I figured 6 or 8 cores since I do mostly photography, and getting into video eventually. Anyone w/ comments?
Also for the TB externals, I do not have any now, any suggestions? I am thinking of SSD's for externals via TB.
Thank you
Mac Pro (Early 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9)
What exactly is your question?
The new line of MBP's have 2 types of processors:
13''
Duel Core Intel Haswell (4 virtual cores)
15''
Quad core intel haswell (8 virtual cores)
Mac Pro I am asking. Not MacBook Pro.
It depends on what software you are using.
Lightroom will most likely run best on 6-8 cores.
Photoshop will likely run best on 4-cores.
There's going to be a new Aperture tuned for the Mac Pro so who knows on that one.
Lloyd Chambers thinks the 6-core will be the sweet spot for photographers:
http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2013/20131218_3-MacPro-CPU-choice.html
Adobe's official blog says:
Photoshop takes great advantage of 2-4 cores. 8 cores doesn’t give you anywhere near twice the performance of 4 on most operations in Photoshop
http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/2012/06/photoshop-cs6-the-need-for-speed. html
I'm going with the 6-core version.
I was thinking the same, but with the higher level cache on the 8 core, I am contemplating it. I don't know the price difference between the 6 and 8 core, yet. I just think the 8 core will return more in the long run. I have not heard of any details on an upgrade for Aperture. I will note, Aperture utilizes a lot from the video card. Its a combo of everything, externals and connections and RAM.
I have no idea what Apple will charge for the 6 vs 8 core but, Intel lists the prices as:
6-core $583 http://ark.intel.com/products/75780/
8-core $1,723 http://ark.intel.com/products/77912/
Pretty BIG difference!
Apple also mentioned on stage that it has new versions of Final Cut Pro and Aperture that support 4k and other features of the new Mac Pro while presenting first impressions from professionals that have been using the new machine.
Source: http://9to5mac.com/2013/10/22/apple-announces-mac-pro-pricing-and-availability-s tarts-at-2999/
$1,500 difference. Able to order on Apple site now.
US$1500 is half the cost of a new complete Mac Pro cylinder.
US$1500 is the cost of a used Mac Pro 65lb tower.
You had better be using every stinkin' cycle of those 8 cores to justify a cost like that. Otherwise you are better off with an additional complete Mac Pro.
Yes, you are right. It makes sense at 6. Just trying to decide on the RAM.
24 to 32GB is conventional wisdom for a "good amount" for Photo work.
It looks like jumping from default 12GB to 32GB only adds US$500. That price is almost reasonable, and these wicked fast DIMMs are not yet "on the shelf" in other outlets.
On paper, and these Geekbench results from the 6- and 8-core support this, it looks like you really can’t go wrong with any of the CPU options below the 12-core — the deciding factors should only be cost and how much parallelism you can take advantage of.
It looks like you’re paying a lot for slower clock speeds as the cores increase, but that’s not the entire story. Those weird Turbo Boost numbers, which are easy to pull from here and here, are worth understanding before choosing a modern Intel processor.
http://www.marco.org/2013/11/26/new-mac-pro-cpus
SSDs on TB you want to have TB2 / or use PCIe controller.
Well, I ordered my Mac Pro today. It will be used mostly for photography and will run Lightroom, Photoshop and Nikon View NX. I don't do any video.
Here's the system I ordered:
6-core
D500 graphics
512GB SSD
32GB RAM
AppleCare
I considered getting 64GB of RAM but, had to draw the line somewhere. Besides, OWC will give me $225 for my RAM if I later decide to upgrade.
Only OS X, my applications and Photoshop's scratch disk will reside on the SSD. All of my images, Lightroom catalog and documents will be on my Promise Pegasus2 R4.
I'm still undecided about which monitor I want. Originally, I had planned to get an NEC PA272W-BK-SV but some of the new 4K displays like the Dell UP2414Q look interesting. It may be Feb or Mar before my Mac Pro arrives so I have lots of time to look at monitors.
From Crucial I got know that you can only use RAM modules of the same size in all 4 slots. Exchanging two 8GB for two 16GB while keeping two 8GB modules in the other remaining slots does not work according to them.
Which means that upgrading RAM is way less flexible than it has been and also way more expensive because you can't use previous smaller modules alongside the bigger ones.
RAM for the new Mac Pros is available from Crucial and OWC at this time.
.
From Crucial I got know that you can only use RAM modules of the same size in all 4 slots.
Since one configuration in the store is 12GB (three slots filled) Crucial as usual does not know what they are talking about. Crucial does not have a history of knowing anything about the computers they plug their memories into.
They have historically kept a database of what sales "stick" and what sales are returned, and used that as the basis for their recommendations. I would not trust a thing they said at this point -- they have no way of knowing these answers unless they have completely changed their business model overnight.
There are other suppliers who do indeed keep a lab full of Macintosh computers and plug their products into them with regularity, but Crucial is not on that list as far as I know.
Selecting processors for 2013 MP
