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Anybody Considering a Mac Pro ..How to Configure ?

rriley

Member
Macs have always been pricey but the OS and hardware reliability justify their price to me. I ordered one in the first few minutes after the Apple store listed them and am expecting the computer this week. The monitors are not coming until early February.


Here's your new Mac.

Mac Pro
Hardware:

3.2GHz 16‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
192GB (6x32GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
4TB SSD storage
Radeon Pro Vega II Duo with 2x32GB of HBM2 memory
Stainless steel frame with feet
Magic Mouse 2
Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English
Accessory Kit

Software:

macOS
Photos, iMovie, GarageBand
Pages, Numbers, Keynote
 

ndwgolf

Active member
I looked at it yesterday and I want one..............I chatted on Mac rumens and got a bunch of feed back. I’ve decided on getting this spec with the plan to upgrade RAM and Memory at a later date. I will also get the monitor as well.
Neil
Thank god for the internet. One of the guys on the Mac Rumers forum suggested I upgrade my own CPU with a new one from OWC. I've just ordered a 12 core 3.46 CPU along with 128GB of ram all for $1400 bucks....... Hopefully I will see a difference in the speed especially when using Photoshop and Phocus.
Neil
 

RLB

Member
Macs have always been pricey but the OS and hardware reliability justify their price to me. I ordered one in the first few minutes after the Apple store listed them and am expecting the computer this week. The monitors are not coming until early February.


Here's your new Mac.

Mac Pro
Hardware:

3.2GHz 16‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
192GB (6x32GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
4TB SSD storage
Radeon Pro Vega II Duo with 2x32GB of HBM2 memory
Stainless steel frame with feet
Magic Mouse 2
Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English
Accessory Kit

Software:

macOS
Photos, iMovie, GarageBand
Pages, Numbers, Keynote

Its lots of fun spending other peoples money for sure! The government lives for it.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Digital Transitions (Doug Peterson ) has just published a series of recommendations on MacPro configurations . Aimed specifically at Capture One Users might require .

GPU speed will be increasingly important as software such as C1 relies on the GPU configuration for high computational algorithms .

Storage I/O speeds ..more important than decisions on storage sizes . Just buying a fast SSD does not always yield fast I/O if the port is slow (e.g. PCIE ,Thunderbolt 3 ,Thunderbolt 2 ,USB 3.1 ) The interface speed may throttle the fast SSD . This can also impact your ability to utilize faster clock speeds in an upgraded CPU .

Memory ....the article seems to discard the needs for focus stacking and panos . This makes little sense to me as many gains in image quality are coming from blending multiple exposures . 64 GB maybe enough for C1 on a single capture but not enough for focus stacking or even some panos . My take is if you are spending this kind of money you get 196GB .


Core ..no question that a 12 core machine is enough ....FOR NOW...but you buy a MacPro for a longterm solution . My bet is 16 core is a better starting point .

EIZO verse new 6K display ...comparing the Eizo to the iMac glossy 5K doesn t seem to be a best verse best comparison . This one will need to play out as the 6K matte version of the Apple display becomes available . The EIZO is clearly all you should need but I am not convinced that its clearly better .
 

JeRuFo

Active member
Although my desktop needs replacing I'm now actually considering going the other way and try an Ipad Pro with Adobe's offerings for a while. The reasoning being that I can do the initial culling and basic editing on the road and then give it a second glance at home and do the final tweaks and more difficult editing steps. I shoot low volume, although I'm not as good at it with digital and then shoot more to be safe. If I can ditch all those extra shots on location or shortly after my workflow becomes much more streamlined and my need for a super multicore beast might be gone, because I chopped the editing into a lot of smaller pieces. The Ipad can't handle all files from a trip at once, but there is so much downtime for it in the field that even though it imports files slowly, that's not really a problem, it can do that on the way back to my accommodation/home. And doing some initial editing the same evening with a glass on the couch the same evening sounds appealing (plus it helps me foxus on what I still want to shoot on the trip and what I already have.) It won't be easy leaving C1 literally behind for the time being, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for now.

As for others a Mac Pro would be overkill and not even the fastest solution, let alone for that price. It is nice that someone has thought out how to optimize transfer and processing speeds, but a custom Windows build with someone on standby that comes in a few times a year to troubleshoot bottle necks and software issues would still be cheaper and more convenient and even easier to upgrade down the road.
 

JeRuFo

Active member
With regards to configuration the GPU would be the biggest problem for photographers. The base offering seems a little light when driving multiple monitors and software with hardware acceleration, but the next one up seems overkill. They all seem to be aimed (like the rest of the hardware) at video work.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Almost any technology you purchase today ...can expect ever increasing requirements. What in your work could drive these requirements?

In my case .....I do not expect to be able to significantly increase my digital captures . I have been as high as 20K captures with my M10 s in a year ..if I get 15K this year I will be quite happy . I have 200K images in my LR catalog . I expect that my file sizes will double going forward as I use my SL2 and S3 for more of my work .

Increased raw conversion computations ....expect that further quality will be available from both C1 and LR/Photoshop with dedicated . The software will be using the GPU s for this .

Multishot techniques ..be it focus stacking ,panos or just multiple files .....now you are speaking to significant processing requirements . As the cameras become more proficient in supporting multi shot techniques expect very heavy processing .

I/O speeds (bus speeds ) having the ability to move large files at internal bus speeds can be a big time saver ..depends on what you shoot and how much .

A properly configured iMac can handle my requirements . But I expect for many others especially those that use MF ...the future will require more .
 

anwarp

Well-known member
When I bought my first MacPro in 2008, the base spec machine - 2x 4 core 2.8 GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and the standard HDD, GPU, etc, were cheaper than building a similar spec machine from parts. That swayed my decision to go Apple then.

I now use a 2009 MacPro flashed to look like a 2010 machine with 64GB RAM, 8TB in HDD configured as RAID10 (to provide redundancy and some speed).My PCI slots are populated with a USB3 card, very fast 1TB SSD (for the C1 catalogues), 10GBE Ethernet card to connect to the noisy 64TB spinning rust file server in the cellar (For the actual image data), and an R9 GPU.

I don't shoot video.

My biggest issue right now is the core CPU speed, followed by memory. Doing a focus stacked macro with 50-100 images took too long (till I turned off zip compression in the exported TIFF option), because the compression is done on the CPU.

I am considering a replacement MacPro. 16 cores - I moved from 8 cores to 12 cores - got to keep moving forward!
As some others have suggested, I will upgrade RAM myself unless the difference is not too high. I'm getting a HP z31x (31 in 4K with 100% Adobe RGB gamut) as my primary monitor and delegate the 4K LG I'm using as the secondary monitor.

I believe Apple will have a 16GB card sometime soon. An alternative approach is to get the base GPU (for boot message, etc) and get a standard PC AMD GPU for extra OpenCL compute.

In any case, I'm not upgrading for a few months...
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
I think the obvious writing on the wall is that the second half of 2019 brought interesting options into the equation. One is an Apple product issue and the larger one is an Intel issue. There’s a big gap between the Mac Mini/iMac and the Mac Pro that the iMac Pro doesn’t quite fulfill as a solution for all due to the lack of the ability to upgrade down the line. The obvious answer is a modular desktop for those without a “Disney” budget that would never seriously consider a Windows solution and/or don’t want an all in one type unit. Also there’s room for a 24-27 inch XDR display (that doesn’t go up to 6k obviously) and costs in the $2500 range with stand included.

The intel “issue” is that the high end consumer desktop processors from AMD are competing with the professional intel chips in multitasking processing power. That’s not good for Intel and maybe Apple should consider another chip maker for this “mythical” Desktop Mac.

As for the Mac Pro... I can’t justify the cost right now but I saw a demo one in the Apple Store last week and it’s an amazing machine.
 

Christopher

Active member
The new Mac Pro is great for people wanting to stay in the Mac world, and have lots of money to burn. It’s also great for video or rendering, or let’s say if money isn’t important.

For everyone else it’s a dump decision. There are so many great windows option, which either are 95% of the speed and 30% of the cost or kill it in 99% speed wise and still only cost 60% of it....

My new workstation will cost less then 8k and will, for my applications, be faster than a Mac Pro that would cost me well over 20k.... to get the same speed I would need to spent closer to 40k, which is insane.
 

ndwgolf

Active member
Thank god for the internet. One of the guys on the Mac Rumers forum suggested I upgrade my own CPU with a new one from OWC. I've just ordered a 12 core 3.46 CPU along with 128GB of ram all for $1400 bucks....... Hopefully I will see a difference in the speed especially when using Photoshop and Phocus.
Neil
So like I mentioned above, I had ordered the above 12 core CPU and 128GB of Ram from OWC in the US (Ive bought many things from them in the past) Anyway a few days after ordering this I received an email from them saying:

Hello Neil,
I am writing in regards to your Macsales.com order, xxxxxxx. It pains me to say that the Mac Pro processor upgrade from your order was oversold, and there will be a delay in your order while we locate and vet high-quality used Mac components to fulfill your order.

Regrettably at this time we do not have an ETA for when these parts will become available. Thankfully we are already hard at work sourcing components for your order and will keep you apprised of developments. bla bla bla........I canceled the order and I got my money back.

So I then went to Facebook and joined the FB MacPro upgrade group............loads of advice on there and links to cheaper stuff off eBay. So after shopping around I ended up getting the same CPU upgrade kit (Plug and Play) for $300 bucks cheaper than OWC and also 96GB of RAM saving myself another $250 bucks ............the experts on the FB group recommended 6 sticks of 16GB RAM verses 8 sticks of 16GB of RAM (apparently the dual CPU runs faster in that configuration).

Anyway the CPU and 4 of the 6 sticks of RAM have arrived already, it literally took me less than 5 minutes to install it all, booted it up and WOW its so so much faster.............. Even Phocus just eats up those 100 megawatt H6D100c images (not that I still have that camera, I sold it to a lovely gentleman from South Africa).

Anyway all up I saved myself enough to maybe get myself a new X1D II ........MAYBE :) :) :)
 

Attachments

docmoore

Subscriber and Workshop Member
Neil,

Check your configuration ... looks like two of the ram modules are not reported in the picture on the right ... may not be seated correctly. Should report 96 not 64.

Regards,

Bob
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
The new Mac Pro is great for people wanting to stay in the Mac world, and have lots of money to burn. It’s also great for video or rendering, or let’s say if money isn’t important.

For everyone else it’s a dump decision. There are so many great windows option, which either are 95% of the speed and 30% of the cost or kill it in 99% speed wise and still only cost 60% of it....

My new workstation will cost less then 8k and will, for my applications, be faster than a Mac Pro that would cost me well over 20k.... to get the same speed I would need to spent closer to 40k, which is insane.
I think that’s a bit of an over stated point. A comparable Windows PC configured with identical components will cost close to the same as the Mac version. Now it’s true that you can get a great “gaming” style PC that can be great at photo/video production for less than some Mac Pro systems - but then they aren’t really the same at that point. There’s also the fact that most people that choose Mac do so because they don’t like using Windows as much. I’m comfortable with Windows but I prefer to not have it in my personal life.

I’m hoping the rumors about Apple making a modular “gaming” computer in the $5k range are true because I think it’ll be a great alternative to the iMac Pro to slot between the iMac and Mac Pro. In any case the Mac Pro went way upmarket and I remember my mid-level G5 Mac Pro was a $2200 expense ($2500 retail). I understand that there’s a market for this type of modular system that isn’t quite as high end. Even better if they make it a fully AMD system with their high end Navi GPU.
 

algrove

Well-known member
I still believe this new 2019 Mac Pro is just overkill for the average photographer here who does not do video. It's like lousy drivers owning a highly tuned fast car, but cannot maneuver a simple 90 degree corner.

I have a 2013 Mac Pro with OWC 2TB SSD (Aura Pro X-it's fast), 8 core, 64GB 1866 RAM (actually the 12 core RAM is slower than mine) and AMD FirePro D700 6144 MB GPU's. It drives an NEC 4k monitor.

I process IQ4150 files in C1 and PS with even 10-15 stitches and do not get the dreaded beach ball with the above Mac Pro.

So why upgrade if this works just fine?
 

ndwgolf

Active member
Neil,

Check your configuration ... looks like two of the ram modules are not reported in the picture on the right ... may not be seated correctly. Should report 96 not 64.

Regards,

Bob
Hi Bob
I only currently have 4 x 16GB sticks of RAM there are 2 more in the post that I should get next week. that will then take me up to the 96GB mate

Neil
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
I threw away my Mac Pro from 2011 when it finally wouldn't allow me to upgrade the operating system. Enough of Apple and moved on to Windows and have never regretted it. Have built numerous systems that have all been extremely reliable, fast and at a fraction of the cost of this new Mac.

I do use Apple for my notebook needs and the combination of Windows and Apple in this fashion has worked out very well for me.

I like having both but Windows rules on the desktop side.

Victor
 

algrove

Well-known member
Back to the Mac Pro 2019 vs. 2013.

I was debating getting another 2013, but with 12 cores. However after a discussion with OWC I was convinced to keep my 8 core due to a slower RAM speed required in the 12 core even though 128GB was my goal.

During this process I was looking on the Apple Refurbished list to see what was still available after the introduction of the 2019 Mac Pro. There were scores available in various configurations in 8 and 12 core.

I looked today and there are no Refurbished 2013 Mac Pro left so it seems the 2019 Mac Pro has driven many who were waiting for the specs and prices on the 2019 model in order to upgarde their 2010 era models have made their decisions and bought the 2013 models.
 
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