Apple Offers Developers a Closer Look at the New Mac Pro

[ChrisA]

My main disappointment is that Apple still doesn't have any computers which are any good for gaming.

This new Mac Pro seems ideal for gaming. What more could you want. It has two of the fastest cragphic card in the world and a very powerful CPU and loads of RAM and is 100% Flash disk based. This is gross over kill for games.

The only thing wrong with this for games is that your average 16 year old can't afford it.


If you really want games for cheap buy an xbox. MS just announced a new one today.

 

[ArtMooney]

I had to delete the rest of your nonsense message because it really did make you look like a child. If this radical re-thinking of the desktop PC depresses you and offers you nothing you can use or want, clearly you need to move on and get a Dell, HP or whatever else you actually do find interesting.

I also suspect that you are not a very forward thinking person.

That's hilarious. Again, I need tools, not whatever looks coolest to show my friends when they come over. You think I'm wrong, take a walk through a few post houses here in LA or talk to a few people who edit for a living. We don't need our computers to be interesting - we need them to chew up information and spit it out quickly, keep up with current broadcast delivery requirements and allow me to expand when things change.

Mac could release a pink, rubber iHammer shaped like a hat you can wear on your head that plays music and videos that everybody can love all they want - but if it doesn't pound nails and fit in my tool belt I (the guy who actually needs to use it) it's worthless. Welcome to the new Mac 'Pro'.

 

[xcodeaddict]

That's hilarious. Again, I need tools, not whatever looks coolest to show my friends when they come over. You think I'm wrong, take a walk through a few post houses here in LA or talk to a few people who edit for a living. We don't need our computers to be interesting - we need them to chew up information and spit it out quickly, keep up with current broadcast delivery requirements and allow me to expand when things change.

Mac could release a pink, rubber iHammer shaped like a hat you can wear on your head that plays music and videos that everybody can love all they want - but if it doesn't pound nails and fit in my tool belt I (the guy who actually needs to use it) it's worthless. Welcome to the new Mac 'Pro'.

There's a world outside LA - I promise - look on a map - you'll see!

 

[skier777]

I know a lot of people have already said this but i dont care.

This is the worst thing that apple could have done for the Mac Pro. The only people who are buying mac pros are the people who already had them. We have made a 30"x8" space on the floor or on our desks that accommodates the one we have now. Compared to my golf clubs, my refrigerator and the other appliances in my home, a case of beer or the floor area that my cat takes up, the old mac pro was a very reasonable size. Yes, its a big heavy computer, but everything was safely tucked away inside of its nearly indestructible shell. Its got two awesome carrying handles on top. To say i never move it would be a lie, but its normally not very far, and if it is, it is in the car. I can toss it in the backseat or the trunk and not worry about it sliding around. And when you do, its fast and easy; I have a power cord, a speaker cord and a DVI cable cable to unplug. Three cables. Only two of which are critical.

The new one is everything the old one is not. And its not that I dont like it, i do, it looks like an awesome computer. But its not a Mac Pro. Its just a Mac now. We had the Mac Mini, we had the Mac Pro and this fits in right in between.

Today Apple killed the Mac Pro. RIP.

 

[gugy]

I wonder if will release 4k monitors when they ship this new MacPro. That sounds exciting and a nice update for the current ACD one.

 

[AirKing]

I don’t see myself buying big 3.5 inch HDDs for my computers in 5 yrs. In that time, I’m pretty sure the choice of everyday storage in a personal computer will be the solid state. I own a lot of SATA HDDs and I think it is more useful to build NAS and put it on LAN or connect it via Thunderbolt. No need to have a big case that takes up a lot of space. I don’t upgrade my computer, I buy a pretty good spec computer at that time and I use it for 5 yrs, and then I sell it. I never liked idea of matching new components with 5 yrs old components. Like it or not, this mac is a stunner and I applaud Apple for presenting a computer like no others, treating it like a newly discovered matter- lol.

 

[ChrisA]

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 it does offer some internal expansion (1) the RAM and (2) the FLASH is mounted on a card. The graphic cards are so far above anything else on the market that you would have nothing better to upgrade them with for maybe 5 years. If it really can drive three 4k displays at high refresh raes what more could you ask for. Likewise CPUs Not many people who need to upgrade the 12-core system because it is "slow"

That leaves storage. Now you have to think. What kind of storage would a film editor or pro-photographer or an recording engineer want? Certainly NOT a coiuple small 2TB hard drives. No, they are going to want a "Disk Array" (a.k.a. "RAID") So they place the RAID in a closet or the "server room" and run a cable back to the desktop(s)

Then you have to think about BACKUP. How do you backup? Even if you have two or four internal drives, you still need the external storage. There is zero way around external storage.

Thereal problem I see if if you need some specialized PCI card. I have used cards for processing rocket telemetry, so I'd prettym uch need a PC chassis to hoiuse them now

 

[ArtMooney]

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!

Until the Final Cut X abortion happened I was dying for a new Mac Pro. My life has been mac since 99. My house and my car are paid for by using Apple's tools. They weren't broke - they certainly could be upgraded - but there was no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. Plenty of room for improvement (that modular design floating around would've been a total winner - like the RED modular philosophy applied to the Mac Pro).

What I'm looking at now is real terror. I've got to start over in Avid, I've got to go back to a PC environment for the tools I need. Mac/Final Cut are dead in Hollywood. Argue all you want, book mark this page and come back in 2 years and apologize. This is a ******** disaster. This doesn't apply to film students or anyone with a YouTube channel.

 

[ChrisA]

.... But its not a Mac Pro. Its just a Mac now. We had the Mac Mini, we had the Mac Pro and this fits in right in between.

Today Apple killed the Mac Pro. RIP.

What do you mans "not a Mac Pro". This this is an order of magnitude faster than the current model. When you consider the Flash based Fusion drive and the new GPUs it might be 20x fasten then the current Mac Pro.

Then you complain how you used to be able to move the old Mac Pro and it fit in your back seat. You mean this new one will not fit in the back seat. Heack I'd buy a Pelican case for it if I have to move it. It is tiny but 20x faster at least.

It is not by any means closer to a Mini. In fact the current Mac Pro sits about mid way between this new Pro and the Mini.

 

[skier777]

This GPU isn't going to be upgraded for a while since the monitors it drives isn't a price point for the masses to use. NONE of the existing video cards that you can buy at Micro Center, Fry's or even Best Buys can support a 4K monitor and for that matter, none of these retailers sell a 4K monitor or TV.

I don't see the need to be worried about upgrading a GPU at this point. Had this been another incremental upgrade then I would absolutely agree with you on demanding to know what the upgrade path is for video cards.

But really, support for 3 simultaneous 4K monitors straight out of the box and you want to DOA it for an apparent lack of upgrade because you'll need a more powerful video card in the future? Do you forsee an 8K monitor?

What you fail to realize is that sometimes GPU's are not ideal for all purposes. Some are great for high frame rates in games, some are great for high resolution image or video editing and some are used more like CPU's for use in rendering images of digital models. While the cards that apple put in this thing are most likely good at all of those today, they may or may not be so great in 4 years.

Are there video games that can generate 3D graphics at 4K right now?

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/23/4359788/xbox-one-3d-4k-content-support

No, but there will be soon. If MS can make a $400 computer capable of displaying 3d 4k games, its only reasonable to assume that other computer manufactures should keep up.

 

[ArtMooney]

OMG dude, could you write anything whinier? You weren't in the market for one anyway, just want to bitch and complain about a computer you don't understand or doesn't fit "your" view of what a Professional computer may be. It's not traditional, no. It's not internally expandable, no. It's NOT a PC that has a huge case that you stuff 8 hard drives into.

Believe it or not, there are professionals out there who just need a powerful computer that doesn't take up a ton of room, that doesn't sound like a jet engine taking off when you turn it on, and doesn't need 10 expansion bays. This particular computer isn't for me to be honest, but guess what, so be it.

The old Mac Pro was a brilliant, useful design that got the job done for professionals. This new abortion is a useless paperweight. Sure, it's great if I need to cut wedding videos or GoPro video - but I promise you you will never see one in a legit post house. Ever.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

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.

Internal storage is always faster than external, because the internal bus is faster. It's only been in the last few years that hasn't applied because SSD's are so freakin' fast, but I don't expect that to last. Plus, having to plug in an external power cable and data cable into a movable enclosure provides an additional 3 failure points.

 

[ChrisA]

Until the Final Cut X abortion happened I was dying for a new Mac Pro. My life has been mac since 99. My house and my car are paid for by using Apple's tools. They weren't broke - they certainly could be upgraded - but there was no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. Plenty of room for improvement (that modular design floating around would've been a total winner - like the RED modular philosophy applied to the Mac Pro).

What I'm looking at now is real terror. I've got to start over in Avid, I've got to go back to a PC environment for the tools I need. Mac/Final Cut are dead in Hollywood. Argue all you want, book mark this page and come back in 2 years and apologize. This is a ******** disaster. This doesn't apply to film students or anyone with a YouTube channel.

This new Pro is more modular then the old Mac. What it ides is radically seporate "storage" from "computer". They always have been seporate concepts. "storage is something you should share within an organization. So much grief comes about because computers have have their own private storage. You emails was on this computer but to that one. People had to "send" files. Now I think Apple's model is that this whole problem is gone. You files belog in the company Disk Array.

With non-destructive edits now in audio, video and still photos we should be able to keep or data in one place and "everyone" can edit away and not have to "send" files.

 

[bentoon]

DaisyChain

How easily could you daisy chain a few of these together ?

 

[PeterQVenkman]

That sleek computer is going to look so amazing with a mess of wires and 6 hard drives daisy chained to it. But at least it doesn't have a power brick... at least I don't think.

Meh - two expensive ATI cards. More stuff works with nvidia's cuda.

Apple didn't solve any problems by assuming you work off a server. They made it more expensive and guarantee that smaller shops and single artists have to invest in more BS external hardware.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

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.

Actually, it's not. Study after marketing study shows that if you price a computer for $500, $1000, and $1500, most people will opt for the middle option (to the point where the high end might seem silly to produce). The middle option hits the sweet spot - it's not the cheapest, so they don't appear poor, but it's not so expensive either.

If you remove the $1500 price point, a lot more people will pick the "not quite most expensive" $500 computer, and all of a sudden your average sale drops by $250.

This new Mac Pro is, IMO, removing the hypothetical $1500 option. Without that price point, more people will simply consider a mac mini as if it's basically a square mac pro, and I wouldn't be surprised if iMac sales suffer. Obviously this doesn't apply to "Pro"'s in Hollywood, but to a casual consumer. But the end result is still that Apple is shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[Arfdog]

Oh .. so your end-products in in the cloud.

I don't know about you, but if I were a client, I wouldn't appreciate my designer's/photo/videographer's final works sent out via email.
Any kindergarten kid could email pictures and videos nowadays.

I'd want them printed, packaged, or stored on a physical media with a great packaging and neat appearances. Because I'm paying top dollars, I expect top result here. End packaging in a physical media is the only way to do it.

Maybe it's okay for you if next year Apple sells you Macbook and get it sent via interwebz. No need for physical product, remember?

Um... what does email have to do with FTP?

And a Macbook is a physical product. Electronic photos stored on a physical BR copied back to a hard drive are still electronic photos. You might want to think through that first before saying it.

 

[nec207]

"Apple can't innovate; my a**"
-Phil Schiller

Apple really surprised me today. Really excited for the fall.

No it is Apple hates computer towers even if it was smaller tower or more rounded tower .

Apple wants to make computers look very different from PC's .

Apple also hates optical drives.

 

[thefourthpope]

In complete honesty, I don't like it. To me, it looks strange.

I know I'm going to get my head blasted off for stating my opinion, because MacRumors is North Korea.

I'm with you. I keep thinking of the iMac with the big round foot, like the next step will be planting a monitor in the middle. But, it certainly is distinct--even from the rest of their own product line.

----------

This new abortion is a useless paperweight.

yo, calm down.

 

[nec207]

That's hilarious. Again, I need tools, not whatever looks coolest to show my friends when they come over. You think I'm wrong, take a walk through a few post houses here in LA or talk to a few people who edit for a living. We don't need our computers to be interesting - we need them to chew up information and spit it out quickly, keep up with current broadcast delivery requirements and allow me to expand when things change.

Mac could release a pink, rubber iHammer shaped like a hat you can wear on your head that plays music and videos that everybody can love all they want - but if it doesn't pound nails and fit in my tool belt I (the guy who actually needs to use it) it's worthless. Welcome to the new Mac 'Pro'.

To make money to make wow factor .It wants it computer to look like the future and some thing you will find on star wars .

When PC's today are big box tower .

 

[xcodeaddict]

The old Mac Pro was a brilliant, useful design that got the job done for professionals. This new abortion is a useless paperweight. Sure, it's great if I need to cut wedding videos or GoPro video - but I promise you you will never see one in a legit post house. Ever.

Thus sayeth the divine authority of video editing, leader of all...

Dude, you're just another bloke breathing oxygen, typing on a web forum. Just because you say something, doesn't mean it is so. Also, accentuation by means of dramatic full stops, doesn't help your point - you just sound like a know-it-all.

I'll laugh next year when we see a TON of testimony videos from RESPECTED AND WELL KNOWN PROFESSIONALS who use them, not just people who sit on forums and complain because it isn't a silver metal tower ^_^

Are you one of the whining masses who moaned about FCP X, and now use it, having said you never would? I wouldn't doubt it for a second...


PS: Art - there's a world outside the shallow, egotistical bubble of Hollywood.

 

[skier777]

What do you mans "not a Mac Pro". This this is an order of magnitude faster than the current model. When you consider the Flash based Fusion drive and the new GPUs it might be 20x fasten then the current Mac Pro.

Yes, it flys today. But it retains little of what makes the current model ideal for pro use, which is fairly limitless expandability. That flash based fusion drive looks nice yeah, but say I decide I want 16TB of internal storage. In a big tower like the current Mac Pro, no problem, under $750 on Newegg, that seems pretty reasonable. 64GB ram, no problem, under $500...

The new one certainly won't let the user make these kind of easy upgrades that make the computer last longer. Why is this so important do you ask? Well to me it lowers the value of that machine. If I need to buy accessories to add those drive, that adds to the cost of upgrading it. If it shortens its lifespan, again, it lowers the value. Apple has a very select market for this machine, to those users, shelling out the same amount of money for a product that will cost us more to maintain and will need to be upgraded more often only hurts us. Those components could have easily been placed in the same old big square aluminum box.

Then you complain how you used to be able to move the old Mac Pro and it fit in your back seat. You mean this new one will not fit in the back seat. Heack I'd buy a Pelican case for it if I have to move it. It is tiny but 20x faster at least.

Obviously its going to fit. That wasn't my concern. It was heavy and it was square. I could put it on its side. It wont roll around, and if it does move, those big strong handles will are more likely to mess up the car than take any significant damage.

It is not by any means closer to a Mini. In fact the current Mac Pro sits about mid way between this new Pro and the Mini.

In terms of power, probably, but that wasn't really the idea behind my argument.

 

[nec207]

I'm with you. I keep thinking of the iMac with the big round foot, like the next step will be planting a monitor in the middle. But, it certainly is distinct--even from the rest of their own product line.

----------



yo, calm down.

I think after Steve jobs left Apple has lost it self big time when it comes to desktop computers it well makes awesome tablets and laptops but have lost it with the iMac and Mac Pro.

 

[Tar Sniffer]

I think this is one of those designs that look better in person, like the iPhone 5. It looks like a vacuum in these images.

 

[Arfdog]

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?

It's pretty weird how people who work with computers on racks expect a consumer product to fit on a rack. lmfao.

If they wanted the next gen rackable system, why aren't these guys shopping at Intel or IBM or Cisco instead of complaining about a Mac?