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Roundup: Comparing the 18-core iMac Pro to the 10-core model

The iMac Pro is an interesting product. It’s not as modular as a Mac Pro could be, but is much more powerful than a standard 5K iMac. With that being said, the iMac Pro is getting outstanding reviews, and recently, Apple has begun shipping the 18-core iMac Pro, the most powerful Mac you can purchase today. And reception seems to be pretty good.

Craig A. Hunter from hrtapps put the machine through its paces and the results are positive. Hunter owns both the 10-core and 18-core iMac Pro and his findings show that there’s a 27% to 79% increase in performance when comparing the 18-core to the 10-core machine.

He goes on to say that single-core performance isn’t hindered even though the 18-core machine has a lower clock speed. However, the 18-core is at its best when using apps that are optimized for multi-core performance.

On the other hand, known tech YouTuber TLDToday has also got his hands on the 18-core iMac Pro. As we reported yesterday, his Geekbench tests show the 18-core machine score 48,831 on the multi-core and 5,322 on the single core.

Comparatively, the 10-core at 31,361 and 5,084 respectively. He goes on to say that SSD performance between the 1, 2 and 4TB SSDs are nearly identical. With no compromises with any of the SSDs this time around.

Running through several more benchmarks, he discovered that an 8K Raw 3 minute video was able to render a video in Final Cut Pro in just under 6 minutes while the 10-core rendered in 6 minutes and 34 seconds. A small difference for some, but is major savings when making videos on a day-to-day basis. He ends the video by saying that the 10-core iMac Pro is still the best in terms of price-to-performance ratio, as 9to5Mac’s Jeff Benjamin has previously shared. However, the 18-core is a beast if you’re making use of all those cores on a daily basis.

We will continue to update this post as more reviews come out.


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