Thinking of upgrading my MAC COMPUTER, should I?


dshall
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Hi MAC users.  I have a late 2013 IMAC. I am  thinking of upgrading.   Before I upgrade,  I would like to test drive a particular plan on a newer/faster computer.  If you have a newer/faster computer,  would you mind emailing me.  I would like to discuss test driving my file on your computer.

 

Thanks

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15 minutes ago, Steve-C said:

Here's a modest upgrade for ya Scott! :)

 

Haha, I was looking at those recently too. They have better architecture than the Mac Pro tower, but I understand they're revamping the pro tower for this year.

 

I use a humble late-14 i5 Mac Mini. It runs X9 just peachy, even (2) 24" monitors with OOB video.

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1 hour ago, Chrisb222 said:

 

Haha, I was looking at those recently too. They have better architecture than the Mac Pro tower, but I understand they're revamping the pro tower for this year.

 

I use a humble late-14 i5 Mac Mini. It runs X9 just peachy, even (2) 24" monitors with OOB video.

Yeah, I'm curious to see what they do with the Pro. The "trash can" design was cool but it was lacking in upgradability.

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5 minutes ago, Steve-C said:

Yeah, I'm curious to see what they do with the Pro. The "trash can" design was cool but it was lacking in upgradability.

 

I really thought they were onto something with the vertical heat dissipation through the center. Oops, I guess even Apple has a dud now and then. :o

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Hey guys,  looking for some advice.  I am looking at the attached computer.  Will this computer give me a noticeable increase in speed?  As Perry said,  my current 'puter seems to be getting slow.  Any input would be awesome.

 

 

5a6625de79b37_ScreenShot2018-01-22at9_47_52AM.thumb.png.b84ec39a91299795b1788c39acab3c12.png

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3 minutes ago, dshall said:

Hey guys,  looking for some advice.  I am looking at the attached computer.  Will this computer give me a noticeable increase in speed?  As Perry said,  my current 'puter seems to be getting slow.  Any input would be awesome.

 

 

5a6625de79b37_ScreenShot2018-01-22at9_47_52AM.thumb.png.b84ec39a91299795b1788c39acab3c12.png

32 GB and SSD...no doubt.

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2 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

..... I would never have a Radeon graphic's card- ever......

 

I was wondering about that.  Maybe it is an issue with Radeon on a PC instead of a Radeon on a MAC.

 

I am so close to pulling the trigger,  I have one particular that is killing me.

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12 minutes ago, dshall said:

 

I was wondering about that.  Maybe it is an issue with Radeon on a PC instead of a Radeon on a MAC.

 

I am so close to pulling the trigger,  I have one particular that is killing me.

maybe, but you might get lucky ,the new ones might not have those old problems with Chief., I just don't know but there were problems in the past.

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2 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

32 GB and SSD...no doubt.

 

NVME based SSD if Apple uses them ? , (4x as fast)  but a 1TB is huge and will save you some money , likely a 500GB would be enough , you can always get an external as well which is always a good idea for backups anyway....

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2 hours ago, dshall said:

 

I was wondering about that.  Maybe it is an issue with Radeon on a PC instead of a Radeon on a MAC.

 

I am so close to pulling the trigger,  I have one particular (plan??) that is killing me.

I assume you meant 'plan' above? I really hope a faster computer solves the issue for you Scott. I upgraded my computer to the fastest chips that were available for my Mother Board and saw almost no improvement in my couple of problem plans. Your case might be different, just keep your expectations low and you might be pleasantly surprised.

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  • 2 weeks later...
29 minutes ago, dshall said:

An update:

 

I did get the new computer.  I have been using it for a few days now.  It has been underwhelming.  I will probably return the computer in the next few days.

 

I would appreciate any comments.

 

The key is cores i find.  I currently use 6 cores but right now building a new machine that will have 12.  We have both 4 and 6 core machines in our office and the 6 core machines really have a noticeable difference.

 

Also, the new Titan video cards are speed demons.  If you look at the price of Mac vs building your own system you can have 10x the system in PC world for the price of a Mac.  To me its just not worth the nice looking hardware to give up on speed.

 

i9

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117811

 

Video Card

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADRA5YN3915&cm_re=titan_video-_-9SIADRA5YN3915-_-Product

 or

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADRA68J8413&cm_re=titan_x-_-9SIADRA68J8413-_-Product

 

You pair that up with SSD and 32 gig ram you will scream.

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My take- I hope final release performs better-that's a wait and see. I know my little toy spectre runs X9 respectably but really struggles with 10, basically unusable.

New hardware is due shortly for both Macs and PCs. I'm personally waiting no matter what. 9th gen Intel and Volta or whatever it is they name next GPU series are both supposed to be pretty large leap. End of year likely for first ones to hit the street.

That said the reason I'm a PC is there are more hardware options for less (and I don't personally like the Mac OS) Dont' want to start a war, Macs are beautiful but don't have the same juice from what I see- maybe some really top flight ones or somebody can custom build one. I'd bet that the film folks using them have something suprer?

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11 minutes ago, MarkMc said:

I know my little toy spectre runs X9 respectably but really struggles with 10, basically unusable.

 

The only difference I'm noticing with X10 on my Spectre 360 is when I initially open a 3D camera view, takes maybe 5 secs to display the scene. Once displayed, things seem to be about the same, especially if I set the camera options to be like X9. When using the PBR with all the goodies turned on this can get a bit on the laggy side, especially if I have more than 8 active lights, but I have the same issue on my main desktop with a GTX 745. There is the ability in the Intel HD graphics chip settings to assign X10 for 3D, it seemed to help a bit.

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1 hour ago, dshall said:

An update:

 

I did get the new computer.  I have been using it for a few days now.  It has been underwhelming.  I will probably return the computer in the next few days.

 

I would appreciate any comments.

Scott - did you buy a new MAC?  If so...how was it configured?

 

My two cents on the Mac vs PC.  I used a PC for twenty years.  I loved Windows 7...it was a solid piece of software.  But...because I use an iPhone and have IPad...decided to switch when I needed a new computer about 3 years ago.  Got an iMac and I’m thrilled with it.  Yes...you can build a more powerful PC...but the thing I love about the Mac is it just works.  It’s so easy to use...it’s truly dummy proof.  Is it the most powerful...no, but it gets the job done.  

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I recently built a system around the intel i7 7820x CPU as I figured it was the sweet spot in terms of both single and multi-threaded performance. Usually the higher you go in your core count, the lower your base clock will be.


With my previous i5 setup, my system would be almost unusable while rendering in Chief. Now, while I'm rendering, I can run multiple programs in the background without any issues whatsoever.

 

Ultimately I couldn't be happier with the build. It absolutely blazes through everything.

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1 hour ago, johnny said:

 

The key is cores i find.  I currently use 6 cores but right now building a new machine that will have 12.  We have both 4 and 6 core machines in our office and the 6 core machines really have a noticeable difference.

 

Also, the new Titan video cards are speed demons.  If you look at the price of Mac vs building your own system you can have 10x the system in PC world for the price of a Mac.  To me its just not worth the nice looking hardware to give up on speed.

 

i9

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117811

 

Video Card

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADRA5YN3915&cm_re=titan_video-_-9SIADRA5YN3915-_-Product

 or

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADRA68J8413&cm_re=titan_x-_-9SIADRA68J8413-_-Product

 

You pair that up with SSD and 32 gig ram you will scream.

 

 

VideoCards and DDR4 Ram are out of this world as far as pricing goes currently, in some cases almost double suggested Retail due to Ram Shortages and the Crypto Currency Fad at the moment, at least locally Stores have stopped people buying more than one Card . $1350-$1500 for a Card that should be $899 Ouch... $899 was too high...in my book at least, I got a second hand 980Ti , which is approx. a GTX1070 instead , lots of Gamers are upgrading and I didn't need the latest and greatest.

 

Having 6 Cores on my 5820K does seem to help though....

 

M.

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7 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

 

The only difference I'm noticing with X10 on my Spectre 360 is when I initially open a 3D camera view, takes maybe 5 secs to display the scene. Once displayed, things seem to be about the same, especially if I set the camera options to be like X9. When using the PBR with all the goodies turned on this can get a bit on the laggy side, especially if I have more than 8 active lights, but I have the same issue on my main desktop with a GTX 745. There is the ability in the Intel HD graphics chip settings to assign X10 for 3D, it seemed to help a bit.

The latest Win 10 update made mine worse. I'm going to try and get the patch or uninstall it to get rid of the Intel fix. Have no trouble on my Sager -have bloom off budon't usually

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Apple's professional Imac products are for sale, and they are purposed for our industry (as well as others).  Very spendy, but their focus is cores as well.  I really think for processors cores are the biggest deal.  If Scott got a quad core system like he probably already had then that is probably causing the disappointment.

 

Apple's entry level "Pro" computer is $5k.

 

 

imac_pro.png

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