhere.

4. When Apple announces the next standard iMac model in the next 6-18 months, sell everything and upgrade to that. Why? Because it'll likely come with improved cooling, a better screen, and possibly Face ID. And also by that time, they'll probably also have a MacBook without the terrible butterfly keyboard.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions! I actually like this temporary scenario a lot. I have heard of people using the Blackmagic Egpu and gaining zero or worse boost tho. Maybe in the meantime there has been a software update? Would you suggest the Standard one or the Pro version?

Since you already have the Ultrafine, why get an iMac instead of the Mac mini 2018? The Mac mini lineup was neglected for years but the 2018 refresh gave it some serious hardware again. The only real advantage of the iMac for you is the graphics chip being stronger than the integrated Intel graphics on the Mac mini, but if you're not opposed to getting a Blackmagic Pro (or rigging your own eGPU) then the performance should be the same, or possibly better depending on what graphics chip you go with (particularly future options). Reports are that the integrated Intel GPU isn't exactly a slouch, either, and is capable of dealing with single 4K video streams without difficulty.

In theory the other advantage of an iMac is getting that 5K display along with the system, but as you already have an Ultrafine that is a sunk cost for you. There is no benefit to an iMac display over the Ultrafine; if anything, you'll be forced to "re-purchase" the display every time you upgrade your iMac, compared with just changing boxes that are connected to an unchanging display.

I'd also second the suggestion for off-site backups. I favor Backblaze but there are other services as well. It's nice peace of mind that guards against more than just theft.

This is a good solution too. I might want to wait the next Mac mini upgrade maybe with 8 cores and buy now the egpu. In both scenario you are suggesting to buy the Blackmagic. I don’t know if using the LG in clamshell mode with the Blackmagic standard version would be enough or get the Pro instead.


EDIT:
I actually found this user with my similar situation and seems that in LR and PS using the Blackmagic standard helps a lot.

A Photographer's Experience with BlackMagic EGPU

My wife owns a 2016 maxed-out 13" MBP and loves the compact size for air travel. She also has an LG 5K monitor, which she plugs into at home for image editing and general computing. She's been shooting a Nikon D850 for close to 2 years now, and processing the RAW files in Lightroom and Photoshop...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Fishrrman]

I agree with most of your original plan.

Sell the over-equipped MBP you have now.
Get a 27" iMac for home -and- a more "basic" 13" MBP for the road.

Sounds pretty good.

TIP:
DO NOT pay Apple for 64gb of RAM in the iMac (they OVERcharge).
Buy the basic 8gb and then add more yourself. Much cheaper that way.

Also... you'll want an iMac with an SSD inside, but don't pay for more than 512gb.
Get the 512 and add an external SSD yourself (again, much cheaper) for your photo archives.

 

[Florida Gator]

Thanks a lot for your suggestions! I actually like this temporary scenario a lot. I have heard of people using the Blackmagic Egpu and gaining zero or worse boost tho. Maybe in the meantime there has been a software update? Would you suggest the Standard one or the Pro version?

From what I gather, there's really not a ton of performance benefit from eGPUs for most professional tools, because surprisingly, very few are GPU intensive.

I think the primary benefit of the eGPU in this scenario is powering your 5K display. Right now, your MacBook Pro's internal GPU is running pretty hard and hot, and the little fans in the laptop are doing everything they can to keep up. If you offload that to an external device, one with a much better fan (and possibly more power), then your MacBook isn't going to get pegged as hard. What I'd do is put the eGPU under your desk our out of the way so it just sort of disappears from your setup.

 

[fpenta]

From what I gather, there's really not a ton of performance benefit from eGPUs for most professional tools, because surprisingly, very few are GPU intensive.

I think the primary benefit of the eGPU in this scenario is powering your 5K display. Right now, your MacBook Pro's internal GPU is running pretty hard and hot, and the little fans in the laptop are doing everything they can to keep up. If you offload that to an external device, one with a much better fan (and possibly more power), then your MacBook isn't going to get pegged as hard. What I'd do is put the eGPU under your desk our out of the way so it just sort of disappears from your setup.

This morning I picked up the BlackMagic egpu for testing. I actually noticed a slightly worse performance in photoshop, and no difference in noise. I think it really makes a difference with a 13" but not with the already capable Vega 20 of the 15".
At this point I will return the egpu and wait until the next iMac update.

 

[Ledgem]

This morning I picked up the BlackMagic egpu for testing. I actually noticed a slightly worse performance in photoshop, and no difference in noise. I think it really makes a difference with a 13" but not with the already capable Vega 20 of the 15".
At this point I will return the egpu and wait until the next iMac update.

Some programs need to specifically be told to use the eGPU over the internal one, although I can't recall if Photoshop was one of them. Either way, I don't know that the BlackMagic would make much of a difference for your current MacBook Pro. You'd probably need to use the BlackMagic Pro to see the difference, if there was much of one for your applications.

 

[fpenta]

Some programs need to specifically be told to use the eGPU over the internal one, although I can't recall if Photoshop was one of them. Either way, I don't know that the BlackMagic would make much of a difference for your current MacBook Pro. You'd probably need to use the BlackMagic Pro to see the difference, if there was much of one for your applications.

Unfortunately I think getting the Pro version wouldn’t be worth it anyway since here in Europe it retails for The crazy price of €1400 (more than $1500).

 

[Zandros]

Since you already have the Ultrafine, why get an iMac instead of the Mac mini 2018? The Mac mini lineup was neglected for years but the 2018 refresh gave it some serious hardware again. The only real advantage of the iMac for you is the graphics chip being stronger than the integrated Intel graphics on the Mac mini, but if you're not opposed to getting a Blackmagic Pro (or rigging your own eGPU) then the performance should be the same, or possibly better depending on what graphics chip you go with (particularly future options). Reports are that the integrated Intel GPU isn't exactly a slouch, either, and is capable of dealing with single 4K video streams without difficulty.

In theory the other advantage of an iMac is getting that 5K display along with the system, but as you already have an Ultrafine that is a sunk cost for you. There is no benefit to an iMac display over the Ultrafine; if anything, you'll be forced to "re-purchase" the display every time you upgrade your iMac, compared with just changing boxes that are connected to an unchanging display.

I'd also second the suggestion for off-site backups. I favor Backblaze but there are other services as well. It's nice peace of mind that guards against more than just theft.

Did you spec out the machines? A 6-core Mac mini with 512 GB SSD is $1499 plus the Blackmagic Pro eGPU at $1199. Total $2698.

The top end iMac with a 512 GB SSD and Vega 48 is $2849.

For those $150 you get a Magic Mouse, a Magic Trackpad, another 0.7 GHz on the CPU and a much more elegant solution on the desktop.

You lose some raw GPU power, but that might be a wash considering eGPUs seem to lose some performance because of Thunderbolt.

You can of course upgrade the CPU on the Mini a bit, but it's still not close to the iMac and that brings the price to even.

So, since the price is approximately a wash, you get a "free" 27" display with the iMac, so you can run two displays or sell the LG for at least a few hundred dollars.

The Mac mini is simply not cost-competetive it for high-end desktop use cases. It should be used for cases where an iMac can't be used or where you need a very low-end solution and a laptop won't do.

 

[fpenta]

So I went ahead and ordered the new iMac 2019 with i9, Vega 48, 1TB and 64GB of Ram that I will add by myself.

After a lot of research I realized that this model could potentially be the last one that Apple sells for a reasonable price. Also the option that the Ram is user expandable to 128GB makes it so convenient and future proof .
I really don’t care much about the bezels. I think they create a good separation between what’s behind the screen.

I also discovered that LR and PS don’t take advantage of more than 8 cores, so the future upgrades are not going to be a huge improvement for my needs.

Going to sell my MacBook Pro 15” and buy a base 13” For traveling. The performance on the just updated base model 2019 look amazing.

Going to lose around a thousand $ in selling the LG Ultrafine 5K, MacBook Pro 15” 2018 and buying the iMac and MacBook Pro 13”.
Quite a great deal IMO!

 

[Ledgem]

Did you spec out the machines? A 6-core Mac mini with 512 GB SSD is $1499 plus the Blackmagic Pro eGPU at $1199. Total $2698.

The top end iMac with a 512 GB SSD and Vega 48 is $2849.

For those $150 you get a Magic Mouse, a Magic Trackpad, another 0.7 GHz on the CPU and a much more elegant solution on the desktop.

You lose some raw GPU power, but that might be a wash considering eGPUs seem to lose some performance because of Thunderbolt.

You can of course upgrade the CPU on the Mini a bit, but it's still not close to the iMac and that brings the price to even.

So, since the price is approximately a wash, you get a "free" 27" display with the iMac, so you can run two displays or sell the LG for at least a few hundred dollars.

The Mac mini is simply not cost-competetive it for high-end desktop use cases. It should be used for cases where an iMac can't be used or where you need a very low-end solution and a laptop won't do.

Good analysis, and I'd like to offer some counter-points.

First, the BlackMagic Pro isn't your only option. Using an Akitio Node Duo you can install another Thunderbolt controller as well as a graphics card, which gives you the same capabilities as the BlackMagic Pro but is cheaper and allows you to swap out the graphics card in the future, if you'd want. Admittedly I haven't seen the two benchmarked against each other, but people have posted working examples showing that it should work the same (monitor connected directly to the eGPU enclosure and all). This shouldn't be overly difficult to set up and has an element of future-proofing that the BlackMagic Pro lacks.

Second, the point of the display is a blessing and a curse. As a single, one-time purchase, the iMacs do represent a good value for the screen. Over the course of multiple upgrades, however, that cost adds up. It's also another point of failure. My iMac isn't even five years old and I have about four incredibly small insects underneath the glass of my screen, in addition to the pink fringing at the edges that represents impending display failure for retina iMacs. I bought AppleCare but I'm outside of that window. Repairs for the display would be about $600-800. This computer still has a lot of life left in it but the display has become a bit of a nuisance. Replacing with another iMac would be much more expensive compared with just buying another monitor, which is what I'd be doing if I had a Mac mini with the same system specifications.

This was my first iMac, and I largely went with it because the Mac mini wasn't properly updated at the time that I needed to make a purchase. Given my experiences with this display, and the fact that the current Mac mini is quite nice, this will likely be my last iMac. The only situation I'd consider differently would likely be if I'm doing my upgrade three or more years from now and Apple is still selling the 2018 Mac mini as the most updated version.

 

[Zandros]

Good analysis, and I'd like to offer some counter-points.

First, the BlackMagic Pro isn't your only option. Using an Akitio Node Duo you can install another Thunderbolt controller as well as a graphics card, which gives you the same capabilities as the BlackMagic Pro but is cheaper and allows you to swap out the graphics card in the future, if you'd want. Admittedly I haven't seen the two benchmarked against each other, but people have posted working examples showing that it should work the same (monitor connected directly to the eGPU enclosure and all). This shouldn't be overly difficult to set up and has an element of future-proofing that the BlackMagic Pro lacks.

I agree, and I wouldn't buy the BlackMagic Pro if I was getting an eGPU. From reading the Mac mini forum here though, the Mac mini seems troublesome enough already that I'm loath to add the extra troubles from a custom eGPU. The added noise and clutter on my desk is also disagreeable. All in all, it's not what I want from my Apple experience.

Second, the point of the display is a blessing and a curse. As a single, one-time purchase, the iMacs do represent a good value for the screen. Over the course of multiple upgrades, however, that cost adds up. It's also another point of failure. My iMac isn't even five years old and I have about four incredibly small insects underneath the glass of my screen, in addition to the pink fringing at the edges that represents impending display failure for retina iMacs. I bought AppleCare but I'm outside of that window. Repairs for the display would be about $600-800. This computer still has a lot of life left in it but the display has become a bit of a nuisance. Replacing with another iMac would be much more expensive compared with just buying another monitor, which is what I'd be doing if I had a Mac mini with the same system specifications.

The current iMac display is problematic in terms of ingress protection. It's partially why I'm holding off on buying one. On the other hand, it is possible to run an external display off the iMac as well, and it's worth pointing out that the replacing an LG UltraFine out of warranty would still be more expensive than repairing/replacing the iMac's display.

Sadly, the options for external monitors with the same PPI as the iMac displays are slim. However, if you don't want 220 PPI the Mac mini can be more compelling.

 

[Ledgem]

The added noise and clutter on my desk is also disagreeable. All in all, it's not what I want from my Apple experience.

Fair point. eGPUs have come a long way but aren't foolproof at this point; it remains to be seen how macOS Catalina will handle them, or if the version after will be the one that makes them closer to flawless.

The current iMac display is problematic in terms of ingress protection. It's partially why I'm holding off on buying one. On the other hand, it is possible to run an external display off the iMac as well, and it's worth pointing out that the replacing an LG UltraFine out of warranty would still be more expensive than repairing/replacing the iMac's display.

True points, and in preparation for moving away from iMacs I actually did snag a used 27" Ultrafine at a nice price. It's not really possible to outright replace the iMac screen with another, so I use them in a dual-display pairing, and hopefully I won't get so used to two 27" screens that I'd be hunting for a second 27" Ultrafine when I do actually make the move!

Cost still gets tricky here. You're right that Apple's quoted cost for repairing the iMac's internal display is cheaper than buying another Ultrafine (although the used one that I bought actually fell within that range). However, the trouble is that the display is still tied to the computer.

As an example of my reasoning, I expect that I could theoretically get another 2-5 years of usage out of my iMac (assuming the display holds up and there are no other hardware failures) before newer hardware became too compelling to ignore, but would even $600 be worth it to make the display perfect again? That's already practically halfway toward the Mac mini configuration I'd want to buy, and because there is no longer a Target Display mode for iMacs, the display repairs would essentially be wasted money once the entire iMac were replaced. It's a good value if your display has completely failed and you're still early on in the life of your iMac, but my situation is one of the worst: mid-life iMac with a display that works well but is now far from perfect. If the display were totally separate from the computer then this would be a non-issue, because I wouldn't be worrying about the display going unused once the internals were replaced.

 

[fpenta]

Today I received the iMac 2019. It's an absolute beast. The performance is incredible. And is damn SILENT! I don't know why people is saying that the cooling system needs to be updated.

I have never had an iMac and I can feel the design looks a little bit outdated. I really wish it had the adjustable height just like the LG 5K. It really is too short on the desk!

Overall very happy with the performance!

The screen is definitely much better than the LG 5K. I really don't think is the same panel of the iMac. I'm attaching the pictures of both the LG and iMac on a black screen. Look at that backlight bleed on the LG! The photo wasn't even taken in full dark.