Testing the 2017 iMac Pro against the 2017 iMac 5K and 2013 Mac Pro and 2010 Mac Pro

2018-01-07 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: 2013 Mac Pro, 2017 iMac 5K, 2017 iMac Pro, 4K and 5K display, computer display, iMac, iMac 5K, iMac Pro, Mac Pro, Other World Computing

Thank you for buying your 2017 iMac 5K and/or iMac Pro at B&H Photo, and for upgrading it at OWC MacSales.com. Both vendors made and make my extensive tests of the Apple iMac Pro and other Macs and gear possible.

Not sure which Mac you need, or how to configure it, plan for backup, etc? Consult with Lloyd.

Over Jan 2 - Jan 5, I flew to OWC labs in Woodstock, IL for extensive testing of the new iMac Pro against the 2017 iMac 5K and 2013 Mac Pro and 2010 Mac. At OWC I tested:

• 2010 Mac Pro 3.46 GHz 12-core 4TB Accelsior ProQ RAID-0 64GB Sapphire
• 2013 Mac Pro 3.5 GHz 6-core 512GB 64GB D500
• 2017 iMac Pro 3.0 GHz 8-core 1TB 64GB/32GB Vega 56
• 2017 iMac Pro 3.0 GHz 10-core 1TB 64GB Vega 64

I am now home to finish up and publish my results, starting today. At home, I have the following machines for comparison for another 2 weeks for so:

• 2013 Mac Pro 3.3 GHz 8-core 1TB 64GB D700
• 2017 iMac 5K 4.2 GHz 4-core 2TB 64GB Radeon Pro 580
• 2017 iMac Pro 3.0 GHz 10-core 2TB 64GB Vega 56

Wide-ranging tests will start appearing shortly, where I might save readers thousands of dollars by showing the value proposition of the iMac Pro versus the 2017 iMac 5K. However, Adobe Lightroom users will find some joy.

Detailed test results for everything I do as a photographer mostly argue against the iMac Pro for my work, though there are plusses if the show-stopper incompatibility problems are resolved.

That is, before any gains can be had, compatibility is a prerequisite: if software fails to run, then it’s a non-starter loss that rules out the iMac Pro completely. That makes the iMac Pro a non-starter for me at this time.

2017 Apple iMac Pro ships with macOS 10.13.2 (17C2120)
Other versions of macOS 10.13.2 will not boot the iMac Pro