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New Mac Pro Configuration Recommendations

Rodrigo Violante

Rodrigo Violante

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The Mac is coming out tomorrow to buy, and I wanted to know if anyone can recommend a good configuration for the Mac Pro so we do not overspend.

Any feedback?
 
I just posted the following in another thread:

The base model is more or less a skeleton to get into the platform and you don't want that.

Going up to 12-core you get faster single thread performance and you lift the memory to 2933MHz (instead of 2666MHz with the 8-core). Depending on price, you'll want 12 or 16 core...

Same with graphics, you want to go to the first level up: from 580X to Radeon Pro Vega II. Both cards are getting long in the tooth, but the 580X has no place in the new Mac Pro. Already the base Pro Vega II (not talking about the Pro Vega II Duo, which is two Pro Vega II combined) comes with 32GB of RAM—nice for 8K.

System RAM: you don't want the base 32GB. It's only 4 modules and you want to use 6. From 48GB and up you're good. In my experience people need less RAM than they think. RAM won't make the computer faster per se, but having too little will slow it down. As an example, DaVinci Resolve runs fine with as low as 16GB. Once you do 3D or compositing where textures and such needs to be read into memory.... then you need more.

Disk space needs no explanation. But if the stock config really only comes with 256GB (one module), you at least need to go to 1TB (over two modules).
 
I’m fully expecting the 16-core, possibly the 24-core to be the sweet spot. Pricing structure will say a lot, but I think 16-core with 96GB RAM and a Vega Pro II Duo MPX GPU would be the target starting point for those really using FCPX and Resolve. Depending on price and a few other factors, the next logical step up would be to the 24-core CPU. Then probably a move to 192GB RAM to better support the CPU, especially if working full time in 4K+ workflows. I’m not so sure FCPX will benefit from more than 16 cores (32 threads). Adobe software definitely won’t... My primary Resolve system is still a 20-core E5v2 (2 x 10 core) Xeon workstation I built over 5 years ago. It’s long in the tooth and the plan was to replace it with this new Mac Pro. The RAM is the bottleneck in that system, not the CPU cores. I breathed new life into it a while back by upgrading it to dual 1080TI GPUs... But the RAM speed keeps it choked up. I’m actually building a 24-core ThreadRipper system right now, still waiting on a couple parts. It may replace the aging Xeon box and I may not buy the Mac Pro at this time. Everything should be a bit more clear tomorrow when we see pricing.

Not sure what to make of the Afterburner card just yet...

I foresee a lot of people ordering the Mac Pro tower and skipping the XDR display. Yeah, we all want one, but it may make financial sense for many to save $4000 by going with the 5K LG monitor instead. If you do get the XDR Pro Display, don’t buy the $1000 stand. Get a good arm to mount it, you’ll be happier and will save a good chunk there too.
 
AndreeMarkefors said:
Same with graphics, you want to go to the first level up: from 580X to Radeon Pro Vega II. Both cards are getting long in the tooth, but the 580X has no place in the new Mac Pro. Already the base Pro Vega II (not talking about the Pro Vega II Duo, which is two Pro Vega II combined) comes with 32GB of RAM—nice for 8K.
Click to expand...

Will be interesting to see GPU pricing. Might make more sense to go with two separate Vega Pro II MPX modules instead of the Duo if you want/need two GPUs. They are a bit old... Going to be interesting to see if nVidia jumps back onboard. I kinda have my doubts.

System RAM: you don't want the base 32GB. It's only 4 modules and you want to use 6. From 48GB and up you're good. In my experience people need less RAM than they think. RAM won't make the computer faster per se, but having too little will slow it down. As an example, DaVinci Resolve runs fine with as low as 16GB. Once you do 3D or compositing where textures and such needs to be read into memory.... then you need more.
Click to expand...

I think 48GB will be too little, especially with 12+ cores. I would say that’s the minimum, as I recommend 3~4 GB per core as a starting point. Really it’s about 3GB per thread as that allows for 2GB per process maximum plus overhead. I run 256GB in my dual Xeon 20-core Resolve system. That’s overkill, but 128GB would not cut it in many situations. Like I mentioned above, I think 96GB is going to be a nice target for 12 or 16 core configurations and 24 and 28 core setups may really want to consider 192GB.

Of course that comes down to what all is being done on the system.

Disk space needs no explanation. But if the stock config really only comes with 256GB (one module), you at least need to go to 1TB (over two modules).
Click to expand...

4TB max SSD in this system is an insult, IMO. There is supposed to be a larger storage option designed to fit an MPX module setup. OK, I know there is and I’ve seen one of them in action when I got to see the Mac Pro last month. It’s not an Apple product, but third party. It still may be a build option when configuring. IIRC, the setup I saw was 32TB. I want to say that it’s from Promise, but that was not discussed when I got my hands-on.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
I’m fully expecting…
Click to expand...

I agree with what you're saying Jeff. My answer above is mostly directed to those who want to get on board with the new Mac Pro but feel it's already "expensive" as it is.

But Apple's published base configuration has a few... "misalignments", let say, that I feel any buyer should try to avoid—and some reasoning behind why.

For myself, the first config I'll throw together to see the price will be:

16-core, Pro Vega II, 96GB, 2TB.
 
Configurator is up:

Cheapest sensible model:
12 core | wait for Radeon Pro W5700X | 48GB | 1TB is $8499 (est. based on $800 for gfx)

Preferred entry:
16 core | Pro Vega II 32GB | 96GB | 2TB is $12.199

Current max:
28 core | Dual Pro Vega II Duo 64GB | 1.5TB | 4TB is $50.199

Internal storage will be available in 8TB soon.
 
Last edited:
$17,599 gets you:

3.2GHz 16‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz
96GB (6x16GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
Radeon Pro Vega II Duo with 2x32GB of HBM2 memory
4TB SSD storage
Apple Afterburner card
Stainless steel frame with feet
Magic Mouse 2
Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English
Accessory Kit
 
I have no issue with the $20-40K workstations when the parts are bleeding edge but most of this stuff is pretty long in the tooth at this point.

Looking forward to if/when the next version comes out. All of the promised Metal support might be fleshed out by then.
 
I'm selling my Kidney to finish paying my Mac!

This is the setup I got:
16 core 3.2
96GB
Radeon pro Vega II 32
2TB SSD
Afterburner

Nano Display
Mac Stand
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
I’m fully expecting the 16-core, possibly the 24-core to be the sweet spot. Pricing structure will say a lot, but I think 16-core with 96GB RAM and a Vega Pro II Duo MPX GPU would be the target starting point for those really using FCPX and Resolve. Depending on price and a few other factors, the next logical step up would be to the 24-core CPU. Then probably a move to 192GB RAM to better support the CPU, especially if working full time in 4K+ workflows. I’m not so sure FCPX will benefit from more than 16 cores (32 threads). Adobe software definitely won’t... My primary Resolve system is still a 20-core E5v2 (2 x 10 core) Xeon workstation I built over 5 years ago. It’s long in the tooth and the plan was to replace it with this new Mac Pro. The RAM is the bottleneck in that system, not the CPU cores. I breathed new life into it a while back by upgrading it to dual 1080TI GPUs... But the RAM speed keeps it choked up. I’m actually building a 24-core ThreadRipper system right now, still waiting on a couple parts. It may replace the aging Xeon box and I may not buy the Mac Pro at this time. Everything should be a bit more clear tomorrow when we see pricing.

Not sure what to make of the Afterburner card just yet...

I foresee a lot of people ordering the Mac Pro tower and skipping the XDR display. Yeah, we all want one, but it may make financial sense for many to save $4000 by going with the 5K LG monitor instead. If you do get the XDR Pro Display, don’t buy the $1000 stand. Get a good arm to mount it, you’ll be happier and will save a good chunk there too.
Click to expand...

Jeff, how much is the PC system you are building in total cost?

My take on this new Mac Pro is that it only makes sense if you are an entirely Mac based shop that uses FCPX, Motion, and other Mac-centric applications. I am starting to seriously consider sticking with iMacs for editing in FCPX and Avid using proxy workflows and building a capable PC system for Davinci Resolve. I would never be able to justify the $50K price tag to max this thing out. I can understand why others will be able to justify it but for me, unfortunately, this is not looking like a machine I will consider at this time.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
Jeff, how much is the PC system you are building in total cost?

My take on this new Mac Pro is that it only makes sense if you are an entirely Mac based shop that uses FCPX, Motion, and other Mac-centric applications. I am starting to seriously consider sticking with iMacs for editing in FCPX and Avid using proxy workflows and building a capable PC system for Davinci Resolve. I would never be able to justify the $50K price tag to max this thing out. I can understand why others will be able to justify it but for me, unfortunately, this is not looking like a machine I will consider at this time.
Click to expand...

Maybe if RED offered ProRes RAW as a supported RAW format the afterburner would make sense. But right now it looks like not.
 
I've tried to find info online, but does anyone know if Adobe Premiere would utilize the afterburner card? Or has there been any mention of it being added into an update? I don't want to spend 2k on the afterburner if it does absolutely nothing for my workflow. I'd rather take that 2k and bump up the graphics card where I'm hoping would benefit Premiere. As of now, I built up a config in my "bag" of:

3.2GHz 16-core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz 96GB (6x16GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
Radeon Pro Vega II with 32GB of HBM2 memory
1TB SSD storage
Apple Afterburner card
 
Michael Patterson said:
I've tried to find info online, but does anyone know if Adobe Premiere would utilize the afterburner card? Or has there been any mention of it being added into an update? I don't want to spend 2k on the afterburner if it does absolutely nothing for my workflow. I'd rather take that 2k and bump up the graphics card where I'm hoping would benefit Premiere. As of now, I built up a config in my "bag" of:

3.2GHz 16-core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz 96GB (6x16GB) of DDR4 ECC memory
Radeon Pro Vega II with 32GB of HBM2 memory
1TB SSD storage
Apple Afterburner card
Click to expand...

One of the early review guys responded to my question on Twitter. Right now afterburner is ONLY for ProRes RAW, and only implemented within FCPX and other Apple programs. They do say it will be supported by other 3rd party apps (Resolve? Premiere?). But I strongly suspect ONLY for ProRes RAW, which means we'd need RED to support a new codec in their cameras to get afterburner benefits. Or perhaps there's a lightweight way to wrap R3D media in a ProRes RAW wrapper--I don't know. But the reviewers who have said anything about R3D so far have only demonstrated that the 28-core Xeon processor is capable of transcoding from RED's 8K RAW to some H.264-ish format in slightly better than realtime (a 5:00 minute clip in 4:20). Afterburner is doing nothing in that case (AFAIK).
 
AndreeMarkefors said:
Configurator is up:

Cheapest sensible model:
12 core | Pro Vega II 32GB | 48GB | 1TB is $10.099

Preferred entry:
16 core | Pro Vega II 32GB | 96GB | 2TB is $12.199

Current max:
28 core | Dual Pro Vega II Duo 64GB | 1.5TB | 4TB is $50.199

Internal storage will be available in 8TB soon.
Click to expand...

Your "Preferred" Config is exactly what I am ordering
 
Thanks Michael for the response. Is it worth going the radeon pro II duo then? I'm assuming it should be a good improvement over the standard, but it is an extra 2400. But since it looks like I can ditch the $2000 afterburner card, it won't impact my "budget". Also, since the pro II duo and the dual pro II are the same cost for the upgrade, wouldn't it be a better idea to go with the pro II duo since it would only take up one slot? And it feels like some programs, Premiere included, don't fully utilize 2 separate graphics cards. I guess by going with the one higher end card, you could potentially add a second in the future? I'm not super versed on hardware configurations, so I apologize if my questions cause any eye rolls...
 
Michael Patterson said:
Thanks Michael for the response. Is it worth going the radeon pro II duo then? I'm assuming it should be a good improvement over the standard, but it is an extra 2400. But since it looks like I can ditch the $2000 afterburner card, it won't impact my "budget". Also, since the pro II duo and the dual pro II are the same cost for the upgrade, wouldn't it be a better idea to go with the pro II duo since it would only take up one slot? And it feels like some programs, Premiere included, don't fully utilize 2 separate graphics cards. I guess by going with the one higher end card, you could potentially add a second in the future? I'm not super versed on hardware configurations, so I apologize if my questions cause any eye rolls...
Click to expand...

It's all speculation until we're 6 months down the line and know for sure how the promised Metal support for .r3d will shake out.

Premiere supports multi-GPU on export very well on Windows with .r3d, so its just a matter of whether the devs put the effort in.

If I had to buy a Mac Pro today, and cut primarily .r3d, I'd spend the money on a better GPU rather than the Afterburner. You can always add that later if it becomes supported. But you know the GPU will help in Resolve etc.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
Jeff, how much is the PC system you are building in total cost?
Click to expand...

AMD ThreadRipper 3960X - 24 core
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Extreme Motherboard
8 x 32GB Corsair DDR4 3600MHz (256GB total)
2 x RTX 2080 TI GPUs
2 x 2TB M.2 Nvme SSDs
A few other bits and bobs and liquid cooling setup for the CPU.

I’m right at $10K all in. ...A bit under half what the equivalent Mac Pro would cost.

I acknowledge that my config would cost another $2500 or so if I were buying from a custom PC shop... Just have to say that Apple’s pricing is wack. And yet, not out of line from current industry offerings. They’re right in line with HP and others. So when it comes to big business purchases or corporate money, they’re going to price out just fine. For us indie guys, small shops/ boutiques, it’s really a non-starter unless you’re, as you say, an entirely Mac based shop... And even then, I think the 12 or 16 core system is the better configuration. FCPX and the like, and for sure all the Adobe apps, can’t utilize all those cores to great effect and more than 20 threads or so is completely lost on them.

In typical Apple fashion, they price the CPUs just high enough where it still makes sense to configure through them. Buying the base model and swapping the CPU offers no value. However, buying RAM separately may be a good idea here. Mostly because several 12-DIMM options are just not available to configure and those would save money. I think the base price of the unit is astronomically high and the GPU pricing is bonkers.

I’m having trouble reconciling the Afterburner card. I definitely want to see real benchmarks with and without it.
 
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