TOPIC:

TIME TO BUST A MYTH!

According to my receipts, and NOT factoring in inflation, the 2017 iMac Pro is actually $545.89 CHEAPER then the 2013 Mac Pro was when first released! So no, the iMac Pro is NOT the most expensive Mac Apple has ever sold.

2013 Mac Pro (purchased Dec 19, 2013)
$8,537.87 - Mac
$1,088.91 - Thunderbolt Monitor
$9,626.78 - Total System

2017 iMac Pro (purchased Dec 15, 2017)
$9,080.89 - Total System

My 10-core, 64 RAM iMac Pro = $9080.89.
My 8-Core, 32 RAM Mac Pro = $8537.87 (without monitor, add $1000+ to make it useful).

So let's be more fair, and spec same cores and RAM on both.
A 2017 iMac Pro 8-core, 32 RAM = $6373.64.

Thus, even WITHOUT a monitor, same core/RAM 2013 Mac Pro cost $2164.23 MORE than the most equivalent 2017 iMac Pro.

Add a monitor to the 2013 Tube to actually make it usable, and... wow...

Thanks for this, Ben. Totally agree. The iMac Pro is priced very reasonably, and I can assure you it's a beast.

- Ronny

ronny wrote:

... The iMac Pro is priced very reasonably, and I can assure you it's a beast...

On Jonathan Morrison's TLD vlog, these guys did a bunch of tests comparing a top-spec 2017 iMac 27 to a top-spec 2017 MBP to a 10-core iMac Pro.:

These tests included both CPU-intensive image processing and FCPX rendering. In some real-world cases they found the iMac Pro was vastly faster than the Geekbench numbers indicate.

It's a long streamcast with a lot of jokey posturing, but interspersed there are some valuable tidbits. Below are some key statements at certain time offsets:

00:34:00 : Under heavy multi-core stress, the iMac Pro was quieter than the iMac

00:37:30 On Cinebench-like multithreaded CPU test, iMac Pro: 05:02, iMac: 12:07, MBP: 22:11

00:35:00: iMac Pro FCPX timeline scrubs smoothly using unrendered RED 8K raw, 12:1 compression, plus effects

00:48:10: From FCPX, on all three machines begin timed export of 3 min 8k RED raw 12:1 in a 4k unrendered timeline to 4k H264

00:50:05: Laughing at how much faster the iMac Pro is than the iMac

00:53:15: Export progress: iMac Pro at 60%, iMac at 6%, MBP at 3%

00:55:35: iMac Pro finishes export in 05:45, iMac at 11%, MBP at 5%

00:58:00: "If you're just doing 4k ProRes, you won't see advantages using the iMac Pro." They repeated these statements multiple times, which (1) Is not true in the real world when effects are involved, and (2) Does not consider the vast amount of acquisition done in H264. If they think a iMac Pro isn't useful on 4k, they should try putting Neat Video, stabilization, Imagenomic Portraiture and Digital Anarchy Flicker Free on some clips and rendering that on an iMac.

1:02:00: Both iMac and MBP are significantly louder than the iMac Pro when all are under similar high stress

Multiple statements that "everyone should always background render their timeline". (I have no idea where they get this.)

1:05:05: More laughter about how much faster the iMac Pro is than the top iMac and MBP.

... And just wait 'till you start factoring in H.265 into the equation.
With iPhones capturing HEVC, you're going to see it move into the rest of the camera market in the next couple of years.

IT'S HERE... let the testing begin...

nice color...

[photo is formatted perfectly fine for this forum, like I've done dozens of times before, and still won't load up)

Got mine two days early! (10-core, 1TB, 16gb V-ram)

Said the 28th but showed up this morning. Now switching out for a MacPro trashcan. Already made a trip to the Apple store to get their vastly overpriced USB-C to HDMI dongle ($69!) just so I can run a pallettes monitor. Already spent $49 for a TB3 to TB2 dongle so that I can run my RAIDs and the BMD Mini Monitor SDI for my broadcast monitor.

Installed Apple pro apps, Creative Cloud, Resolve, and Office pretty quickly. Most time-consuming thing: tracking down plug-ins for all the different stuff I have going. I need a master sheet of what's installed.

Opened a troublesome timeline of JPEGs and it played really nice so far. Now on to some real work after a few hours of installs...

I am very happy for you. I am sitting here waiting for the TNT courier to arrive with mine. They sent me a text that it is loaded on the truck!!!

Please document any special plugins or drivers that are required.

I have made a Carbon Copy Clone to an USB3 SSD but planning to use Thunderbolt and boot in Target mode on the old iMac for faster transfer. Have TB3/TB2 adapted cable ready. I have also got up to date TM just in case, and de-regisetered PhotoMechanic.

My action plan is to install all Apple OS X updates, before trying to do the migration from my iMac, which is on Sierra and not High Sierra.

iMP has arrived. Took 50 minutes to transfer 350GB from iMac 27" i7 via TB cable. Now comes the fun of converting.

Problem #1: No CUDA graphics found. Presumably the graphics is different, so how do I uninstall the CUDA code so it stops complaining?
Answer #1: Googled how to remove CUDA

Problem #2: Pegasus R3 box has some folders that are access control locked, even after I had tried to change them to Read/Write by Anyone!
Answer #2: Had to manually add Administrators to (only) some of the folders, for Read/Write access.

Problem #3: New dark grey Bluetooth keyboard malfunctioning. Occasionally stops typing, then randomly either repeats or generates mixture of characters - of course this is with no keys being touched at all. Presumably h/w problem.
Answer #3: Possible solution, I removed all other obsolete Bluetooth devices from the preferences list. Seems to be ok now...

Conclusion after 5hrs :
The iMac PRO is a NICE machine, but it is certainly NOT insanely fast and the dark grey colour is a nice change, but is not earth shattering. I am glad I bought it and expect to not change now for about 5yrs. My Late 2013 iMac i7 27" with 32GB ram gave a Geekbench score of 14,000 and the 8 core iMP is 28,000. Similarly the SSD speed had gone from 700MBps to almost 3000MBps, so a very welcome change. Just for the sake of perspective, the Dell PowerEdge server with 72 cores had a Geekbench score of 130,000! Yes I know it is a very different beast, just sayin'.

could you do the BruceX test ?

It took 15.01 seconds. I think that's pretty decent. I used the instructions from blog.alex4d.com/2013/10/30/brucex-a-new-fcpx-benchmark/

Is that the correct way?

pszilard wrote:

It took 15.01 seconds. I think that's pretty decent. I used the instructions from blog.alex4d.com/2013/10/30/brucex-a-new-fcpx-benchmark/

Is that the correct way?

there couldn't be a better way...

so 5K ProRes 422 ? could you try with UHD ? 1080 ?

you can post results here, with all specs

www.fcp.co/fcp-forum/hardware/18250-bruc...-benchmark?start=480

@ Paul and Paul:
in case you've installed Motion on your Beasts: would you mind to perform a little test?
open the attached motn project, and 'share' the movie = time? no science-proof numbers needed, …

Would be helpful for some research-project 'we' do …

Thanks in advance !!

(just a very regular Motion project, with lotsa particles - on my Mini a 35min render adventure LOL)

I have Motion and it's updated, but I have never ever used it, so no clue what you are asking me to do. Maybe a little later - currently I am reviewing my 513 apps to see what I can delete and what I need to update.

pszilard wrote:

…so no clue what you are asking me to do. Maybe a little later….

basically: dl, unzip, doubleclick the file => Motion will open project.
cmd-e for Export, start a stopwatch, stop when export done. Post result here.
… for future use …

THANKS anyhow!

pszilard wrote:

…reviewing my 513 apps to see what I can delete and what I need to update.

"No need to deinstall what never was installed"
old Chinese proverb

You really 'installed' your brand-new iMp with a clone from an older, completely different model of Mac? … hmmm? … 'documents' of course, but apps…? Anyhow, enjoy your new beast!

I'll try the Motion measurement you asked for.

No I didn't clone my old iMac. I connected it via TB to the iMP and used the Migration Tool. Took 50 minutes for 350GB. So this way I've the benefit of the clean HS install without having to manually install 500+ apps. So now I am doing a big house cleaning exercise. So far I am down to a mere 510 apps. LOL

Running now, but it is only utalising 20% cpu! Is that configurable?

Finished: 14 minutes 35 secs. How does this compare to some others?

pszilard wrote:

… How does this compare to some others?

… you're first.
I don't do that research, I'm just the tinkerer who creates those nasty stress-test-files.
But I have some suspicions …

… 14min means only 2-3x faster than my historic MacMini… (??)

To make it clear:
It's not about overall performance of your shiny new iMp, which is awesome!
Without any tech background, I'm assuming some 'room for improvement' in Motion…

It maybe that some configuration in Motion, may be required. If it did this with 20% cpu, then 100% would by 5x faster - perhaps.

By the way, I don't regard the iMP as "awesome" just reasonably great.