Apple Demos iMac Pro at Final Cut Pro X Creative Summit

[cult hero]

Yet another shade of Space Grey! It's much darker than the MacBook Pro.

I've started to prefer silver on the Macbook Pro again, I think it looks great on the new models, it makes the Touch Bar look like Porshe design (though i've gone for Space Grey anyway on the last two, silver next time)

I'm in the same boat actually. By happenstance I ended up with an awesome deal on a TouchBar MacBook Pro from a friend, so I sold my Space Gray one (512GB SSD, no AppleCare) and bought his silver one (1TB SSD, AppleCare) for what I sold my old one for. I actually like the silver better even thought I was stoked about the gray initially. (Not to mention, I have a bunch of other accessories in silver aluminum.)

I like the contrast better on everything. I think I'm gonna stick with silver going forward.

 

[laz232]

I still don't understand which "pros" would buy essentially an "all-in-one" machine?

Anything fails and you have to send the whole unit back, no upgrades to GPU / Memory / HDD?

Stuck with the same monitor (with image retention issues, as lots of retina screens have, due to ionic contaminants drifting under the polariser fields)?
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$5000+ for a non-upgradable iMac. *BZZZZT* Wrong answer.

As I stick with my existing upgradable and fixable 2012 mini, 2011 27" iMac, and 2015 MBP (a unit I brought back from the dead after a liquid spill), I am also preparing for the transition over to Windows with two inexpensive yet powerful machines: A Core i7 HP Desktop with 32" HP display (the mini also uses that with a KVM) and a 17" Acer ROG with Nvidia Ti1040 graphics.

I'll note that I am also taking all steps necessary to use application software that isn't from Apple (and Adobe) and that runs properly on both macOS and Windows 10; so when the time comes that Apple produces nothing but purely disposable items, I'll be ready to make the move entirely to Windows with no trouble.

I've already switched from an iPhone to an Android phone as I couldn't see spending ludicrous amounts of $$ for a damn phone. Really, as long as I can get my contacts and calendar sync'd between Desktop and Mobile, I'm okay with not-an-iPhone for a camera.

When the MBP decides to shuffle off its mortal coil, there are small portable Windows notebooks that would love to travel with me for less $$ than a MB/MBP that only wants me to become locked into Apple's vision of pay-for-those-services-forever with tools that are incompatible with anyone and anything else that isn't.

+1 Apple is making less and less HW for *me*. I'm still on Adobe Lightroom (though that is cross platform), but the rest is LibreOffice / FF etc. A few unimportant slide decks in Keynote - I'm glad I didn't get scr3wed by Apple Aperture. I still prefer macOS to Windows / Linux, but Apple is doing a lot of things wrong (for me) lately as it refocuses to becoming a fashion brand with Tim Cook at its helm.

 

[DogHouseDub]

A solution already exists.

http://www.colorware.com

Thanks for the tip! Went and ordered a keyboard and trackpad...and now I fully expect the accessories in this photo to be offered through the Apple store. You're welcome.

 

[MacFan782040]

If this was a 32-33" screen, I would buy it. And, it should have a touch-bar/touch-ID keyboard. But 27" is too small. I rather wait to see what the new Mac Pro is all about, and buy a separate display.

 

[xnu]

Amazing design and engineering, it is a beautiful and I am sure powerful computer. I just hate the all in one form factor... To me this is an amazing computer for some pros and not so much for others. Apple's pro market seems to be shrinking and I am not sure this will make a major impact, but welcome nonetheless. As of right now what can you buy?

Look forward to seeing this in action and getting the bench marks. Still looking for truck over a race car.

 

[dannys1]

I still don't understand which "pros" would buy essentially an "all-in-one" machine?

Works perfectly as a music production machine. So there's a massive market for a start.

 

[ZVH]

I seriously wish Apple would sell the Mac and macOS lines off to another company that understands how "real" computer users use computers.

Notes:

• NOBODY CARES ABOUT HOW THIN OR SLEEK LOOKING, WITH MINIMAL PORTS IN THE CASE IS. Attractiveness is a nice feature but it doesn't help anyone get anything done. A few Thunderbolt 3/USB C ports won't cut it...not on a "Pro" unit.

• NOBODY WANTS A COMPUTER THAT CAN'T BE SERVICED OR UPGRADED. The SSDs in these things will will eventually, like all SSDs, suffer write cycle depletion. The only solution is to get yet another logic board (for what...$4000????) or rely on an external drive...which assumes the system will still start up with a bad SSD soldered right onto the logic board, and APFS is NOT going to save them...they're idiots if they think it will make a noticeable difference.

• MANY FACILITIES NEED HARD WIRED INTERNET, SUCH AS SECURE ENVIRONMENTS OR AREAS (LIKE HOSPITALS) WHERE WI-FI MAY INTERERE WITH INSTRUMENTS...WHY NO ETHERNET CONNECTOR? Is the solution on a "Pro" connector to get yet another adapter? How idiotic is that?

This is NOT a "Pro" computer. It's a bad and pathetic design, just like the current MacBook Pro's. And "No" Apple, nobody that actually uses a computer for real work gives a damn about how many emoji's you have. Look at the "Coffee Can" Mac Pro released a few years ago. It's already completely obsolete and there's nothing a user can do about it. Compare that with the older Mac Pro's that were in a case and could be configured. In most cases they're still in use and they can be upgraded.

I fail to understand the "logic" if it's even logic, of Apple's designs. The current MacBook Pro, this thing, and the "Coffee Can" Mac Pro are all examples of terrible designs. Apple clearly thinks a "Power User" is someone that makes 20 Facebook posts and 30 tweets in a day. These designs are not only terrible, they're incompetent!

 

[Abazigal]

you are talking about mac pro, and not imac pro. This is the imac pro and IT is NOT suppose to replace the upcoming Mac PRO
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that magic keyboard screams for backlit....it is gorgeous

I suspect that iMac pro was always intended to replace the Mac Pro. Apple later walked back on their decision after seeing the backlash from the pro community before they could unveil the iMac Pro but my guess is that it was never updated as the iMac Pro was in the works.

 

[SRLMJ23]

In theory, at least, you could buy an external GPU enclosure and run the latest card with that. Assuming that:

1) Apple irons out all the kinks and allows for acceleration of the integrated screen.
2) Apple eventually stops sandbagging nVidia support.

Of course my current iMac, which was maxed out when I bought it two years ago, didn't ship with TB3 ports. Running the current-best ATI card externally on TB2 is actually slower than the internal graphics that have half the speed and memory.

With the same enclosure I've run a GTX 1080 on my 2017 MacBook pro with good results under Sierra with a hack (4x the iMac's benchmarks), but the noise from the CPU fan gets very bothersome. Plus the system crashing when waking from sleep, or hot-unplugging the cable gets old very fast.

This is true. I believe nVidia support is in High Sierra, at least drivers were found in it. I only have Thunderbolt 2 on my MacBook Pro, so I am very curious about what enclosure you use. I want to get into using an external GPU, your help would greatly be appreciated. I know Thunderbolt 2 does not have the same performance as TB3 but it will still be way better than the Intel Iris 6100 graphics in my machine. I would appreciate any help, tips, links to the enclosure you use etc...Thanks in advance!


[doublepost=1509398861][/doublepost]

I seriously wish Apple would sell the Mac and macOS lines off to another company that understands how "real" computer users use computers.

Notes:

• NOBODY CARES ABOUT HOW THIN OR SLEEK LOOKING, WITH MINIMAL PORTS IN THE CASE IS. Attractiveness is a nice feature but it doesn't help anyone get anything done. A few Thunderbolt 3/USB C ports won't cut it...not on a "Pro" unit.

• NOBODY WANTS A COMPUTER THAT CAN'T BE SERVICED OR UPGRADED. The SSDs in these things will will eventually, like all SSDs, suffer write cycle depletion. The only solution is to get yet another logic board (for what...$4000????) or rely on an external drive...which assumes the system will still start up with a bad SSD soldered right onto the logic board, and APFS is NOT going to save them...they're idiots if they think it will make a noticeable difference.

• MANY FACILITIES NEED HARD WIRED INTERNET, SUCH AS SECURE ENVIRONMENTS OR AREAS (LIKE HOSPITALS) WHERE WI-FI MAY INTERERE WITH INSTRUMENTS...WHY NO ETHERNET CONNECTOR? Is the solution on a "Pro" connector to get yet another adapter? How idiotic is that?

This is NOT a "Pro" computer. It's a bad and pathetic design, just like the current MacBook Pro's. And "No" Apple, nobody that actually uses a computer for real work gives a damn about how many emoji's you have. Look at the "Coffee Can" Mac Pro released a few years ago. It's already completely obsolete and there's nothing a user can do about it. Compare that with the older Mac Pro's that were in a case and could be configured. In most cases they're still in use and they can be upgraded.

I fail to understand the "logic" if it's even logic, of Apple's designs. The current MacBook Pro, this thing, and the "Coffee Can" Mac Pro are all examples of terrible designs. Apple clearly thinks a "Power User" is someone that makes 20 Facebook posts and 30 tweets in a day. These designs are not only terrible, they're incompetent!

While I agree with most of what you said, it does support 10Gbit/s ethernet. That is about all I can argue with you on.

https://www.macworld.com/article/3199549/macs/imac-pro-features-faq-pricing-specs-release.html

 

[Eduardo1971]

What a gorgeous looking desktop computer.

 

[Vanilla35]

Don't get me wrong, I completely love everything about this machine. However when you're thinking about longevity; with the amount of processing this thing is doing, it's going to be producing an insane amount of heat, which is going to degrade the performance at an alarming rate.

One of the worst investments for sure, although it does look nice.

 

[puckhead193]

That black keyboard / mouse. I need it.

if only the mouse was actually comfortable to use. I can see a lot of these on eBay

 

[Abazigal]

I still don't understand which "pros" would buy essentially an "all-in-one" machine?

Anything fails and you have to send the whole unit back, no upgrades to GPU / Memory / HDD?

Stuck with the same monitor (with image retention issues, as lots of retina screens have, due to ionic contaminants drifting under the polariser fields)?
[doublepost=1509396598][/doublepost]

+1 Apple is making less and less HW for *me*. I'm still on Adobe Lightroom (though that is cross platform), but the rest is LibreOffice / FF etc. A few unimportant slide decks in Keynote - I'm glad I didn't get scr3wed by Apple Aperture. I still prefer macOS to Windows / Linux, but Apple is doing a lot of things wrong (for me) lately as it refocuses to becoming a fashion brand with Tim Cook at its helm.

They probably won’t. However, I suspect the issue Apple has is that the Mac Pro simply doesn’t sell in sufficient numbers these days to be profitable. I don’t think Apple ever broke even on the 2013 Mac Pro, once you factor in the costs of running that production facility for the Mac Pro alone. And like it or not, Apple is a hardware company, so it doesn’t make sense for it to support a product that’s earning it a net loss.

As Apple continues to take more design cues from their iOS devices, expect Macs to become more like iPads in the sense that they are sealed and non-upgradable, and thinner and lighter to boot.

The iMac Pro might be cheaper as it can probably be assembled alongside the regular iMac. So with Apple, it’s either do or do without. There’s still the Mac Pro refresh, but I suspect users holding out for a conventional PC form factor will be disappointed.

 

[NT1440]

I seriously wish Apple would sell the Mac and macOS lines off to another company that understands how "real" computer users use computers.

Notes:

• NOBODY CARES ABOUT HOW THIN OR SLEEK LOOKING, WITH MINIMAL PORTS IN THE CASE IS. Attractiveness is a nice feature but it doesn't help anyone get anything done. A few Thunderbolt 3/USB C ports won't cut it...not on a "Pro" unit.

• NOBODY WANTS A COMPUTER THAT CAN'T BE SERVICED OR UPGRADED. The SSDs in these things will will eventually, like all SSDs, suffer write cycle depletion. The only solution is to get yet another logic board (for what...$4000????) or rely on an external drive...which assumes the system will still start up with a bad SSD soldered right onto the logic board, and APFS is NOT going to save them...they're idiots if they think it will make a noticeable difference.

• MANY FACILITIES NEED HARD WIRED INTERNET, SUCH AS SECURE ENVIRONMENTS OR AREAS (LIKE HOSPITALS) WHERE WI-FI MAY INTERERE WITH INSTRUMENTS...WHY NO ETHERNET CONNECTOR? Is the solution on a "Pro" connector to get yet another adapter? How idiotic is that?

This is NOT a "Pro" computer. It's a bad and pathetic design, just like the current MacBook Pro's. And "No" Apple, nobody that actually uses a computer for real work gives a damn about how many emoji's you have. Look at the "Coffee Can" Mac Pro released a few years ago. It's already completely obsolete and there's nothing a user can do about it. Compare that with the older Mac Pro's that were in a case and could be configured. In most cases they're still in use and they can be upgraded.

I fail to understand the "logic" if it's even logic, of Apple's designs. The current MacBook Pro, this thing, and the "Coffee Can" Mac Pro are all examples of terrible designs. Apple clearly thinks a "Power User" is someone that makes 20 Facebook posts and 30 tweets in a day. These designs are not only terrible, they're incompetent!

I was in at ESPN in IT for two years until I left recently, iMacs and Mac Pros everywhere in production. Not pro enough for you?

I’m definitely a computer nerd, but good god some of you guys are so out of reality when it comes to big business it’s ridiculous. You lease machines, not ****ing upgrade them. In fact, the vast majority of people actually doing the productions are completely computer illiterate, they just use the tool to do their job. They don’t give two craps about upgradability, they just work.

I wish Apple would make them more upgradable personally, but don’t confuse your personal technology fetish with the vast majority of people that view computers as tools and don’t care about specs as long it gets the job done, which these do.

 

[NY Guitarist]

As nice as it looks it's a LOT of money for a locked down computer that is essentially disposable.

 

[macbeta]

With all those important ports at the back - what makes it pro - the colour? I'm tired of this obsession with thickness (I refuse to measure by thinness - "it's only 1 inch thin"). I would rather a thicker machine with all the ports i need in an easy to get to place.

 

[the johnmc]

MANY FACILITIES NEED HARD WIRED INTERNET, SUCH AS SECURE ENVIRONMENTS OR AREAS (LIKE HOSPITALS) WHERE WI-FI MAY INTERERE WITH INSTRUMENTS...WHY NO ETHERNET CONNECTOR?

Hey Captain Screamsalot, there's a 10Gb/s ethernet port built in.

From the Specs page in huge letters:
10Gb Ethernet

• Nbase-T Ethernet supports 1Gb, 2.5Gb, 5Gb, and 10Gb Ethernet using RJ‑45 connector

Edited to add: Also, I'm typing this on a hospital network right now and we do just dandy with wi-fi. Anywhere with equipment that needs to be isolated from wi-fi signals wouldn't be the kind of location that an iMac Pro would be used anyway.

 

[Charles50]

I don't understand this machine, at all. Zero upgradeability, literally none. I can (barely) understand this mentality in a MacBook Pro as you want to have it thin and light, but what's the reason you cannot even upgrade the RAM in this? Add a back panel, let us add more ram and an additional stick of NVMe storage.

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

 

[Bone Ranger]

Yet another shade of Space Grey! It's much darker than the MacBook Pro.

I've started to prefer silver on the Macbook Pro again, I think it looks great on the new models, it makes the Touch Bar look like Porshe design (though i've gone for Space Grey anyway on the last two, silver next time)

Agreed. Silver looks natural, like aluminum.

 

[Chancha]

Please stop wishing for thinner bezels on a professional machine, this is akin to wishing for thinness on the MBP. An IPS panel needs headroom from having dozens mm of bezel to keep backlight bleeding to a minimum, which is managed relatively well on the current iMacs. Look at professional monitors from Eizo and NEC et al, which have gigantic bezel if compared to the consumer models from other manufacturers. As long as iMacs remain using LCD tech and not yet OLED, a bezel footprint similar to the current one is required for screen quality, else we will see a large variance in bleeding (see: IPS lottery).

 

[pat500000]

This is what worries me about the upcoming Mac Pro. Apple fundamentally seems to have forgotten how to design a "pro" machine. Upgradeable RAM, and hard disks should have been the minimum here for this iMac. In keeping with their current design philosophy, their modular Mac Pro will probably have a separate eGPU box (soldered in), a separate Apple proprietary non upgradeable flash HDD, and a separate box with soldered RAM, each costing $2999.

Meanwhile the old Mac Pro 5,1 can still be upgraded in terms of CPU, 4 full HDD bays, can run a state of the art video card and with the PCI slots you can add a pro stuff like a BlackMagic card.

Maybe it's just me...but I think these executives are just plain "stale" or old (not intended to be ageist)...but we need fresh young people in that company.

 

[citysnaps]

Apple will sell a lot of these.

Not everyone needs a computer that's "future proof" upgradeable for ten+ years.

As an aside, people really get hung up the term "pro." In reality it covers a wide swath of people over many disciplines who use computers to make money in their profession. And in the end, it's just a label. Like PlayStation Pro, and countless other consumer products with the word "pro" attached.

 

[Naaaaak]

• Late 2017
• Bezels thicker than George Costanza's wallet
• Dark keyboard that necessitates backlighting
• New thermal design = 2 fans instead of 1
• "Top-of-the-line" followed by a non-Nvidia card
• 128GB of ECC RAM that doesn't look user upgradable
• $5000 minimum ($400 sales tax in CA)

"Our pro model"

 

[mytdave]

Looks cool. I understand the price, I work with "workstation" level PCs all the time, and this falls right in line with competitors, for the stated configurations. The downside of course is the "all-in-one" form factor (I know, I know, that is what an iMac is all about) and Apple's historical lack of upgradeability.

The big thing you miss here, compared to, say, our HP workstations, is that with the HP box I can install 3 Titan or Tesla (or other) GPUs, up to 1TB of RAM, and 2 Xeon CPUs. Hopefully this is the type of thing Apple will address with the new future Mac Pro.

 

[Michael Scrip]

As nice as it looks it's a LOT of money for a locked down computer that is essentially disposable.

I realize you cannot upgrade it yourself so your only choice is to replace it. Point taken.

But assuming the computer still works in the future... you should be able to sell it to someone else.

I wonder what the secondary market for these types of machines will be in 4-5 years?

Even the "base" model at $5,000 today will still be a beast of a machine in 4-5 years. It should still be worth some amount of money at that time.

It will still have a super-fast processor and SSD plus a gorgeous 5K display... so will we see these things roll down to schools or offices or something?

No one is gonna simply throw these away, right?