Apple Now Offering Radeon Pro W5500X for Mac Pro

[MacKarmaTech]

Apple has almost always gone with the absolutely cheapest (highest profit margin) graphics and storage option possible with all of their so-called "Pro" computers since forever. You don't get to be a 1.6 Billion dollar ++, hugely overvalued tech company by providing any of your current and/or potential consumers of your mega $$$$ products with the best value-to-performance hardware default options that are available. No...siree!

And as a very soon to be (stock buybacks r us) 'multi-trillion' dollar mega-corp, they will have even more leverage to persuade the ever faithful Applefolk to either spend a substantial "premium" to to properly "upgraded" your "Pro" Apple computer, and if not, then perhaps Apple can persuade you to settle for much less than a respectable "Pro" high-end 5K++ 'workstation' computer with a less than $50.00 default storage drive (wholesale cost for AALP), as well as a barely C-note (again AALP's wholesale expense) circa 2016-17 graphics card that might more reasonably be justified appearing in still imaginary non-Xeon 3K 'base' Mac Pro machine.

 

[iMacian]

Apple really should give a support guarantee until 2030 for Intel Macs sold from now on.
I have no intention of throughing away my 2011 Macbook Pro which still works and looks perfectly. But I am starting to feel the pain of being cut off from software updates and soon even security updates. THis forced obsolence is unaccaptable.

 

[dannys1]

Don't be like me and buy one of these now. You'll get a few years and then you can't take advantage of the faster performance and benefits from new code written for FCPX with Apple Silicon. I should have gone with a MacbookPro 16 fully spec'ed instead of $14K for the 2019 MacPro. Replacing the MacbookPro hurts a lot less in a few years when the benefits of the APL Silicon kick in.

To be fair by the time Apple get a ARM processor capable of supporting 1.5TB of ECC ram and as many cores as these Xeons run, it'll be at a point where you'd have that performance increase available to buy anyway - I think you're looking at a strong 3-4 years. The afterburner card will work with either architecture and for at least 5-6 years that'll still be the best way to process raw footage (by then they'll probably have an afterburner 2 that'll work with either architecture)

in 3-5 years time you might have features you're missing from Apple Silicon using machine learning or something but it would be typical in 3-5 years time to have all sorts of features missing that new systems have. USB 4 will be ubiquitous by then too. Graphics cards will increase leaps and bounds in that time (and we've not even been show any evidence of Apple Silicon working with a separate graphics card yet)

I don't think anyone will have any issues getting a solid 7-8 years out of their Intel based machines at which point in time lots of technical advances will have been made beyond the Intel vs Apple Silicon processors so i'm not sure it's relevant, in 8 years time any system would be outdated.
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Apple really should give a support guarantee until 2030 for Intel Macs sold from now on.
I have no intention of throughing away my 2011 Macbook Pro which still works and looks perfectly. But I am starting to feel the pain of being cut off from software updates and soon even security updates. THis forced obsolence is unaccaptable.

2030 is too far - 7 years would be plenty. macOS updates for 7 years is perfectly fair (it's not like the system stops working then, you just don't get the latest version) LOTS changes in tech in that time and it's a period Apple has always held to drop support for Macs and make them vintage systems.

 

[fuchsdh]

Apple really should give a support guarantee until 2030 for Intel Macs sold from now on.
I have no intention of throughing away my 2011 Macbook Pro which still works and looks perfectly. But I am starting to feel the pain of being cut off from software updates and soon even security updates. THis forced obsolence is unaccaptable.

When have they ever given a 10-year support guarantee, and why would they? If you want to keep using your computer for ten years, Apple isn't forcing you to surrender it.

 

[toke lahti]

How "standard" pci card this W5550X is?
Can I put it to eGPU box?

 

[fuchsdh]

How "standard" pci card this W5550X is?
Can I put it to eGPU box?

It's an MXM module just like every other card Apple ships. It's not compatible with eGPUS.

 

[Onelifenofear]

Its not apple silicon, its Apple ARM PowerPC V2.
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Sadly, this Mac Pro is already a 50k paper weight, now that ARM is coming.

Thats funny. I've already made over £70k with my £14K ( 50K - Rolls eyes ) since January. So by the time an Arm Pro comes out, and it will be the last major product with it I am sure as will need serious core multiplications to hit the xeon 28, I'll have earned quite a lot... so how is that a paper weight?

It's like saying don't buy a car you need now cos in a few years there MIGHT be a better one. So walk.
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It's an MXM module just like every other card Apple ships. It's not compatible with eGPUS.

MPX ( Not MXM ) can be used in egpus BUT you need to make a cable for the power connector. Not impossible at all an I am sure that someone will come out with one to buy.

Preliminary MPX (580X) Success!

I acquired a 580X MPX module off eBay to see if I could get it to work as an eGPU. Just plugging it in to the Razer Core X Chroma yielded nothing. Thi...

egpu.io

 

[toke lahti]

MPX ( Not MXM ) can be used in egpus BUT you need to make a cable for the power connector. Not impossible at all an I am sure that someone will come out with one to buy.

Preliminary MPX (580X) Success!

I acquired a 580X MPX module off eBay to see if I could get it to work as an eGPU. Just plugging it in to the Razer Core X Chroma yielded nothing. Thi...

egpu.io

What's th epoint of double wide connector in MPX?
Will there be x32 GPU cards some day?

 

[Onelifenofear]

What's th epoint of double wide connector in MPX?
Will there be x32 GPU cards some day?

Power delivery without PC style connectors
plus - Direct Thunderbolt 3 Transport between Ports on the Mac Pro. You can use any TB3 port on the Mac for more monitors - you can run six on a Vega Duo.
Also functions as a link fo 2x VegaDuo card with the infinty link.

 

[fuchsdh]

Thats funny. I've already made over £70k with my £14K ( 50K - Rolls eyes ) since January. So by the time an Arm Pro comes out, and it will be the last major product with it I am sure as will need serious core multiplications to hit the xeon 28, I'll have earned quite a lot... so how is that a paper weight?

It's like saying don't buy a car you need now cos in a few years there MIGHT be a better one. So walk.
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MPX ( Not MXM ) can be used in egpus BUT you need to make a cable for the power connector. Not impossible at all an I am sure that someone will come out with one to buy.

Preliminary MPX (580X) Success!

I acquired a 580X MPX module off eBay to see if I could get it to work as an eGPU. Just plugging it in to the Razer Core X Chroma yielded nothing. Thi...

egpu.io

Why would you bother, though? You're not going to have the Thunderbolt connections and you're going to be paying more (not obscenely given the price for the workstation cards, but still more than you need to) for a proprietary card.

 

[Onelifenofear]

Why would you bother, though? You're not going to have the Thunderbolt connections and you're going to be paying more (not obscenely given the price for the workstation cards, but still more than you need to) for a proprietary card.

Sure its was just a comment on the fact you could. I have a Mac Pro and a 16" Mac book pro and often go away to work on animation in Portugal ( but clearly not at the moment! ) so If I could leave an EGPU case there and just take my £5K pro Vega Duo with me... or when I do film work - I could take it on set for edits.

The cards are not that expensive. A 2080ti is not a workstation card it's a Gaming card - they differences being main cards are great at low(er) poly and High Texture fills and Workstation Cards are geared towards millions and Billons of polys but less good at textures.

The RTX8000 is costs £7K and is runs at 16 TFlops - the Vega Pro Duo is £5K and 28TFlops. So in no way is it expensive really.

 

[ridgero]

I just bought the 16-Core Mac Pro and put 160 Gb of RAM in it.I’m not worried about ARM Macs at all. There’s no way ARM will beat this machine in the 5 years I expect to keep mine. (Save this post in case I have to eat my words).

But seriously, the 160 GB of RAM is killer. I’m constantly at around 100 Gb used. (I’m running a few VMs, [Linux, and macOS at all times, and a Windows VM occasionally).

Your comment didn't age that well.