When Microsoft unveiled the Surface Studio last October, every one started comparing it to the Apple iMac, which was outdated by a year. Sure, both these machines are targeted towards the professionals, but the Surface Studio managed to bring a lot more to the table than Apple’s famous all-in-one ever could. However, at WWDC 2017, Apple managed to turn the tides around by introducing a whole new line-up of iMac for the enthusiasts who demand nothing less than the absolute best in terms of performance.
IMac Pro – Best Mac For Music Production in 2018 Apple sets new standards with the iMac Pro – at least as far as performance is concerned. The iMac Pro is prepared for extensive audio projects, music video editing in 4K and 8K, for complex 3D rendering and the creation of VR simulations. Software PC Mac Subscription Software Software for Students Small Business Software Best Sellers New Releases Deals Your Software Library Customer Support Featured categories Business & Office.
It’s called the iMac Pro, and believe us, it’s a beast. In fact, it’s the company’s most powerful Mac ever. You heard that right, it’s even more powerful than the trash can Mac Pro from 2013. This is exactly why we couldn’t resist comparing it with Microsoft’s best all-in-one on the market right now. So, if you’re all hyped up as much as we are, let’s pit the latest iMac Pro vs Surface Studio. Design and Build Quality Apple’s latest all-in-one offering features the same all-aluminium design that the regular iMacs have been been following over the last few years.
However, this time around, the company has decided to go for the space grey color that has been positively received, since the release of MacBook Pro. Just like the regular iMac, the iMac Pro measures just 5 mm at its thinnest edge and the whole hardware that powers the device is jam-packed right behind the display. As far as bezels are concerned, it’s kind of disappointing to say the least. In 2017, we expect a display to have minimal bezels, but Apple has decided to stick with the huge chin that doesn’t make it look any different from the regular iMacs released since 2013. That being said, the overall build quality is as stellar as all the other Apple products out there. Moving on to the Microsoft Studio, we have a similar aluminium design used all over the device, except for the chrome hinges that make it stand out from the iMac. Microsoft calls this, the zero-gravity hinge design, which lets the user effortlessly tilt the machine up to to a bare minimum of 20 degrees.
This is clearly an impeccable achievement by Microsoft, in terms of design. What’s totally unique about the Surface Studio is the fact that the compact base unit houses all the hardware that this machine has to offer, rather than placing them behind the display. Unlike the iMac, it doesn’t underwhelm us with huge bezels either. So, when it comes to design, there’s no doubt regarding the fact that the Surface Studio clearly outshines the iMac Pro. Hardware Since both the iMac Pro and Surface Studio are targeted towards the professionals, they are packed with high-end components that can make them run like an absolute dream. We are going to classify hardware into separate categories, so that you guys can get a clear idea of what both the machines bring to the table:.
Display Let’s talk about the main component that makes both these devices absolutely goregous to look at. The iMac Pro features a gorgeous 27-inch 5K Retina Display packing a resolution of 5120-by-2880 pixels with a wider P3 color gamut and 500 nits of brightness, thereby making it one of the best and most accurate 5K displays you could ever buy. However, the iMac Pro completely lacks any touchscreen capabilities, which is a shame, once you take a look at the Microsoft counterpart. The Surface Studio on the other hand, features a 28-inch PixelSense touchscreen display boasting a resolution of 4500 x 3000 pixels that puts it in the 4.5K range. This touchscreen panel can take full advantage of Microsoft’s Surface pen and Surface Dial, which takes graphics designing on PC to the next level. There’s no comparison with the iMac Pro, on this regard, as Apple’s most powerful Mac lacks any touchscreen functionalities. The Surface Studio maintains an aspect ratio of 3:2, which might sound weird at first, but for designers, the aspect ratio is an absolute dream to work on. Apart from this, the brightness of the panel maxes out at 354 nits, which might be good enough for many, but falls short of the latest iMac Pro.
All in all, when it comes to display, it’s all based on personal preference and what you plan to do with it. If you’re a graphic designer, you might enjoy the 3:2 aspect ratio on the Surface Studio.
However, if you prefer higher resolution screens or much more brightness, so that you can even work in broad daylight, you might be better off with the iMac Pro. Processor This is the area where iMac Pro easily outshines the Surface Studio without breaking a sweat. Apple’s latest and meanest all-in-one is powered by the Intel Xeon workstation-class processors, that can be configured with either 8, 10 or 18 cores. Oh, you read that right.
18 cores of computational performance from an all-in-one in 2017. This outright crushes the outdated quad-core Intel Core i7 6820HQ Skylake chip that manages a base clock of 2.7 GHz on the highest-end Surface Studio. Graphics Another area where the iMac Pro sits right on top of the Surface Studio is GPU horsepower.
The displays on these machines packs resolutions well above the 4K mark, so it’s a no-brainer that these screens need the necessary horsepower to perform as the companies intended. The iMac Pro’s GPU intensive tasks will be handled by the latest AMD Radeon Vega 56 workstation-class graphics processor that boasts 8 GB of HBM2 memory. On the other hand, the maxed out Surface Studio packs a way more inferior NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M graphics chip with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. Well, it’s pretty clear that when it comes to graphical horsepower, Microsoft’s most powerful machine is no match for what Apple brings to the table with the iMac Pro. For professionals whose primary task is rendering, the obvious choice is iMac Pro. RAM The iMac Pro offers up to 128 GB of ECC memory for the company’s highest-end iMac Pro. That being said, the base variant packs 32 GB of memory, that should be good enough for most of the professionals, especially for rendering purposes.
Moving on to the Surface Studio, we’re offered with either 8 GB, 16 GB or 32 GB RAM, depending on the configuration you’re willing to go for. Seriously Microsoft, a PC costing thousands of dollars with 8 GB RAM in 2017?. Storage As far as storage options are concerned, all the iMac Pro variants come with 1 TB NVMe SSD for blistering fast speeds. However, if you want to step it up a notch, you can configure it up 4 TB, for storing a plethora of 4K content. Moving on to the Surface Studio, we have only Hybrid drive options rather than fully-blown NVMe SSDs, which is pretty disappointing considering the machine costs thousands of dollars. The maxed out variant of the Surface Studio packs a hybrid drive with 128 GB SSD and 2 TB HDD.
So, if high-speed storage is your primary concern, iMac Pro is the obvious choice here. Performance At last, what we’ve all been waiting for. Let’s talk about performance. The Surface Studio is powered by the i7 6820 HQ processor. Did you read that properly? It’s a HQ processor, which is basically a processor that’s targeted towards laptops. Sure, it’s a high-end processor, but for an all-in-one PC, we’d expect desktop processor, or else we would rather buy a laptop. Even the regular iMacs are packed with desktop grade processors, which makes them better than the Surface Studio that costs twice as much.
That being said, the 8-core Xeon processor that powers the iMac Pro is on a different class, when compared to the i7 6820 HQ and that’s exactly the reason why we think the Surface Studio is no match for the iMac in terms of raw power. Moving on to the graphics department, the Radeon Vega on the iMac Pro promises 11 TFlops of floating point performance, which is almost 3.5 times the graphical horsepower offered by the Surface Studio, thereby making it an ideal machine for video rendering.
Apart from this, if you also prefer gaming on these systems, iMac Pro is a no-brainer, regardless of having a workstation-class GPU. As you might have read from all the hardware details regarding both the machines, we’re pretty sure you’d agree on the fact iMac Pro is certainly way more powerful than Microsoft’s Surface Studio. That being said, the iMac Pro is pretty much a workstation-class machine rather than the usual all-in-ones we’re seen over the years, and it literally can be considered as a Mac Pro without the trash can design. Make no mistake, the Surface Studio doesn’t underwhelm us just because the iMac Pro is way more powerful. The touchscreen functionalities along with Surface Pen and Surface Dial, makes this the go-to machine for artists and graphic designers.
Thermal Management Apple has completely redesigned the way the new iMac Pro manages heat. The Thermal design is completely unlike anything you’ve seen in the previous iMacs so far. In order to keep this beast of a machine cool, the Cupertino-based company has managed to cram a massive heatsink along with dual blowers and additional ventilation at the bottom of the display that promises 75 percent improved airflow compared to every other regular iMacs that we’ve seen recently.
This is absolutely necessary though, as the machine packs way more powerful hardware than you might have ever seen in an all-in-one. On the other hand, the Surface Studio takes a whole new approach, by housing the hardware in the monitor’s base unit. This completely eliminates the panel from heating up, especially due to the fact that there’s literally no hardware behind the display unit. That being said, Surface Studio has its fair share of downsides regarding thermal management. Due to the compact size of the base, you can compare the machine’s thermals to that of a high-end laptop. The base unit is not big enough to pack a massive heatsink or dual blowers like the iMac Pro, so if you’re living in a hot country like India, you might be better off with the iMac Pro. Connectivity Apple’s latest MacBook were heavily criticized for the lack of USB 3.0 ports and SD card slots, but the company has packed all the ports that you’ll ever need in their most powerful Mac ever. This is probably due to the negative response they received after the laptop’s launch.
Taking about the I/O on the latest iMac Pro, we have 4 USB 3.0 ports, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, an SDXC card slot, 10 Gigabit Ethernet port. And even a 3.5 mm headphone jack. That’s right, you don’t have worry about living with dongles anymore. Moving on to the Surface Studio, we have 4 USB 3.0 ports, SDXC card slot, Mini DisplayPort, 3.5 mm headphone jack and a Gigabit Ethernet port. As you can see, the Surface Studio is clearly lacking in terms of future proofing, due to the lack of Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports and 10 Gigabit Ethernet port. Therefore, when it comes to I/O iMac Pro is the clear winner, again. Pricing & Availability Apple’s iMac Pro is all set to arrive this December, for a price tag starting at $4999 for the base variant which packs an 8-core Xeon processor and 32 GB ECC memory.
However, the company has been mum regarding the pricing of the higher end variants so far. That being said, you can be assured that no matter what variant you choose, you’ll be getting the same Radeon Pro Vega 56 GPU, so there are no compromises in terms of graphical horsepower. It comes with the Space Gray Magic Keyboard with with numeric keypad and Magic Mouse 2, out of the box. The Space Gray Magic Trackpad 2 needs to be purchased separately. The Surface Studio on the other hand, has been available since last December for an asking price starting at $2999 for the base variant with Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB Hybrid drive and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M. Although you get the Surface Pen with the Studio, you’ll have to shell out another 100 bucks if you want the revolutionary Surface Dial.
Now, this is pretty mediocre to say the least. Moving on to the the highest-end variant costing $4199, we have a machine packing Intel Core i7-6820 Skylake chip, 2 TB Hybrid drive, 32 GB RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M GPU. This variant is seriously impressive, but no where close to matching what Apple has to offer for just 800 bucks more.
As a.NET developer, I’ve spent most of my time coding on Windows machines. It’s only logical: Visual Studio is the richest development experience for building C# and VB.NET applications, and it only runs on Windowsright? When I joined Stormpath to work on our, I was handed a MacBook Pro and given an interesting challenge: can a Mac be an awesome.NET development platform? To my surprise, the answer is yes! I’ll share how I turned a MacBook Pro into the ultimate Visual Studio development machine. How to Run Visual Studio on a Mac Visual Studio doesn’t run natively on OS X, so my first step was to get Windows running on my MacBook Pro.
(If you want an editor that does run natively, or might fit the bill). There are multiple options for running Windows on a Mac. Every Mac comes with Apple’s Boot Camp software, which helps you install Windows into a separate partition. To switch between OSes, you need to restart.
Is a different animal: it runs Windows (or another guest OS) inside a virtual machine. This is convenient because you don’t have to restart your computer to switch over to Windows. Instead, Windows runs in an OS X application window. I found that a combination of both worked best for me.
I installed Windows into a Boot Camp partition first, and then turned that partition into an active Parallels virtual machine. This way, I have the option of using Windows in the virtual machine, or restarting to run Windows natively at full speed. I was initially skeptical of the performance of a heavy application like Visual Studio running in a virtual machine. The option to restart to Windows via Boot Camp gave me a fallback in case Visual Studio was sluggish. There are some minor disadvantages to this method: you can’t pause the virtual machine or save it to a snapshot. A non-Boot Camp virtual machine doesn’t have these limitations.
This guide will work regardless of what type of virtual machine you create. After three months of serious use, and some tweaks, I’ve been very impressed with Parallels’ performance. I haven’t needed to boot directly to Windows at all. (For comparison, my host machine is a 15” mid-2015 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB flash drive.) In the remainder of this guide, I’ll detail the steps I took to optimize both Parallels and Visual Studio to run at peak performance. Installing Windows With Boot Camp and Parallels This part’s easy. I followed to install Windows in a separate partition. Then, I installed Parallels and followed the to create a new virtual machine from the existing Boot Camp partition.
Tweaking Parallels for Performance and Usability The Parallels team publishes on how to maximize the performance of your virtual machine. Here’s what I adopted: Virtual machine settings:. 2 virtual CPUs. 4096MB system memory. 256MB graphics memory Parallels options:. Optimization: Faster virtual machine, Adaptive hypervisor, Tune Windows for speed all turned on. Sharing: Shared cloud, SmartMount, and Access Windows folders from Mac turned off, as I didn’t need these for my workflow.
I experimented with both of Parallels’ presentation modes, Coherence and Full Screen. While it was cool to see my Windows apps side-by-side with OS X in Coherence mode, I found that the UI responsiveness (especially opening and closing windows and dialogs) felt sluggish. Because of this, I use Full Screen exclusively now. I have Windows full-screen on my external Thunderbolt display, and OS X on my laptop. If I need to use OS X on my large monitor, I can swipe the Magic Mouse to switch desktops.
Adjusting OS X and Windows Features I fixed a few annoyances and performance drains right off the bat:. Function keys.
If you’re using the Mac keyboard, you’ll want to change the function key behavior so the F1-F12 keys work correctly in Visual Studio. From System Preferences – Keyboard, make sure Use all F1, F2, etc. Keys as standard function keys is checked. With this turned on, hold Fn to use the Mac functions (brightness, volume, etc.) on F1-F12. With an external non-Mac keyboard, this isn’t an issue. Start menu. I’m using Windows 8, and the removal of the Start menu annoyed me.
I clung to my old ways and installed to restore it. Disable Windows visual effects. I turned off most of the Windows desktop manager visual effects by going to Control Panel – System and Security – Advanced system settings – Advanced – Performance – Settings – Visual Effects and choosing Adjust for best performance. However, I left Smooth edges of screen fonts checked because it improves text rendering on my monitor. Installing Visual Studio and Helpful Extensions Installing Visual Studio is a piece of cake once the virtual machine is set up. I simply downloaded the latest release from MSDN and let the installer run.
If you use an Apple Magic Mouse (as I do), Visual Studio tends to be overly eager to zoom the text size in and out as you swipe your finger over the mouse. The add-on fixes this annoyance.
Improving Visual Studio for Performance I was impressed with how well Visual Studio performed under emulation. With a large multi-project solution open, though, I saw some slowdowns.
Through trial and error, I found a number of things that could be disabled to improve performance. You may not want to make all of the changes I did, so pick and choose your own list of tweaks:. Disable hardware-accelerated rendering.
Unchecking Automatically adjust visual experience based on client performance, Enable rich client visual experience, and Use hardware graphics acceleration if available via Options – Environment made the UI feel much more responsive on my machine. Start up to an empty environment. Starting up Visual Studio for the first time feels a lot snappier if you skip the default news page on startup. Select Empty environment under Options – Environment – Startup – At startup. Remove unused extensions. Visual Studio ships with a number of extensions that you may not need. From Tools – Extensions and Updates – Installed, remove any extensions you aren’t actively using (you can always reinstall them later).
I got rid of six extensions I didn’t need. Disable extra debugging features. I turned off both Enable Diagnostic Tools while debugging and Show elapsed time PerfTip while debugging in Options – Debugging – General. I wasn’t using these debugging features, and debugging felt snappier after I disabled them.
Turn off the Navigation Bar. I found the code editor Navigation Bar to be unnecessary if the Solution Explorer is open. I disabled it via Options – Text Editor – All Languages – Navigation Bar.
Disable CodeLens. CodeLens is a cool feature for collaboration, but it’s not part of my current workflow.
I got rid of the CPU overhead by turning it off via Options – Text Editor – All Languages – CodeLens – Enable CodeLens. Turn off Track Changes. When a file is open in the code editor, Visual Studio will represent recent changes by displaying small regions of green or yellow on the scroll bar. If you can live without this, turn off Track changes via Options – Text Editor – General for a small performance boost. Turn off Track Active Item. Squeeze out a little bit more UI performance out by ensuring Track Active Item in Solution Explorer is unchecked under Options – Projects and Solutions – General.
Visual Studio on a Mac: The Best of Both Worlds With these tweaks, I’ve come to love using Visual Studio on a Mac. The performance is good, and by running Windows in a virtual machine, I get the best of both OS worlds.
Want to see what I’m building with this setup? Check out our on Github.
Do you have any other tricks you’ve used to improve Visual Studio performance? Any must-have add-ons that boost your productivity? Leave me a comment below!