How Does the iMac Pro Compare to the Mac Studio?

Question

At present I’m looking into acquiring an iMac Pro but i’m also intrigued by the Mac Studio. In terms of efficiency and price, how do they measure up to each other?

Answer 1

Although it no longer is the latest offspring from Apple’s factory, the iMac Pro performs well for specific tasks. It can, indeed, be outperformed by the M1 Ultra Mac Studio across the board, but the return on investment is much more favorable. In fact, the display, camera, and speakers of the iMac Pro can match or even outperform the Studio Display, and the price can be around one-third of a fully-loaded Mac Studio. When it comes to Blender renders, the iMac Pro performs satisfactorily which makes it a good choice for the buyers looking to own an expensive Mac studying on the low end of the spectrum.

Comments

Hmmm, i would say that the 2020 iMac 27" 5K is the better deal as it outperforms the base iMac Pro in most tests while being cheaper. I bought one yesterday to upgrade my (similar) 2015 model.

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Luke, great content as usual. I am thinking of upgrading my 64GB 8-core trashcan for an iMac Pro with a Vega 64. For single core performance, is the 8-core better than the 10 core? I found one for $1400.

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The 10 Core iMac with 128GB Ram and 6700XT 16GB GPU is even better value, can be had for $1600 and is only 15% slower than your 18 core xeon machine !!  (14650 R23)

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One benefit of getting the Mac Studio and the Studio display is that the Studio Display can be easily used as a secondary monitor or you can switch out the computer that is attached to it. The iMac display is not as easily converted

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Hey @lukemiani is there a chance you could do the iMac Pro vs Mac Studio editing content but concentrate on timeline smoothness and how they both handle effects etc. I’ve been super curious how both the iMac Pro or Mac Studio handle real world edits full of effects and different speed ramps or noise reduction.
Keep up the solid work

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Hello, I think that can be interessting to compare with a full option M1 Mac Mini.