“Last week I received a pelican case from Apple with a very special Mac inside of it… It was an iMac Pro configured as a 10 Core 3GHZ Intel Xeon W, 2TB SSD, 128 GB RAM, Vega 64 Radeon,” Vincent Laforet blogs eponymously. “I found a very consistent set of results: a 2X to 3X boost in speed (relative to my current iMac and MacBook Pro 15”) a noticeable leap from most generational jumps that are generally ten times smaller.”
“Whether you’re editing 8K RED video, H.264 4K Drone footage, 6K 3D VR content or 50 Megapixel RAW stills – you can expect a 200-300% increase in performance in almost every industry leading software with the iMac Pro,” Laforet writes. “I’ve seldom seen a jump this dramatic before on any new generation of Macs – 20%-30% speed increases are the norm … NOT 200%-300% increases. That’s SIGNIFICANT.”
“Basically, if you’re debating whether or not to purchase the iMac Pro you should ask yourself just one question: How much is your time worth to you?” Laforet writes. “Would you rather be waiting for images and video to render or export, or do you want to go back out and shoot as quickly as possible?”
For me the answer is easy: when compared to the previous generation iMac or the current top of the line 15” MacBook Pro, the iMacPRO tears through footage and images, allowing me to spend less time behind a computer, and more time shooting,” Laforet writes. “After just under a week I can tell you that I won’t be using any other mac anytime soon.”
Tons more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s new iMac Pro sounds every bit as beastly as we’ve expected!
SEE ALSO:
One week with Apple’s iMac Pro: Completely sealed, non-upgradeable, and super powerful – December 12, 2017
Apple’s powerful new iMac Pro launches December 14 – December 12, 2017
It will be a beast, but a niche beast for sure.
Interesting article but I have to complain about a pet peeve. The author, Laforet, says in one place that there is a 2x-3x speed improvement. We all understand that to mean that the speed doubles to triples. A 1x speed improvement would be no improvement; a 1.1x improvement would be a 10% improvement. With me so far?
So later on, Laforet says it’s a 200% to 300% speed improvement. IT’S NOT. A 10% improvement would be 1.1x. 100% improvement would be 2x. 200% improvement would be 3x. So a 2x to 3x improvement means 100%-200%, not 200%-300%.
Why is fourth-grade math so hard for tech writers?
I fail to see what is remarkable about the speeds the new xeon powered iMac purports to offer. The last xeon professional level Mac , the trashcan, was 4 years ago and it was outclassed from day 1. comparing single processor intel consumer chip speeds to xeons is dumb too. Xeons are designed for big time nonstop number crunching using lots of cores. Not social media which is what most iMacs do.
Earlier posts here on MDN about the beast have been mostly negative. I, for one, will be ordering this machine as soon as it becomes available (completely tricked out). I will then sell my current tricked out iMac. My time is too valuable to build a one-off hack Mac or sit around using a slower machine.
You must have made a wrong turn at Albuquerque!
Yeh, Acme moved to Cupertino so had to move the hole westward.
I also don’t see a problem with this iMac Pro. I won’t be buying some custom iMac Pro (maybe just more memory) but as long as it’s reliable enough to last five years, there’s no reason for me to gripe. I don’t want to tinker with computers anymore. I just want them to work without me having to worry about something failing. I’ll get my AppleCare for three years and that should be good enough.
I just figure this iMac Pro will be more robust over a longer period of time and that’s all I’m concerned with. $5500 over a five year period is a breeze for me. I’ve paid that much back in the 1980s for Mac Pros, so it’s not that much for me. I just don’t think I can go wrong with that. I don’t see much of a change in software requiring eight cores over the next five years or so.
FYI, you can see the ram in the open case pic. It’s not soldered. Betcha the back can be removed.
Also, if you need more than 128GB RAM, you need a different workstation. Not sure why people ar fussing about ram when the stock amount is 64 and 128.
One would think there would be some service providers for modifying the iMac Pro but if it voids the warranty, well that’s not good. I don’t see why Apple can’t offer an upgrade by returning it to them and having them do the upgrade (for a nice fat fee). It’s possible a place like Other World Computing could work with Apple on doing upgrades down the line. I’d go for something like that.
Oh, well, that’s Apple. It seems like it’s pure greed but I’m not going to question their business model because it seems to work pretty well for them.
I wondered..because at least in that picture, the RAM is held in a standard slot..not soldered or more secure than any replaceable RAM. In a box that isn’t easily serviceable, you would secure the RAM so it can’t back out over time. I’ll bet money the back come off and it isn’t sealed.
Have you seen the prices Apple overcharges for RAM????????
And then another increase in waiting time for the next update .
thanks for reposting an article i linked to in a previous comment, prior to this posting of said article.
Would love to hear a Lumion jock load it up in one of these configurations in Boot Camp native and let me know if we can finally do our stuff at great render speeds. I do not want to buy PCs to do it if at all possible. But I fear I will have to wait a very long time before I get the work on this.