Introduction
As many of you may already know, I'm a Mac nut and Steve Jobs is one of my personal heroes.
Although I use regular Windows PCs too, when it comes to my pro apps (especially for photo editing) I prefer Mac OS over Windows.
Unfortunately in the last five to ten years it has seemed that Apple has been moving away from serving pro users.
Scaling Back on the Pro Teams
Five or six years ago they started gutting the pro app development teams.
Then they started messing around with the apps themselves - simplifying them and make major changes to the long-familiar UIs that people had gotten used to for their workflows.
Aperture was completely discontinued and replaced with a unified Photos app. Many of my friends decried what they were doing with Final Cut and Logic Pro.
To add to this they stopped updating the Mac Pro hardware itself.
The 2013 Mac Pro
A few years ago it appeared they threw us a bone by releasing the new shiny "bin" shaped Mac Pro - sadly this had some major problems - not least of which was the custom design that meant it has not been updated in 3 years.
So it seems like they were only interested in us again for a very short time. When the Mac Pro didn't get the reception they expected they just seemed to give up on it and the hardware is now antiquated in computer terms.
-Not really what you want for your flagship computer.
WWDC 2017 - iMac Pro announcement
Then last week at the WWDC Apple announced an intriguing new product - the iMac Pro.
I must admit as a bit of a mac fanboy I went slightly crazy when I saw this as did some of my friends!
In their typical fashion Apple have also created an awesome website with some amazing tech photography that will have even the most minor technophile drooling.
It all looks very shiny and very pretty but I have had a few days to think about this and get my thoughts in order though and let the excitement die down.
So the question is, what does the iMac Pro represent?
Is Apple back in the Pro game? Is it giving us what we asked for?
To begin let's examine the specs:
Summary of the Headline Features
These are the main specs taken from the Apple website:
- 8-18 Intel Xeon Cores (4.5 GHz Turbo Boost, up to 42MB Cache).
- AMD Radeon Pro Vega Graphics with 8 or 16 GB HBM2 Memory (400 GB/s bandwidth, 11 teraflops single precision).
- Up to 128 GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC RAM.
- Up to 4TB SSD with 3GB/s throughput (NVMe drives?)
- 4 x Thunderbolt 3 ports, 10Gb Ethernet ports.
- 27 inch "Retina" 5K display, P3 Colour Gamut (1bn colours), 500 nits brightness (improved and 43% brighter than before).
- New stereo speaker system.
- Specialised "black" accessories - (keyboard has number pad!), not available separately.
- December release.
- Price $5-16K (according to TWICH podcast).
My Thoughts
These specs certainly look fantastic.
The switch to Xeon cores and ECC memory makes sense for many pro users - even though it does come with a massive price hike.
Due to the Xeon being a niche product you don't get the same economies of scale on pricing.
I was listening to a podcast last week and they were discussing how they tried to spec up an identical (albeit tower) Xeon PC as the entry level iMac Pro and were only able to shave about $300 off the price.
This suggests that Apple are pricing this very competitively and are not applying their usual healthy markup.
$5K may sound a lot for an 8 core machine but remember you are paying Xeon prices - the motherboards alone can cost $700. Then all the components CPU, ECC memory etc are also top line with top line prices.
Thunderbolt 3 and 10GB ethernet are also still very expensive.
Don't forget that gorgeous 5K display either - that alone will cost about $1200 if you source something similar yourself!
Finally add the fact that you have AMD's next generation Vega architecture and the Pro version of that - both factors which carry premium price tags.
Pro GPU cards start at the top end of the consumer price range (around $700) and can rise up to thousands of dollars each.
So to sum up we are getting a PC with the absolute best and hence most expensive parts you can buy. Not only that but it is put together in one of the most beautiful and sleek all-in-one chassis that is on the market. -No ugly towers here.
So it sounds like the perfect machine then right? An instant buy?
Well not quite - I have some reservations:
My Concerns - Cooling and Expansion
Some years back my previous Mac Pro which had served me for many years died.
I needed a new computer and this was before the "new" compact Mac Pro had actually become available. It had been announced but you could only pre-order it and I didn't have time to wait.
I needed a computer fast so as a kind of stop-gap measure I bought one of their top end fully specced (2013) iMacs.
It is certainly a great computer but it has some problems.
The Heat Issue
One of the biggest problems is that it actually has a tendency to overheat very easily.
When this happens it is incredibly noisy. I suspect the fastest (for the time) Core i7 CPU and the top spec GPU they were providing just aren't designed for such a compact chassis.
The whole system is incapable of dissipating all the heat that is generated under load efficiently.
Now multiply that amount of heat several times by adding up to 18 cores and a Pro GPU and I think there is a legitimate question as to how well the iMac Pro will perform at load.
It is great having those 18 cores but what is the point if they can't operate at full speed and keep getting throttled?
Apple have created a new ventilation system for this computer but the simple fact is that you can't do magic and overcome the laws of physics.
There is a limit to how big those compact fans can be and how much air they will be able to shift.
So it is quite possible that this computer will run very hot and have a tendency to be quite noisy.
We will have to wait until we get actual reviews of the hardware but I would be surprised if this machine can perform as well as a similar specced PC in a conventional tower case.
The Expansion and Repair Issue
The other big problem I have run into with the iMac is the problem with repairing minor failures.
I have had two internal hard-drive failures with it and unlike my old Mac Pro, I could not just take the internal hard drive out and replace it.
Each time I had to send my computer away to Apple for repair and the turn around time from failure to receiving my fixed machine was up to 2 weeks.
That is an annoyance for me but could be catastrophic for a pro user who uses their computer for work.
I think this problem in particular will be a big deal breaker for most Pro users. When a simple hard drive failure can mean you lose your computer for a week or more it is just too great a risk to take.
Expanding the storage has also been a problem - you can use external hard drives but obviously these are not as fast as internal drives and the options are more limited.
Thunderbolt drives can be very fast but they are niche products, with limited options and can cost multiple times what you would pay for an internal hard drive.
Similarly I have not been able to upgrade the GPU which is now several generations out of date.
The increased cost and reduced flexibility when it comes to expansion options is an increased headache that most pro users don't want.
It was one of the main reasons there wasn't great adoption of the 2013 Mac Pro. It was simply not practical.
Conclusion
The iMac Pro certainly looks beautiful but it remains to be seen how well it will be able to function given the potential physical constraints that the form factor creates.
Even if it performs to its full potential and doesn't sound like a 747 taking off when under load I think its lack of expandability/repair is going to rule it out for most pro users.
I understand that Pro users are a niche in the market and probably not a priority for Apple.
With the iMac Pro, Apple seems to have created a niche within that niche and I doubt they will sell very many.
I think it will appeal most to Apple fanboys who absolutely want the fastest Mac that they can get but without an ugly tower chassis. It could be a small volume halo product to demonstrate that Apple are still trying to innovate and surprise people.
That may even be what Apple intended as from what I have heard they are still working on a "proper" Mac Pro product.
I look forward to seeing the first proper reviews though. It is certainly an interesting product and I can't say for certain that I won't be taken over by FOMO and buy one when it gets released.
It certainly looks very pretty with all those black accessories. Sadly there is no cure for being a fanboy!
Thank you for reading
