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Wait for the new MacPro or get the new iMac?
I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering whether to wait for the illusive new MacPro which we have been promised for later this year.
Or to cut to the chase and either buy the new iMac or the recent 15″ Retina MacBook Pro.
For some reason I’ve never been lucky with Apple Displays so I will probably hang on and wait for the MacPro.
But the alternatives are getting very attractive and Larry Jordan has just published this blog about his new 27″ iMac.
For those who have not seen it here is the link:
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58 Replies
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I say wait. There is no reason to jump the gun (unless there is). While I’m anxious to upgrade both my 2008 8-core & bought-just-months-before-thunderbolt-released-MBP and those new 27″ iMacs sure are tempting. I’m hoping that the new Mac Pro really will be “something great”. I bet it will be “made for FCPX” and it will run smokin fast, maybe even get decent Motion 5 performance 🙂 I could see losing an internal storage slot or two, the optical drives, even firewire (just don’t take away my PCI slots!) and having a seek, trimmed-down, nice rack-sized “sizzle-core beauty”.
but if it sucks and won’t work for you at all, those iMacs will still be there.
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I have a 2008 Mac Pro, probably the only one they ever made that crashed as often running FCP. Never have figured out why, but I blame the VAR.
In any case I have the 27″ iMac, maxed out. Ordered OWC memory and maxed that out, too. I haven’t run any official speed tests, but this thing is solid, stable and blazing fast. I took an existing FCPX :30 project done on my 15″ Retina MacBook (which is already pretty fast) and tried it on my Mac Pro and the new iMac. A lot of effects and image work, including Magic Bullet Looks and ToneGrade, neither of which will play back at all on the Mac Pro without rendering.
On the Mac Pro:
5-10 minutes to render
No realtime playbackOn the MacBook Pro:
2-3 minutes to render
Realtimeish, but showing maybe 10-15 frames per secondOn the iMac:
15-20 seconds to render
Almost perfect realtime, dropping maybe 1-3 frames per second (again, with VERY heavy effects)Why, it’s almost as if FCPX and the iMac were made for each other. Imagine that.
I’m extremely happy with the iMac. The screen reflections issue bothered me a bit with the 2009 iMac I also have, somewhat, but I actually hadn’t even remembered it as a factor until I read the Larry Jordan interview just now. At least in my setup it seems fine, no glare to speak of at all.
My expectation is that sometime before or around NAB someone’ll release a Thunderbolt magic box with all the inputs and outputs I need and that’ll take care of things for a while.
For me the question is, now, when Apple releases the Mac Pro replacement, will I actually need to pay what I assume to be a premium for what I assume to be even more power? Or is this iMac so good that “more” is a waste for my needs?
Oh, and anyone interested in a Mac Pro tower (sorry, I’m not in the office and don’t have the specs handy) with Kona 3 and breakout box) let me know before I put it on eBay).
Best,
John -
[John Godwin]
“On the iMac: 15-20 seconds to render
Almost perfect realtime, dropping maybe 1-3 frames per second (again, with VERY heavy effects)Why, it’s almost as if FCPX and the iMac were made for each other. Imagine that.”
It comments like this that make it so tempting. Especially with Larry and Walter and so many others praising the iMacs as well. I’ve never had the opportunity to edit on any TBolt Mac (not counting messing around at the Apple store). I spoke with a couple yesterday, friends of a friend, they just bought a new 27″ iMac with upgraded RAM. I said I’ve heard good things about them for what I do. They said it has a hard time playing “The Sims” and I just wanted to take the computer away from them.
[John Godwin] “My expectation is that sometime before or around NAB someone’ll release a Thunderbolt magic box with all the inputs and outputs I need and that’ll take care of things for a while.”
Yeah, I thought that when the time came for me, the Belkin dock would be my pick. Then they dropped eSATA and now I’m not so sure-
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/07/ces-2013-belkin-drops-esata-support-for-upcoming-thunderbolt-express-dock-cuts-price-back-to-299/[John Godwin] “Oh, and anyone interested in a Mac Pro tower (sorry, I’m not in the office and don’t have the specs handy) with Kona 3 and breakout box) let me know before I put it on eBay).”
May as well put it up on the classifieds here 🙂
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I think it’s just a matter of how hampered you feel you are by your current hardware.
No one knows what Apple’s schedule on this is beyond “2013”. But I think a timeframe of 6-10 months is probably a reasonable assumption.
I have a friend setting himself up with Smoke on the Mac, and he’s been asking me about investing in upgrading his 2010 MacPro vs. buying a new topped out iMac as a stop gap until Apple releases whatever this next thing is.
If you buy an iMac now, two possibilities occur-
1. The new MacPro comes out and either it isn’t what you need/want, or you’ve found that the iMac is fast enough for you. Either way you’ve got a good machine.
2. The new MacPro comes out and it’s advantages over the iMac are significant enough to merit the switch. In that case you have a nearly new top of the line iMac that will have lost very little of it’s value in that 6-8 months. It will still be a current generation machine, so I can’t see not being able to sell it at 80-90% of it’s purchase price. So maybe you loose $500-$800 in the transaction. Pretty small potatoes if you’re using that machine to earn a living.
For myself, I’m currently working on a 2011 iMac which is serving me quite well. When the new MacPro comes out, this machine will go to my wife, and I’ll sell the topped-out 17″MBP to finance the purchase of the new machine.
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[John Godwin] “Why, it’s almost as if FCPX and the iMac were made for each other. “
Thanks for that information John.
Sounds like you have really benefited from getting the new iMac.
What storage are you using?
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It’s odd that everyone is having this relevation now. The 2011 iMacs were literally just a few hz slower. But they have a Dvd burner and FW 800. No USB 3 or Fusion though. If one is buying for FCPX then they’re arguably a better, more well rounded machine. The new ones’ main advantage is GPU suppt for Adobe AE and Premiere we assume is coming. It can already be hacked.
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[Bret Williams] “The new ones’ main advantage is GPU suppt for Adobe AE and Premiere we assume is coming. It can already be hacked.
“and more importantly for me they work better with Resolve. I’ve been editing on a 2011 iMac today at a clients office and I was very impressed with the speed. I’ll be ordering a 2012 iMac shortly and if the MacPro turns out to be much better then I’ll trade up!
Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure” -
I have a bunch of FireWire drives that I see no reason to throw away, so I’m mostly using those with the ThunderBolt to FW adaptors. I have an eSata Raid on my old Mac Pro but I expect to sell that with the system and not worry about an eSata port. Eventually I expect to get a TB Raid but why waste all those FireWire drives? I’ve cut a couple of small things off the internal HD to see what would happen and that actually worked fine. I don’t think I’ll make that a habit, though.
To Bret’s point about the 2011 iMacs, I have a 2009. It handled FCPX pretty well and I haven’t done a direct comparison, but subjectively the new one seems much faster and smoother. And I suspect the graphics card in the new iMac is a major player in that.
Are you the same Mark that was on the Liquid Silver boards a lot some years ago? I see a lot of Silver DNA in some of the FCPX choices …
Best,
John -
Between ThunderBolt (in the future) and my 15 or so FireWire drives I think I can live without eSata.
Here’s the thing – it makes no sense to me that Apple would go through the complete FCPX change and NOT have a master plan for maxing out the software/hardware combination, better integration than FCP Legacy (a purchased product) would have.
Perhaps it’s the time of life I’m in or just the confluence of events, but I look at my Mac Pro and all the boxes and machines attached to it (HDV, DVcam, Betacam) that I have used once or twice a year in the last year or two and just want to slim down, especially since I can accomplish everything I currently need to do with so much less now.
Best,
John -
[David Eaks] “hey said it has a hard time playing “The Sims” and I just wanted to take the computer away from them.”
Thank you for this detail. I needed it.
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