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Apple finally announces all-new Mac Pro


Ed

The wait is finally over, Tim Cook made good on his promise of doing something special for the Mac Pro.

 

Apple today gave a sneak preview at WWDC of its all-new Mac Pro that its engineers are still working on, unveiling a relatively diminutive black cylinder form factor that is dwarfed by its outgoing predecessor.

 

Like the current Mac Pro, it's been designed around air flow, but with cool air being drawn in from underneath and hot air being expelled upwards, not too dissimilar from the ill-fated G4 Cube from 2000.

 

Indeed, it's in fact smaller in size than the PowerMac G4 Cube, at just 6.6" diameter and 9.9" tall, compared to the Cube which clocked in at 7.65" square, and 10" tall due to its elevation for air intake and cables into the bottom.

 

Based on the new-generation Intel Xeon E5 chipset, the new Mac Pro will pack 12 cores like the current model, but with PCI Express gen. 3 and 256-bit-wide floating-point instructions.

 

A first for any Mac are dual GPUs as standard, with the ability to power up to three 4K resolution monitors(!). Apple are hard at work on an updated version of Final Cut for video editors to take full advantage of this cutting-edge hardware. The GPUs are AMD FirePros with 6GB of VRAM.

 

Like with all current Apple hardware, the new Mac Pro does away with legacy technology such as optical drives and hard disk drives. Instead, storage is handled by next-generation PCIe flash storage.

 

Unsurprisingly, most of the size and weight loss is down to the removal of the PCI slots, meaning expansion is handled solely through the 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports (up to 20Gb/s) on the rear of the new Mac Pro - illuminated by white LEDs no less. Connectivity is rounded off with USB 3, Bluetooth 4.0, 801.11ac Wi-Fi, dual Gigabit ethernet and HDMI, plus audio I/O.

 

No word on an exact release date, which is no surprise given the uncharacteristic nature of this "preview", but one could hazard a guess that it may ship with the newly announced Mac OS X 10.9 "Mavericks". Will we finally see a black Apple mouse & keyboard to match the svelte gloss black gorgeousness of this new Mac Pro? Maybe even some high-end Retina Cinema Displays to boot? Place your bets now...

 

Head on over to Apple's new Mac Pro preview page on their website for more juicy pics and details.


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cash is all they care about..  :dev:

Yep, but nMP is something Apple has never had: a price-competitive powerhouse.

 

It is funny that they still have large markups (40-50%) on CPUs and RAM (and most likely storage as well), yet managed to put a decently priced machine on the market.

FirePros are absurdly expensive in retail. My guess is that AMD has sold precisely 7 of those $3400 W9000s so far.

Most likely Apple has cut a great deal with AMD making both companies very happy. This way Apple can sort-of conceal those huge markups on other components.

 

Win-win.

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Only a correction: the GPUs are easily user-upgradeable, as long as there are aftermarket options that fit. They're socketed, not soldered. It's up to Sapphire, EVGA etc. to step up their game. Perhaps even make nVidia solutions available for the MacPro - that would bring in the eventual Adobe house to the camp. But i'd say that wouldn't even be necessary: I really think FCPX will take off with the nMP and the OpenCL optimizations.

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sata express connection :P

I'm not sure that's the case.

 

In the teardown discussion, a guy from OWC answered this question:

 

 

We already have the inside on the Apple PCIe SSD – nothing to really tear down there – and do hope to have solutions for all the 2013 Apple models which utilize this next gen PCIe direct storage solution. Apple leaped ahead of everyone out there by making the transition from SATA to the new PCIe direct standard – major credit to them for doing so!

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If Haswell-E sticks to the LGA 2011 socket, the nMP might as well be the most future-proof Mac ever. Now now, Apple...

Well, having in mind that the CPU comes on a daughterboard, it should be possible to replace it (the daughterboard) with a new one that has the new socket type.

 

Now, that would be crazy.

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Well, having in mind that the CPU comes on a daughterboard, it should be possible to replace it (the daughterboard) with a new one that has the new socket type.

 

Now, that would be crazy.

 

Hahaha. Different pin layout and function let alone the chipset is on the base of the Mac Pro... thus what you said makes no sense... Not saying that would not be a bad idea... 

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Hahaha. Different pin layout and function let alone the chipset is on the base of the Mac Pro... thus what you said makes no sense... Not saying that would not be a bad idea... 

Well, doh. I guess I forgot about that tiny little chipset detail. :hysterical:

Wishful thinking....

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While I agree it looks like a (beautifully designed) trash bin, to say it's overpriced, well, it's not only wrong, it's comical as well.

 

 

I guess when you take away the ability to expand a device... it, must, surely be a deal.

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You know, internal expansion is the only way to "expand a device"...

 

... Not! :)

 

lol, the answer is an astounding. Yes ;)

 

There is no such thing as an "external" card for CUDA hardware. Especially state of the art cards like Telsa and Quadro... the new Mac Pro, garbage, has no availability for them. Period. If you believe that ViDock is a solution you are surely wrong.

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CUDA? Apple is going all in with AMD. I doubt any video professional would use any other setup then FinalCut on Apple HW, or AVID with PCs. AVID is agnostic, will perform badly with both CUDA and OpenCL (lol) and FCPX is optimized for OpenCL, so answer me: am I wrong, really? It wasn't a real question, though. :P

 

P.S.: notice I didn't mention Premiere, which indeed performs better with CUDA. That because premiere is a toy, a gimmick, no professional takes it seriously, and it's relegated to prosumer setups. /flame

 

P.P.S.: oh, and Adobe also recently decided to go all in with OpenCL and OS X (again). So...


P.P.P.S.: and notice again: I pointed the absurdity of your comment about the nMP being overpriced, without advocating it's better than its predecessor or all the competition (which I think it is). So the only way you can refute this is to propose a similar build (only workstation parts: i7s and other gaming {censored} and you're out) with equal or better specs for the same amount or less cash. Waiting. :)

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Hilarious. AMD FirePro has no match with PROFESSIONAL nVidia cards. Lol, Finalcut. Telsa, Quadro are and have been the top choice by professionals for many years and the preferred hardware for rendering platforms like Vectorworks, AutoCad, Rhino, oh and lets not forget one of the behemoth flagship rendering software out there.... If you knew your stuff you'd know which platform I'm talking about. Serious professionals use it. Hint... first letter O.

 

Come on what you said is all pseudoscience, theconnactic. You must be some hardcore Apple fanatic and desperately defending them. Seriously, dude, the garbage can is just that. Apple products for production are overrated and garbage, well this one anyway. The older Mac Pros were better than this garbage can {censored}, people had the ability to ACTUALLY upgrade them without the burden of Apple saying what they can and cannot do with a system, which they purchased and own. In all relativity it's a {censored} product, again, Apple trying to control the masses. You do NOT limit a persons ability to expand their system period. Apples moto, work with the technology not the people. The real success is when you work with the community and build around the technology for the future.. the new Mac Pro is opposite to that.

 

Oh wait..

  • Can you "upgrade" the new Mac Pro? Yes, CPU, memory only. 
  • Can you "expand" internal components/peripherals? No. Peripheral upgrades must be external devices. Whatever, certainly, unprofessional and clutters the workstation area. 
  • Can you "upgrade" memory beyond the logic boards capabilities? No, it must be an "Apple" certified logic board, 64GB of memory at max! Oh, PLEASE. A real rendering production workstation requires 128GB+, well at least within my firm and the dozens of others we collaborate with. 
  • Can you "upgrade" logic board? No, it must be an "Apple" certified logic board. 
  • Can you "upgrade" the processor? Yes, but you're limited to what Apple offers, and the logic boards capabilities. Oh, please!

 

So, let me get this correct. You're telling me the only way I can come close to the Mac Pro pricing and convenience is by building a machine with an i7 and standard gaming GPU? I couldn't possibly build a better system with Xeon X5 and Quadro, and, get this, wait for it... expandable? Lol. Seriously, what are you talking about. I'm sure you passed high school math and if you have a volume discount you can certainly build a better system at a fraction of the price of the new Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is a heaping pile of a paper weight and my personal workstation would turn that thing to dust.  

 

I'm not saying I don't enjoy OSX, I do for some applications, but as for rendering it doesn't stand a chance. That is one reason the TOP software companies build their platforms on Windows. Oh, and don't give me this childish {censored} on how OSX is better than the Windows platform. If Apple quit their childish bs, people would have awesome workstations with the ability to expand and upgrade with only the limitations of technology, as consumers had in the past, NOT the limitations of a garbage can. The new Mac Pro certainly looks like some rainbow dancing bigot designed it.

 

You're argument about OpenCL. Please. CUDA, Nvidia, supports OpenCL and has for a very long time. OpenCL is still a very weak architecture. 

 

Answer a few questions:

  1. Care about performance? You want a Tesla card, so that TCC drivers are available to you. (Linux, it doesn't matter. TCC is fast for all.)
  2. Care about GPU acceleration in various proprietary CAD, Digital graphic design, animation platforms? Quadro, Telsa is recommended by most.
  3. Care about memory error-correction (ECC), GPU acceleration, simultaneous bidirectional card<->host transfer options? Tesla or Quadro. Period.
  4. Need a lot of device memory? You want Quadro 12 GB, Tesla 6GB, or Titan 6GB. Yes, Titan cards can supplement Quadro or Telsa. It depends on YOUR need and production requirements. A HIGH production client you'll be dumb not to invest in Quadro or Telsa.
  5. Care about double precision performance? You want Tesla, Quadro or Titan. 
  6. Care about memory bandwidth and single precision performance? A GTX 780 is nearly as fast, but not as reliable, as a K20X or Titan, and the GTX 780 Ti will likely be as fast as the K6000. It all depends on PRODUCTION needs. If you run a rendering platform 24/7 you'll want ECC and the preimum support nvidia offers with commercial Quadro and Telsa cards. If you're a freelancer or hobbyist, and don't require the needs of heavy production, then a GTX 780, Ti, or Titan is suitable enough for computations. 
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You didn't answer any of my points. Rather, dodged them all and sub-repticiously changed subject. Typical. The challenge still stands, though: you said the nMP is overpriced: prove it. Propose a similar build (only workstation parts: i7s and other gaming {censored} and you're out) with equal or better specs for the same amount or less cash. (still) Waiting.

 

P.S.: by the way, from the first rhetorical questions you propose after the attempted "oh, wait" irony, the first of them is a half-truth, the second is just your opinion, the third is a mix of your opinion and a half-truth, the fourth is pitifully obvious and the fifth is a blatant departure from the facts. And, look how funny!, all of them are a poor attempt to red-herring the fact you cannot support your own "overpriced" rant, proceeding to hide behind a nVidia x AMD flamewar. C'mon! :P

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