Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Offers Developers a Closer Look at the New Mac Pro
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
What's so special about *internal* storage? The box doesn't need its GPU upgraded. RAM probably comes standard sufficiently high and, if not, might be one of the few upgradable things. So that just leaves storage. It's SSD-focused, but you can plug in an external Firewire drive. Seems plenty good enough to me.
It makes total sense for whom? No actual professional would touch this thing with a ten foot pole. No expansion in a professional rig? It looks like a trashcan version of R2D2 or a Dyson meets a computer? WTF is that supposed to impress? The people that are not the target Pro market (i.e. kiddies)? This is like the CUBE, except now it's the CYLINDER. Yeah, it's cute looking, but cute <> professional. It needs to be FUNCTIONAL. I think this spells the final cut for the Macintosh professional market.
Throw in the kiddie-looking kindergarten wireframe disaster known as the new GUI look for iOS7 (just AWFUL; like it was made for 8-year olds graduating pre-school) and I think you've now seen the beginning of the end for Apple. They are destined to go back to the 1990s once again and this time there'll be no Steve Jobs to save them. Steve obviously picked the wrong people to head up Apple after he was gone. This isn't innovation. It's fashion. Big colors and goofy shaped appliances. If this is Tim Cook's Apple, I'd prefer the turtle necks and gaunt look back.
Firewire? what Firewire? that's part of the expense we are complaining about. Hope your existing storage units all have USB3 as well, or you are hosed.
I liked the looks immediately, but wasn't sure about a lot of things. Now it looks like the RAM and SSD are upgradeable. And a NAS box would probably work OK for the extra storage.
The big thing left for me is the price. Hopefully the small case will be much cheaper to produce. But how much will the standard super-fast SSD add?
The big thing left for me is the price. Hopefully the small case will be much cheaper to produce. But how much will the standard super-fast SSD add?
My issue is, if TB2 is 20Gbs and full on PCIe3 is 32Gbs, how much will that slow down my workflow? Can I really run a Rocket (and/or a Phi) externally over a TB2 connection at full speed?
I agree. I don't think it would be "reaching". Apple has been sitting on their Liquid Metal license for some time now, about the time that Apple would have been developing this new Mac Pro. Their Pro line could be distinguished by its black Liquid Metal.
How long did it take to upload that file? Downloading is nothing these days. Uploading...a different story.
We ain't there yet, but you can keep dreaming.
It's a beautiful design no doubt, It's a Ducati, a fast one, alas, most in my field of design need a truck, and as such will be stuck with a ducati towing a caravan and a tanker trailer. The cylinder makes no real practical sense beyond vanity.
Not being able to swap out the GPU will cause considerable problems with compatibility, and having to use external cases with all the extra powerbricks cost, cooling, and reliability issues is a shame for something as mundain as HDD storage. I can't imagine the 1GB PCI SSD will be cheap or nesisarily meet everybodies needs. Hopefully there will be to posibility of a second internal drive to keep data and system seperated, and a pci adapter for a cheaper/larger internal drive option.
Love it and hate it at the same time. I fear my wallet will run for the trees.
Not being able to swap out the GPU will cause considerable problems with compatibility, and having to use external cases with all the extra powerbricks cost, cooling, and reliability issues is a shame for something as mundain as HDD storage. I can't imagine the 1GB PCI SSD will be cheap or nesisarily meet everybodies needs. Hopefully there will be to posibility of a second internal drive to keep data and system seperated, and a pci adapter for a cheaper/larger internal drive option.
Love it and hate it at the same time. I fear my wallet will run for the trees.
I don't see what is so disappointing. You are also contradicting yourself. Most of the things you currently are using must be creating a rat's nest of wires.
How many hard drives would you like a computer to hold? Back in the day, when drives where small I could see the need for 4 internal drives. But nowadays, 3 TB could be had for $150. What's it going to be like in 3 years. Seems like Apple is moving in the logical direction there. I have over 20 2TB external drives, all full of projects. I have a very neat and organized set up to be able to have access to a few at a time. If you spend a few minutes wire tying wires you avoid the rats nest. Just like you have to do with a rack full of equipment.
Firewire? Seriously. I work on legacy projects too, but I'm definitely not leaving that equipment permanently hooked up. Time to move on.
Disk drive? You probably complained too when Apple got rid of floppy drives.
Rack mountable? The current Mac Pro needs add on hardware, I'm sure there will be solutions. As technology advances the need to have tons of rack mountable equipment is going to go out the window.
I still use FCP 7 but I'm sure X will eventually be there.
I'm a video editor. It's my full time job. It seems most people who complain about the mac pro work in video production. It seems they all wanted Apple to make a Mac Pro specifically designed for video post production. What about the rest of the professional world, probably which make up a larger percentage of Mac Pro users. The graphic designers, etc?
Obi-Wan Kenobi mistakes the new Mac Pro for the Death Star tractor beam...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85795076@N07/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85795076@N07/
Full on PCI-E 3.0 is not ~32Gb/s but ~32GB/s. That is it is ~32Gigabytes per second or ~256Gigabits/s.
Thunderbolt 2.0 ~ 20Gigabites/s.
In short PCI-E 3.0 is ~12.8 times the bandwidth.
GPU is the first thing that would need to be upgraded. Take a look at the current Mac Pro, IIRC the standard option is a 5770 and it can be upgraded to a 5870. Not even two years later those were considered to be pretty outdated. With the new Mac Pro instead of being able to put in a new GPU for $400-$500 you'd have to buy a whole new computer for several thousand dollars. To me that is not acceptable.
Yes.
You can't accidentally delete a rack of vinyl
>>lights small fire under vinyl rack<< Dang it, I accidentally deleted the vinyl!
Come on, we got to move on from firewire. Even 800 is embarrassingly slow compared to USB 3.0. You can't expect support for outdated tech forever. As soon a USB 3.0 was available I bought a $100 card and phased out all my firewire drives.
It makes total sense for whom? No actual professional would touch this thing with a ten foot pole. No expansion in a professional rig? It looks like a trashcan version of R2D2 or a Dyson meets a computer? WTF is that supposed to impress? The people that are not the target Pro market (i.e. kiddies)? This is like the CUBE, except now it's the CYLINDER. Yeah, it's cute looking, but cute <> professional. It needs to be FUNCTIONAL. I think this spells the final cut for the Macintosh professional market.
Throw in the kiddie-looking kindergarten wireframe disaster known as the new GUI look for iOS7 (just AWFUL; like it was made for 8-year olds graduating pre-school) and I think you've now seen the beginning of the end for Apple. They are destined to go back to the 1990s once again and this time there'll be no Steve Jobs to save them. Steve obviously picked the wrong people to head up Apple after he was gone. This isn't innovation. It's fashion. Big colors and goofy shaped appliances. If this is Tim Cook's Apple, I'd prefer the turtle necks and gaunt look back.
You're just talking to talk. You'll be proven incorrect when the unit goes on sale.
Either that or hope third party vendors like Sapphire use the proprietary new PCI bus interface for that custom FirePro S10000 set up and provide cards for the AMD 7000/8000 or Nvidia 600/Tesla/Quadra lines.
Otherwise, SOL.
Seriously!
Have you ever seen the inside of an editing studio? Not a machine to be found they are all down the hall in there own little room in racks with 10GB ethernet cards, Kona cards and red Rockets installed. Now I will have a round trashcan with boxes hanging off of it. Not to mention multiple failure points in the thunderbolt cables. If you put this thing on a cart and take it to set some Teamster is going to p1$$ in it!
Kevin
This is fantastical!
Thunderbolt 2 will be plenty fast enough for external expansion (no more f/n cards, I'm happy about this!).
Anyone who wants to complain can go get a big 'ole PC tower, stay old school, and quit wining!
Have you ever seen the inside of an editing studio? Not a machine to be found they are all down the hall in there own little room in racks with 10GB ethernet cards, Kona cards and red Rockets installed. Now I will have a round trashcan with boxes hanging off of it. Not to mention multiple failure points in the thunderbolt cables. If you put this thing on a cart and take it to set some Teamster is going to p1$$ in it!
Kevin
But isn't thunderbolt only like 5% the bandwidth of PCI-e x16? Wouldn't you need to use all 6 for one card to have comparable performance?
My hunch is that 70% of the people complaining in this thread would never even consider buying a Mac Pro in the first place, thus, deeming many of you irrelevant.
For those professionals who actually make a living off their computers and seem worried, fair enough.
While I can understand the concern from the "true" professionals, I'm not entirely sure what else you guys expected.
Same form factor, updated specs? Apple still would've gotten flack for not being innovative. Give me one better idea that would still be innovative and made the professional community happy and then I may see a point.
I say, wait and see when this thing is finally released and then make an educated decision after that. EVERYONE needs to take a chill pill!
For those professionals who actually make a living off their computers and seem worried, fair enough.
While I can understand the concern from the "true" professionals, I'm not entirely sure what else you guys expected.
Same form factor, updated specs? Apple still would've gotten flack for not being innovative. Give me one better idea that would still be innovative and made the professional community happy and then I may see a point.
I say, wait and see when this thing is finally released and then make an educated decision after that. EVERYONE needs to take a chill pill!
Of course Apple doesn't listen to customers, much less give them what they want. I mean Tim noted Mac sales for the past five years were down 100%.
Oh, wait...
As to the new Mac Pro, I like it as a concept, especially as a professional workstation (and not as a game machine). As for "cable clutter", internal cards have external cables attached to them, so not sure what all the hub-bub is about. Yes, TB is expensive, but so was FW compared to USB and yet pros paid the premium for FB-based peripherals due to the greater performance. TB offers even greater performance benefits for some devices.
One assumes people buying these things are doing it because they use them to make a living, not to indulge a hobby, so recovering the extra cost should not be ridiculously onerous.
Oh, wait...
As to the new Mac Pro, I like it as a concept, especially as a professional workstation (and not as a game machine). As for "cable clutter", internal cards have external cables attached to them, so not sure what all the hub-bub is about. Yes, TB is expensive, but so was FW compared to USB and yet pros paid the premium for FB-based peripherals due to the greater performance. TB offers even greater performance benefits for some devices.
One assumes people buying these things are doing it because they use them to make a living, not to indulge a hobby, so recovering the extra cost should not be ridiculously onerous.
I'm an actual freelance motion graphics designer and I can't wait to get my hands on one! People with high power needs like myself will appreciate this machine and aren't afraid of a few peripherals because we already have a bunch. This computer is overkill for lawyers and others who only use office-type software. This machine is for people who push CPUs and GPUs to their limits: Compositors, 3D modellers, 4k and 6k film editors and motion graphic professionals.