With the new 2019 Apple Mac Pro came lot of possibilities how to configure your dream Mac.
So in this video I will explain to you why I chose this exact components setup and why.
I will cover CPU, memory, disk setup and finally GPU setup.
Simply my wisely chosen configuration so I can enjoy the full power of the 2019 Mac Pro
for my video editing and production but not ruin myself financially completely :)
Hi, I’m Teresa from morgonaut.cloud and I provide personal individual support with
Apple Macs, Windows, Linux and server builds.
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So primary use case for this 2019 Apple Mac Pro is video production.
Apple finally after almost 8 years offers amazing options how to configure this Mac Pro.
If you are a millionaire, then your choice is easy.
Max it out and don’t think about it.
But for most people the maxed out configuration is out of their budget.
If you are a privileged youtuber, then you have it already for free, but we, ordinary
people have to think smart.
So in this video I will show you how to not sacrifice any performance, but still get reasonable
priced 2019 Mac Pro configuration.
CPU of my choice was the 16-core Xeon W-3245.
Why?
It’s the most powerful CPU of this price category.
If you look at the higher 24 and 28-core options, there is huge price bump against this 16-core
model.
It’s because the 24 and 32 core models are the "M" versions of Xeons, allowing up to 1.5TB
of memory, which is by my opinion over the top for any video production.
This 16-core CPU support “only” up to 1TB of memory :) Difference between the 12-core
model and 16-core is just 1 thousand dollars, but difference between the 16-core and 24-core
one is huge $4000 and you will pay $5000 as step up from 16-core to the 28-core one!
And by benchmarks which already internet is full off, the performance of the 16-core Mac Pro
is just 25% lower than the 28-core one.
So 16-core CPU option for my 2019 Mac Pro was clear and wise choice.
Next we have the memory.
Because I wanted to have computer which I can just start straight up and start to work,
I went with the 96GB of memory upgrade.
But I would not recommend this option if you have some time.
Instead of paying extra $1000 for this upgrade you can buy memory yourself outside Apple
and save lot of money on it.
For example even if you would buy memory from OWC, 96GB in total will cost you only $649
against $1000 which would Apple charge you.
So $350 saved on it and you will still have the original 32GB from Apple.
But I would really rather go with memory bought directly on Amazon for example and save even
more money on it.
For example this one: if you will buy 3 packs so in total 6 modules, you will get in total
192 GB of memory for just $834 bucks.
I you would buy this memory from Apple directly, you would pay $3000!!!!!
So over $2100 saved here.
Just on memory.
Links you can find in this video description.
Next we have disk setup.
I think most people should choose the 1TB SSD storage option upgrade.
256GB is really low and higher options are insanely expensive.
Even with the 1TB option you can do lot of 4K video editing, but for my needs it’s
not enough.
Also to run whole production only from a single drive even it’s in fact two SSDs striped
together is really not smart idea.
So I wanted to find some really affordable, or better say quite cheap option how to get
lot more space for my huge video files, unfortunately messenger will bring it tomorrow, so I will
review it later and of course let you know.
Next we have the most important part of any video production rig, the GPU setup.
Here my choice was also absolutely clear.
Now you will be maybe surprised, but I will explain it in a second :) I chose the basic
AMD Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of VRAM.
Ha, what a surprise :) For video production workstation, really?
:) Doesn’t make sense?
Believe me, it does!
It’s all about workflow.
I wanted a native Apple GPU to be used only to drive my displays and not to do any computational
tasks.
So this 580X has no problem to drive my 4K 32” display and 24” 1200p display.
And it’s only 1 slot wide GPU, so it will not block any other PCIe slot, which is then
available for connecting additional components.
This way I can use any other GPU or multiple GPUs connected only for compute tasks and
don’t waste it’s VRAM for displaying picture on my screens which is handled by the 580X.
BTW I can easily fill the whole 16GB frame buffer of my Vega Frontier Edition or Radeon
VII just by using multiple web browsers and I did not yet even started any video editing.
So my advice is to run some separate GPU or multiple ones without any display connected
to them.
This way I can utilize full of it’s potential in DaVinci Resolve, just for my video production.
During the last 2 weeks of owning the new 2019 Mac Pro I ran through dozens of tests
of dozens of configurations and I was trying to find the best possible setup.
Should I run only single Radeon VII, or better two Radeon VIIs without the RX580X?
Wouldn’t it be better to run 580X and single Radeon VII?
What about 5700XT?
Or will I have more performance if I would buy the original Apple’s Radeon Pro Vega
II or even Duo cards?
Simply at this moment I’m getting the same performance as I would have two Radeon Vega
II Duo GPUs, so in total 4 GPUs and I saved more than $10000 dollars.
It’s really lot of tests and also sometimes shocking findings - I will cover everything
in one of my next videos, so don’t forget to subscribe to my channel and hit the bell
next to it so you won’t miss it.
Please share my video so it can help to more people.
Morgonaut is always here to help.
Thank you for watching and see you next time my Apple Macintosh friends.