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iMac Pro vs. High End Build?

Hi all,

I know I'm probably going to be burned alive for asking this but here it goes:

 

Should I buy the new iMac Pro for gaming?

 

Now I'm fully aware that it is not for gamers in the slightest, nor is it the "optimal" build for gaming. However, I'm most likely going to be getting this computer anyway due to the video editing my dad does (Most likely 10 core, 64 gb ram, Vega 64). 

 

I have been parting out the follow build:

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9ZbG7h
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9ZbG7h/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor  ($399.00 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: NZXT - Kraken X52 Rev 2 73.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($135.69 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($197.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($229.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($229.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($289.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($78.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 GAMING iCX Video Card  ($799.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($112.31 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: Corsair - LL120RGB LED (Three Fans With Lighting Node PRO) 43.2 CFM  120mm Fans  ($98.59 @ Amazon) 
Other: LIAN LI ALPHA 330W White SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $2672.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-24 20:33 EST-0500

 

Should I save a few (thousand) bucks and just run a windows VM on the iMac pro for gaming? Or will the build I proposed be significantly more powerful in gaming performance (PUBG, Overwatch, CSGO, R6 Siege).

 

Thanks :) !

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1 minute ago, lieder1987 said:

The custom build will blow the iMac away in terms of gaming. Not even a question. 

Is there any particular reason? I thought it would be better, but I wasn't sure particularly why.

 

The xeon seems comparable because of turbo boost to 4.3 ghz and I didn't think the Vega 64 was significantly worse than the 1080ti

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1 minute ago, jaysangwan32 said:

Is there any particular reason? I thought it would be better, but I wasn't sure particularly why.

 

The xeon seems comparable because of turbo boost to 4.3 ghz and I didn't think the Vega 64 was significantly worse than the 1080ti

thermal throttling

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21 minutes ago, jaysangwan32 said:

Hi all,

I know I'm probably going to be burned alive for asking this but here it goes:

 

....

 

Thanks :) !

The custom build you have there is basically top of the line so yeah, it'll blow the mac away for games, hands down. 

I just have to say one thing about your parts list; why do you have two separate 16GB kits of TridentZ instead of one 32GB kit?

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3 minutes ago, BigD360 said:

The custom build you have there is basically top of the line so yeah, it'll blow the mac away for games, hands down. 

I just have to say one thing about your parts list; why do you have two separate 16GB kits of TridentZ instead of one 32GB kit?

When I parted it out, 2x 16GB was cheaper than one 32 GB

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Just now, jaysangwan32 said:

When I parted it out, 2x 16GB was cheaper than one 32 GB

Interesting. Thats fair enough!

 

I sincerely hope you decide on a custom build, they're always worth the while.

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It depends on what you need. 

 

If you need ECC memory and registered parts and CPUs like a Xeon and need a GPU with a lot of VRAM, then there is no question that the iMac Pro is better. It has those things and also has a best in class display. 

 

If you just need a PC to edit video casually and play games then sure build your own system. 

 

Also it depends on what programs you use. FinalCut for example blows Premiere out of the water in render times. 

 

There is also the stability factor and ease of setup. The Mac is just ready and requires nothing other than to be turned on, the PC has to be built. There is also stability, as far as I'm concerned macOS is way better in terms of recovery, backup, and getting up and running again in the case of an OS corruption. MacOS is just objectively better in those departments. 

Laptop: 2019 16" MacBook Pro i7, 512GB, 5300M 4GB, 16GB DDR4 | Phone: iPhone 13 Pro Max 128GB | Wearables: Apple Watch SE | Car: 2007 Ford Taurus SE | CPU: R7 5700X | Mobo: ASRock B450M Pro4 | RAM: 32GB 3200 | GPU: ASRock RX 5700 8GB | Case: Apple PowerMac G5 | OS: Win 11 | Storage: 1TB Crucial P3 NVME SSD, 1TB PNY CS900, & 4TB WD Blue HDD | PSU: Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 600W | Display: LG 27GL83A-B 1440p @ 144Hz, Dell S2719DGF 1440p @144Hz | Cooling: Wraith Prism | Keyboard: G610 Orion Cherry MX Brown | Mouse: G305 | Audio: Audio Technica ATH-M50X & Blue Snowball | Server: 2018 Core i3 Mac mini, 128GB SSD, Intel UHD 630, 16GB DDR4 | Storage: OWC Mercury Elite Pro Quad (6TB WD Blue HDD, 12TB Seagate Barracuda, 1TB Crucial SSD, 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD)
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1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

It depends on what you need. 

 

If you need ECC memory and registered parts and CPUs like a Xeon and need a GPU with a lot of VRAM, then there is no question that the iMac Pro is better. It has those things and also has a best in class display. 

 

If you just need a PC to edit video casually and play games then sure build your own system. 

 

Also it depends on what programs you use. FinalCut for example blows Premiere out of the water in render times. 

 

There is also the stability factor and ease of setup. The Mac is just ready and requires nothing other than to be turned on, the PC has to be built. There is also stability, as far as I'm concerned macOS is way better in terms of recovery, backup, and getting up and running again in the case of an OS corruption. MacOS is just objectively better in those departments. 

Very true. I personally would be leaning towards to iMac, get Mac OS natively which is awesome, that amazing display, and with bootcamp windows should run great too. 

Samuel Edwards

- IT Engineer and Media Producer -

Religious theology diploma and over half a dozen certificates in Advanced Computing and IT.

Current Project:   Mineral Oil Cooled PC

Just trying to be friendly and help where I can. Have yourself a great day!

Use @SamuelJE for friendly tech help :)

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

It depends on what you need. 

 

If you need ECC memory and registered parts and CPUs like a Xeon and need a GPU with a lot of VRAM, then there is no question that the iMac Pro is better. It has those things and also has a best in class display. 

 

If you just need a PC to edit video casually and play games then sure build your own system. 

 

Also it depends on what programs you use. FinalCut for example blows Premiere out of the water in render times. 

 

There is also the stability factor and ease of setup. The Mac is just ready and requires nothing other than to be turned on, the PC has to be built. There is also stability, as far as I'm concerned macOS is way better in terms of recovery, backup, and getting up and running again in the case of an OS corruption. MacOS is just objectively better in those departments. 

I would most likely be getting the iMac Pro anyway, as my dad prefers Final Cut to Premiere significantly, as well as the MacOS ecosystem. My main concern is will casual gaming be a significant downgrade if I chose the iMac Pro over the build? My current system is a 4770k and GTX 760, so I would like a good improvement over that. 

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1 minute ago, jaysangwan32 said:

My main concern is will casual gaming be a significant downgrade if I chose the iMac Pro over the build?

If you were to install Windows on it with Bootcamp for gaming, and even in macOS, the iMac Pro has a Vega GPU, that will blow a GTX 760 out of the water. 

 

Not all games are for the Mac so you might have to install windows. 

Laptop: 2019 16" MacBook Pro i7, 512GB, 5300M 4GB, 16GB DDR4 | Phone: iPhone 13 Pro Max 128GB | Wearables: Apple Watch SE | Car: 2007 Ford Taurus SE | CPU: R7 5700X | Mobo: ASRock B450M Pro4 | RAM: 32GB 3200 | GPU: ASRock RX 5700 8GB | Case: Apple PowerMac G5 | OS: Win 11 | Storage: 1TB Crucial P3 NVME SSD, 1TB PNY CS900, & 4TB WD Blue HDD | PSU: Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 600W | Display: LG 27GL83A-B 1440p @ 144Hz, Dell S2719DGF 1440p @144Hz | Cooling: Wraith Prism | Keyboard: G610 Orion Cherry MX Brown | Mouse: G305 | Audio: Audio Technica ATH-M50X & Blue Snowball | Server: 2018 Core i3 Mac mini, 128GB SSD, Intel UHD 630, 16GB DDR4 | Storage: OWC Mercury Elite Pro Quad (6TB WD Blue HDD, 12TB Seagate Barracuda, 1TB Crucial SSD, 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD)
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Just now, DrMacintosh said:

If you were to install Windows on it with Bootcamp for gaming, and even in macOS, the iMac Pro has a Vega GPU, that will blow a GTX 760 out of the water. 

 

Not all games are for the Mac so you might have to install windows. 

I already have VMWare to run a windows parallel, so that isn't a problem.

I'm more concerned whether or not more graphically intensive games such as PUBG and Rainbow 6 would run fairly smoothly (1440p 60). I don't need extremely high frame rates or perfect 4k performance.

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5 minutes ago, jaysangwan32 said:

I'm more concerned whether or not more graphically intensive games such as PUBG and Rainbow 6 would run fairly smoothly

If you are planning to play games on it you really should Bootcamp Windows. VMWare does not give you full access to the GPU. 

 

If you ran in Bootcamp the Vega 56 (or 64) are more than capable of gaming at those resolutions. I don't know how well it would do in a virtual machine.

 

Bootcamp is free, all you need is a Windows 10 license if you don't want the water mark after 30 days. 

 

Laptop: 2019 16" MacBook Pro i7, 512GB, 5300M 4GB, 16GB DDR4 | Phone: iPhone 13 Pro Max 128GB | Wearables: Apple Watch SE | Car: 2007 Ford Taurus SE | CPU: R7 5700X | Mobo: ASRock B450M Pro4 | RAM: 32GB 3200 | GPU: ASRock RX 5700 8GB | Case: Apple PowerMac G5 | OS: Win 11 | Storage: 1TB Crucial P3 NVME SSD, 1TB PNY CS900, & 4TB WD Blue HDD | PSU: Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 600W | Display: LG 27GL83A-B 1440p @ 144Hz, Dell S2719DGF 1440p @144Hz | Cooling: Wraith Prism | Keyboard: G610 Orion Cherry MX Brown | Mouse: G305 | Audio: Audio Technica ATH-M50X & Blue Snowball | Server: 2018 Core i3 Mac mini, 128GB SSD, Intel UHD 630, 16GB DDR4 | Storage: OWC Mercury Elite Pro Quad (6TB WD Blue HDD, 12TB Seagate Barracuda, 1TB Crucial SSD, 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD)
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