Bought a 2019 Mac Pro 4 months ago… should I sell and get an i9 iMac?

[Bryan Roberts]

I meant to say 3 years of apple care and the Mac Pro was $11.5k new so maybe can get between 8-9k… maybe.

[Eric Santiago]

Will it really be obsolete in 3 years?

Lets talk in 3 years 🙂

[Tim Wilson]

@ericsantiago2 wrote

Will it really be obsolete in 3 years?
Lets talk in 3 years

I’m not sure that there’s such a thing as obsolete anymore. There are plenty of pre-trashcan Mac Pros still running, still making people money. Heck, Bryan’s own previous box ran for 10 years, right?

Yeah, there comes a time when you can’t upgrade this or that component, or maybe it gets stuck with an older OS or version of FCPX — but are those really happening inside three year windows anymore?

@bryanroberts wrote

while the dust settles on the transition to ARM

Wellll, there may be a new monkey thrown into the wrench. Announced Sunday: NVIDIA is in talks to acquire ARM for $40 billion! Details here. This is going to come under acres of scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic. I have no doubt that both NVIDIA and ARM want the deal to go through smooth as silk, and surely part of the value of ARM to NVIDIA is the value of ARM’s pending contracts. But I can’t imagine that this will have ZERO effect on the transition. Although hey, why not, right? Maybe nobody but me and The Verge (home of the link above) will care.

If anything, this says don’t think of ARM as factoring in one way or the other. There’s certainly nothing wrong with another $4K in your pocket, but not putting yourself through any more annoyances to set up a new system any more often than you absolutely have to is worth something too, right?

[Bryan Roberts]

All good points. The more I read, I worry about cooling if I needed to have something rendering or processing overnight etc. My 10 year old Mac pro worked for so long because I upgraded the processor to a 3.46 ghz 12 core and I didn’t hit a wall with apple “obsoleting” my tower and not allowing me on the latest OS for 9! years. I have a feeling devs who need to write code for arm version of macos and x86 will be quicker to only carry their arm version than that :/

I saw the nvidia ARM news. It is very interesting especially considering apple’s hostile anticompetitive behavior towards nvidia the past 5+ years. Also, can Apple really make graphics cards to compete with RTX 3080 and beyond? Sure maybe they’ll be superior at optimization on processors but video cards?

[Eric Santiago]

I can truly say that where I am, we def are using the slew of cheese graters and trash cans to its fullest. A few have been converted to Windows 7 for other reasons and now with WFH, the older tubes are offsite.

I only got cheeky with the idea of replacing the 2019 with an ARMs version since I just got my 2019 and there is no way Im trading that up/down for anything.

Its got so many slots I can fill it up till the <ahem> Cows come home 😉

[Jonathan Ramsey]

I can say, from where I have been, I would probably go with selling what you have and use an iMac. I’ve built many Mac systems and unless you are using a boat load of specific AE effects, the added prowess of a MacPro doesn’t usually add up. There are too many variables to make a blanket policy on this… but I’ve built them both ways and maybe 8 times out of 10, the iMac is just as good (hard to tell the difference) and sometimes better. No, it cannot be upgraded easily (some parts can be, though). But it’ll get you 5 years. I don’t know about the new one’s cooling… but previous iterations that has never been an issue. Clearly, the Pros will cool better. If you round it to you get 5 years for $4K and double that so in 10 years you spent $8k and half way through you got a whole new machine, not just an old machine upgraded (which is the $8-10K plus the upgrade parts)… it just makes more financial sense in many cases.

[Bryan Roberts]

Im really thinking about 2020 imac maxed out for $4k. Apple silicon x factor has me worried if there’s a big speed bump, my 2019 Mac pro will see used market value drop steeply.

[Jonathan Ramsey]

Yup, I can appreciate that. It’ll be interesting to hear what they say today… Obsolescence is a bugger when it comes to getting resale value. No matter what you do, it’s a Mac. It’ll have value.

[Bryan Roberts]

Hey Jonathan – how has reliability been in your mileage with non pro imacs? That’s the last thing holding me back is the fear of having it crap out early if I use it daily for editing because of heat (which I will, I’m usually booked 90% of the year). I’ve been incredibly lucky with my non-iphone apple hardware over the years, since my first Mac mini in 2005, laptops, Mac pros, old school Apple TV, another Mac mini now for a server… never had a single hardware issue (save for 2 usb2 ports going out on my old Mac pro at about year 5) but also never owned an imac 🙂 .

[Jonathan Ramsey]

It’s a reasonable concern. I have a mid 2015 iMac now that is just starting to show overheating issues. But I replaced the fusion drive with an SSD and have not taken the annoying steps to try and upgrade the OS so it could be there are other issues at hand. It needs a clean wipe and I may do that next week and see if the fan stops running so much. Other than than, I’ve never had a heat issue. That said, we edit in spurts, from tons to little. In between we do web design and graphic design work, and we do a lot of shooting. So, you’re a heavier day in and out user. On the video side, I am in AE almost as much as PP. I think AE is where you are more likely to see the Mac Pro outperform.

In the end, I tend to go to: what tool helps you get it done best. That isn’t always the best tool, but sometimes is. If it would put you at ease and ensure your productivity, the money on the Mac Pro is well spent. And some of that extra you will recoop in years to come when you resell. I am going the high end iMac route this time. It worked great for me the last two times and I like getting a whole new machine 3-5 years in. The sum total is less expenditure and it’s spread out — both things I value. I am not editing 6k or 8k yet. I think if I were, I would go Mac Pro for sure. Now I just need a non-$5K second monitor… urg… Apple way overdid it there, IMO.

One last thought… if it works for your workflow, an internal drive array on the pro will be notably faster than the iMac and an external array. By most standards, I’d say 25-30% faster depending on all the variables. Something to consider. I need an external array so it’s a moot point for me. Let me know what you decide to do! It’ll work either way. Best, Jonathan