Older Mac Pro vs. New iMac question

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Question for someone with more Mac knowledge than I (almost anybody).

I own a Mac Pro 2Ghz, duel core Intel, 5mb ram of 667, 250gig hd, Nvida 7300 GT graphics card with a 20" cinema display - all in great shape. Has wireless card but no bluetooth (which if I keep, I'll add).

I'm thinking of selling it (friend wants to buy) and upgrading to a 27" iMac - either the duel core version (which I can essentially trade for the Mac Pro set-up with the cinema display) or, if I stretch it, the 27" iMac quad core version.

Any opinion on the better machine - my existing Mac Pro or the base 27" iMac? How about the quad core iMac? I use it mostly for 3d design (sketchup) and rendering (podium).

I am considering changing to update and keep current with the technology - hopefully get faster rendering times (?), and get the larger display (27" vs. the 20" cinema).

Thanks for the insight.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac Quad Core i7 2.8 ghz 1TB HDD
The new iMac will be faster, especially the quad core. I would recommend getting the 27" iMac quad core if you will be doing rendering and 3d design. Good luck!
 
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You may want to wait a bit until its confirmed that Apple is shipping new 27" iMacs without the display issues (yellowing on bottom half of display). From what I hear this has not been resolved yet.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac Quad Core i7 2.8 ghz 1TB HDD
You may want to wait a bit until its confirmed that Apple is shipping new 27" iMacs without the display issues (yellowing on bottom half of display). From what I hear this has not been resolved yet.

I've heard that the problem is slowly getting fixed and I have seen less and less accounts of these issues so I'm assuming apple has begun to fix them.
 
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Thanks for the advise.

Would the duel core 27" be an upgrade or about the same in performance as my mac pro?

I realize the quad core would be a better machine, but the $$ is tight now - so is the quad core is an upgrade?

If I bite the bullet on the quad core - is the yellow on bottom half visible right away? In other words, if I open one at the Apple store and view it, can I see it before I take it home?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac Quad Core i7 2.8 ghz 1TB HDD
Thanks for the advise.

Would the duel core 27" be an upgrade or about the same in performance as my mac pro?

I realize the quad core would be a better machine, but the $$ is tight now - so is the quad core is an upgrade?

If I bite the bullet on the quad core - is the yellow on bottom half visible right away? In other words, if I open one at the Apple store and view it, can I see it before I take it home?

Both the dual and quad core will be an upgrade, but the quad will be a bigger upgrade. Sometimes it takes a few hours for the yellow tinge to develop but even if you take it home and find out about it, apple will fix it or replace it for you.
 

Raz0rEdge

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2022 Mac Studio M1 Max, 2023 M2 MBA
If you go with the base dual core at 3.06 Ghz, that's going to be a boost, and the 3.33 Ghz is even a bigger boost. Plus, the memory is running at the faster 1066 Mhz, and that's also aide in performance.

If you're happy with your existing machine, the Dual Core iMac's will be quite a bit faster, the Quad Cores (especially the i7) are almost 1.5-2x faster than the Dual Cores, and if the Dual Cores are almost 1.5x-2x faster than your Mac Pro, you can kinda imagine the boost..

Regards
 
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thanks - I just noticed something that has me more confused.

The Mac Pro says...
"Dual-Core Intel Xeon", processor speed: 2Ghz, number of processors: 2, total number of cores: 4

My newish aluminum 13" macbook says...
"Intel Core 2 Duo", processor speed: 2Ghz, number of processors: 1, total number of cores: 2.

Is my MacPro a Dual Core? Or a Quad core? And/or is my Macbook? They both say dual core? Confusing...

Is the iMac base 27" a dual-core? One processor or two?

Same question on the quad core 27" iMac. Does it have 2 processors or 4 processors?


Sorry for lots of questions.
Thanks..
 
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| '09 24" iMac 3.06 8GB | '09 iPhone 3GS 32GB | '09 ATV 1.16TB | '07 23" ACD | '06 15" MBP |
You have a quad core 2ghz with 5gb 667 ram.

A dual core iMac will be a bit slower (dual core 3.06 with 4gb 1066 ram) but the Quad iMac will be faster than yours. (2.66 quad or 2.8 with 4gb of 1066 ram)
 
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great info - thanks!

sounds like my macpro is fairly decent from a performance standpoint so I think I'll hang onto it.

if you had to prioritize performance upgrades, what would you suggest? More RAM, better video card (it has an nvidia 7300 GT, VRAM total: 256 mb).

I use it for CAD and some 3d rendering mostly.

thanks..
 

Raz0rEdge

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Would definitely upgrade the video card first, and then bump up RAM if you feel the performance upgrade wasn't enough..

Regards
 

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