12 Core 2013 Mac Pro with D700 GPUs Tested Against Others

A big thanks to Other World Computing for loaning a 12-core 2013 Mac Pro with D700 GPUs with an OWC 64GB memory kit installed also.

The test results have been updated to include the 2.7 GHz 2013 Mac Pro in about half the tests; the remainder will follow shortly.

So far, the 12-core and the D700 GPUs are both duds or only marginally better than the D500 GPUs with most photography applications.

Put another way, you’d better have a darn good reason for going past 6 cores and/or getting the D700 GPUs. The sitution is fluid and might well evolve over time, but for now it’s clear that the 6-core is the ideal machine for most users, and that those looking to eke out modestly more performance should go with an 8-core 3.3 GHz CPU upgrade (from a 4 core).

Mac Pro buying links.

Bleeding edge—the D700 GPUs show a curiously inferior performance on some tests to the D500 GPUs. Barefeats.com reports a similar confounding result in the FCPX Render Gaussian Blur test and others (D700 GPUs test slower than D500 GPUs). Perhaps it is a drive issue or other issue that will get fixed, because the Unigine Valley demo, shows frame rates about 50% higher with the D700 GPUs.

Lightroom Import of Nikon D800E NEF files