Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

There was a hefty boost in multicore performance when the 8th generation Intel processors came out. A lot of equivalent models had the number of cores bumped up but sometimes a bit of a drop in the single core performance.

Compare something like i7-7500U and i7-8550u. Pretty equivalent in terms of place in the lineup when they were released but the 8th gen has double the cores.

Never really looked at this before but quite interesting. Why for example under 'multi core' would recent MacBook pros absolutely destroy everything except iMac pro/Mac Pro? Whereas single core it's much of a muchness.

Similar to what Aggi said.
Long story short, recent cpu development has been all about power efficiency and increasing the number of cores.

For ages then processors just got faster by running higher clock rates. Hence you got Pentiums 4's from 10-15 years ago being overclocked to ~8GHz.
But temps were always too high so everything moved to multi core because it's far easier to run 2 cores at 3GHz than one at 4.5GHz (for example). The architecture and instruction sets got more sophisticated too so it's not just speed and number of cores.

So you'll see single core performance hasn't continued the upward trend anywhere near as much as it did, but multi core has continued to improve.

The only problem then is developing programs to utilise multiple cores efficiently.
(Assuming no other bottlenecks) 5GHz is always twice as fast as 2.5GHz, but 2 x 2.5GHz is almost never twice as fast as 1 x 2.5GHz

Have they confirmed a date yet?

Wondering if they will skip an October event this year and release in March 2020.

Anyone selling a trackpad suitable for a 2012 iMac??

Have moved my hackintosh into the office now for work so looking at getting an eGPU to use with my 13” MacBook at home for some light gaming stuff. What’s the current state of eGPUs right now? Thinking about AMD card as still no drivers for NVIDIA.

An alternate would be building a budget pc just for the purpose of gaming..

Tagging @chrisbmx116 as I know you’ll have some useful insights

I have a prepress artworker joining the team who needs a new computer before the end of the month. Illustrator + Photoshop work preparing packaging artwork for press. We currently have a mix of Mac Pro Dustbins/Dell workstations and Eizo CG self-calibrating monitors.

What’s the smart apple purchase?

1. New Old Stock MacPro – 3ghz 8 core xeon + 16GB + 2x D700 6GB + Eizo CG2730 - £4000
   
2. iMac Pro - 8core 3.5Ghz, 32GB, 8GB Vega 56 - £4160 refurb
   
3. iMac 27" - 3.4ghz 8core i9, 32GB Ram, 8GB Vega 48 - £3644
   
   

We're kitting out a new studio as well so if there's a sensible way to save costs, whilst avoiding Dell, I'm all ears.

Fully specced Mac mini? When I compared specs a few months ago that felt like heaps more for the monies compared to anything else. Could even add an external graphics card if that speeds up PS? I'm pushing around 1gb+ psd's with zero lag though so not sure it's needed

Mac Mini, pimped out
NEC Spectraview rather than Eizo
this is the setup of the wise

Thank you both.

I'll take a proper look later today. External GPU scares me, seems like a complication that will require troubleshooting at some point. I know that the team have been taxing the current equipment so a proper graphics card is probably a must somewhere in the setup though.

They usually send out invites 10 days before. If they are doing an event this month, expect to hear about it by the end of this week.

Even the one on apples website? Should be a safe bet?

OH HAI.
Go egpu for sure... you gaming in Windows or macOS?
I actually have a spare Vega 56 atm.
Nvidia doesn't work on anything above High Sierra and not sure it ever will... also GTX only, no RTX.
Navi support is inbound, was meant to be in 10.15.1 but somehow wasn't despite being in Beta release notes (since updated).
Anything else just ask, I could bore you to death for hours on eGPUs.

AMD + macOS = super simple eGPU solution. Natively supported so should be as solid as any Apple feature.

I think I remember reading about the investors call being rescheduled, which people thought may be to fit in a cheeky announcement on the 29th... so next week for invites.

Yeh I read that somewhere too. Have seen this one since though so who knows.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/10/9/20906113/apple-2020-predictions-release-ar-augmented-reality-glasses-ipad-pro-macbook-pro-iphone-se-2

Just keen for a rock solid setup so erring on the side of caution until persuaded otherwise.

@chrisbmx116 Thanks for the recommendation too.

Is the Blackmagic Pro worth double the cost of the standard version?
Radeon RX Vega 56 £1200 vs Radeon Pro 580 £600

Due to CAD requirements we also have a load of PCs. There's an hour or so a day my Dell Precision laptop loses it shit if you have an external keyboard or mouse plugged in/bluetooth/logitech usb receiver. The Lenovo workstations have a habit of throwing up a crash/bluescreen thing when you turn them on plugged into the £400 Lenovo dock. This is the nonsense I'm trying to avoid!

Okay sweet, was doing some research last night and came to a similar conclusion. Would be gaming on windows, but being able to use it on MacOS would be a big plus so AMD is probs the way to go.

Last night I settled on getting a Razor Core X and a Sapphire Pulse Vega 56. Though you are interested in selling your spare vega for a decent price I’d be interested ;-)

Any hardware advice for running Windows off an external drive? Currently have 2 2.5” ssd’s in the hackintosh which I’ll probably take out, one with windows OS the other for storing games. Was looking at those usb c double hard drive raid enclosures for hooking them up with minimum cables.

@iamalex @haveo
The Black Magic egpu is only worth it if you already own a first gen LG Ultrafine 5K display (long story), otherwise its a bit expensive for what it is, plus it isn't upgradable... I actually have the 5K but still haven't bothered.

Razer Core X is a good choice, there is also the Mantiz Venus which I use which has USB ports plus gubbins for an internal SSD, so it can be a one cable solution.

I pulled an SSD from one of my hacks and put it in a caddy and it booted straight into Windows no problems, had to run Bootcamp drivers to get Wifi and BT but that was it.

Its an odd time to be buying Vega, prices are quite high for new ones and the Navi cards are faster, cooler, and quieter... for about the same price or less, but as mentioned macOS support is yet to be implemented (it is only a matter of time though).

You should check out egpu.io for all things egpu related.

Cheers Chris, will dig a little deeper

Silly Thursday Question - my daughter is 13, she needs a new laptop. She has Apple devices - phone, iPads, ear phones. Should I consider an Apple laptop at this stage? She uses the laptop for some school work mainly Word and internet stuff. Currently she does not use it for gaming.
I ask because they seem f’ing expensive!

If cost is your primary concern then no, you don’t need an Apple laptop.

If it were me I'd probably be looking at a chromebook (assuming they run everything that is required, although if they don't a Macbook probably won't either). Much more reasonably priced, much more difficult to fuck up.

^ and free if you buy a Pixel 4... (though it's the less glamorous HP one which may be appropriate in this instance - so if you're in the market for a new phone, consider a pixel 4 and get it chucked in as a googley bonus)

Thanks all.
Cost isn’t the biggest concern but I imagine that she won’t be able to get full use out of an Apple laptop. I presume that it would be the laptop of choice later in her education?
All advice welcome.

I'd go Apple for sure... grab something refurbed.... all her current devices will sync and share accounts and info, plus Apple laptops (tend to, apart from the recent keyboard designs) last a long time.
My nephew got a cheap second hand 2009 white Macbook and its still running fine (once I replaced the HDD with an SSD).