2013 Mac Pro

[DominicQwek]

C'mon now. I know some of you have it. Need some benchmarks and reviews.

[NDenekamp]

Don't have one, and although it's had to say, I made a rough estimation based on processor benchmarks and comparison to other submitted KeyShot benchmarks here in this forum (and should be understood as such, and not as any guarantee for actual performance.)

Currently the Mac Pro has two GPUs and one CPU around it's triangular heat sink. I hope apple may release a version where its 2 CPUs with 1 GPU instead.. although thats probably unlikely..

[DriesV]

The best CPU option for a KeyShot-heavy workflow will be the Xeon E5-2697 V2.
I've found relative Cinebench scores to be a very predictable estimator for relative KeyShot performance.

Cinebench 11.5 performance:
My workstation has dual Xeon E5-2680 CPUs. My system gets a score of 23.02.
According to a reliable review a single Xeon E5-2697 V2 gets a score of 17.63.

KeyShot 4.3 performance:
In the KeyShot camera scene my machine tops at 169.2 fps in KS 4.3.
A machine with a single Xeon E5-2697 V2 would score 129.6 fps ((17.63/23.03)*169.2).

I really like the new Mac Pro as a concept. However, unless you need two GPUs and the compactness, there are far better options if you're doing a lot of realtime KeyShot rendering.
Still, for such a small system, 130 fps is quite amazing!

E.g. A dual Xeon E5-2697 V2 workstation would score 246.7 fps in the camera scene (33.56 in Cinebench 11.5).

Dries

[DominicQwek]

Thanks for that information, Dries! I'm seriously considering a Mac Pro. I've been using my 2013 Macbook Pro and I'm loving it. Going to sidetrack a little but I like how OS X has small little apps that help you along with other chores, audio, videos, etc

The best CPU option for a KeyShot-heavy workflow will be the Xeon E5-2697 V2.
I've found relative Cinebench scores to be a very predictable estimator for relative KeyShot performance.

Cinebench 11.5 performance:
My workstation has dual Xeon E5-2680 CPUs. My system gets a score of 23.02.
According to a reliable review a single Xeon E5-2697 V2 gets a score of 17.63.

KeyShot 4.3 performance:
In the KeyShot camera scene my machine tops at 169.2 fps in KS 4.3.
A machine with a single Xeon E5-2697 V2 would score 129.6 fps ((17.63/23.03)*169.2).

I really like the new Mac Pro as a concept. However, unless you need two GPUs and the compactness, there are far better options if you're doing a lot of realtime KeyShot rendering.
Still, for such a small system, 130 fps is quite amazing!

E.g. A dual Xeon E5-2697 V2 workstation would score 246.7 fps in the camera scene (33.56 in Cinebench 11.5).

Dries

[DominicQwek]

Yeah it's a pity about the 2 GPUs. I guess you could always use it for another package that uses CUDA powered GPUs. Not sure if Photoshop benefits from having 2 GPUs.

[DriesV]

Yeah it's a pity about the 2 GPUs. I guess you could always use it for another package that uses CUDA powered GPUs. Not sure if Photoshop benefits from having 2 GPUs.

No CUDA apps either, as it's supporting AMD cards only.
I haven't seen or touched one in the flesh yet, but to me the new Mac Pro seems designed entirely around those two GPUs... No?

Dries

[thomasteger]

Nope you can't because the MacPro is using AMD graphics cards. You saw that we are having one at SolidWorks World this week, right? An amazing machine, to say the least. 12 cores / 24 threads, and absolutely silent. Performance is half of our 48 core machines we have, just to put it in perspective for you.

[thomasteger]

http://keyshot.com/12-core24-thread-mac-pro-running-keyshot/2014/

[DominicQwek]

It's either the 8 core or 12 core for me. Decisions. :/

Nope you can't because the MacPro is using AMD graphics cards. You saw that we are having one at SolidWorks World this week, right? An amazing machine, to say the least. 12 cores / 24 threads, and absolutely silent. Performance is half of our 48 core machines we have, just to put it in perspective for you.

[thomasteger]

go for the 12 core!