Coming Lineup...Dual Core, Quad Core, Eight Core?
Hi All,
With the new Mac Pro going 8-core across the board (except the single chip version), and the Mac Mini and Mac laptops sitting at dual core, what do you think the chances are of the iMac going quad-core? Or, as people have been asking for years for, Apple releasing a new Mac between the iMac and the Mac Pro with all quad-cores?
My dilemma is, I want to upgrade my current Powermac G5 2-Ghz dual-core (late 2005 low end version) and I want a bigger display than my plastic bevel 20 inch Cinema, but I am really unsure with the current crop of Apple desktops, which direction I should go in.
What I Want:
The ability to run Windows (Windows-only apps Acid & Sound Forge)
As many cores as possible for rendering (my main design program makes use of them)
A larger screen for designing, but matte, not glossy (24-30 inches)
2 hard drives, no RAID, one can be external (for Time Machine)
A high end graphics card (the GeForce 8800 GT sounds really nice for the price)
Minimum 4 GB Ram, preferably 8 GB
Now of course, most of this points me towards a new Mac Pro, except I don't need the extra two drive bays, don't need the extra PCI slots, and when all is said and done, the price is pretty high, and then I have to add a new display as well.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
P.S. I use my Mac for business (two online stores), web design, graphic design, composing music, research, intensive rendering, but my stores are startups and are part-time, so the upgrade, although it could increase profits, is more for my own sanity as opposed to for business.
With the new Mac Pro going 8-core across the board (except the single chip version), and the Mac Mini and Mac laptops sitting at dual core, what do you think the chances are of the iMac going quad-core? Or, as people have been asking for years for, Apple releasing a new Mac between the iMac and the Mac Pro with all quad-cores?
My dilemma is, I want to upgrade my current Powermac G5 2-Ghz dual-core (late 2005 low end version) and I want a bigger display than my plastic bevel 20 inch Cinema, but I am really unsure with the current crop of Apple desktops, which direction I should go in.
What I Want:
The ability to run Windows (Windows-only apps Acid & Sound Forge)
As many cores as possible for rendering (my main design program makes use of them)
A larger screen for designing, but matte, not glossy (24-30 inches)
2 hard drives, no RAID, one can be external (for Time Machine)
A high end graphics card (the GeForce 8800 GT sounds really nice for the price)
Minimum 4 GB Ram, preferably 8 GB
Now of course, most of this points me towards a new Mac Pro, except I don't need the extra two drive bays, don't need the extra PCI slots, and when all is said and done, the price is pretty high, and then I have to add a new display as well.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
P.S. I use my Mac for business (two online stores), web design, graphic design, composing music, research, intensive rendering, but my stores are startups and are part-time, so the upgrade, although it could increase profits, is more for my own sanity as opposed to for business.
Comments
What I Want:
The ability to run Windows (Windows-only apps Acid & Sound Forge)
As many cores as possible for rendering (my main design program makes use of them)
A larger screen for designing, but matte, not glossy (24-30 inches)
2 hard drives, no RAID, one can be external (for Time Machine)
A high end graphics card (the GeForce 8800 GT sounds really nice for the price)
Minimum 4 GB Ram, preferably 8 GB
You would want a Mac Pro.
Anyway the 24" iMac has the display it has (so no choice here), if the 24" iMac get a quad-core (Q3 2008 according to Intel's roadmap - a few weeks later for Apple) it will be priced even higher than the current Extreme edition $2299, since the cpu itself will cost more ($999 vs. $850 by the 1,000), we're looking at a $2499 computer or so.
While we don't know yet how high this quad will be clocked, I believe it will be at around 2.5GHz.
We don't know yet what mid-range GPU will be installed on this quad iMac.
For the same price or so you can already have a quad 2.8 Mac Pro, with your choice of GPU and display(s). IMO a better choice.
And if you make music, you'll be happy to use internal drives and internal DSP cards and audio interfaces, instead of chocking your Firewire ports with similar slower devices.
my 0.02 CAD.
I've read in other threads that the new Mac Pro will crush my G5, so that's good news...lol.
Not sure about the display at this point. I'm hoping Apple releases new displays in a couple days so I have more options. Any suggestions for a good display with excellent color in the 24-30 inch range?
I've been looking at the Dell 27 inch UltraSharp Wide but I've never had any other monitor but an Apple Cinema display, which I love, so any suggestions for monitors is welcome!
Thanks for responding.
I care about having to reduce my scene illumination settings and cut down the quality of my renders so when I finally do render my 9600x7200 image for print, I can reduce the time it takes from 45 hours to 26 hours. It would be damn nice to cut that time in half or better. My main design program Vue 6 Infinite, can handle as many processing cores as I want to throw at it.
Or when I'm converting 2700x2700 images in Photoshop Elements to PNGs with transparency, and I have 16 to do in a night, I don't spend half that time watching a spinning beach ball on my screen.
On my current G5 2 Ghz dual core, I spend far too much time waiting for my work to complete. Internet is fast, writing music in Reason is a pure pleasure, all my iApps run smoothly, and even multi-tasking with multiple programs and windows open is pretty smooth, but when designing and rendering, it's sloooow!...lol.
When I bought this machine it was the low-end at the time and the decision was based on price unfortunately. I was upgrading from the original single 1.6 Ghz G5, and the speed increase was substantial then.
Again I'm looking for a substantial speed increase, and I imagine the new Mac Pro will provide that. Hoping at least.
I appreciate your two cents mjteix, I am going to grab a new Mac Pro. The 24-inch iMac was definitely on my mind, but I agree that if I'm going to fork out that kind of cash, it should be towards a machine that I am completely happy with, and a machine that is going to last me at least a few years. I just didn't want to make a bad decision.
I've read in other threads that the new Mac Pro will crush my G5, so that's good news...lol.
Not sure about the display at this point. I'm hoping Apple releases new displays in a couple days so I have more options. Any suggestions for a good display with excellent color in the 24-30 inch range?
I've been looking at the Dell 27 inch UltraSharp Wide but I've never had any other monitor but an Apple Cinema display, which I love, so any suggestions for monitors is welcome!
Thanks for responding.
Unfortunatly, I am no expert on displays, I too still use "old" Apple LCD displays. But if you work on big images, with Reason, etc... I would suggest: the more pixels you can have, the better.
Apple's 30"?
Maybe next week at MWSF we'll have some good news...