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Apple Switching Back to NVIDIA Graphics for Upcoming Mac Pro Update?

wikus said:
Apple doesnt give a crap about the prosumer market, unfortunately. All theyve been doing in the last 5 years is dancing around the iphone and now the ipad.
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OK, say they were to release a new Mac Pro today, what hardware are they going to put in it genius?

Intel CPUs are about to be upgraded, the only things the current pro is missing are USB3 (bleh... winmodem of high speed buses) and thunderbolt - which has very little hardware yet.

New CPUs won't be out until mid-year, so q3 makes sense.
 
Bonjour ya'll,

I can understand why several people see that the Mac Pro's days are numbered but arguments based on software and additional external add ons like thunderbolt voiding the need of a mac pro only solve problems that are current.

Over the last 6/8 years of TV and Motion graphic production I have seen the increase in file sizes multiply over and over, for me this is one reason I cannot seem to get around with the idea of anything other than local power. The Mac Pro may seem a little redundant in contemporary areas of the market where use of power rarely exceeds cutting together a short video etc. When it comes to the just as rapidly developing film and television industry the need to process terabytes of data locally and as fast as possible only a professional computer such as an updated Mac Pro would be a legitimate option.

With RED producing 5k, 9k and even talk of 24k image sensors that would be able to record at hundreds of frames per second the file and data sizes are beyond anything common and current. 3D programs that used to be for the top end of pros are now cheaper and easier to use to create multi trillion poly reference meshes and insane particle systems again need a great amount of local power (even though this option is a lot more achievable using non local power such as render farms etc).

Rant out of the way I can definitely see the truths and weight behind the numbered days of the Mac Pro I see very similar arguments to the numbered days of the wheel 'Until things hover they will indeed roll'. Until there are solutions that out way the higher end use of these machines they will still have a place in many studios across the world.

As much as the market may be heavily influenced by the huge amount of consumers able to use good but mid-range computers and iPads to edit videos there is still a very large industry that rely on high powered machines.

Cheers Ya'll
 
Bring on the new Mac Pros

My 2 Mac Pros are from 2007 and 2009 -- and I'm overdue for upgrades. I've waited a long time .... and I'm still waiting.

We have a big photo studio - and we routinely work with 44x66 images that we print onto canvas. Many of our images are 2.2 GB - each. That is at 16 bits and 360 ppi for printing. We have very high-end and demanding clients who recognize high quality.

I'm looking forward to more CPU power, more RAM (now at 16GB) and something from thunderbolt that I can afford - and that will run my 15 external hard drives faster than my PCIe - eSATA connections.

Bring it on ...

Dick
 
tarproductions said:
Would FCP X benefit from CUDA processing? I can't recall right now but I thought Apple highlighted an AMD feature when they announced FCP X (something about the using the GPU engine?)

If not, it would seem strange to me that Apple would make a switch that would benefit Adobe apps and not their own. I know Da Vinci Resolve taps the power of CUDA.
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FCP X uses OpenCL so yes

Cuda is an architecture. You can use Cuda C, OpenCL, or Direct Compute(on windows) to talk to it.
 
throAU said:
the only things the current pro is missing are USB3 (bleh... winmodem of high speed buses) and thunderbolt
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Don't forget SATA III which I'd argue is more important than either of those two. Right now the MP doesn't include a high speed bus internal or external.
 
KnightWRX said:
This has nothing to do with this thread, but I'll entertain you : What makes you think Apple is missing the train ?
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Because the lead story of this thread suggests that there will be a Q3/Q4 Mac Pro update and that Apple will wait for Ivy Bridge processors with the next update, but the previous rumors suggested that a Mac Pro update will come in Q1, early March, based on the release of Sandy Bridge E5 processors. If Apple decides to wait for the Ivy Bridge processors as the lead story of this thread suggests, then it would apparently missing the train on the opportunity to update in Q1, when the 8-core Sandy Bridge processors are available. I hope that either this story is wrong about Apple planning the next update after the Ivy Bridge processors are released, or that there will be two updates, one in Q1 using Sandy Bridge processors, and one in Q3/Q4 using Ivy Bridge.

My understanding was that the Mac Pro update could happen when Intel releases the appropriate processors, and that release dates of those processors will be relevant to ascertaining the possibility of an update. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
KnightWRX said:
It's a customization option yes.
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You can also customize to add printers and monitors...so you'd say MP includes those now too?

Your waffling makes my previous statement no less true: MP includes no high speed busses, internal or external.
 
milo said:
You can also customize to add printers and monitors...so you'd say MP includes those now too?
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Suit yourself. OS X supports Fiber Channel, it doesn't support USB 3, no matter how hard you jam that PCI-E card in there.

To me, that's as good as saying it includes it. Why spit on the Mac Pro's expansion capabilities when it's its main and major selling point ?

Face it, you just didn't think of Fiber channel and now you're looking for a way to "win". I have no further time to lose on this.

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Cristian123 said:
Because the lead story of this thread suggests that there will be a Q3/Q4 Mac Pro update and that Apple will wait for Ivy Bridge processors with the next update, but the previous rumors suggested that a Mac Pro update will come in Q1, early March, based on the release of Sandy Bridge E5 processors.
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So idle speculation and rumor sites ? Those have never been wrong before, you're quite right, Apple has missed the train!
 
KnightWRX said:
Why spit on the Mac Pro's expansion capabilities when it's its main and major selling point ?
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I'm not spitting on it at all, just pointing out how pathetic it is that valuable PCI slots have to be wasted on something as basic as trying to connect a fast hard drive. It boggles the mind that anyone would even defend apple on that, seems like an absolute no brainer.

KnightWRX said:
Face it, you just didn't think of Fiber channel and now you're looking for a way to "win".
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Wow, that's the most hilarious thing I've read in a LONG time. I didn't "think of fiber channel"? Hilarious. FIBRE CHANNEL ISN"T INCLUDED. Regardless of how ridiculous an interpretation of "include" you try and fabricate.


MP only includes USB2 though 3 has been available (which frankly I don't really care about but there's really no excuse not to support it).
MP only includes SATA II even though III has been available, that's the one I really care about.
MP does include FW800 so at least it's not stuck on 400 but that's still slower than other newer busses.
They could support esata as well which would also be faster than any of the busses currently included, but they don't.
And of course no thunderbolt yet.

We're talking about a machine that runs $2499 to $4999 for a base configuration, only upgrade is faster CPU, and adding a SINGLE FAST SSD DRIVE can't be done at full speed without buying extra gear and wasting a PCI slot.

That's just flat out sad. Can't add ONE drive without crippling the speed of it.

EDIT: and one thing to add - the fibre channel card from the apple store is SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS. For that price you can probably get a PC that includes SATA III.
 
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Peace said:
I bet we don't see a new Mac Pro until WWDC2012.
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I think you're right. Apple have seemed to skip the Sandy Bridge E and are already playing with the Ivy Bridge E 22nm processors, according to reports. It'll be worth waiting for with the performance increase of a third over SB E and 10 cores - what's a few month between friends?
 
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