Apple's New Mac Pro Begins Showing Up in Benchmarks

[Digitalclips]

1 & 2,
I don't get all the great comments about it being lighter and smaller? It's a damn desktop. You are not meant to be carrying around in your bag like a laptop. People are suddenly going to start taking a desktop on visiting clients? Packing all the external drives away and taken the as well. That'll look really professional, asking a client to wait 30 minutes while you plug everything. Horsehocky.

3,
Looks better? It's a workstation computer, not a Ferrari. Looks only matter to the sad lot that wont use it to make money.

4, After 4 years to work on this they give a mediocre increase in raw processing power. The GPU's are great but unless you run stuff that is optimised for them they are nothing more than heaters. We should have been seeing motherboards with 4 slots in these machines not a reduction down to 1.

5, Good expandability? HA HA. If you want to double the spend on the initial machine to get a similar set up to what you can already get inside the current systems. As for CopperCripple, don't believe the carp that is said. It was a joke on release, going from optic to copper.

6, Again it's a damn desktop, doesn't need to be carried around. The only time you need to move it is when you take it out of the box and plonk it on the desk.

Or is everyone going to get a plinth and bow down to it every morning?

I will definitely get on my knees and give thanks every morning once I get one. After a couple of years using a MacBook Pro i7 after selling my 8 Core Mac Pro, I can't wait to get back to a real computer.

 

[barmann]

On a prerelease machine, with a beta software? compared to one of the most powerfull workstation which exist today?

Well, prerelease or not, this is supposedly an MP 6.1 with 12 core CPU and 64GB RAM, top of the line .

Also think about 1000MB/s SSD speed compared to standard 80-100MB/s HD or even raid :-D
it will be a GIANT LEAP

A single system! drive allows that speed - how does it speed up anything ?

 

[Rocketman]

What we wanted was:
1. PCIE 3.0 with power for at least 2 REAL GPUs
2. USB 3
3. SATA 3
What we got is......an abomination that barely gives us one of those things. Would have been better to say "Mac Pro is discontinued, but check out the new Mini Squared !!!"

What you got was a manufacturable entirely solid state computer able to be sold at high enough margins to stay available worldwide for years. Sometimes availability trumps features. This has the capability to be externally upgraded vastly for "most" users. Some users will actually be better off with a Hackintosh blade system. We need a full-time integrator guy who advertises availability and charges whatever price works.

However I will be curious to see Version 2 and 3 of this MacPro. I hope it has features added to help it grid and farm.

I wouldn't be all that surprised to see the "old" MacPro stay available BTO for people who "need" internal expansion. The "old" MacBookPro still outsells the rMBP!

Rocketman

 

[atomwork]

So how about pure CPU power

When i need to render fluids or particle animations in Cinema 4d. Pure CPU power tops GPU. That means the improvements aren't really there.

I remember looking last year at some geekbench and there were server grade chips that topped out at 44.000 points

At least for the 3d community I wish they had some dual chips available pumping out 24 cores.

I guess we have to wait and see real life performance. It would be quite sad if that's the only option for raytracing programs.

 

[iBug2]

When i need to render fluids or particle animations in Cinema 4d. Pure CPU power tops GPU. That means the improvements aren't really there.

I remember looking last year at some geekbench and there were server grade chips that topped out at 44.000 points

At least for the 3d community I wish they had some dual chips available pumping out 24 cores.

I guess we have to wait and see real life performance. It would be quite sad if that's the only option for raytracing programs.

This is true although we should look forward for OpenCL rendering support in all major 3D apps in the future.

 

[Shagrat]

Just hush and go buy a HP or a BoXX then. Spend your $15,000 and buy 20-24 cores.

Why waste your time here?

Because...well....

 

[dfuerpo]

What I find interesting is that it is using the still unreleased Xeon E5-2697 v2 CPU. The E5 v2 series of Xeon processors is designed for single processor machines and will be available in 6, 8, 10 and 12 core versions. I wonder if Apple was intent on a small form factor and so designed the new Pro as a single CPU machine only. I bet they offer several (maybe all) of the core configurations. So, for those of you who were looking forward to a dual processor 24-core machine you will probably be disappointed.

 

[the8thark]

Geekbench is just such a useless benchmark.

Says nothing about x264 performance, 7-zip performance, OpenGL performance, OpenCL performance, LLVM performance and so on.

I agree. When real world benchmarks start appearing I'll be interested. In saying that, geekbench is nice but it's not the end of everything.

----------

So, your new crippled single socket machine is slightly faster than the 3 year old dual socket machine.

I will buy the Dell with dual 12-core chips - and those 24-core (48-thread) systems will destroy the iTube.

Why don't the fans see the writing on the wall? The "Mac Semi-pro" is simply the xMac that people have asked for.

Just like the iPhone. Everyone said it would never sell or do it's job but it did very well. The same thing with the new MP. Many people are trashing it. But I am sure it'll be the beast Apple claim it to be. Once you factor in 64 bit, the gpu (which geekbench does not) and all the rest.

Enjoy your Dell. But I'll either be getting a new MP one day or even if I don't I'll still like the machine. "Can't innovate my ass" is exactly right. I'm sure it'll do exactly what people want it to. And some silly spec number won't ever change that fact.

 

[shaunvis]

Is it possible that this is bogus? A hackintosh with info changed to look legit? Maybe even someone that got ahold of a new Xeon & built a system?

Just wondering.

 

[haravikk]

Well, obviously it'll be possible in 10.9 since they are putting 2 GPU's in the new Mac Pro.

That's not necessarily true; SLI/CrossFire are really more like gaming features. Plus you don't need it for OpenCL which is what the twin GPUs are most likely intended for, though the two separate cards will also with running multiple 4k displays (depending upon how that actually gets distributed).

I'd certainly love to see it supported, and maybe it will be, but it's not a certainty by any means.

 

[the8thark]

The old Mac Pro with 2 GPUs had 2 PCI slots left over.

You can, already, today, get at least THREE PCI slots in an external chassis. And you can add up to 36 of those to the new Pro (not that you ever would). You can also attach such a chassis (with desk space to spare) to any machine you need--even a MacBook Pro--instead of being "locked down" to one machine. Even a future GPU card can be moved from machine to machine that way. (Not everyone will want that... I will! Retina TB2 Air, please!)

But this machine is designed for the future, not the past. For Thunderbolt, the future means:

- Falling costs, rising options

- Thunderbolt 2

The Mac Pro is now the hub at the center of the system you used to call "the computer." That hub can be replaced while leaving the rest of your TB2 setup intact. It's a different kind of expandability--maybe worse--but so far it sounds like people complaining about the loss of floppy drives--which bothered ME a lot but turned out fine. I think the sky won't fall as hard as some fear.

The worst you can say is that the TB2-based future looks expensive. It also looks really fast, and really flexible.

Quoted for truth. Finally someone gets it. The new MP is new way of thinking about the pro computer. And not everyone will initially like it. But within time it'll become the norm.

 

[-hh]

Here's what's up -- lack of significant advancements in CPU technology is a real restriction. There just isn't much to do other than add more cores, and all those cores are hot, which then comes at the expense of clock speed. It's a tricky balance.

In light of that, Apple's decided that the big leap forward in the new generation of Mac Pros will come from the GPU side. Geekbench is a CPU-only test, so you're not seeing the important part. The important part is that on a GPU test it would obliterate any out of the box mac ever, probably by an order of magnitude. From here on out, it's all eggs in the GPU basket.

If the software creators don't take advantage of the dual workstation GPUs, it won't do anyone any good. If they do, then it'll make this new Mac Pro wipe the floor with the old model in real world use (not Geekbench).

Of course, you can always add GPUs to the old model. But it's the change in philosophy that I'm commenting on.

Agreed, this machine is betting on OSX capabilities like Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) to be finally adopted ...

... and depending on where one's specific high end interests are, you're either doing well ... or effectively, haven't left the starting gate.

For the latter, the poster child is Adobe Photoshop. Adobe's been notoriously dragging their feet on multi-core and GPU support, with just a trickle of parallelism being added to some of Photoshop's filters.

The basic rule of thumb (per Digital Lloyd, etc) for photographers on higher performance GPUs is: "Don't Bother spending money here".


-hh

 

[the8thark]

buried by the Fanbois, don't want anyone to forget

And it's been said many many times here that's not the entire picture. GPU, 32bit vs 64 bit geekbench and many other things are not factored in. Plus the fact it's not real world app or process benchmarks.

 

[GermanyChris]

Judging by that score I don't think so. I also don't think this was a 64bit version. I was expecting it to push past 35K. Had they done updated hardware in the current case that would be the case.... We will only know when people get their hands on one.

I think you were the only one.

 

[koban4max]

So we waited 1500 days for an 8% boost.

yup.

 

[the8thark]

And the trolls are out commenting on something that has yet to be released.

This is "Macrumers". Hear that in the name? It implies speculation. Go wade through 'CurrentTruths.com' if this bothers you. Macrumers is all Troll.

I did exactly that. It's called the  WWDC MMXIII Keynote.
And I would argue no one outside of Pixar and a few select others know more about this new MP then Apple do. It's all speculation here on these forums at this point. Best wait till it's released for sale and some real world benchmarks show up.

 

[GermanyChris]

yup.

No we got a tube too

 

[echoout]

No we got a tube too

And it's small. REALLY small. How badass is THAT??!!!

 

[ness96]

Just another sign of Apple failing.

Attempting to distill overall performance down to a single number is just monumentally stupid.

Have you not noticed that MacBooks approach the score of existing 2010 Mac Pros? Does that actually mean you can acceptably do the work Mac Pros are used for, on a MacBook?

 

[ctdonath]

1 & 2, I don't get all the great comments about it being lighter and smaller? It's a damn desktop.

Just because it's a "desktop" computer doesn't mean it has to take up a significant fraction thereof.

3, Looks better? It's a workstation computer, not a Ferrari.

Very high quality systems take a little extra time to look like it. Cray 2 comes to mind.

4, After 4 years to work on this they give a mediocre increase in raw processing power. The GPU's are great

CPUs haven't improved much in raw processing power for years. Everything is stalled out at ~3GHz. GPUs are where it's at, pursuing a wildly different computing paradigm which a smart power-hungry user will make clever use of. Apple builds systems, not processors, and the new Mac Pro is about the best that can be done with available components.

5, Good expandability? HA HA. If you want to double the spend on the initial machine to get a similar set up to what you can already get inside the current systems.

The "inside" you refer to requires a cavernous space which almost nobody uses (and still requires a massive power supply 'just in case'). So if nobody is using that volume which makes the machine 6x bigger than it need be, and Thunderbolt is just routing the internal bus to the outside via thin simple plug-and-go screaming fast cables, suck the air out of the box already - hey, look, the result is a compact tube!

6, Again it's a damn desktop, doesn't need to be carried around. The only time you need to move it is when you take it out of the box and plonk it on the desk.

And when you do need to move it, it's easy to and you don't have to clear off several square feet of new desk space.

Or is everyone going to get a plinth and bow down to it every morning?

No, but I'll giggle with joy at having the fastest dang machine in the coolest package, looking way better than a monster box which contains little more than hot air.

 

[the8thark]

Anyone still complaining about the new MP needs to read this topic.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1594354/
And watch the WWDC 2013 video called "Painting The Future" where Pixar uses the MP. It's just insane what can be done on the new MP. And it's free to register as a developer to watch these videos. I've done that.

https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/videos/index.php
The videos are here for you to watch. And if what I read is true (I'll find out soon once the video is downloaded) then no one has to worry about what the MP can do in the real world. If Pixar love it, then I'm sure it'll be just fine for what anyone here wants to do with it.

 

[Asclepio]

Firmware is not part of Mavericks. Throw up another hail mary.
You are saying hypothetically, now that you at least got the right interaction of tech down, that the test box has firmware that has underclocked the processor lower than the reported state IN the exact same firmware to fool us into a false sense of new Mac Pro slowness?

what? hypothetically? apple always slowed down their device trough firmwares
that are part of the system anyway.

 

[shanson27]

Mac pro white version Not bad at all

 

[xgman]

Moore's law seems to be going backwards in terms of single core raw speed. 12 cores are nice but I'd rather have 6 with much greater speed for most things except maybe video and rendering work.

 

[Terrin]

Mac Pro 2013

Customer desires:
- Slightly smaller
- Exponentially faster

Apple delivers:
- Slightly faster


- Exponentially smaller.

Oh... and one more thing. You'll no longer be able to upgrade any of the internal components when Intel or AMD upgrade their processors.

Classic

Yes, except the machine has not shipped yet. These scores and conclusions are meaningless.