Late 2015 - 2016 Mac product line with 4GB Nvidia GPU CUDA Options

Ron Knights

This topic interests me greatly. I'd used PCs for around 20 years. I cursed Microsoft and Windows the entire time. In 2007 I ran into some money and bought a 24" iMac with a puny nVidia video card. The video card was the only source of frustration. They didn't offer many options for memory on the GPU. Other than the weakness of the GPU, i've been totally satisfied with Mac performance and Apple support. Since then I've added a 2008 Mac mini, 2009 Macbook, 27" iMac with nVidia card, original iPad, iPad Air 2, etc. I got rid of all the PCs I owned at the time, and never regretted that decision.

My 2014 27" iMac performs very well for me at every task but using DAZ Studio. The 1GB nVidia card is not good enough for Iray. I was thinking of using an external video card setup as a solution. Oh, but it appears to be a risky proposition as mentioned above. 

I'll most likely try to gather money to buy a powerful PC to use for DAZ Studio alone. I'll grit my teeth because using Windows feels like torture to me. Then I'll go back to the iMac for everything else.

posecast

In my opinion, as long as you have a windows pc set up as a content creation tool, i.e. daz studio/poser/adobe cc suite, and don't add anything else, Windows 10 has been very responsive for me. I have had multiple windows and macos systems -- the windows machines always outrun the macos devices. The windows machines are susceptible to external tampering, however, so I learned a long time ago to keep my "work machine" and my "entertainment machine" as two seperate entities. That said I would jump on a 27" imac with a 980ti or higher. The machines are well built, for sure.

I would hesitate in investing in an external thunderbolt box, because a software update could render it inoperable. The price of the enclosure itself would go a fair way towards building a pc that houses a 980ti (or two).

There was a time when Apple was nonconformist and unique. That time has passed in my opinion.

Ron Knights

Yeah I tend to agree, in part. Apple & the Macs I own provide almost total satisfaction. The huge exception is when I want to use iRay and an nVidia card. I calculated once that I'd need to spend $1,000 for an external box and good GPU. A friend helped me make a list for a desirable PC. For a few hundred dollars more I'd have an actual PC that would outperform my iMac.

mambanegra

FWIW (which is probably nothing;) I ended up buying a PC with an 980 in it and it does fine. I think my iMac purchase from nearly two years ago will be the last mac I own, because they are moving toward sillytown where emojis are more important than good, competitive computers. I end up using a linux VM at work because GCC is a mess and LLVM doesn't have everything I need supported for C and C++ development. So, no sense in sticking with Mac there, and with the requirement of keeping a windows box for rendering, it seems foolish to ever purchase another mac just to do email, crude post work (my skills are terrible, lol) and basic web development. So, I've come to the decision that my next main will probably come with Windows on it. I wish they'd just abondon OSX and release it as open source so people who care can make it great once again, but they'll never do that.

Gator

Subtropic Pixel said:

There was once upon a time when Mac was made with the best hardware available.  Cutting edge and badass.  Now today's Mac Pro and Macbook Pro are both crippled.  You can't get a 17" screen, you can't put more than 756 GB SSD inside, and you can't put more than 16 GB RAM in them.  This makes Apple computer equipment nothing more than the Sony of today; cheaply built, already obsolete, and way too expensive for what you get.  And that's NOT a good comparison. 

I have decided that my next creative content laptop will be an Alienware or Asus gaming laptop running Windows.  With 32 GB RAM, Nvidia, and multiple intenral SSDs.

And my next workstation will also be a Windows system; probably built on ASUS motherboard with dual Xeon CPU slots, 3 Nvidia GPU cards, and 3-4 TB of internal SSD and HDD storage.

I want to learn development for both Android and iOS.  But since Macs are peg-legged, my Mac OS needs are only for iOS development and no content creation, so I don't need an expensive Mac.  In fact, the cheapest (or even a used 2-year old) Macbook Air will be more than enough to code for iPad and iPhone and use a browser, so to Apple:  You are losing a $3000 sale, continued sales for ongoing support, accessories, and software purchases.  And it's your loss more than it is mine, because I can do 95% of my stuff with Non-Apple equipment.

Oh well.

There was a time when I got impressed with OS'es.

Now?  Meh.  The hardware is so powerful now a few percentage points of efficiency isn't noticed.  You can name just about any OS, and say it's good for web browsing, email, and productivity work. 

While Windows isn't the most efficient OS, lots of flexibility and can throw just about any video card in it.  Easy to get a Windows box with a big PSU to throw a monster video card (or cards) in.  Why make computing life more expensive or complicated than it has to be.

nemesis10

I should toss this in: http://www.cultofmac.com/443138/the-wolfe-turns-your-macbook-into-a-high-end-gaming-rig/#more-443138

StratDragon

 

mambanegra said:

FWIW (which is probably nothing;) I ended up buying a PC with an 980 in it and it does fine. I think my iMac purchase from nearly two years ago will be the last mac I own, because they are moving toward sillytown where emojis are more important than good, competitive computers. I end up using a linux VM at work because GCC is a mess and LLVM doesn't have everything I need supported for C and C++ development. So, no sense in sticking with Mac there, and with the requirement of keeping a windows box for rendering, it seems foolish to ever purchase another mac just to do email, crude post work (my skills are terrible, lol) and basic web development. So, I've come to the decision that my next main will probably come with Windows on it. I wish they'd just abondon OSX and release it as open source so people who care can make it great once again, but they'll never do that.

+1