The same specs as the $6000 base level Mac Pro comes out to $1600. Granted, I would use and Intel i9-9900K, non-server motherboard and non-ECC RAM.
As a media production professional who has spent most of my career on a Mac, the original "cheese grater" is probably the best hardware platform I've ever worked on. In my experience, macOS as an operating system has been vastly superior in terms of maintenance and support for a lot of post houses. When I install a Mac, I rarely have to come back and touch it until an editor mistakenly updates the OS or Adobe suite and breaks something in the chain. The original Mac Pro cheese graters lasted 5-7 years in facilities I ran.
But times have changed. Cameras got bigger and Apple started severely limiting what their computers could do.
The Mac Pro "trash can" was drastically under-engineered. It overheated with 4k footage and could barely handle larger productions. You also ended up with a tangled mess of peripherals that used to just live inside the tower. I can't count how many times an editor would say something wasn't working and it was just because they knocked a thunderbolt cable loose.
At first glance, the new Mac Pro is nothing short of impressive.
The big thing media people want from Apple is upgradable GPUs, which Apple kind of did here.
The MXP module for the GPUs looks to be entirely proprietary. I haven't found any mention of potential 3rd party GPU support. And I assume you'll buy the GPUs preinstalled in those modules at the highest market value, despite the rapid drop in video card prices over time. But without nVidia support I fear this feature is going to be a stalemate with the industry.
What is most appealing to me is the Mac Pro basically a server motherboard with a lot of room. Building a budget PC is restricting. The gaming motherboards tend to move the fastest with technology and newer / cheaper chips that are capable of hanging with server chips, but are part of the silicon lottery. 1/4 that I receive is DOA or has to be returned for some reason. That and they lack enough PCI slots for big post-house media work. If I have to drop two GPUs in a PC, there is rarely room for I/O cards, 10GbE and other requirements.
For a post-house who wants something stable, the price high of the new Mac Pro will be returned fairly easily (maybe not with those new monitors). I don't see the freelance / independent and small-production team market buying >$6000 Mac towers though.
The latest offerings from AMD with PCI 4.0 motherboards will weigh in at $3000'ish with a single 2080 ti GPU. That's an extreme bang for your buck.
The downside in the PC world is mainly that it has become a build your own adventure with next to no warranty and a ton of technological hurdles and compatibility issues. For example, very few motherboards for Intel chips support TB3 and have 10GbE built in. And if you go AMD you can forget thunderbolt all-together.
Overall, I know a lot of places I've done work with are waiting to hit buy on the new Mac Pro. Part of that is because it just works, and they'll deal with the shortcomings later on. But really, it looks cool and the people they attract are impressed by that fancy tower. But everyone who works alone or at smaller companies are probably now waiting to drop their Ryzen 3000 and X570 orders into their shopping carts.
Disclaimer: I don't know any professionals who bought an iMac Pro. I haven't seen one in the wild since it was released.
As a media production professional who has spent most of my career on a Mac, the original "cheese grater" is probably the best hardware platform I've ever worked on. In my experience, macOS as an operating system has been vastly superior in terms of maintenance and support for a lot of post houses. When I install a Mac, I rarely have to come back and touch it until an editor mistakenly updates the OS or Adobe suite and breaks something in the chain. The original Mac Pro cheese graters lasted 5-7 years in facilities I ran.
But times have changed. Cameras got bigger and Apple started severely limiting what their computers could do.
The Mac Pro "trash can" was drastically under-engineered. It overheated with 4k footage and could barely handle larger productions. You also ended up with a tangled mess of peripherals that used to just live inside the tower. I can't count how many times an editor would say something wasn't working and it was just because they knocked a thunderbolt cable loose.
At first glance, the new Mac Pro is nothing short of impressive.
The big thing media people want from Apple is upgradable GPUs, which Apple kind of did here.
The MXP module for the GPUs looks to be entirely proprietary. I haven't found any mention of potential 3rd party GPU support. And I assume you'll buy the GPUs preinstalled in those modules at the highest market value, despite the rapid drop in video card prices over time. But without nVidia support I fear this feature is going to be a stalemate with the industry.
What is most appealing to me is the Mac Pro basically a server motherboard with a lot of room. Building a budget PC is restricting. The gaming motherboards tend to move the fastest with technology and newer / cheaper chips that are capable of hanging with server chips, but are part of the silicon lottery. 1/4 that I receive is DOA or has to be returned for some reason. That and they lack enough PCI slots for big post-house media work. If I have to drop two GPUs in a PC, there is rarely room for I/O cards, 10GbE and other requirements.
For a post-house who wants something stable, the price high of the new Mac Pro will be returned fairly easily (maybe not with those new monitors). I don't see the freelance / independent and small-production team market buying >$6000 Mac towers though.
The latest offerings from AMD with PCI 4.0 motherboards will weigh in at $3000'ish with a single 2080 ti GPU. That's an extreme bang for your buck.
The downside in the PC world is mainly that it has become a build your own adventure with next to no warranty and a ton of technological hurdles and compatibility issues. For example, very few motherboards for Intel chips support TB3 and have 10GbE built in. And if you go AMD you can forget thunderbolt all-together.
Overall, I know a lot of places I've done work with are waiting to hit buy on the new Mac Pro. Part of that is because it just works, and they'll deal with the shortcomings later on. But really, it looks cool and the people they attract are impressed by that fancy tower. But everyone who works alone or at smaller companies are probably now waiting to drop their Ryzen 3000 and X570 orders into their shopping carts.
Disclaimer: I don't know any professionals who bought an iMac Pro. I haven't seen one in the wild since it was released.