New Computer Spec Suggestions

My office is springing for a new computer to replace my laptop. Yay! And they're leaving it to me to determine what kind of computer I'll need. Double yay! I don't exactly have carte blanche, though, so I need to pretty carefully determine how to spec out a new computer to get the most bang for our buck. So, I thought I'd ping y'all for advice. Here's what I'm working with in terms of office projects:

-We're not a game studio, so being able to create high-end vidja games is not any kind of priority. Rather, I create interactive models of booths, expos, showrooms and the like to show our clients so that they have a fuller idea of the projects we're working on for them. To date, a video texture is about the most complicated thing I've done (aside from climbing the learning curve that is lighting), but I'd like to be able to work in some more dynamic lighting, multiple "NPCs" (as such) to populate a space and wander around, and some graphical bells and whistles as I come up with them, and we want to regularly integrate Oculus support. I do enjoy teaching myself to make games on the side, though.

TL;DR - for work I literally create walking simulators.

-I do extensive work with SketchUp to create layouts. My laptop has been a champ, but at some point it starts to CHUG if there's too much in a model, even after cleaning up stray geometry and unused resources. I'm also climbing the learning curve that is Blender (and potentially Maya in the future). So far I've not run into any problems, but I'm also still very much at the newbie phase; I imagine it's a short amount of time before I start running into a wall with my current setup.​

What I'm looking for:

-We're a Mac office, so the entire swath of PC options are out for the time being. But hey, that reduces the choices to a manageable number.
-I'm looking at either the 27" 5k iMac or the Mac Pro (which I'm comparing here)
-I can't just max out the Mac Pro as I'd have a hard time justifying a $750000000 computer
-Obviously bigger numbers are better, but the big question is this: at what point am I reaching diminishing returns? Given what kinds of projects I'll be doing, do I need an 8-core, or is quad good enough? 32GB of RAM? 64? And probably the most important component: the graphics card - Radeon or FirePro? Which version?​

I've been out of the "build your own computer" game long enough that I'm kind of behind on how to spec out to my needs, so any advice and guidance y'all can provide is immensely helpful.

 

Well, you are doing 3D work, so some manner of GPU is a must. It doesn't have to be enormous, based on the work you're describing, but it needs to be there. Both the models you're eyeballing have options for GPUs, so there shouldn't be any problem there. (Radeon GPUs, but GPUs none the less)

The Quad-Core of the iMac should be adequate for your work. As to what level processor, I'd say you could easily do with an i5 instead of the i7, especially if you put a decent GPU in there. (so the CPU won't have to carry the load on graphics) The iMac goes up to 32 GB of RAM, but you can probably go for 16 instead to save some money. Unless you're doing a crap-ton of multi-tasking you don't need much more than 16 GB of RAM. And if you're using a single-screen computer you're going to be doing a limited amount of multi-tasking.

If there was one area on the iMac that I would suggest spending a little extra it is the hard drive. If you can convince your work to pony up a little extra for the SSD, I would go for it. Overall performance for your operating system and most of your major apps is going to bump up noticeably when you use them in conjunction with an SSD. At the 1 TB level we're talking a few extra hundred dollars, but it would be easier to justify if you have already compromised on some of the other features.

I went through their automated shopping process real quick, and here's my personal recommendation.

Summary
iMac with Retina 5K display

• 3.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x8GB
• 256GB Flash Storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M290 2GB GDDR5
• Apple Magic Mouse
• Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
• Accessory Kit

Total Price: $2,399.00

A bit on the pricey side as far as computers go, but some decent performance under the hood. The SSD is a little small, but can easily be augmented with an inexpensive external hard drive for long-term storage of more hefty files.

 

Yeah, a huge hard drive isn't a must. As long as there's room for my programs and current files and can shunt old projects and resources to external cold storage, then it's all good. Not like I'll be having things like Diablo 3 or Final Fantasy XIV taking up hard drive space. </shiftyeyes>

 

The i5 non-Retina iMac will be fine. If you have budget for more it would be better to bump up some components on that. My laptop (mid-2014 MBP) doesn't struggle with similar tasks, and that's without a dedicated GPU and just two CPU cores.

If you're doing a lot of rendering too (like proper rendering of videos in Maya, not just game engine graphics), it's probably better to spec out a beefier i7, like the Retina iMac with M295X. Unless you have access to some distributed network for rendering, of course

 

That is where you need a more powerful computer.
Oculus's recommended specs:
NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM
Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
2x USB 3.0 ports
Windows 7 SP1 or newer

The Rift is not going to work with OS X on release so you will need to run bootcamp.

 

Yeah, if you're dead-set on including Occulus support, that changes things. For starters, I don't think I would use a Mac for developing for the Occulus. If you really need that, I would advise switching over to Windows.

The Occulus is going to require considerably higher than average computing power. Having an NVidia 970 as a minimum requirement is pretty steep. (those cards are still pretty pricey)

VR is a good selling point for trade-show booths. (always gets people to line up for the novelty and the immersion) But for the time being I would wait until an actual commercial model of the Occulus was out.

 

GTX 970 isn't pricey - 980 is (particularly the 6GB variants). 970 is just about the upper limit of my recommendation for a solid gaming rig.