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Author Topic: Considering new machine - iMac or PC?  (Read 8028 times)

BretC

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Considering new machine - iMac or PC?
« on: June 08, 2013, 03:18:05 PM »
Group:

We are processing aerial 2d aerial images for agricultural use.  Our typical mission contain around 400 to 600 images.  We are currently using AgiSoft Standard, but will upgrade to the pro to allow georeferencing of mosaics,  when we acquire a more powerful machine.  Because we will processing images for various clients speed and dependability are of primary importance.

Most all of our machines are now Apple iMac's (MAC) and prefer staying with macs but we want to solicit the groups feedback on this question.  Also - we do not want to run MS Windows on them and wish to stay with the MAC OS.

If the new http://www.apple.com/macpro/ will perform as well or better than a PC, it will be an easy decision for us to stay with Apple iMacs. 

Also, if the MAC appears to be a viable solution, please recommend an iMac hardware configuration package.

Thank you!

Bret C
Neodesha, KS USA

jedfrechette

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Re: Considering new machine - iMac or PC?
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2013, 06:53:58 PM »
If the new http://www.apple.com/macpro/ will perform as well or better than a PC, it will be an easy decision for us to stay with Apple iMacs.

Given that Apple hasn't made any significant updates to the Mac Pro in 3 years they better release something pretty amazing real soon now if they want to keep any of that market. Most serious 3D content creation is already on Linux and Windows.

Assuming they do release something new I doubt it will perform any better than an equivalent Windows or Linux box given it will be the same hardware. With Apple's history of relatively poor quality graphics drivers it could very well have worse 3D performance.

Personally, I wouldn't choose an iMac either. The limited amount of RAM you can install is probably the most obvious problem for PhotoScan. Although according to the wiki the amount of RAM should be enough for the number of photos you're shooting if all you need are height fields. Having only a couple graphics cards you can choose from and only one internal hard drive are also limitations I would prefer to avoid.
Jed

Oli63

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Re: Considering new machine - iMac or PC?
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2013, 10:07:34 PM »
I am an enthusiastic Apple-fan and my house is full of Macs. Nevertheless, in the field of high performance computing, even worse when you have to take a look on the economics, Apple isn't worth a single thought any more, which is really sad. If they do not bring up a sensational new machine at the coming WWDC (10.-14.6.2013) conference, better buy a stupid Windows i7 machine with 2 AMD 7970 GPU's and at least 64 GB RAM for a fraction of Apple's prices. As long as you only use it for PS, the always frustrating hazzle with Windows shouldn't be too bad (even though I'm usually getting in rage only thinking of Microsoft ;-))).
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RHenriques

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Re: Considering new machine - iMac or PC?
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2013, 09:07:14 PM »
Oli and Jedfrechette, I think that Apple just answered your questions. The new MacPro seems to be awesome and powerful !!!

Oli63

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Re: Considering new machine - iMac or PC?
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2013, 11:48:28 PM »
Why do you think so? They haven't published their prices yet. And only one Xeon (even though with 12 cores), faster (but expensive ECC) memory and a maximum of 2 AMDs do not really sound like paradise to me.
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RHenriques

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Re: Considering new machine - iMac or PC?
« Reply #5 on: June 11, 2013, 02:51:49 AM »
Hi Oli, Price can be a problem, yes. Relative to GPU's, you get 2 generous AMD's inside (that can manage 3 4K monitors out of the box). With this (claimed to be the fastest GPU card ever) you'll get 5.9 TF (http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/firepro-remote-graphics/S10000/Pages/S10000.aspx#1). The MacPro will give you 7TF. If you need expansion, you can always add further GPU's with Thunderbolt's ability to enable external graphics. Possibilities are very interesting. You can build a very powerfull workstation around this hardware without burning your CPU tower. I like this concept very much. Search in Google how you can get GPU's expansion with Thunderbolt. I'll be paying attention to the price thought.

« Last Edit: June 11, 2013, 03:43:29 AM by RHenriques »

FoodMan

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Re: Considering new machine - iMac or PC?
« Reply #6 on: June 11, 2013, 09:52:56 AM »
lol... new macp pro..?

- closed system
- only 1 CPU with 12 cores (@ 1,86GHz ?)
- only 4 RAM slots
- only proprietary PCIe SSD (RAID?) no SATA SSD/HDD, only external via thunderbolt
- Dual GPU
- only ATI FirePRO

nuff said.. :)

Wishgranter

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Re: Considering new machine - iMac or PC?
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2013, 12:18:57 PM »
MAc are very overpriced, you pay aprox 2-5.000 just for the logo, nothing more... if need OSX enviroment, just install proper hacked ( can buy offical dev version eventually ) version of OSX on it and save a lot of money.....
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