Mac Pro vs. pc

[John Formanek]

my perception is mac is abandoning their loyal pro market to phone and laptop profits. Mac Pro not improved in some time and seeems difficult if not impossible to upgrade. Thinking of making switch to PC for photoshop. Any thoughts or comment?

[Chuck Uebele]

I think you'll get diehards on both sides claiming each one is better. I've heard that even lately that the Mac OS has less issues that PCs, but with way things are going, that might not be the case in a while, as you mentioned. I've been a PC user, due to cost. I can get more bang for my buck.Rarely had issues with running PS, just a few times when I got crappy graphic cards: avoid intergrated dual cards!!!

[D Fosse]

Chuck Uebele wrote:

I've heard that even lately that the Mac OS has less issues that PCs

I think if you did statistics based on forum posts here, from the last year or so, you'd come to the opposite conclusion. Some of this is related to the Apple policy re backwards compatibility: there is none. They drop support for legacy APIs and frameworks without notice, leaving customers with no choice but get on the upgrade train and hang on by teeth and fingernails.

You can't really compare. Apple is a complete off-the-shelf package, take it or leave it, while Windows is just an operating system. On good hardware it's a rock solid and intuitive OS, preinstalled on a cheap laptop or poorly maintained system it can obviously be a nightmare. It's up to you to put it to good use.

You need to focus on the functional differences. Do you want full integration, or do you want customization and flexibility?

[Chuck Uebele]

Yea, I like to build a system, and not spend a fortune.

[melissapiccone]

I love the Microsoft hardware - but I despise Windows. I do love my 27"imac. As cool as my Windows Surface is, windows just sucks. That little thing has more quirks and annoyances!

Just my opinion. I haven't had a Mac pro in forever - iMac is perfect.

[John Waller]

Thinking of making switch to PC for photoshop.

Out of curiosity: What do you hope to gain from switching to Photoshop on Windows compared to the Mac?  Sounds like you're restless with the Mac. Anything specific bothering you about it or do you simply feel like the Mac Pro is standing still?

I use both and, for me, there's very little between them once you're inside Photoshop.

What is your current Mac setup? To what Windows setup are you planning to switch?

[John Formanek]

I would hope to gain 4.5ghz processor speed, m.2, thunderbolt raid,etc, plus future upgrade capability. Current Mac Pro 4.1 maxxes at I believe 3.45ghz and no posssibility of thunderbolt. Also the upcoming zen 6 core might show some promise In pc

[John Waller]

So your current Mac Pro 4.1 is a 2009 model and you're looking to upgrade?

How big are your Photoshop files now? Do you think you'll find a noticeable speed increase switching platforms? Or are you looking for something else? You want the Windows experience? Or you want the ability to upgrade components in your next system?

[Just Shoot Me]

Used a Macbook Pro for about 2 years 9 months. Sold it just short of the Apple Care warranty running out. That was back in late 2011 to sometime in 2014. At the same time I also used a Dell notebook that cost less than half of what the MBP cost. Still using that same Dell notebook.

I personally will never buy another Apple product as long as I live. No better than other devices, 2x+ the cost for the same thing.

If Apple products were so good and made from better parts why do you have to make an appointment at an Apple store to get them fixed.

The newest Mac Pro is called the Trash Can, for good reason. That is a quote from my brother in-law who is a Mac fan.

This is not really a PS question. I will move this thread to the Lounge.

Best of luck to you.

[Ussnorway]

if you decide to go Windows then step 1 is remove automatic updates... after that you should be fine

[Szalam]

For people in my line of work (motion graphics and 3d animation), Apple machines just don't cut it anymore. An iMac is still a great choice for photography. Macs still offer some good options for other folks, but for people who need real horsepower, Apple offers nothing.

I mean, last year, I built a PC that blows away the most powerful Mac Pro you could buy. And I spent less than $1,000. Even if you were buying a brand new PC and not building one from used parts, you could get one at half the cost of current Mac Pros. And Mac Pros aren't nearly as upgradeable as they used to be, so they don't hold their value like they used to either. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. can still find a home on Apple products, but if you're heavy into After Effects or Cinema 4D, there is a HUGE movement of folks (even die-hard Apple fanboys) towards Windows because you can get PCs with the specs we need for our work.

[Bob Howes]

I've used both and have a slight preference for Windows operationally and a big preference for the level of performance you can get for the money.

The one thing I'd say is that as Windows user has to be careful in terms of how he maintains his machine and what he loads.  There's more rubbish out there that will destroy the performance of Windows than can happen with Apple.  However, anyone serious about doing a creative job isn't going to mess around anyway..

[D Fosse]

There's more rubbish out there that will destroy the performance of Windows than can happen with Apple.

Yep, that hits the nail on the head. Be careful what you install. Inasmuch as Windows has a bad reputation, this is the reason for it.

[Ussnorway]

Macs still offer some good options for other folks, but for people who need real horsepower, Apple offers nothing.

I know the new Iclone 7 is Windows only so Mac users need not apply... sad in a way

[magnus_a_lindberg]

You can build your own 'Hackintosh' with PC-parts and install MacOS on top of it - if you are technically skilled and/or just an ordinary geek. I have not any personal experience of a Hackintosh but know people who have build one and are happy with it.

https://www.tonymacx86.com/ 

ot just google hackintosh

But if you just want muscle and speed - and only planning to run Photoshop - stick with Windows.

Good luck! 

[John Formanek]

Thanks all for the serious comments. Have not yet made up my mind. I love the intuitive action of my Mac pro, but the horsepower and upgrade ability of pc is intriguing.

[brianchaffee]

OP,

I was thinking of posting a similar question however regarding After Effects and what people were and have experienced using a Mac.

Reading the replies here though, I am glad someone already asked a similar enough question because the replies are...the same as they have always been, devoid of hard cold facts.

-They are both PC's. That's, personal computer for those unfamiliar with acronyms.

-Build a Windows machine faster than a full blown Mac Pro 12-core for under $1K...please.

-Hackintosh comment from someone admittedly completely unfamiliar with the process...speaks for itself.

-Window's is just the OS and how many hands are typically in on the process afterwards?

-Windows is awesome when it is done right from jump street: i.e., Boxx, Puget, Falcon NW, etc.

-Dell laptop outlives Apple laptop: Really? I have a 2010 MBP, 5400 RPM HD, 4GB RAM still super quick. No mention on performance comparisons, either?

-Photoshop on a full blown iMac is an excellent ride.

-Apple gives you fourteen day's with a new machine to put it through it's paces.

The iMac's, if full blown from the factory, are pretty impressive and thus far and with no exception, everyone I have spoken to using that configuration has said it was the fastest machine they had ever used, for everything. Some had come from Windows while others had been on the Mac side for a while.

Myself, I run a 4770K with 32GB matched RAM from Crucial, 3 SSD's and will be replacing my GTX580 3GB Classified GPU with either the 980Ti or Titan X.

Why Windows? Right now, I cannot justify over $3K for an approximate equivalent which I see as the full blown iMac. [Minus my current GPU] But, the preference, Mac.

I use a Mac for music production and will never use a Windows machine for that. Stability and speed and drivers and...just real. Consider the professional music community worldwide who, hands down, use Mac.

And in the future, should finances allow, I will again test drive an equivalent or superior Mac configuration for compositing and 3D because the experience is smooth. Windows is just edgy and unappealing. And far from intuitive. And typically only purchased by those who either cannot or will not part with the additional funds.

Lastly, it will be interesting to see how Mac fairs with the professional community. It does look like they are primarily a toy company anymore and being a user of the latest iPhone 6s plus, my 5s was superior. But looking at every other phone starting with the interface and I just cannot switch.

The advice yet to be mentioned is, find out what makes PS tick. Then compare the daylights out of a full blown iMac and a similarly set up Windows machine.

Brian

P.S. For a lounge, this place is starkly furnished.

[Szalam]

brianchaffee  wrote

-Build a Windows machine faster than a full blown Mac Pro 12-core for under $1K...please

I have:

12 cores running at 3.33 GHz

72 GB of RAM

2 NVIDIA Quadro 4000 cards

2 SSDs (one is 256 and the other is 512 GB)

2 "Regular" hard drives (4 TB each)

And I spent right around $1,000.00

The best you can get with Mac is:

12 cores running at 2.7 GHz

64 GB of RAM

2 AMD FirePro D700 cards

1 SSD (up to 1 TB, but still)

That'll cost you nearly $10,000 ($9,547.00, to be precise)

Granted, the Quadro cards aren't the greatest compared to the Dual AMD cards, but I don't do much that relies on the GPU. And there is some question about whether or not you can really compare AMD and NVIDIA cards that easily.

Now, my parts aren't all brand new. The reason my machine was so cheap is that a lot of businesses upgrade their machines every certain number of years. They tell their IT provider to "recycle" the old machines and the parts just end up on eBay. Supply and demand means the prices are really low because there are SO MANY Dell parts on there. Most of them are gently used or almost new because many businesses barely use the hardware they do have. Now, some of my stuff (the SSDs) are brand new, but I just got really good deals on Amazon, Best Buy, Tiger Direct, or Newegg.

It really helps to have a significant other who LOVES shopping for great deals and who works in IT. It's kind of the perfect combination.

[Ussnorway]

Szalam  wrote

It really helps to have a significant other who LOVES shopping for great deals and who works in IT. It's kind of the perfect combination.

lol... that does sounds like the best of both worlds

[Guest]

You know I will actually stipulate that Windows is a better gaming platform than Mac , I run heavy site of Mark II very easily . But.....how Windows users can actually argue that Windows is MORE secure than Macs blows my mind. You're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts. It just makes you look dumb.

[D Fosse]

Did anyone say Windows is more "secure" than Mac OS? Nobody said anything about security. Obviously Windows is much more vulnerable because of higher market saturation. In any case the answer to that is simply "use your head" and don't click on anything that pops up.

But there is an issue with reliability and stability. Historically, Apple used to have the upper hand here, but in later years that seems to have changed. Based on posts in the Photoshop/Lightroom forums, Mac users generally seem to experience more issues and more bugs.

A lot of this seems to be down to deliberate Apple policies, like the way the OS governs and overrides functions that Windows just leaves to the application. Like color management, which has been a source for much grief for Mac users lately. The Windows model is much simpler and perhaps less sophisticated, but also a lot more reliable.

Another Apple problem is their, again deliberate, total disregard for backwards compatibility. A new OS version, or a new hardware generation, frequently changes the rules totally in some area, so that users are suddenly faced with having to upgrade a whole ecosystem along with the OS/hardware. Again this is very different from the Windows model, where you can generally run ten years old software and devices without any issues.

These are all things the user needs to consider.

[Bob Howes]

Windows itself is certain not less vulnerable to hack attacks.  However, for that very reason, I don't know of any Windows users who don't also run various forms of anti virus and anti malware protection.  This is certainly not true of the Mac users I know who are convinced of their invulnerability.  The more Macs sold, the bigger the chance that a serious attack  will be made on the Apple OS.

As for backwards compatibility, I'll throw in that we've found the same problems in the Audition forums.  Indeed, a couple of releases back, most manufacturers of audio hardware (necessary to plug pro quality sound into a computer) actually published warnings to their users advising them NOT to upgrade due to the mess Apple had made of the sound side of things.

[Just Shoot Me]

Well you can count at least one user of Windows that does not run any AV or malware programs and I haven't for going on ten years if not slightly longer.

The only virus I've every had was brought to my computer by a student of Georgia Tech on a floppy disk back in 1997 or 1998. He needed to use my version of MS Office. My system never ran right after that night. That is until I wiped the drive and reloaded everything from a Tape Backup.

[Trevor.Dennis]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Bob+Howes  wrote

I don't know of any Windows users who don't also run various forms of anti virus and anti malware protection.

I've never used any third party AV or Internet Security since I moved to Windows 10, and I have never had any issues.  Windows Defender copes well, but I am paranoid about trusting emails.  My approach there is to hover over any hyperlinks, and if they resolve to a bit-url or tiny-url then they are deleted.

[D Fosse]

Right. The most effective anti-malware is...your head. Beats everything.

The virus threat is vastly overrated. I've had exactly one infection, and that's almost ten years ago. Learned my lesson.