jerryc41 wrote:
It would be difficult - no, impossible - for me to... (
show quote)
Typical iMac Pro users are those doing HIGH END "film"* production/broadcast video editing, where speed saves lots of money. They probably have maximum RAM and the latest NVMe RAID arrays and other super-high-speed storage devices, too. They're also likely to use both Macs and Windows PCs, and possibly Linux boxes.
4K HDR editing, multi-track surround sound editing, color correction, special effects... All of these can be done with lesser equipment, but at higher cost due to the other overhead and skilled labor involved.
Recently, my son and I toured both the SCAD campus in Atlanta (Savannah College of Art and Design), and NCSA (North Carolina School for the Arts). He is pursuing a film career. Both schools are top 10 in filmmaking/video production for television.
At both schools, we saw a lot of high end gear. NCSA had editing suites and classrooms equipped with both high end Macs and PCs running AVID Pro Tools and Media Composer, Adobe Premiere, Davinci Resolve, and Apple Final Cut Pro X.
*Very few high end filmmakers are using real film these days. The vast majority use Red and Arri video systems. But even NCSA still teaches real film production... We talked to a professor who teaches film photography with Panavision cameras, as well as video.
In short, mere mortals do not need the iMac Pro and similar class PCs. It's the pasty-faced editors and color correctors and sound mixers who pull all-nighters in the dark editing suites who really need that sort of power.
For photography, the software is often the limiting factor. If it renders an image to a monitor while processing it to a file, it bogs down the video card and doesn't make full use of the I/O. In a photo lab or service bureau, the PRINTERS are the limiting speed factors. Back in 2004, even a 1999 PowerMac G4 at 400MHz with 2GB RAM could keep up with a 44" Epson inkjet printer, once the first file was rendered. And a 1GHz dual Zeon processor Dell with 2GB RAM could create a queue backlog for a Noritsu QSS 31Pro mini-lab running full tilt at 600+ 8x10 prints per hour.