Apple finally announces all-new Mac Pro

I strongly doubt many professionals are going to buy this toy.

Professionals are glad to buy new toys when it comes to their free time, but not for their actual job.

In this small town you'll still find most people in their offices using 10 years old hardware and Windows XP.

A friend of mine, a photographer, doesn't want to give up his dual core Power Mac G5.

The cooling system is questionable. 12 core Xeon + 2xFirePro = at least 400 W thermal power on heavy load. Is this aluminium triangle with 17 sections capable enough to transfer so much heat and how is it possible to do so with aluminium radiator and "silent" turbine?...

No sure if it's a miracle or they are just stupid and cannot into physics. *phillip_fry_face.jpg*

Who ever thought that Apple could ever branch out of electronics and revolutionize the overly complex world of garbage bins?

Black garbage bin, registered Apple patent.

No, slots, no buy. What were they thinking?

They were probably thinking Thunderbolt!

No, slots, no buy. What were they thinking?

This. But in reverse.

As a side note these Thunderbold cables are quite expensive (for now at least). Apple and/or other third party vendors going to have some (big) profit from selling TB peripherals for MP.

This. But in reverse.

So what you're saying is pcie cards do not use any cables?

Tell me, how do you connect a device to your pcie card?

I, for one think this is the right direction to go, but not with proprietary (thunderbolt) technology.

Well, we all know Apple just loves their own cables and connectors, so no wonder.

While Thunderbolt is proprietary, it is still available for any Intel motherboard (not on low cost models, requires another chip) The problem is that it is only for Intel, AMD cannot use TB, which is sad.

And I think Apple isn't making much money from the cable, because third party cables cost almost the same (some even more)

I really hope to see Intel cheapen the technology enough to be included in mid range motherboards, and it would be awesome if they license the technology to AMD.

A man can dream...

i think thay are missing a few things in the new mac pro evolvement

ie were as the consumer friendly  upgrade ability gone

like easy ram upgrades or changing the graphics card to Nvidia so you could use cuda

i just think  should have been kept in the new mac pro

What if they sell the old model along the new one?

What if they sell the old model along the new one?

It is not their style. Plus their old model cannot be sold in the EU because it doesn't meet some specs.

I think with this new "Mac Pro" Apple put the final nail in the coffin of professional offerings. True professionals, people who work with their computers, want something practical, not a fashion statement.

So what you're saying is pcie cards do not use any cables?

Tell me, how do you connect a device to your pcie card?

 

I, for one think this is the right direction to go, but not with proprietary (thunderbolt) technology.

Well, we all know Apple just loves their own cables and connectors, so no wonder.

You are correct - everything requires a cable of some sort - hell some require two! The difference here is that if I want to add more storage (SSD or HDD) those cables are inside the box, not on the outside. If I, for some crazy reason, want or need an optical drive, those cables are, again, on the inside of the box. It doesn't matter if I hook up my video cable to the DP/Thunderbolt or HDMI built in port or one on an add-on card - correct. It doesn't matter if I hook up my speakers to the built-in port or the add-on card. What does matter, which is what people are commenting about here, is the lack of any ability to put stuff into the machine that was an option before. A side effect of that is increased cables. Does that tell you how to connect a device to a PCIe card adequately enough?

Thunderbolt isn't any more proprietary than FireWire - I don't think that's the issue. Again, the issue is removing options. And its not like PCIe and SATA are outdated - Thunderbolt is built off of PCIe!

Something that has now been effectively lost, is an easy raid solution. Yeah, I can get an external RAID array for my Thunderbolt connector - but I cant RAID that funky little PCIe flash drive they got there. And please spare me the platitudes about the reliability - everything fails, its just a matter of time. Why offer ECC memory (memory that has built-in error correction) and not offer a way to provide similar protection for my non-volatile data storage? Perhaps some clever company will come up with an external RAID box that looks like a sandcrawler for the R2-D2 MacPro to get captured by.

I think apple still the best. anyway he is getting worse. from ios7 to Mac Pro.

he is no more the undisputed leader of the branches. because he is loosing the innovation(for now).for example:

apple team (as me) has recognised a good design on the competitor software and has taken over.

the new Macpro has x79 socket, two years old, i think they are late.

the new maverick I don't know, but mountain lion is not snow leopard, that is clear.

this new Mac Pro is a revisit.

anyway they are the best, the design is the best, the software is very good (for consumer), the hardware is good, not so powerful, but good.

I mean what do you want? a trash is offensive! you people are using hackintosh! you like mac! if you don't like this stuff use windows!!! or fedora!! c'mon! somebody mounts hacks on acer laptops! this is very offensive!

apple put on the same level design hardware and software... and these tree points are inseparable.

so because apple is strightly related to design he tries always to simplify removing unused stuff like pci! that i think is useless for the 99%.. and bacause apple is related to design since ever you can't analyze his choice. you don't have the knowledge.

I think apple still the best. anyway he is getting worse. from ios7 to Mac Pro.

 

he is no more the undisputed leader of the branches. because he is loosing the innovation(for now).for example:

 

apple team (as me) has recognised a good design on the competitor software and has taken over.

the new Macpro has x79 socket, two years old, i think they are late.

the new maverick I don't know, but mountain lion is not snow leopard, that is clear.

this new Mac Pro is a revisit.

 

anyway they are the best, the design is the best, the software is very good (for consumer), the hardware is good, not so powerful, but good.

 

I mean what do you want? a trash is offensive! you people are using hackintosh! you like mac! if you don't like this stuff use windows!!! or fedora!! c'mon! somebody mounts hacks on acer laptops! this is very offensive!

apple put on the same level design hardware and software... and these tree points are inseparable.

so because apple is strightly related to design he tries always to simplify removing unused stuff like pci! that i think is useless for the 99%.. and bacause apple is related to design since ever you can't analyze his choice. you don't have the knowledge.

We like OSX - if we were all dedicated fan-boys, we would only have Apple 'branded' products (in quotes because I could kinda brand my hackintosh with an Apple sticker - sorta). We also like choice. That is why people try to get 10.8.4 running on AMD chips and nVidia 690 GPUs and hybrid SSD/HDD storage - because we like choice and we like a good challenge!

I think we have every right to analyze his (assume you mean either Tim Cook, or an Italian translation issue from personal possessive noun to possessive pronoun) / Apple's decisions, as we are the consumers. For an oversimplified example I shall use the evil empire that is Starbucks. If I bought a tall half-skinny half-1 percent extra hot split quad shot (two shots decaf, two shots regular) latte with whip, and then suddenly Starbucks says "We just improved our menu and 1 percent is no longer an option, only skinny. Now it could be argued that this may even be in my best interest as skim has no fat whereas 1 percent does have some fat. The point is that they used to offer this option - I'm not sure how many people used it because I am not privy to Starbucks inventory control system, but it was an option. I now have a choice - I can continue to get my snobbish coffee from Starbucks, I can go to Dunkin' Donuts (Microsoft OS and Dell/HP/Bob's Pretty Good Computer Company in this analogy), or I can go to my local Aldi and get some beans and roast that up myself! (for those not following along, that is the hackintosh in this analogy) I can also tell my friends and neighbors that I don't like Starbucks anymore because of their change and then engage them in debate about said change. Ultimately, people will analyze this decision with their wallets. That is the most awesome part about capitalism. Don't get me started about the crappy parts....

And, as for me, I try to stay away from making statements like "____ is the best" because "best" is subjective. The best part of waking up, for me, is not Foldgers in my cup. however, claiming somethings is the best has its advantages for marketing - "This is the best MacPro to date" Anyone can say that, and even Apple can print it if they so choose - but what is "best"? For me best is power and flexibility in a decent looking box. For others, its having a shiny slab they can carry around in their pocket and occasionally ask the woman trapped inside the slab for directions to Starbucks (yes and iPhone reference). As they say - your millage may vary.

Great answer, but the best part of your post was Foldgers in his face!

The best thing about this announcement is that when Maverick ships, we should have turbo boost drivers working on the Z9PE and other dual Xeon E5 builds. 

These builds already get Geekbench 28000+, should be blowing the new Mac Pro out of the water when the new chips come out (2x 12 core chips anyone?).

No PCIe means that this machine doesn't deserve to be called a Mac Pro. Thunderbolt V2 is 20Gbps each way, the latest PCIe is 10x faster (31GBps). 

Also a dual processor machine has double the PCIe data lines, another reason that this will be a relatively weak and non-upgradable machine.

I will definitely be sticking with my Z9PE, twice as good for half the price I bet (and should be compatible with Xeon E5 V2 26xx chips).

plenty of working builds are at other sites.

We like OSX - if we were all dedicated fan-boys, we would only have Apple 'branded' products (in quotes because I could kinda brand my hackintosh with an Apple sticker - sorta). We also like choice. That is why people try to get 10.8.4 running on AMD chips and nVidia 690 GPUs and hybrid SSD/HDD storage - because we like choice and we like a good challenge!

 

I think we have every right to analyze his (assume you mean either Tim Cook, or an Italian translation issue from personal possessive noun to possessive pronoun) / Apple's decisions, as we are the consumers. For an oversimplified example I shall use the evil empire that is Starbucks. If I bought a tall half-skinny half-1 percent extra hot split quad shot (two shots decaf, two shots regular) latte with whip, and then suddenly Starbucks says "We just improved our menu and 1 percent is no longer an option, only skinny. Now it could be argued that this may even be in my best interest as skim has no fat whereas 1 percent does have some fat. The point is that they used to offer this option - I'm not sure how many people used it because I am not privy to Starbucks inventory control system, but it was an option. I now have a choice - I can continue to get my snobbish coffee from Starbucks, I can go to Dunkin' Donuts (Microsoft OS and Dell/HP/Bob's Pretty Good Computer Company in this analogy), or I can go to my local Aldi and get some beans and roast that up myself! (for those not following along, that is the hackintosh in this analogy) I can also tell my friends and neighbors that I don't like Starbucks anymore because of their change and then engage them in debate about said change. Ultimately, people will analyze this decision with their wallets. That is the most awesome part about capitalism. Don't get me started about the crappy parts....

 

And, as for me, I try to stay away from making statements like "____ is the best" because "best" is subjective. The best part of waking up, for me, is not Foldgers in my cup. however, claiming somethings is the best has its advantages for marketing - "This is the best MacPro to date" Anyone can say that, and even Apple can print it if they so choose - but what is "best"? For me best is power and flexibility in a decent looking box. For others, its having a shiny slab they can carry around in their pocket and occasionally ask the woman trapped inside the slab for directions to Starbucks (yes and iPhone reference). As they say - your millage may vary.

OPS! sorry for the late reply.. Iphone notifications... what a mess!  ah! sorry also for my jerky/shaky english translation..

I'm really sorry for that because i think you have not completely understood the meaning of my answer. the point is not the choice, the point is the coherence. I'm not an Apple fun but Apple deserve more respect. 

I mean we can say: OH! new macpro! wtf! a new branded sh*t! look at that! what is it?! a {censored} trash? apple could not do worse...

or maybe: Oh! new Mac Pro! cool! 12core in just 10 inch! two gpus! wait wait!! where is pci? damn! maybe it should be usefull (i don't think so anyway..)

they have worked many years to do this case, the same people that develop OSX. that two things are closely related. you can't appreciate osx without appreciate mac. because they are done with the same accuracy.

Ok, I personally prefer a professional/dark/doom3 design (I have a dell 27'' monitor and a super square case), because it's my style, but I don't say that apple is doing something wrong. 

I think that running OSX on a custom desktop workstation is a good choice (i have once). and I think that is not a good choice running OSX on a laptop. Ok it's funny, personally i have mounted osx on more than 20 pc in my life because of that, but anyway the result is never a big deal. osx can't  transform a cheap laptop in a less cheap laptop.

The only satisfactory laptop was a dell m4600.. nvidia quadro, xeon..it was a little bit more expensive than a retina.. it was much more powerful but heavy and don't tell me about battery life.. same budget, different solution.

if you want a custom desk pc you can do whatever you want. ever.

in conclusion, apple has ever done a great job(more or less) because they have ever found the right balance between the things.

Extremely good!

The design is not so Apple-ish.

From a functional point of view, expandibility of the mass storage and replaceability of the GPUs will be a problem for many pro users. Moreover, what is the point of designing such a small form factor if by doing so you rely on the idea that everything will be connected via TB/USB/whatever? In the end, the pro users' desktops will be as cluttered as before (or even worse, if you consider how much bulky a hard drive rack can be). The same reasoning applies for noise reduction.

I think we don't have seen all of apple's pro offer... yet.

I'm pretty sure they will propose a second box, same size, same look, wich you can connect with the help of not one, but two TB cables (so you could have up to 40 gb/s bandwidth!), wherein you can put pcie cards, HDs, SDD, whatever...

So this could solve easily the problem of expandability. Remember that since the beginning of Mac this is exactly what this is about. Macs was designed mostly as closed machines. I think apple have never liked the idea of openness / inner expandability of the pcs. But the technology of external interfaces was not ready to really apply this concept of external expandability (at least for machines destined to a general public).

Now they have thunderbolt, so i think they wanna push, popularize this concept to a maximum. And amha we will see the pc world, as usual, coming after.

benchmarks of the new Mac Pro have been spotted on geekbench:

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/19/apples-new-mac-pro-begins-showing-up-in-benchmarks/

the new machine seems to be less than 10% faster than the previous iteration. Quite a long wait for such a small raw power improvement.

Notice you're comparing the performance of the dual socket model to the single socket new model. So the new CPU is more than twice faster than the previous model. Not bad I say, but it would be really great if you could order a new MacPro with dual CPU and single GPU (it looks modular so it may be possible Apple will offer the alternative, who knows)