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Apple Begins Showing Mac Pro Teaser in Movie Theaters with 'Fall 2013' Announcement

TMay said:
Apple has a pretty good track record for making things "right". Should everybody just ignore that in the conversation, as you would have it?
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More importantly, what's "right" with regards to the Mac Pro? The old Mac Pro was a one-fits-all desktop computer, naturally so because the current Mac Pro is a direct descendant of the highest level of Mac desktop going back all the way to Mac II through Power Mac and Quadra, all built with the purpose of fitting as much power and edge cases as possible into a large box. The new Pro is no longer that machine and it's much more dependent on the use case.

Is it "right" from a perspective of a rendering artist at Pixar? IT person at a Fortune 500 company? scientist doing R&D at a bio company? academic at an engineering department? hobbyist who likes to dabble in video? small 3 people design firm? Mac gamer? Hardware enthusiast? Professional wedding photographer? The list is endless and there really is no right answer.

Eventually the arguments will go nowhere because even the professionals will mainly only look at the Pro from their own point of view without knowing how Apple came to the decision and the machine is no longer a do-all type of desktop computer. In some ways it's similar to the old xMac debate.
 
My friends... Remember my words on this one. This machine will be so accesible that you will think twice on choosing an iMac or a Mac Pro. THAT CHEAP. Apple is going for the inner market now not the third parties. With a Mac Pro App Section on MAS it will be a dream come true.
 
fertilized-egg said:
More importantly, what's "right" with regards to the Mac Pro? The old Mac Pro was a one-fits-all desktop computer, naturally so because the current Mac Pro is a direct descendant of the highest level of Mac desktop going back all the way to Mac II through Power Mac and Quadra, all built with the purpose of fitting as much power and edge cases as possible into a large box. The new Pro is no longer that machine and it's much more dependent on the use case.

Is it "right" from a perspective of a rendering artist at Pixar? IT person at a Fortune 500 company? scientist doing R&D at a bio company? academic at an engineering department? hobbyist who likes to dabble in video? small 3 people design firm? Mac gamer? Hardware enthusiast? Professional wedding photographer? The list is endless and there really is no right answer.

Eventually the arguments will go nowhere because even the professionals will mainly only look at the Pro from their own point of view without knowing how Apple came to the decision and the machine is no longer a do-all type of desktop computer. In some ways it's similar to the old xMac debate.
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Similar arguments were made and positions stated about the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad when each of those was announced. Lots of claim chowder.

This is what disruption looks like, and in the case of the Mac Pro, Apple is firmly grounded in what they see as the future. In reality for most potential buyers, the only real issue is whether their will be the specialty hardware from Apple and third parties to extend TB far enough, fast enough for bandwidth intensive data like 4K video.

Not everbody will buy this, and Apple is quite aware of that fact.
 
bedifferent said:
Whoa. Seriously? $3k? I just.. wow. Doing some fast and unreliable math:

Graphics:
AMD FirePro 9000 6GB VRAM ~$1500/per, ~$3000
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Fire GPU are almost the same as Radeon GPU, except in some minor hardware difference (ECC, SDI output etc.). What is costly on Windows/Linux Fire/Quadro retail card is reliable and certified drivers from ATI/Nvidia for supported software. But in the MacPro case, Apple buy chip, no entire card, they do the all integration and ATI have not any drivers or support to do for OSX, all is in charged for Apple.

In another hand, ATI is beside OpenCL when Apple gave it to the Kronos Group. ATI is not in favor of all pro-sumer software where CUDA dominate. Other computer seller sometimes do not even propose high-end Fire on their BTO option. Password-hacker or bitcoin farmer prefer ATI for GPGPU... but ATI Radeon.

So, for that three reasons - custom chip integration, Apple driver and support, industrial alliance - I'm almost sure that Apple had a good price on both chip and Fire brand. That's why the can offer two GPU in standard.

For both Apple and ATI it's a way to push GPGPU for all software, no only for people interessed in dual-card option, as they are limited to some specific profession or use today. If you are an audio engineer or colorist in print, you will not imagine to buy two Quadro/Fire card in your workstation even many software you use take minor or major advantage of GPU. But with a MacPro you will have such hardware in standard, where software can reserve one card for displaying and the other one for computing.

And if a Bootcamp/UEFI Windows installation and ATI Windows drivers will support it, it's gonna be fun. A 12Gb Crossfire is the assurance to play to any PC game for the next 5 year in a full WQHD resoution, and acess and performance on many software that are not ported on OS X. But (if my theory is true) for a price very lower than a DELL/HP solution on equivalent hardware.
 
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NMSUballa said:
It doesn't have to be just them but that movie being out is probably one of the reasons they are taking a chance at advertising in theaters. I'm an Apple fan and have never owned Mac Pro but these advertisements as well as WWDC has me tempted. I don't see what is so wrong with advertising in theaters.
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I hear ya; i don't see the problem either...
 
I WAS the one said:
My friends... Remember my words on this one. This machine will be so accesible that you will think twice on choosing an iMac or a Mac Pro. THAT CHEAP. Apple is going for the inner market now not the third parties. With a Mac Pro App Section on MAS it will be a dream come true.
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Based on wishful thinking and fantasy?

Remember my words.

The new Mac Pro will have a few impressive features in a pointlessly unusual form factor (lifted from other products) that is an attempt to distract users from its severe limitations and uncompetitive pricing. It will pull ahead briefly in a few areas over roughly similar PC offerings, but an exact comparison will be difficult because of hardware mismatches.

The brief advantages will become irrelevant as Apple goes off and belatedly launches other products at widely separated intervals and yet again neglects this product line. Maybe even abandoning it completely.

Any advantages will be cancelled by totally unnecessary handicaps to its users' workflow, and additional substantial higher costs to be worn by the user in replacing or adding on missing components, or having to replace existing peripheral hardware that will no longer work or be able to be connected to the new model.

The clean lines of the advertised product will in reality disappear under a spaghetti of cables, adapters and pile of mismatched accessories. Having sold its users on brushed aluminium round cornered rectangles, Apple will throw a shiny black cylindrical spanner into their "designer looks".

This digital wardrobe will be the usual Chinese laundry basket of several years of design "trend" odds and sods.

A large number of Users will declare black to be white and then completely the opposite when Apple says, confusing Apple's interests with their own.

That is based on 30 years of observation.
 
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I work at a dine-in movie theater, and some of my guests think this is a commercial for a new model iPhone... *face palm*
 
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mcdspncr said:
It's a move theater ad... do you have a better suggestion? This seems pretty much prefect for pumping up a theater about a computer imo.
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Yep - the soundtrack will make a big impact in a theatre where they turn the sound up so loud.

fertilized-egg said:
Is it "right" from a perspective of a rendering artist at Pixar? IT person at a Fortune 500 company? scientist doing R&D at a bio company? academic at an engineering department? hobbyist who likes to dabble in video? small 3 people design firm? Mac gamer? Hardware enthusiast? Professional wedding photographer? The list is endless and there really is no right answer.
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It basically has to be right from those who need top-notch performance. Price is less of a factor in a field where labour costs far outweigh the cost of equipment. If this is fast enough to save a worker even one hour per week over a high end iMac or PC, then it'll pay for itself very quickly.
 
donutbagel said:
Nah, the real nerds hate the new Star Trek, and I'm not a real nerd ;)
What I meant is that I've never heard of Apple doing theater advertising, nor have I ever seen ads for anything but movies and, one time, video games in theaters.
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:apple:
"Think Different"​
 
I'm really surprised they'd run mainstream ads for these, and I have to agree with those who have said it would only make sense if they're planning on dropping the price on base models. The only other reason to advertise like that would be to try and add to the general prestige of the Apple brand and be spending money advertising a specific model to people they know wouldn't buy it, and that just doesn't make sense to me.

And I disagree that "fall" is much more "concrete" than "this year" considering that fall may mean late november. The initial announcement had a vague release date and this is only a tiny bit less vague.

mdriftmeyer said:
We know its E5 based from Apple and configurations up to 12 cores. Either a 6 core or 12 core option.
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How did you make that assumption? E5 also ships in 4, 8, and even 10 core versions. And from the prices announced so far it doesn't look like the newer cpus are necessarily more expensive than the previous ones. Don't forget, on the low end intel also makes the E5-16xx series which will probably be similarly priced to the current generation of those chips as well as quad and six core i7s.

Same goes for the GPUs, the high end ones are extremely expensive but given their announcement said "up to" on the specs, they could have much cheaper ones as an option on the low end.
 
would have been good for them to show it on a desk next to a real apple... but I would be most humored if they used his line, can't innovate anymore, my ass! in official channels

Attitude is what the pro line needs behind it
 
Which movies specifically did the Mac Pro Ads precede?
This would give us insight as to what demographics Apple are targetting.

best,
SvK
 
bedifferent said:
Amen! A 64-bit system in a nicely designed chassis with room for growth in 2003 was pretty nice... and an affordable base price below $2000, imagine that.
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Factoring in inflation, that would be $2540.00 today. Other differences, in capability and performance might be noted as well.
 
mabhatter said:
Tinkering at the PRO level has been dead for years. REAL Enterprise customers pay to lease stuff for 3-5 years and ideally never crack a screwdriver... Because THAT wastes the bosses money. Intel has carefully crafted its partnerships and price points for XEON level parts to exclude even the "used" market. Unless you buy the "ameture" parts from Newegg vendor lockin from IBM, HP, DELL is at an all-time high. They all source custom shaped "common" parts from each RAID and Nic vendor so third parts don't fit in anybody else's hardware... Without using the custom parts, you don't get full "lights out" management and power savings.

My rack of IBM blade servers is MORE GLUED SHUT than even my iPhone in terms of getting parts. Apple is going to do just fine with their "glued shut"model as it means units will be easy to replace and compatibility of external parts easier to verify.
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Oh really… And where does that fact come from. At my organizations we have Mac Pro 1,1s that have been upgraded in everyday imaginable one the Apple warranty ran out. Bluetooth added, dual 4 core xeons (2G to 3G speed up), new video cards, updated firewire 800 cards, eSATA…
 
donutbagel said:
I found some concept art for a transparent-case Mac Pro. Looks amazing!

Image
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I thinkApple is missing the market ...

Why make this geared towards "professional"

if Apple made this in fact a "mac mini pro"... Put in consumer level CPU and GPU's. and kept it at a reasonable Consumer level price...

I think Apple would finally have a legit contender into the "gaming" market.

Make it available with an i5 or i7 CPU.
Single or Dual GPU's (xfire gaming setup)

This would be a much bigger hit...

heck, in reality, if they made the CPU, GPU, RAM and PCIE SSD all modular, there is no reason why they can't use this chassis to attack two market segments.

I agree that this isn't the perfect setup for everyone. But it's a very unique, good looking choice that many gamers would probably love to get their hands on, especially those who might travel or go to lan parties
 
LordVic said:
I thinkApple is missing the market ...

Why make this geared towards "professional"

if Apple made this in fact a "mac mini pro"... Put in consumer level CPU and GPU's. and kept it at a reasonable Consumer level price...

I think Apple would finally have a legit contender into the "gaming" market.

Make it available with an i5 or i7 CPU.
Single or Dual GPU's (xfire gaming setup)

This would be a much bigger hit...

heck, in reality, if they made the CPU, GPU, RAM and PCIE SSD all modular, there is no reason why they can't use this chassis to attack two market segments.

I agree that this isn't the perfect setup for everyone. But it's a very unique, good looking choice that many gamers would probably love to get their hands on, especially those who might travel or go to lan parties
Click to expand...

I was thinking about that too since i5/i7 offer good performance at a low price. Sounds good for gaming almost, but having PCIe slots for swappable GPUs is a MUST for people who are into PC gaming, either for keeping the computer up-to-date over time or putting 1337 g4m3r GPUs in it. I was glad I could put a modern GTX 650Ti Boost in my Mac Pro just to keep it running Mtn Lion and other things smoothly. Some people need high-powered gaming GPUs for those games that lack creativity and make up for it with graphics :p

----------
mess3mess said:
Oh really… And where does that fact come from. At my organizations we have Mac Pro 1,1s that have been upgraded in everyday imaginable one the Apple warranty ran out. Bluetooth added, dual 4 core xeons (2G to 3G speed up), new video cards, updated firewire 800 cards, eSATA…
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Now THAT's impressive. Hmm, any chance I could stick the 12-core Xeon used in the new Mac Pro into my Mac Pro 3,1 one day once it's outdated and cheap?
 
donutbagel said:
I was thinking about that too since i5/i7 offer good performance at a low price. Sounds good for gaming almost, but having PCIe slots for swappable GPUs is a MUST for people who are into PC gaming, either for upgrading the computer over time or putting 1337 g4m3r GPUs in it. I mean, let's face it, some people need high-powered gaming GPUs for those games that lack creativity and make up for it with graphics :p
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PCI-e would obviously be the most preffered to use industryt standard parts.

but as long as Apple created a modular enough design, and supported that design by releasing Approved for Apple made daughter board upgrade cards, they could at least have that upgradibiltiy path that gamers are looking for.

Lets be honest here. This device, while kinda cool, from a corporate / professional perspective is posing a lot of friction. its really not quite what the pro's are looking for.

Gamers though? Gamers love all in one boxes. something sexy to show off. as long as there's upgrade path for key hardware like GPU/CPU/RAM, they would be excited by something like this. your typical home user is going to put your games on the fast PCI-E drive if it's big enough, and aren't going to really care that their external storage device for media (which most people have these days) are USB3 or Thunderbolt related, since Music and movies consumption don't typically require such bandwith.

I just think the "pro" only direction might be somehwat shooting themselves in the foot. ONLY providing a XEON / Workstation level GPU is going to severely limit the width of adoption for this.
 
LordVic said:
I thinkApple is missing the market ...

Why make this geared towards "professional"

if Apple made this in fact a "mac mini pro"... Put in consumer level CPU and GPU's. and kept it at a reasonable Consumer level price...

I think Apple would finally have a legit contender into the "gaming" market.

Make it available with an i5 or i7 CPU.
Single or Dual GPU's (xfire gaming setup)

This would be a much bigger hit...

heck, in reality, if they made the CPU, GPU, RAM and PCIE SSD all modular, there is no reason why they can't use this chassis to attack two market segments.

I agree that this isn't the perfect setup for everyone. But it's a very unique, good looking choice that many gamers would probably love to get their hands on, especially those who might travel or go to lan parties
Click to expand...

The desktop PC market is stagnant/in decline and small so Apple have have little interest in it. They already have products that cater to the majority of desktop PC buyers.
 
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