[SOLVED] Mac Pro or iMac 5k? specs and thoughts

[Blaketho]

I've been long debating whether I should pull the trigger on a Mac Pro or the 5k iMac. I would like to have at least two monitors set up maybe three if im feeling ambitious. Either can accomplish that for me so I'm ok there, however the 5k has the better screen but with it being new I worry about potential bugs and issues with having this screen. The mac pro would allow me to reuse any monitor I pair with it though so the extra cost of that would balance out in the future. I know both computers are more than enough for me but I'm wondering what will work better. I would go with an upgraded 5k or base Mac pro. Here would be the specs.

iMac 5k:
CPU: Quad core i7 4Ghz
8Gb 1600 ram
1TB fusion drive
R9 M295X 4GB

Mac Pro:
CPU: Quad core 3.7 Ghz 10Mb of L3 cache
12GB of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
256GB SSD
Dual AMD Firepro D300 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

They seem to be about the same aside from storage which for me isnt a big deal, if I need more I'll go buy an external hard drive. I Plan on doing some light gaming, ie wow, sims 4, other mmos. Obviously not much since this is Mac. Price wise they are almost identical, but the Mac Pro will need a monitor to go with. I will be mainly using whichever computer for school stuff, typing papers, powerpoint etc. Photoshop, other design apps and internet browsing. So both are substantial, I'm just curious what would perform better. With dual monitors I don't plan on having tons of crazy stuff going on at once but I always have lots of firefox tabs up and music playing photoshop going or typing a word doc and referencing the internet. I hear that Mac Pro is better with multitasking (multithreaded tasks? not sure what the deal with single thread, multithread or multicore stuff is so feel free to elaborate) But I also heard benchmarks for the 5k were higher for single threaded tasks (again no real idea what this means). I know this is a pretty annoying question/decision but I've been researching and reading reviews and blogs for about two and a half weeks and I'm still stuck in between. Partially because I really love the Mac Pro and the fact that its an actual tower, vs the 5k being like a giant desktop/laptop, but the 5k has such a great screen especially cause my current computer is max at 1440x900

 

[okcnaline]

But what do you need it for?

Class work, MS office, photoshop, light gaming (maybe), and I would like to try some lighting FX and other things, but I don't know anything about that kind of stuff.

No point in getting a Mac then. A $2000 machine is enough to Photoshop, and depending on what type of class work.

 

[Blaketho]

If it runs at 5k why would it have issues with adapting to it?

The hardware supports the 5K resolutions. Doesn't necessarily mean that the software will. If you're working with high resolution files that have a hundred or so layers, redraws will be painfull slow running on laptop hardware with limited memory.

So Mac pro is better vs a 5k?

 

[g-unit1111]

If it runs at 5k why would it have issues with adapting to it?

The hardware supports the 5K resolutions. Doesn't necessarily mean that the software will. If you're working with high resolution files that have a hundred or so layers, redraws will be painfull slow running on laptop hardware with limited memory.

So Mac pro is better vs a 5k?

I don't know how many more times I have to say this - neither one is better. They're both expensive and overpriced compared to what you get if you build your own rig. If you want to throw money at a Mac Pro, it's your choice. But don't be surprised to spend at least $5,000 minimum when you can get a 5820K based system for about $2,500 less. The Adobe software has become cross platform and the content that you create on a PC can easily be translated to a Mac and vice versa.

 

[Blaketho]

If it runs at 5k why would it have issues with adapting to it?

The hardware supports the 5K resolutions. Doesn't necessarily mean that the software will. If you're working with high resolution files that have a hundred or so layers, redraws will be painfull slow running on laptop hardware with limited memory.

So Mac pro is better vs a 5k?

I don't know how many more times I have to say this - neither one is better. They're both expensive and overpriced compared to what you get if you build your own rig. If you want to throw money at a Mac Pro, it's your choice. But don't be surprised to spend at least $5,000 minimum when you can get a 5820K based system for about $2,500 less. The Adobe software has become cross platform and the content that you create on a PC can easily be translated to a Mac and vice versa.

I'm not trying to piss you off I'm just trying to figure out what to do. Here is my pc build I've thought about http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zZVLYJ

 

[g-unit1111]

I'm not trying to piss you off I'm just trying to figure out what to do. Here is my pc build I've thought about http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zZVLYJ

I'm not mad or anything, that build actually does look pretty good, I would maybe consider downgrading the monitor to a less expensive 4K model and then upgrading your GPU to a GTX 980.

 

[Blaketho]

I'm not trying to piss you off I'm just trying to figure out what to do. Here is my pc build I've thought about http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zZVLYJ

I'm not mad or anything, that build actually does look pretty good, I would maybe consider downgrading the monitor to a less expensive 4K model and then upgrading your GPU to a GTX 980.

Alright thanks, I'll look around a bit then!

 

[Blaketho]

I'm not trying to piss you off I'm just trying to figure out what to do. Here is my pc build I've thought about http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zZVLYJ

I'm not mad or anything, that build actually does look pretty good, I would maybe consider downgrading the monitor to a less expensive 4K model and then upgrading your GPU to a GTX 980.

I can't remember where I saw it but someone recommended the Gigabyte Gtx 970 over the EVGA one. And after looking at it it does look like the better card but I don't know much about pc stuff yet.
Thoughts?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125684&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-125-684-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487076&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-487-076-_-Product

 

[g-unit1111]

I can't remember where I saw it but someone recommended the Gigabyte Gtx 970 over the EVGA one. And after looking at it it does look like the better card but I don't know much about pc stuff yet.
Thoughts?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125684&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-125-684-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487076&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-487-076-_-Product

That's kind of all just personal opinions at that point. What GPU you get really is determined by what monitor and resolution you ultimately wind up settling with. If you're going for 4K or better you want the fastest card you can buy for the money, and that ultimately comes down to VRAM clock speeds. Usually the higher the better and if it allows for overclocking that's always a good consideration.

 

[Blaketho]

I can't remember where I saw it but someone recommended the Gigabyte Gtx 970 over the EVGA one. And after looking at it it does look like the better card but I don't know much about pc stuff yet.
Thoughts?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125684&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-125-684-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487076&cm_re=gtx_970-_-14-487-076-_-Product

That's kind of all just personal opinions at that point. What GPU you get really is determined by what monitor and resolution you ultimately wind up settling with. If you're going for 4K or better you want the fastest card you can buy for the money, and that ultimately comes down to VRAM clock speeds. Usually the higher the better and if it allows for overclocking that's always a good consideration.

I'd like to go with three monitors, and later on maybe one 4k but currently I don't need a 4k. Since the Gigabyte has three display ports that would work pretty well. It looks like that can support three 4k displays?

 

[g-unit1111]

I'd like to go with three monitors, and later on maybe one 4k but currently I don't need a 4k. Since the Gigabyte has three display ports that would work pretty well. It looks like that can support three 4k displays?

Technically it should but for anything other than basic tasks you'll need two cards to be able to handle the workload.

 

[Blaketho]

I'd like to go with three monitors, and later on maybe one 4k but currently I don't need a 4k. Since the Gigabyte has three display ports that would work pretty well. It looks like that can support three 4k displays?

Technically it should but for anything other than basic tasks you'll need two cards to be able to handle the workload.