So I picked up a MacBook Pro 15" for work a couple of weeks ago. I paired it with 2 Samsung T3 1TB drives and a crapload of USB Type C adapters (HDMI, Ethernet, USB type C to USB and so on) . I have a 2012 Mac Pro that is dual Xeon 6 core CPU and 32GB of ram. The main hard drive in it is a 500GB SSD and the cache and (2) production/time machine drives are both 4TB WD Black drives. Needless to say, its pretty fast and has been over the past 5 years.
So I took a 4 minute long After Effects project that has quite a bit of motion graphics to use as a test bed. I lined up both computers and pressed Render at the same time. Results?
Mac Pro = . 13:26 minutes
Macbook Pro (2016) = 14:34 minutes
Pretty freaking amazing. Granted, I was using two USB 3 T3 drives on the laptop, but the results were much closer than I imagined. Plus, the MacBook Pro can run dual 4K monitors at the same time. I can almost replace my Mac Pro with a laptop that I can take anywhere! I use my MacBook at home a lot and traveling, and I've been using Lacie Firewire 800 drives. It's pretty much freaking insane that the T3 drives can copy 175GB of data in 8 minutes, but the Lacie drive takes around 1 hr! Thankfully work allows me to budget each year for the equipment I need. Next year when they update the MacPro, I will be buying a new one and it will, of course, be faster, but I'm very pleased with the performance I can take anywhere!
That said, the freaking adapters are annoying as hell . I have to carry an HDMI adapter to every bloody meeting. Then I need a USB type c to USB 2/3 adapter for everything else...ugh. I literally have about 10 adapters. Plus I can't find a USB type c adapter to firewire 800 or 400...ARGH!!! That's kind of needed knowing that Apple went out of it's way to use it instead of USB. What a pain in the butt. So they go rogue and then don't provide support after the fact. We have tape decks and other equipment that has Firewire because Apple decided to be different. Granted, we don't use it a lot, but we do when referencing historical footage on DV tapes. Screw Apple
All that said, I love the new MacBook Pro and I'm content with it. The battery life seems to be lower than my 17" from before. I though they had fixed it, but I think this silly LCD tool bar is to blame?!? Who knows.
So I took a 4 minute long After Effects project that has quite a bit of motion graphics to use as a test bed. I lined up both computers and pressed Render at the same time. Results?
Mac Pro = . 13:26 minutes
Macbook Pro (2016) = 14:34 minutes
Pretty freaking amazing. Granted, I was using two USB 3 T3 drives on the laptop, but the results were much closer than I imagined. Plus, the MacBook Pro can run dual 4K monitors at the same time. I can almost replace my Mac Pro with a laptop that I can take anywhere! I use my MacBook at home a lot and traveling, and I've been using Lacie Firewire 800 drives. It's pretty much freaking insane that the T3 drives can copy 175GB of data in 8 minutes, but the Lacie drive takes around 1 hr! Thankfully work allows me to budget each year for the equipment I need. Next year when they update the MacPro, I will be buying a new one and it will, of course, be faster, but I'm very pleased with the performance I can take anywhere!
That said, the freaking adapters are annoying as hell . I have to carry an HDMI adapter to every bloody meeting. Then I need a USB type c to USB 2/3 adapter for everything else...ugh. I literally have about 10 adapters. Plus I can't find a USB type c adapter to firewire 800 or 400...ARGH!!! That's kind of needed knowing that Apple went out of it's way to use it instead of USB. What a pain in the butt. So they go rogue and then don't provide support after the fact. We have tape decks and other equipment that has Firewire because Apple decided to be different. Granted, we don't use it a lot, but we do when referencing historical footage on DV tapes. Screw Apple
All that said, I love the new MacBook Pro and I'm content with it. The battery life seems to be lower than my 17" from before. I though they had fixed it, but I think this silly LCD tool bar is to blame?!? Who knows.
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