Quad or 8 core Mac Pro?

Niels Neeskens

Niels Neeskens

Well-known member
Hey everybody,

I am going to buy the new Mac Pro, but I am still in doubt about which one to get. I read a lot of articles about both machines and I know both of them are sweet, but what is your opinion about it?

I shoot with the HVX200 and I am doing a lot more HD editing nowadays. Next to that I need a lot of rendering for Compressor, Color and the Neat Video plug-in. My old Macbook Pro is just not really up for that. Is the 8 core still overdone, will the quad core do fine or looking to the future it's better to go for the 8-core?

Cheers
Niels
 
What's the price difference? I'd buy what I can afford.

Get the upgrade for the graphics card.

Get your own drives.

CaptM
 
The price difference is 700 euro's (around 900 dollars), so significant. And if I pimp the quad core to 6GB memory, 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s and a upgrade for the graphic card (ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB) it will still be 200 euro's cheaper then the 8 core...

Only thing is that the quad core has a limitation of 8 gb of memory.
 
I recently bought a previous generation 8-core 2.8 GHz in it's stock configuration brand new for only US$2400 at B&H. They still have the same deal:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/539244-REG/Apple_MA970LL_A__Mac_Pro_Desktop.html

I't a big savings over the new models, and is very, very fast. In testing against my dual 2.7 GHz G5, the Mac Pro was 3.3 times faster. That adds up to about an 8 hour savings on transcoding a 2 hour FCP timeline in Compressor (for DVD output) at highest quality!

Note that the simple math processor-wise is pretty close to real-word in this case: 8-core 2.8 is roughly 4 times dual 2.7, and the speed advantage is 3.3 times. I'm very happy with my choice.

I should also add that I put a Blackmagic Extreme HD card in the Mac Pro, but I don't think that affects Compressor's transcoding speed. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure...
 
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Go for the 8 core, Compressor will thank you. You can create a virtual cluster and use all 8 cores.

Also consider getting your RAM somewhere else.
 
Wow I had no idea about that. If it'll cut Compressor's time in about half (like the article implies) that'll be *huge*. Compressor is the only app I have that really eats processor power like that. Thanks!
 
I narrowed it down to 2.66 Quad, 6 GB memory, 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s, ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB, Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse, AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi Card with 802.11n for € 2.769,00

or

or the standard 8-core, with ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB, Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse, AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi Card with 802.11n for € 3.244,00

Will the quad be more suited for gamers then for video editers? I work on Final Cut Studio 2.

My workflow is mostly this:
I edit a project in FCP 6 and run it through compressor, while compressor is running I make the DVD-menu in DVD Studio Pro and make the DVD-cover in Photoshop.

What about this workflow, will I benefit from a 8-core but with a slower 2.26GHz?
 
I've been recently debating the same comparo. Ive decided on the 2.26 8-Core.

The 8 core is faster over the quad in applications which are multi-core friendly. It's no secret that Snow Leopard will drive better multi-core support, along with better GPU support. And it's a sure bet that FCS 3 should follow suit. Since this tower will be with me for at least 3 years, in the long run it's a better investment to go with the 8-Core with more pro apps going the way of multi-core / GPU friendly.

And to top it all off, the quad core only comes with 4 RAM slots. The 8-core has well... 8. Look at the price of RAM, its gonna be much cheaper to get to 12+ GB of RAM on the 8 Core.

Also, don't skimp out on the RAM. Go with 8GB minimum. Anything less is pointless when running pro apps. The Clovertown 3.0 8-core I'm working on now has 32GB and I've seen this thing use up every MB!!!!! Just don't buy the RAM from apple. Go with a place like www.transintl.com. Get the lowest avail RAM from apple. But don't sell or trade off the Apple RAM when upgrading to 3rd Party RAM. If you ever need AppleCare support ( highly recommended!! don't skimp on this!! ) put the Apple RAM back in so they can't blame any issues on the 3rd party RAM.

Also, that B&H deal seems good too, but once I added the total system cost ( ATI 4870 upgrade, 16GB 3rd party RAM, AppleCare ) the system came to 3300.00 for me. But I couldn't find a Wireless card for it. I'm sure one exists that should work fine, but none from Apple's Store. And it has a smaller default hard drive. Really it's only a few hundred or so difference for a Nehalem 2.26 with 12GBRAM - $3631.00 . And despite the lower clock speed, it IS faster then the old 2.8 in multi-Core apps with the much improved architecture. The extra 300 seems reasonable for the speed bump & better power efficiency. ( it will cost less to the power bill for the Nehalem then the Harpertown. You would save back the $$ difference over the time you use the tower )

And yes, 12GB is faster on the new Nehalem then 16GB on the old 2.8 when you keep Nehalem to only 6RAM chips. That gives you DDR3 speeds. using the full 8 RAM slots on the Nehalem drops the speeds to DDR2 & slows the system down. Sounds funky I know. But that's the way it is.

So make sure you consider the TOTAL SYSTEM Cost, not just the upfront tower cost.
 
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Recently got a refurb 2.8 quad core from Apple ($2399) and added 2 1TB HD from amazon (Seagates 32MB cache - $85 each) and 8GB of RAM from Datamem ($185) - works like a dream!
 
^^ $2754.00

+314 Ati 4870 kit
+199 AppleCare

= $3267.00 Vs. $3735.00 Nehalem 2.26 Same hard drive upgrade, same RAM upgrade.

Though I do get a education discount. so add 200 I think to the Nehalem for that. Meaning a savings of $670ish non-discount for the 2.8 over the 2.26 . Not considering the power consumption difference, it's about 200 extra a year if you keep the Nehalem based on 3 years.


The previous gen towers don't seem all that much cheaper to me. But then if you're on a ultra tight budget......

And dont' forget about the tax write off for expenses if you are indeed using this as a biz machine.
 
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Thank you very much for that Ryan, you convinced me with that answer! I am going for that option, I'll buy the 2.26 8-core with 6GB Ram (minimum) and get some 3rd Party Ram (prob. up to about 16GB). Good advice to keep the 6 GB Ram from Apple, for the Apple Care Support.

Next to that the ATI 4870 upgrade, wireless mouse and I will be a happy camper...
 
I remember reading a post a while back when someone said the prices for the 8-core is finally coming down in July...?
does anyone know
 
?? Maybe with a speed bump on new setups. But that seems slim. It's not often Apple changes prices when they don't update the product at all. And July seems a bit quick for a speed bump. Especially after the whole year from the early 08 model to now.

But if you can afford to wait, you got nothing to loose. There will always be a new-faster system at some point.
 
what do you think?

what do you think?

neils--

I've been doing editing for years but never quite with a truly professional setup. Your proposed system sounds good to me -- I may go the same way. What I want to do is move up soon from my pre-Intel G5 and FCExpress 4 to that workstation you mention so I can buy FCS3 whenever it comes out.

My question is, do you think FCS3, as far as we can guess, would work okay on such a system? I've never had Final Cut Pro yet, looking forward to it, so I'm just waiting until FCS3 comes out whenever and I would like to be ready.

Another maybe naive question -- why are they called workstations? Just because they're more geared toward video editing? If I bought the workstation with FCS3 at the same time (whenever it comes out) would that save a little money?
 
Hey Kookooframe,

After a lot of doubt, questions and wondering I am going for the 2.66 GHz 8-core now. This one is more expensive (around 1200 euro's/ 1600 dollars), but it takes the best of two worlds, with a fast compressor and still the 8-cores. To me it is a big investment all ready so a couple of more bucks wouldn't harm me and business is good now, so why not! (as I justify the costs for myself :). Maybe something for you to think about as well.

As far as FCS3 concerned, this is one of the main reasons I go for the 8-core, because FCS3 will probably take advantage of all the cores. Compressor 3 (which comes with FCS 2) all ready does and I work a lot with that. If Snow Leopard is launched more programs will take more advantage of the 8-core, so that's another reason.

About the workstations part, I don't know. I am working on it and it runs like a station. so it kinda makes sence all ready :) I don't think there will be any discounts or so if you buy ''the workstation'' together with FCS3. I can't remember there was with the other FCS versions, so I don't see they will now.
 
sounds good!

sounds good!

Thanks, Niels. Sounds good! Now I just have to find the $$$ and help Steve Jobs put the final touches on FCS3...
 
They call em Workstations because they use Xeon chips which are workstation/server class processors. Mac Pro's are aimed at video/graphics/science professionals and are not really aimed at the home user / consumer market.

As far as FCS3, If you can wait till then, you got nothing to loose. Who knows, maybe they will give the Mac Pros a speed bump or other update with the launch of FCS3. I'd also be willing to bet that Snow Leopard would be out by then. And you wouldn't have to pay extra for the upgrade at that point.
 
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