How FAST is the 18-Core iMac Pro? #Helpful Post

yo guys johnathan here 18 cores an imac

are probably two things you would never

expect to say in the same sentence but

with the iMac Pro that is a thing this

is the fastest I Mac Pro you can buy 18

cores AMD Vega 64 graphics 128 gigabytes

of RAM and a 4 terabyte SSD

 

so I've been a tenant in the last couple

days with this monster of an iMac and I

really wanted to focus on performance

for reference I'll be showcasing it

against a ten core Vega 64 iMac pro as

well as an 8 core Vega 56 model so jump

it into the obligatory geek bench for

score because honestly it's just kind of

fun to see where these 18 cores stacked

up this did not disappoint with a

multi-core score of over 48,000

 

now what was a little surprising but

also positive is you don't lose that

much in terms of the single core score

compared to the ten core an anchor model

especially considered at the base clock

on this is 2.3 gigahertz also what was

kind of interesting for me this is the

first time I've got a chance to stack up

the one terabyte 2 terabyte and 4

terabyte SSD configurations the bad news

is the 4 terabyte really isn't much

faster than the 2 terabyte or 1 terabyte

for the matter but on the flip side of

that the good news is no matter what

route you go you're gonna get pretty

much the same performance across the

board now as far as how that power

translates in the performance the first

thing I did was take 8 K raw footage it

was about a hundred gigabytes or just

over 26 minutes of footage and transcode

that into 8k ProRes to do this I use red

cine X program which really puts those

cores to work like it was maxing them

out with the 18 cores especially when

you factor in multiple threads scene 36

instances run at the same time is kind

of a beautiful thing as far as what

those cores translated to the 18 core

iMac pro took a little over 39 minutes

the 10 core was 46 minutes and the a

core iMac pro did the job in just about

51 minutes now your initial reaction

might be 5 6 minutes that's not that big

of a deal but where it counts is is when

you do that multiple times per day then

multiply that every day for a week for a

year that's where that really makes a

difference

so next up is cinema 4d this is a custom

scene that was tweaked by my buddy Matt

workman essentially it is only using the

CPU to render out this scene so it's a

great way to showcase the performance

between the processors the 18 core

rendered everything out in four minutes

flat a 10 core was 4 minutes and 48

seconds while the 8 core finished

everything up in 6 minutes and 4 seconds

again much like the red raw transcoding

these numbers and this time saved on a

small scale might not seem like the

biggest deal but over time it definitely

adds up from there jumping over to Final

Cut Pro 10 red raw the iMac Pro and

Final Cut Pro have been amazing to give

you a little rundown on this project I

have a que red raw footage at a 12 to 1

compression this was shot in Reds IPP

two logs have a lot applied a few

different layers of color correction and

then at back and rendering off to really

put these iMac pros to work so the raw

timeline which is unrendered is about

three minutes and taking that next

corner to a pro rs-422 file the 18 core

I Mac Pro did that in 5 minutes and 51

seconds the 10 core 6 minutes and 34

seconds in the 8 core 7 minutes and 22

seconds even though the 10 core iMac pro

still has the fastest single to add a

turbo clock speed in this case you can

see in terms of final cut the extra

cores do actually make a difference in

my continued search of programs that

really take advantage of the processing

power though ScreenFlow 7 actually takes

really big advantage of all those cores

with the iMac Pro what it did was take a

5k screen recorder and had a

three-minute project and an export of

that into 4k h.264 footage the 18 core I

Mac Pro did that in 1 minute 48 seconds

the 10 core 2 minutes and 24 seconds and

lastly the a core iMac pro 2 minutes and

46 seconds now I did mess a little bit

with Adobe Media encoder took a 6,500

footages about 10 minutes of 4k video I

try to transcode that into 4 to 2 ProRes

the 18 Court did that in 6 minutes 54

seconds the 8 core was 8 minutes and 36

seconds but for some reason the 10 core

was actually slower than the 8 core at

10 minutes and 8 seconds but from what I

could tell Adobe Media encoder really

wasn't taking advantage of all that

hardware I'm gonna do a little more

research and a little more investigating

but I did want to share those

preliminary Adobe results first now plot

twist those motion graphic benchmarks

featured throughout this video work

created natural natural I thought it

would make sense to render them out on

these

Mac Pro's so for total of six

independent renders the 18 core I Mac

Pro finished everything up in 10 minutes

and 36 seconds the 10 core was actually

the fastest here at 9 minutes and 43

seconds and in the 8 core I Mac Pro did

the job in 12 minutes and 19 seconds so

these numbers kind of tell me a couple

different things one the clock speed on

the tank or a Mac Pro here in this case

definitely makes difference in two based

off those comparisons against Adobe

Media encoder Adobe is clearly not

taking full advantage of the hardware on

these iMac pros honestly I still think

the 10 core I'm a pro is the best value

in terms of bang for your buck with

performance but if you need that sheer

processing power those 18 cores really

come in handy now if you line up the 8

the 10 and 18 core in my case the only

one I haven't checked out yet is the 14

core in terms of price and what you gain

performance wise it's a pretty even jump

so if you transcode a ton on a

day-to-day basis or potentially use

really CPU intensive programs like

cinema 4d that's maybe where those extra

cores come into play but if you're

asking me I still think again the best

bang for your buck is the 10 core iMac

Pro but nonetheless the 18 coleye Mac

Pro is a super solid performer it is

very very powerful hopefully enjoy this

video if you did and you or feel like

being awesome make sure you guys smash

that like button this is Jonathan and I

will catch you guys later