Low End iMac Pro Running Pro Apps
December 29th, 2017, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
December 30th - updated cMP results after switching to faster boot volume
January 1st, 2018, added iMac Pro 10-core to After Effects graph and
added the TITAN Xp and GTX 1080 Ti to all the graphs
Here is the 8-core iMac Pro running popular pro apps compared to our gaggle of competing Macs. We will add the 10-core results to the graphs as the come in.
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 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.
Final Cut Pro X - Export
The BruceX project is exported to ProRes 4444 XQ Master. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
Compressor - Transcode
We hand off the BruceX project to Compressor to transcode into Apple 4K version. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
After Effects CC - Render Project
We render the TestComp benchmark project. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
Premiere Pro CC - Export Project
We export the PPBM6 sample project as Blu-ray. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
Photoshop CC - Noise Reduction
Using the sample image courtesy of Mac Performance Guide, we apply the Noise Reduction Filter using maximum settings. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
Lightroom Classic CC - Export Full-Size JPEG
We export 50 RAW Soccer images (393MB total) included with original Aperture app. (LOWER Time in Seconds = FASTER)
WHAT DID WE LEARN?
The 'low-end' iMac Pro continues to show its muscle in these 'classic' pro app benchmarks. The message is that you can be assured it will perform at a pro level. As soon as we have results for the 10-core iMac Pro, we will add them to this page.
(Go to HERE to see Part Two of the Pro App testing.)
As of January 1st we added the results for the NVIDIA TITAN Xp and GTX 1080 ti to all the graphs. Note how they excel when exporting Premiere Pro but lag behind in the FCPX BruceX Export and Compressor Transcode.
NOTE: A Twitter follower asked about the boot volume on the 2010 Mac Pro. Originally I booted from a 2.5 inch Samsung 840 Pro SSD in the factory drive bay. When I switched to a much faster PCIe based M.2 flash storage (Samsung SM951) mounted in slot 4, the transcoding times for FCPX and Compressor improved by 11 seconds each. I also tried dual SM951s on the Amfeltec M.2 Carrier in slot 1 but there was no further improvement. We will talk more about these transfer speeds of these alternative fast boot volumes in an upcoming article entitled "iMac Pro storage versus other Macs."
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