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Next Apple machine ?

MILESF

Member
My question was really about the longer term and I don’t need to make any decision in the near future. That said the new Mac Mini would probably be the best option right now. It’s runs very quiet, it’s surprisingly powerful (to me at least). TB3 and the 10gigabit Ethernet option probably future proofs it somewhat also.
 

DougDolde

Well-known member
The biggest issue with the new Mac Pro is you dont get much performance
at the entry price. The graphics card is poor and the SSD quite small , and of course who wants a paltry 32 GB or ram?
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
The biggest issue with the new Mac Pro is you dont get much performance
at the entry price. The graphics card is poor and the SSD quite small , and of course who wants a paltry 32 GB or ram?
The biggest issue for me is that it's more or less as expensive as a 12" MacBook which is also around the same size and weight but comes with a proper keyboard and a full macOS.
 

f8orbust

Active member
I gave up waiting on Apple to upgrade their Mac Pro lineup. I still use a Macbook when I'm on the move, but my workstation is now a PC. The spec of 16 cores, 64GB ram, multiple SSDs, a graphics card the size of a small planet and the fact that it is easily upgradeable is hard to beat. Oh, and saving a few (actually, many) thousands of dollars gave me a nice, warm fuzzy feeling too.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
I tried windows on the laptop front and disliked it enough to take a big loss and go back to Mac. I would love an upgrade to my Mac Pro eventually, but as Doug says, the problem is as much what you get for the price as the price itself. If it was just 6000 dollars and extremely powerful, I might be able to swallow it, but when it is 6000 dollars on top of a few thousand more for graphics cards and storage, it starts to go from the realm of frustrating to unworkable.

I do run a photo business on my Mac, and I need my big Eizo monitor for working with clients and proofing, so I do not want to give that up to switch to an iMac. I do not want a multiple monitor setup. Meanwhile, I do shoot 4k video and deal with a lot of huge film scans, so I can appreciate the extra speed and graphics power of the faster computers. I wonder is the most powerful Mac Mini better for video and photos than a Mac Pro 2013? If so, how much?

Are we at the point that a maxed out Macbook Pro connected to an external display and RAID arrays is faster than the Mac Pro 2013?

I am curious to hear from people who know about this stuff...I know the kind of performance I want, but I do not know the best way to get it with a non-iMac Mac these days...
 

MGrayson

Subscriber and Workshop Member
Stuart,

You might consider an external GPU. I have no experience there, but it may be enough video processing power at a much lower price than a well-equipped Mac Pro.

I do no video, so a Macbook Pro or 2015 iMac are quite powerful enough.

Matt
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Stuart,

You might consider an external GPU. I have no experience there, but it may be enough video processing power at a much lower price than a well-equipped Mac Pro.

I do no video, so a Macbook Pro or 2015 iMac are quite powerful enough.

Matt
eGPU’s are a great alternative though you lose some performance due to the TB3 throughout bottleneck. A Mac Mini will almost assuredly require an eGPU for video and thankfully it can support two of them through the TB3 ports. Technically there are 4 TB3 ports but only two controllers which support one eGPU each. It’s the most logical option right now if you don’t want an iMac but the iMac probably packs a bit more performance though you’ll lose the T2 chip in the non-Pro iMac which the Mac Mini does indeed have. If you don’t use H.265/HEVC video then you may not see a difference though.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Who are you to think you can decide what’s best for you? I’d assume an informed consumer... you probably know what’s best for you better than Apple, Microsoft, etc. ...
Um, I can say what works for me best, but I can't do what you're doing and say what would be best for Apple to produce.

That’s different from saying that any of them can provide a suitable solution but even a suitable solution can be a compromise - even though it may work for you. ...
ALL of these things are compromises in one way or another.

I agree that the further differentiation/development of iPad OS from iOS is a huge thing. Makes me even happier that I decided to buy an iPad Pro 11" last year and sell the MacBook Air 13" that was just sitting around... The iPad Pro 11" with current iOS is already doing the number as my 98% use system. :D

G
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Um, I can say what works for me best, but I can't do what you're doing and say what would be best for Apple to produce.



ALL of these things are compromises in one way or another.

I agree that the further differentiation/development of iPad OS from iOS is a huge thing. Makes me even happier that I decided to buy an iPad Pro 11" last year and sell the MacBook Air 13" that was just sitting around... The iPad Pro 11" with current iOS is already doing the number as my 98% use system. :D

G
Different points of view I guess and that’s fine but if I don’t see my desires met I voice them. It’s still a “free” world... for now.

What i wont do is express loyalty or congratulations to a product that doesn’t fit my desires. I’m not accusing you of doing so but I’ve seen Apple struggle in the past with dictating to people what they SHOULD want prior to the iPod.
 

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
Thanks Joe. I have the late 2013 trashcan Mac Pro, depending primarily on the 6 Thunderbolt ports, 4 of them connected to converters and RAID enclosures from Firmtek. So, that gave me a reliable and high performance storage solution for the last decade, occasionally replacing eSATA hard drives with lighter capacity ones, currently utilizing 4 and 6 TB drives.

If replacing the 6 year old trashcan with a higher performance Mac computer, I would like to keep my storage setup, requiring a minimum of 4 Thunderbolt connections. What New Mac gear would support that? TIA.
 

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
The newer Macs (iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro) have USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) ports. Your 2013 Mac Pro has Thunderbolt 2 ports. You'll need a USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 "dongle" and/or a "hub" to get the connectivity you need. I swapped my drive enclosures to USB-C enclosures to avoid dongles, but it wasn't necessary given the availability of USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 dongles from Apple. BTW, I daisy chain the USB-C connections between drive enclosures. I also use a CalDigit dock/hub to add more ports and an SD card slot. One short cable from the computer to the dock/hub adds 15 additional ports of various kinds. Hope this helps.

Joe
Many thanks Joe for the excellent information, much appreciated. :thumbs:
The CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock/hub seems to me what I would need. :thumbs:
BTW which USB-C enclosures do you recommend for daisy chaining?
I use 28 hard drives and 4 external SSDs, all in 4-way RAIDs.

Thanks again, Karl-Heinz
 
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algrove

Well-known member
I wonder if those scales from Joe C are for default configurations direct from Apple.

If so then my OWC Aura Pro X2 has read/write around 1500+/1300+mb/s on a 2TB SSD. These things cost a bit over $600 now and sure gave my 2013 Mac Pro 8 core (64GB OWC RAM) enough extended life to sustain usage during IQ4150 file processing in C1 and PS where files sizes exceed 4GB without beach balls.

Guess I should try a geekbench test to get my numbers as configured above. Any hints in how to do that?
 

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
Many thanks Joe. Very interesting gear.
I am also looking at these

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1333586-REG/areca_arc_8050t3_8_8_bay_thunderbolt_3.html

Each one would give 6 slots for storage, 1 slot for redundancy, and 1 slot free standby - if I understand that right. So 36 TB +.

I am in no hurry to upgrade, certainly will wait until the fall.
Running Mac Pro (Late 2013) under macOS Mojave Version 10.14.3.
However, my machine never finishes updating to a newer version. :banghead:
I probably have to take it to an Apple genius to figure that one out. :facesmack:

At the moment I am more interested in what Jim Kasson will do with his Fuji GFX 100 when he hets it. :thumbup:
Also waiting for FW 6.0 for my Sony A9. :LOL:

Again many thanks for your help Joe.

With kind regards, Karl-Heinz.
 

DougDolde

Well-known member
OWC has some great upgrade deals for us Trash Can Mac Pro users.
I can get a 2 TB SSD stick for $620 and they'll give me $120 for the old 1 TB stick so $500 net.

Similarly I can upgrade my 32 GB of ram to 64 GB for $120 by buying two more 16 GB sticks. Not sure if I really even need to do that though.

I just don't think the new Mac Pro is a good fit for any photographer. It's more suited for editing high rez video and doing rendering in 3D applications.
 
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