Upgrading from an iMac to Mac Pro

Hope this is the right place for this. I’m a video editor but I’ve been learning Blender for several months and am currently working on a short film of my own.

My current system served me well in the beginning, but as my objects and scenes have gotten more complex (shaders, textures, etc.) I have been experiencing frequent crashes and painfully slow render times (but in preview and output).

I currently work on the following system:

iMac, late 2012
3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
24GB RAM
1TB Fusion drive
Nvidia 680mx GPU
Thunder bay 4 RAID 5 setup with 4 2TB hard drives

I am looking to upgrade to a new Mac Pro, now that it seems AMD’s FirePro cards are fully supported…or so I’ve read.

Despite doing a lot of research, I guess my technical knowledge can only stretch so far and could really use some input. Basically, I don’t want to go overboard but also don’t want to short myself either since I’m already making an investment.

Here’s what I’m thinking about:

3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache
24GB RAM (from OWC)
Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each
256GB PCIe-based flash storage

With this setup, would I notice a major change? What I’m contemplating is whether it’s worth the extra $$$ to get an 8 core, or whether I’d even be OK with just getting a Quad core since the Duel GPU is so high. I’ve heard pros and cons for GPU vs CPU, but it seems more subjective (correct me if I’m wrong).

Now before you say it, I realize that custom PC builds are more cost efficient and customizable…but I personally just can’t stand working on anything other than Mac after I made the switch back in 2008.

Any input would be very much appreciated!

Also, is AMD FirePro’s series finally supported by Cycles for GPU acceleration? I’ve read that AMD provided patches for their graphics cards but in terms of the FirePro series, I can’t seem to get a definitive answer.

While technically, OpenCL works, I cannot recommend going with AMD cards at this time for Cycles. A number of features are absent and OpenCL performance is below that of CUDA. Of course, unless you go with an older Mac Pro, you won’t be able to use CUDA.

Do you think, in the near future, Cycles will fully take advantage of AMD cards? Would going for a 12-core with a low end AMD graphics card be a better option? As much as I love working on Macs, I really find the lack of customization with the new Mac Pro’s frustrating.