Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

2019 Apple Mac Pro vs. HP Z-Series Workstations

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One of the biggest criticisms of the new Mac Pro is the $6,000 starting price that gets you an 8-core Xeon processor, 8GB Radeon Pro RX580X GPU, 32GB RAM, and a 256GB SSD. The sticker shock got me on the day it was announced and I’ve read countless comment and forum threads pointing out the fact that you can get a Windows workstation for half or even less that is comparable to the new Mac Pro.

However, I haven’t seen anyone point a link to a system in the $2000 to $3000 range that matches the new Mac Pro. So, let’s look at a big Windows workstation provider for creative pros and see how Apple’s Mac Pro matches up against a modern HP Z-series workstation. [Read more…]

 

2013 Mac Pro 6-Core Review

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Mac Pro-2

Apple took what felt like forever to make a meaningful update to the last generation of the Mac Pro. The big, aluminum tower had been the symbol of the professional Mac user since 2003 when Apple released it with the Power Mac G5. When Apple switched to Intel chips, it became the Mac Pro in 2006 and received periodic updates through 2010.

When Apple made the 2012 Mac Pro update, many professional users flipped out over the incremental updates and the failure to include modern I/O options like USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt, a technology that Apple had been pushing hard in its laptops. A Facebook group entitled “We Want a New Macpro” surfaced and became a rally point for thousands of professional users – the most vocal of which were heavy use video editors.

Apple seemed to have received the message that impatient professional users were leaving (or threatening to leave) for a more modern hardware experience on Windows workstations. Shortly after the 2012 refresh, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that a new Mac Pro would be delivered in 2013.

Then, at WWDC in June 2013, Apple unveiled the new Mac Pro. The shock of the design quickly led to memes all over the Internet, likening the new machine to everything from trash cans to coffee makers. [Read more…]

Premiere Pro Screams on the New Mac Pro; Teases GPU-based Debayer for Full 4K Red RAW R3D Files

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yZsUWV_8mI&w=640&h=360]

Adobe is teasing a little preview of what is to come in the new generation of the Apple Mac Pro.

In this video, Dave Helmly gives a quick tour of Apple’s New Mac Pro running Premiere Pro CC in various workflows including Multi Layer GPU Effects, 4K, Mixed 4K timeline, the power of Dual GPU Exporting vs CPU (software/CPU), and finally GPU-based debayer for Red RAW R3D files. Also featured in the video are a quick peek at the new LG 21:9 UltraWide QHD Monitors, Promise Pegasus 2 Raid, LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 and more. [Read more…]

Mac Pro Features User-Upgradeable CPU and RAM

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mac-pro-inside-ram

Macs aren’t always the easiest to deal with for upgrading internal components. The new iMacs are locked down to only RAM upgrades and the Macbook Pro Retina models have zero internal upgradeable parts. So, when Apple announced its trashcan-looking Mac Pro, most of us figured that would be the end of upgrading components inside the Mac Pro as well. As it turns out, it’s not as bad as we feared. [Read more…]

Pixelmator Adds 16-Bit Color and Mac Pro GPU and Multi-core Support

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Pixelmator

The affordable image editing program Pixelmator recently received an update to version 3.1 with several enhancements geared toward the new Mac Pro.

Notable updates for the new Mac Pro include dual GPU support, 16-bit support, background autosave and multicore optimization for up to 12-core processing. Additionally, Pixelmator 3.1 allows you to order prints from within the program using MILK Print on Demand.

You can find the complete list of updates here on Pixelmator’s website. Pixelmator runs $29.99 and is available in the Mac App Store.