Apple Offers Minor Processor Bump to Mac Pro Line, No Thunderbolt

[Mr Hackintosh]

I have an Asus x79 pro running 6 core I7 3930K running at 4.6Gig with 32 gigs of memory, Kingston hyper x 120gig ssd boot drive for OSX ,another ssd for windows 7 and 2 TB hardrives running in raid for storage will eventually be 8 drives ....32 gigs of memory was $214 64 gigs is $428...I have 2 vid cards latest is gtx 670 2 Gig ...
With mac now supporting keplar cards the 6 series cards will soon have drivers
Guys this set up cost $2100 runs mac Os faster than any mac at its price or 2X check it out ..



however if hope springs eternall.... you can look at the Nvidia site and you can speculate which cards mac is going to use by the resolution ,,,only a few support the retina display...check it out ....A new IMAC 27" would use the GT 660m and be max res (ie) 3840 X 2160 right!

They will also make a stand alone mac 27" display at same res.

If there were new mac pros which I believe is still possible they would use sandy bridge -I like mine which is why my x79 already works..and they would use the GT 640 as it is the only desktop card that supports the 3840x2160 spec. right now .however I am sure the 670 or other higher end kepler cards could be easily flashed in firmware for the higher res and an EFI bios created to support full buss speed instead of 1/2 which all stock 5 series run at present in hackintoshes..

If they wait for Ivy bridge-I everyone will jump the platform but not the OS..

 

[dented42ford]

For those who don't understand why PROS still need PCIe (and I'm in music, not video, so please look up KONA and Red stuff if that is what interests you):

http://apogeedigital.com/products/symphony-system.php

http://www.avid.com/US/products/family/Pro-Tools/Pro-Tools-HD

http://www.uaudio.com/uad-plug-ins/pcie/uad-2-quad.html

http://www.avid.com/US/products/Symphony

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_overview_pci.php#intern

Some of those will soon be available in TB compatible models, and some are useable (though far from optimal) with expansion chassis, but c'mon. 16gb of RAM is a joke as well - you can bog down 64 with some styles of composition, especially if you work in film - though it is usually better to go with a multi-machine setup then.

Apple just lost $7-10k from me today. Money I've been sitting on for a freaking YEAR, since I really wanted to wait for the architecture updates. Well, there's a chance I'm going to go multi-machine and pick up an older, USED MP - since I use the Apogee Symphony System and PTHD[X], and I'm married to Macs (since I use Logic and DP, not to mention that many of my paid-for-plugins are mac-only or would be a pain to get both versions running due to overly-intrusive DRM). Or I may go Hackintosh. Either way, Apple's losing my money.

This silence is absurd. It makes 100% perfect sense for CONSUMER devices, where feature-competiveness is an issue - but not in the COMMODITY market that is the PROFESSIONAL market. To a consumer, a $2k computer is a big investment, and it is a competitive business - why should you give x rather than y your money, and so on. With pros, these $5k+ machines are TOOLS, and we tend to be locked into whatever platform we are already using - meaning, they can rape us on price all they want, we NEED the products.

I wish I could just "go PC". But I can't. I have $9k in Apogee interfaces here that are mac-only. I have thousands of $ in mac plugins and software, quite a bit of which is not available on PC - and converting thousands of Logic projects to Cubase does not sound like either fun or a good use of my time, especially given that Steinberg doesn't seem to be much better these days than apple...

This is a PSA for those prosumers who think that the Mac Pro is "overkill", or that "PCIe is DEAD", or any other such nonsense - even if that were true, that means nothing to those of us with existing investments in that architecture, nor to the companies that A**** is screwing over with this crap - I'd love to be in the Apogee or Avid offices today, I'm always a fan of hearing a lot of people swearing loudly. And, before you say that Apple has partnerships with those folks, I've heard from the horse's mouth (i.e., head of tech dev) at both companies, along with Metric Halo and others, that they get no more info on Apple's plans than the consumers do, other than some pittance architectural things that they almost-always (the intel transition was an exception, iirc) get after the fact anyway.

So, to the other pros pissed at this, just think how the devs at the companies that make these products feel!

 

[InuNacho]

There goes my dream of a used $1,200 09 Pro.

 

[sbrage2000]

If there was a time and place to announce an updated Mac Pro it was WWDC. Only other place I could have imagined was to the video editor's conference (can't remember the name of it).

You're probably thinking of NAB, which I attended. The most alarming thing I saw was that iMacs outnumbered MacPros by about 100-1 on the showroom floor. Even more telling was that Autodesk was really pushing the point that Smoke (one of the higher end editing systems) was fully designed to run on an iMac or MacBook Pro. Not that I think Autodesk knows any more than we do, but I'm guessing they already see the writing on the wall.

 

[gimme a gun !]

Has anyone tried running Lion on VMWare on Windows? Seems it should be working in VMWare Fusion on a Mac (see here), so that might make the transition a little more convenient.

Yes...... VMWare.... good for light apps.....
but for working ? for strong, stable and exigent software ??
Don't think so.......

 

[jaduffy108]

This feels like a slap in the face ...

ummm, that's because it is.

 

[chumpy34]

It might not make a difference, but I emailed Tim Cook and let him know my displeasure in the lack of a "real" update to the Mac Pro line. Obviously, he nor Apple most likely cares, but you never know, if they receive thousands of emails, we could get lucky in letting them know our feelings.

So sad, can't imagine editing footage on a non-Apple machine, might have to go with a mini and daisy-chain thunderbolt drives, but seriously, can a mini or iMac or even the new Retina Pro handle RED or other 2k-4K footage like a new Mac Pro would have been able to breeze through?

With more and more 2k+ cameras coming out, Apple is falling more and more behind but as most have said on here, they don't seem to care or want to be apart of this market anymore. Let others create it and they will just sell machines to consume it.

 

[Atlantico]

Barely an update at all. What a joke. They didn't even bother with Thunderbolt or USB3.0.

Its like they wanted to kill it, but couldn't pull the trigger, so they just added what they could without having to do any work.

Precisely, what is more, it's using so old CPUs, GPUs and other tech (e.g. DVD/CD RW drive, USB2 etc) that it's amazing they "couldn't" put the base price down to sub $2000.

Yesterday it was *slightly* worse, seeing as Apple has a bizarre policy of never lowering the price of their products (even though said product is 2+ years old and hasn't been updated at all) but now we have 2+ year old tech, slightly better than yesterday - still way overpriced.

Apple is determined to kill the Mac Pro. In fact now it can be claimed with a straight(ish) face, that "sure we updated the Mac Pro and didn't even sell a dozen! it's time we pull the plug."

Douchebags.

 

[bottleneck]

Maybe just maybe we should all order a 'new' mac pro. And then refuse delivery. Because one bad joke deserves another.

It's time for anonymous to focus on apple.

Fall AAPL Fall!

 

[DeeEss]

It's a sick sick sick joke.

Apple are forgetting the people that have helped build this company up through the lowly and rough times.

It's inexcusable to have not mentioned it in the keynote.

 

[Lestdog]

I fear you are right. But as this lack of an upgrade did not go silently in this forum, it will indeed be noisy when they discontinue it. Unless all the Pro users have left Mac by then.

It will be noisy.. and so what? The casual computer user LOVES Apple.. BIG HEARTS all the way!! Pro Users are about as useful as 5 inch floppy drives to Apple. Apple hates you and me.. face the music! Stop supporting a company that refuses to support you and your business! Go to BOXX

 

[iBug2]

Following your logic we can just go ahead and say that Apple should be shut down as not everyone uses an iPod, an iPad, an iPhone and a Mac.

No you can't.

I didn't say Apple should dump this line. I'm saying the reason Apple can dump this line is that the so called pro user base of Apple already dumped this line for the most. There's no way Apple could dump the Mac Pro if even 50% of their professional users were using it. Cutting down the content creation would hurt Apple a lot.

But since the big majority of professional content is already created using iMacs, MBP and even Mac Mini's and Airs, Apple is unfortunately doing this. But I'm pissed. They did lose 5k$ of my money today as well.

 

[jashan]

I wish I could just "go PC". But I can't. I have $9k in Apogee interfaces here that are mac-only. I have thousands of $ in mac plugins and software, quite a bit of which is not available on PC - and converting thousands of Logic projects to Cubase does not sound like either fun or a good use of my time, especially given that Steinberg doesn't seem to be much better these days than apple...

I'm really, sincerely sorry for you (what you describe is "the real vendor lock-in" and as I mentioned before - this can be tremendously painful) ... I was just really happy when Steinberg recently delivered WaveLab for the Mac so I could finally use it natively instead of having it run in a virtual machine (which isn't that great for audio-software) ... but now I'm actually quite happy that Steinberg also has Windows versions of all of their software. I did consider moving over to Logic a while back ... now I'm very glad I never did.

The funny thing is that I even considered getting an iMac - but the iMac didn't get an update either ... so, to me, this is the wake up call: Keep my old Macs for what I can't do on Windows but buy no more hardware from Apple.

 

[jaduffy108]

You might be better off selling now before it goes down to where it deserves to go.

If you sell AAPL now, you will be crying in Jan 2013. I'm as pissed off as anyone here about the Mac Pro, but as for the stock? The next 12 months will be MASSIVE for Apple. The "Pro User" is peanuts for Apple.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Apple customers were loyal as long as Apple appeared to be loyal to its customers. This works both ways. If Apple ignores a significant part of the customers (not in numbers - but in multiplication effects), there's really no reason we should not start ignoring Apple.

There is more to this than Apple may actually realize. OR Apple is making a calculated decision to "go in a different direction", which is Apple's cowardly way of dropping the Pro user without saying it.

 

[snekker]

Goodbye Apple

Well, this just sucks.

I was seriously preparing to buy a Mac Pro, but now I am not. In fact, I am probably not buying any more products from Apple in the near future. It seems to me that iOS and iPhone are continuing to loose ground to Android and other mobile phones like the Samsung Galaxy and others.
I still think the iPad has an advantage though, but I bet that will change in the near future as well...

Apple disappointed me with the iPhone 4S. Why would anyone replace their 4 with a 4S if the 4 was working fine?
And why would you replace the iPad 2 with a "new iPad"??
And this so-called "update" to the Mac Pro just proves the point that Apple is loosing out.
During the last two years, it seems, Apple has not been in the front line with new products and features, they are just playing catch-up...

And this was the final straw for me. I am looking in another direction from now on.

 

[DeeEss]

I'm really so angry at Apple. I've been buying these friggin machines since the G3!

I am SO SO SO SO GOD DAMN ANGRY!!!!!!

 

[iBug2]

The funny thing is that I even considered getting an iMac - but the iMac didn't get an update either ... so, to me, this is the wake up call: Keep my old Macs for what I can't do on Windows but buy no more hardware from Apple.

iMac not getting an update today doesn't mean anything. It can get an update during the conference or even next week. iMac surely is to stay for a while. It's still selling like crazy.

 

[Lestdog]

Well at least there's one good use for the new mac pro....

 

[devilbond]

So what editor / compositor / audio engineer is still going to stick around on this sinking ship now? Honestly, the OS isn't worth this much grief.

Pro-users, let's roll out.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Still the idiotic "Apple not caring about pro users" arguments. You'd think people would be actually less ignorant by now.

Not all pro users use Mac Pro. That's how Apple can dump this line.

Not ALL but many still need the features ONLY available in a tower configuration.

As far as idiotic... I find your statement comes close. Just because you don't understand the needs of other users doesn't mean they don't exist. You might call that ignorant.

 

[theSeb]

I am truly shocked and surprised. They've dropped the base single 2.4 quad and the base dual quad and they've added a new 12 core dual 3.06 configuration. This is a CPU that was released in the first quarter of 2011. All of the other CPUs were released in 2010! The single hex core to 3.33 is now a lot cheaper, but this is an insult.

I wouldn't even mind skipping thunderbolt, but at least give us USB 3, SATA III and an upgraded graphics card.



People used to say that Apple does not care about pro users any more. I used to argue that this wasn't the case. I apologise. You were right.

 

[Bocheememon]

Weird update.

I rarely post but wanted to add my feelings to the pool of those happy/unhappy.

For anyone that purchased the last generation of the Mac Pro, it isn't hard to swap out processors. This upgrade was unnecessary for what one gains.

I quit my boring, corporate job as a product photographer to freelance in documentary video and photography. At the time, I had most of the gear needed for my previous job. I sold my unibody Macbook Pro because it was at the end of it's Apple Care plan. I needed a workstation Mac because of its expandability (PCI, 4 hard drives, ECC RAM).

I started collecting gear for my work--Pro NEC displays, Epson printers, video gear and etc. The Mini fit the bill because of it's dual drives and did what I needed it to do short term. I paid zero dollars for it after selling the macbook pro. It was my intention to sell off the warrantied Mini at a small loss and purchase an updated Mac Pro. Work has been coming in (yay!) and I already knew the Mini was a temporary purchase.

My partner has an iMac and Air. Beautiful computers--they aren't for me. I'll keep my matte 12-bit display over an 8-bit glossy screen (Thunderbolt Display). Apple sure makes beautiful products, but none fit the bill for my gigs. I would have gone with the same combo as my partner (bf), however my toys are for work. Lucky bastard is a writer so it doesn't matter what tool he has...

If this update was done because the new model isn't ready, why silently update it with a 'New' badge? I feel like the Mac Pro is finally going the way of the last generation White Macbook. Workstations have a place for folks like me and I'm guessing I'm in the small minority.

It looks like I'm going to have to build my own Windows workstation or a Hackintosh.

 

[jashan]

Yes...... VMWare.... good for light apps.....
but for working ? for strong, stable and exigent software ??
Don't think so.......

Luckily for me, most of the pro software I'm using is available for Windows (and I even have the licenses because those are not "lock-me-in-vendors"). So in the end, I'll just keep the VMWare for the "fancy consumer stuff" that Apple now is so great at.

 

[jaduffy108]

My solution. Buy the new Retina MBP now. Keep using my loaded 2009 Mac Pro for another year or so for serious work. Then buy a PC Workstation for content creation.

Going forward; Apple = personal. PC = work.