8-core and 10-core iMac Pros Running Pro Apps (Part Two)
January 11th, 2018, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
Here is the 8-core and 10-core iMac Pros running additional pro apps compared to competing Macs. (This is an addendum to PART ONE.)
GRAPH LEGEND
iMac Pro 10c Vega64 - AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 (16GB) GPU inside the 2017 iMac Pro 3.0GHz 10-Core Xeon W-2150B CPU, 64GB of 2666MHz DDR4 ECC SDRAM
iMac Pro 8c Vega64 - AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 (16GB) GPU inside the 2017 iMac Pro 3.2GHz 8-Core Xeon W-2140B CPU, 32GB of 2666MHz DDR4 ECC SDRAM
nMP 8c D700s - AMD FirePro D700s (6GB each) GPUs installed in the 2013 Mac Pro 3.0GHz 8-Core Xeon E5-1680 v2 CP, 64GB of 1866MHz of DDR3 ECC SDRAM; TB2 port connected to the LG UltraFine 5K display
cMP 12c Frontier - AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition (16GB) GPU installed in 2010 Mac Pro 3.33GHz 12-Core Xeon X5680, 96GB of 1333MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM; DisplayPort of GPU connected to a Dell 5K display.
cMP 12c Vega64 - AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (8GB) GPU installed in 2010 Mac Pro 3.33GHz 12-Core Xeon X5680, 96GB of 1333MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM; DisplayPort of GPU connected to a Dell 5K display.
cMP 12c TITANXp - NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Xp (12GB) GPU installed in 2010 Mac Pro 3.33GHz 12-Core Xeon X5680, 96GB of 1333MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM; DisplayPort of GPU connected to a Dell 5K display.
cMP 12c 1080Ti - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11GB) GPU installed in 2010 Mac Pro 3.33GHz 12-Core Xeon X5680, 96GB of 1333MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM; DisplayPort of GPU connected to a Dell 5K display.
iMac 5K Pro580 - AMD Radeon Pro 580 (8GB) inside the 2017 iMac 5K 4.2GHz Quad Core i7 (7700K), 64GB of 2400MHz DDR4 SO-DIMM.
Motion - Render RAM Preview
Using the 600 frame Atmospheric template, we time how long it takes to render it in RAM while playing it. This consumes 11GB of RAM. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
Compressor - Transcode to 4K HEVC 10-bit (H.265)
From FCPX, we sent BruceX 5K project to Compressor and specified Apple Devices 4K (HEVC 10-bit) Output. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
Logic Pro X - Maximum Tracks
We keep adding tracks until it cries "uncle!" (HIGHER Number of Tracks = FASTER)
Blender - Render Scene using CPU only
Using the BMW Benchmark sample scene, we render using all CPU cores. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
Blender - Render Scene using GPUs only
Using the BMW Benchmark sample scene, we render using all CPU cores. AMD GPUs must use OpenCL. NVIDIA GPUs can use CUDA and should -- because it renders much faster than OpenCL. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
DaVinci Resolve 14 - Deliver 5K
Using a 5120x2160 RED clip, we transcode it to ProRes 4444 XQ. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
The 'low-end' iMac Pros (8-core and 10-core) compete very well against 'well configured' Mac Pros. If you can tolerate limited upgradeability and multiple external enhancements (TB 3 eGPUs and TB3/USB3 storage) it can be a serious replacement for an existing Mac Pro -- if you can't wait for the promised 'modular' 2018 Mac Pro.
We are puzzled why the Vega Frontier Edition completed the Blender GPU test in 7+ minutes, but estimated 5 hours for the RX Vega 64 to complete the test. We are also puzzled why the TITAN Xp took so long in Compressor to transcode to 4K HEVC 10-bit. (In both cases, we tried three times with the same or worse results.)
(Go HERE to see PART ONE of the low-end iMac Pro running other Pro Apps.)
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