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

[Bryan Roberts]

Well maybe that seals it then. First off, I’m in Premiere 95% of the time, Photoshop for the odd still work and haven’t opened AE in a decade maybe? Re: internal array – so I really demand very fast real time performance in my timeline. It allows me to make much better style decisions and overall move much much faster. However, I usually edit on whatever drive a client sends me (it’s always a dupe of the original) so it’s usually a single external Lacie TB or USB3 drive that max out at 250mb/s so I end up doing proxies for just about everything. I work on so many different projects that having a single fast internal edit array, copying my media to it just for an edit, and then when picture locks, transferring off that array to their drive or an archive drive just isn’t a feasible workflow given how many times I’d need to do that each month. Most of my projects are 2 week edits and I’ll have some overlap (save for a giant 4k feature I’ve been working on the past 1.5 years that is contained on an external 16TB TB Lacie bigdisk raid). Oddly enough, I just finished a 6 camera multicam edit of Chance The Rapper + Ralph Lauren that premiered a couple days ago. The director provided me this custom external NVME TB raid drive that gets 2,329MB/s on Blackmagic disk speed test and they shot Prores 4444 4k and I was able to edit 6 angles Prores 4444 4k with an embedded LUT smoothly. There was only a bit of delay when pushing play but no frames dropped. But it was a 30 minute performance and by the end of the edit with a few different edit versions, Premiere just starting chugging even with the really fast storage. I ended up proxying and that solved everything. I did final color using Lumetri and MB Looks 2 on an adjustment layer which turned out wonderful but it really sapped my processor even using proxies, so in the end, I had to render my timeline even with ridiculously fast storage and a $12k Mac Pro :/ .

Proxying on my Mac Pro is insanely fast which has been nice but I guess if I’m generally using proxies anyways, then the only real benefit I’m getting from the Mac Pro is future expandability (which is a bit moot assuming apple silicon mac pros are substantially faster when they release in the next 2ish years – so not like upgrading processors in my 2009 mac pro to 3.46 12 cores 5 years ago to make it faster than the newer trashcan mac pro is going to be possible) and then faster Premiere exports (but perhaps not THAT much faster considering how fast the 10 core iMac is). Hmmmm…

[Jonathan Ramsey]

Wow, that drive for the Lauren piece sounds amazing!

Well, one other option is to do the iMac now and until MacPro processors change out. You can sell it then if you decide you want/need to upgrade and it’ll have much of its value still, assuming it’s only a couple years out. And you can get the iMac, test it before you sell your Pro tower. If you hate it, sell it and the loss will be less than on the Pro. Sort of a hedging your bets option.

[Bryan Roberts]

That was exactly what I was thinking, considering I’ll need overlap time anyways to get everything copied over. Buy the iMac. Try it for a week. If it works, then put my Mac Pro up for sale. If it doesn’t work, I can return it to Apple and restocking fee would be less than what I’d lose on selling it. If iMac works, have the iMac hold me off until Apple releases apple silicon Mac Pros in 2ish years. A side note, I think it has everyone worried that apple most likely won’t be allowing any user replaceable memory so we’ll all be paying their $2k 128GB ram prices. Also, how are they going to keep their GPU’s up to par with Nvidia / AMD? So much left to be understood with this transition.

[Jonathan Ramsey]

Good question. Could also be they continue the trend of relying less and less on GPUs for the highest use features. That gets into engineering and is above my pay grade 🙂

Hope this works out for you! I’m ordering a new iMac this week, as well. We’ll have to trade notes.

p.s. Depending on your use, you could save even more with a 64gig system. I’ve read some reports that in PP 128 won’t help all that much (at least not proportionate to the increased cost)… it’s more of an AE benefit. But I’ve not confirmed that definitively.

[Jonathan Ramsey]

Hey Bryan, here’s a cool cost savings for you: You can install your own memory in the iMac! That means you can use this (https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct2k32g4s266m/ct19090527) for $620 and save $2000 on the iMac and still get 128.

Question for you: have you read reports on the usefulness of the nano anti glare glass and color accuracy vs. the standard?

[Bryan Roberts]

Oh, I never pay the apple tax on memory when it’s user upgradable. Most people are all linking to this memory that Max Tech is using – it’s $450 for x4 32gb chips to get to 128GB

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2666MHz-Memory-Computers-M471A4G43MB1/dp/B07N124XDS/ref=sr_1_1?tag=maxtechyt-20&dchild=1&keywords=samsung+2666mhz+ram+32gb+SODIMM+ddr4&qid=1596569885&sr=8-1

Haven’t decided on nano etching. Tough call. My Dell’s already have anti-reflective coatings on them so I don’t know if it’d be comfortable going to glass not to mention, I have a fair amount of natural light coming into my edit bay right now so reflections could be big. I’m leaning yes to nano.

[Jonathan Ramsey]

Thanks! Great tip. The link didn’t work…

And yes, I decided to go with the non reflective glass. they all claim the contrast is not compromised. Here’s hoping!!

Thanks!

[Bryan Roberts]

Just add an “https:” to the front of this -> //www.amazon.com/Samsung-2666MHz-Memory-Computers-M471A4G43MB1/dp/B07N124XDS/ref=sr_1_1?tag=maxtechyt-20&dchild=1&keywords=samsung+2666mhz+ram+32gb+SODIMM+ddr4&qid=1596569885&sr=8-1

[Jonathan Ramsey]

Thank you!

[Bryan Roberts]

So… what do you think? I’ve got about 3-4 days of editing on my 2020 iMac. It’s 10 core, 5700xt, nano coating, 128GB ram. So far, it’s noticeably weaker than my 16 core, but it should be. I think it’s going to just barely work for me as a Mac Pro replacement while waiting a couple years on apple silicon mac pros. It feels a bit like making a mac mini work for my needs at times vs. the 16 core mac pro which I had grown accustomed to the power. But, I can’t help but consider the $4.5k I’ll most likely get back as a net of switching between the two while patiently waiting to see how apple silicon shakes out. It’s a functional stop gap for me. If I hadn’t been on a ten year old mac pro that had no thunderbolt and was starting to feel VERY long in the tooth, I would have held on. This imac just needs to keep me rolling for 3 years.