Apple's Newest Mac Pro Turns Five Years Old Today

[Sabelonada]

The iMac Pro is a completely different class of device. Just look at the price. It's not in the same market segment. And Apple has admitted that the iMac Pro is a stopgap solution before a new Mac Pro comes out. It is a pretty lame excuse for just how far the Mac Pro has been neglected.

And regarding the Mac Mini, you're missing the point. The point is what you just said, that it was not updated for years. Yes, I agree that this year's model is better than the previous generation. But what else did you expect, for it to be slower? When I said it was a minor speed bump, you have to place it in context. Compared to the previous Mac Mini, it is improved in every way. But compared to other computers released during the years in which the Mini wasn't updated, the improvement isn't large at all.

Except that's not at all what you said...

It's not just the Mac Pro that has been neglected. All of Apple's desktops have the same problem.

The iMac is overdue for an update.
The Mac Mini was not updated for years, and this year only a minor speed bump was announced.

Very disappointing.

for example.

There is absolutely no context regarding the Mac mini in your original statement. Yet somehow we are magically supposed to intuit that is what you meant.

 

[R3k]

Out of curiosity, would a new Mac mini be powerful enough for the traveling work?

I assume the thermal throttling would be an issue and the Mini would slow down quite a bit as a result.

 

[Ploki]

The iMac Pro is a completely different class of device. Just look at the price. It's not in the same market segment. And Apple has admitted that the iMac Pro is a stopgap solution before a new Mac Pro comes out. It is a pretty lame excuse for just how far the Mac Pro has been neglected.

And regarding the Mac Mini, you're missing the point. The point is what you just said, that it was not updated for years. Yes, I agree that this year's model is better than the previous generation. But what else did you expect, for it to be slower? When I said it was a minor speed bump, you have to place it in context. Compared to the previous Mac Mini, it is improved in every way. But compared to other computers released during the years in which the Mini wasn't updated, the improvement isn't large at all.

You said Apple neglects all desktops. Which isn't true. iMac Pro is a desktop, a completely new mac model altogether.
Mac Pro is not in the same market segment either - it was always expensive, iMac Pro is the same segment.

It's not an excuse, but saying desktops were neglected is just false, only the Mac Pro was truly neglected.

And no, Mac Mini is not a speed bump in context. In context it's a different class of machine altogether.

The 2012 (quadcore) and 2014 both used mobile chips with same limitations as the MacBooks of that year (16GB of RAM for example), and also used 85W PSUs like the 15" MacBook Pro.
Actually, 2012 was a copy of the 15" MacBook Pro (using same chips!), and 2014 was a copy of the 13" MacBook Pro (again, same chips!).

In 2018, Mini got a whole set of desktop CPUs for itself, a 150W PSU, twice as much RAM as the top MacBook Pro, and almost as much ports as the iMac Pro.

So to answer, what I expected from the Mini to be?
- In best case (judging by 2012), a mobile hexacore like the 15" MBP with max 32GB RAM.
- In worst case (judging by 2014), a mobile quadcore like the 13", with max 16GB RAM.

I didn't expect:
- 65W CPU
- upgradable RAM
- up to 64GB RAM
- 150W PSU
- USB A ports
- HDMI port
- 10GbE port

 

[R3k]

... And Apple has admitted that the iMac Pro is a stopgap solution before a new Mac Pro comes out.

Where did you hear that?

 

[Sabelonada]

I assume the thermal throttling would be an issue and the Mini would slow down quite a bit as a result.

In all the research I have done on the new Mac mini, it seems only the i3 version suffers from throttling due to crappy thermal compound. My research hasn't been exhaustive and I don't do video or audio work so my use case wouldn't be as impacted (general usage and development).

 

[Ploki]

I quite like my 2013 trashcan, works great still with Mojave and huge Logic sessions. It’s portability ended up being a godsend compared to the older cheese-grater, traveling to work in different places I can put it and a HDD enclosure in a carry on bag easily- the cheese-grater has to go in a huge box.

It’s quiet too which is great in the studio.

Laptops don’t have enough power yet afraid.

Depending on which trashcan you have, the hexa-cores are pretty close.

I assume the thermal throttling would be an issue and the Mini would slow down quite a bit as a result.

basing that on what?
https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...tling-and-performance-in-the-2018-i7-mac-mini
it maintained 3.5GHz mostly, which is well above the base frequency.

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

It wasn't my laptop, I have no idea. But the fact that it started updating without asking just as we wanted to use it was annoying enough in itself. In my class we have a Windows 10 machine that will perform a 20 minute update pretty much every other time we use it (we use it about once or twice every 1-2 weeks). It means that during a 1 hour class, we can't use the computer for 20 minutes, roughly once out of two classes. I don't think that's acceptable.

Welcome to the Hell that is spotty and annoying Endpoint Management. That's not "Windows" that is letting you down, it's a lot of things to do with how it's managed. Mainly the way the institution distributes and mandates updates.

Someone should have the machines set to Wake on Lan. They should be set to install updates at specific times, and specifically at something like 2:00 in the morning. "Mandated" restart? That should be configured from the Endpoint Management to prevent that sort of thing.

I've done IT Support in Managed Service for schools, and I'm old enough that my first computer was a beige MacPlus. (It was used, though… so… not that old…?)

In defense of modern Windows, I will say that there is no aesthetic downside to using Windows 10. There was a time when Mac users would primarily raise their noses aloft about Windows precisely because of the admittedly crappy experience. During XP days, IT departments generally left ClearType off, let displays default to 256 colors, all meaning your screen looked rasterized and all around more hideous than an equivalent Mac. Also, Microsoft has tried to sell Windows as a Sealing Wax and a Dessert Topping all in one, and it has created ugly and unintuitive interfaces where you have numerous places where shortcuts get scattered, confusing menus, you've had icons not even line up properly in File Explorer, etc.

The short take-away is that those aesthetic and functional horrors are mostly gone. Mac and Windows run software like CS not only similarly, but if anything, Windows tends to run CS better simply because Adobe seems to update for functionality with Windows before MacOS. (Adobe plays their own game and no longer has a sweetheart relationship with Apple, even though I regularly run into people who think "Macs run Photoshop Better" which has not been true for two decades now…)

Some caveats:

Windows still does not seem to clear out memory as cleanly as MacOS, and a reboot will "fix" a slow or dottering Windows Machine at a rate of 10-1 to needing to do it with Macs. (But you will run into problems with Macs where you have to reboot to fix.)

No doubt, much of the justifiable hatred for Windows these days comes from the PC makers who have been in a race to the bottom. So people's experience is with soft plastic laptops which bend when you pick them up, 15" screens with 1366 x 768 resolution, keyboards which are mushy garbage, and monitors at workstations which have been repurposed long past their sell-by date.

Frankly, almost every peripheral I have ever picked up in the last two decades has worked out-of-the-box, plug-and-play with Windows. With Macs, it's touch and go, and sometimes: no. The whole "just works" thing definitely has been flipped on its head a bit.

But what is a close-call for Mac vs PC is configuring a new, very high-end workstation. A modern Windows 10 PC configured with top of the line CPU, GPU, memory, monitor, etc. is going to crush pixels like nothing else. For a Mac to add up the specs to do the same kind of thing with a box and a monitor, without giving a unique form factor, well, the production differences are minor, at best. Both have file managers. Both have keyboard shortcuts. Both have built-in notifications. Both will do more for you if you clever enough to set it up the way you like. Mac has slightly more tasteful defaults.

But the TL;DR: if you're setting up a workstation for heavy-duty work, such as movies, animation, databasing, etc., you will notice very little difference in your workflow going from Mac to PC unless you are depending on platform-specific software.

That platform-specific is the kicker. There are users who have invested heavily in Logic and FinalCut. A new MacPro makes sense for them, and it makes sense for Apple if they intend to have these softwares continue to be industry standards. The lack of hardware to run them has made them less so than they once were.

 

[R3k]

Depending on which trashcan you have, the hexa-cores are pretty close.




basing that on what?
https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...tling-and-performance-in-the-2018-i7-mac-mini
it maintained 3.5GHz mostly, which is well above the base frequency.

Based upon experience, logical deduction, common opinion, and articles like this where a benchmarked mini dropped from 23000 ish to 17000 ish Geekbench score when the 2nd benchmark was taken 7 minutes after the first.

https://venturebeat.com/2018/11/02/...ks-suggest-mac-pro-speeds-unlike-macbook-air/

Noise is also a concern.

This all said, I’m not in the market for a new Mac but if I were I’d def further consider and research the mini as a replacement.
[doublepost=1545438043][/doublepost]

In all the research I have done on the new Mac mini, it seems only the i3 version suffers from throttling due to crappy thermal compound. My research hasn't been exhaustive and I don't do video or audio work so my use case wouldn't be as impacted (general usage and development).

Good to know, still, anything will throttle if it gets hot enough. Theres good reason why Apple put so much work into the thermal architecture of the Mac Pro and iMac Pro.

 

[DesterWallaboo]

We just built an i9 9900 8-core 5Ghz Hackintosh that is Geekbenched at 6650 single-thread and 38,300 multicore.

 

[Boil]

We just built an i9 9900 8-core 5Ghz Hackintosh that is Geekbenched at 6650 single-thread and 38,300 multicore.

What motherboard / chipset...?

 

[-BigMac-]

SOME GREAT COMMENTS HERE GUYS!
Everyones seems pretty disappointed in Apple.

Lets see the result when they come out with the most powerful Mac of all time.
If time heals all wounds

 

[Ploki]

Based upon experience, logical deduction, common opinion, and articles like this where a benchmarked mini dropped from 23000 ish to 17000 ish Geekbench score when the 2nd benchmark was taken 7 minutes after the first.

https://venturebeat.com/2018/11/02/...ks-suggest-mac-pro-speeds-unlike-macbook-air/

Noise is also a concern.

This all said, I’m not in the market for a new Mac but if I were I’d def further consider and research the mini as a replacement.
[doublepost=1545438043][/doublepost]

Good to know, still, anything will throttle if it gets hot enough. Theres good reason why Apple put so much work into the thermal architecture of the Mac Pro and iMac Pro.

That article is pretty bad, and a lot of speculation.

I'd be happy to do some tests when i get mine. hopefully, it will arrive by 28th, if it throttles as bad as they assume it does it's going straight back.

 

[zen]

Mac and Windows run software like CS not only similarly, but if anything, Windows tends to run CS better simply because Adobe seems to update for functionality with Windows before MacOS. (Adobe plays their own game and no longer has a sweetheart relationship with Apple, even though I regularly run into people who think "Macs run Photoshop Better" which has not been true for two decades now…)

It's not just Adobe CS - Windows runs everything better than MacOS does, simply because developers optimise for Windows, and Windows machines have far more capable hardware available.

 

[Ploki]

It's not just Adobe CS - Windows runs everything better than MacOS does, simply because developers optimise for Windows, and Windows machines have far more capable hardware available.

On the pro audio front: don't think so.

The benefit of mac has always been a closed system, which means you can actually optimise and test for hardware.
You cannot optimise for gazillion available configurations.

 

[Boil]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 2950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor ($894.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Enermax - Liqtech TR4 II 240 102.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($132.33 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock - X399M Taichi Micro ATX TR4 Motherboard ($274.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Flare X 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-2933 Memory ($759.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($497.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($497.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($697.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($697.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($697.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf Pro 14 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($569.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf Pro 14 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($569.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: AMD - Radeon Pro WX 9100 16 GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($1349.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: AMD - Radeon Pro WX 9100 16 GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($1349.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C Mini Dark TG MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($87.29 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Platinum 1300 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-S12A PWM chromax.black.swap 63.27 CFM 120mm Fan ($22.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140mm Fan ($24.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140mm Fan ($24.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A12x25 PWM 60.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($29.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A12x25 PWM 60.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($29.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $9371.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-22 06:09 EST-0500

As either a Windows box or a Hackintosh, this would be a pretty solid workstation...

US$10,000 = 16c/32t CPU, 64GB DDR4 RAM, 44TB storage, & dual WX 9100 GPUs

All in a decent chassis with quality cooling & power...

If we get ANYTHING that comes close to those specs from Apple, it will probably cost twice as much, if not more...

/sadface

 

[Ploki]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 2950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor ($894.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Enermax - Liqtech TR4 II 240 102.17 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($132.33 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock - X399M Taichi Micro ATX TR4 Motherboard ($274.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Flare X 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-2933 Memory ($759.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($497.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 2 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($497.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($697.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($697.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 4 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($697.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf Pro 14 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($569.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate - IronWolf Pro 14 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($569.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: AMD - Radeon Pro WX 9100 16 GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($1349.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: AMD - Radeon Pro WX 9100 16 GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($1349.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C Mini Dark TG MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($87.29 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Platinum 1300 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-S12A PWM chromax.black.swap 63.27 CFM 120mm Fan ($22.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140mm Fan ($24.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140mm Fan ($24.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A12x25 PWM 60.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($29.90 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua - NF-A12x25 PWM 60.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($29.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $9371.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-22 06:09 EST-0500

As either a Windows box or a Hackintosh, this would be a pretty solid workstation...

US$10,000 = 16c/32t CPU, 64GB DDR4 RAM, 44TB storage, & dual WX 9100 GPUs

All in a decent chassis with quality cooling & power...

If we get ANYTHING that comes close to those specs from Apple, it will probably cost twice as much, if not more...

/sadface

I really don't get the appeal of so much internal SSD storage, especially not SATA.

A Mac Pro should come with soldered/dual blade (like iMac Pro) secure system drive via T2 chip, and two-four m.2 slots.

SATA slots are irrelevant. There's no way in hell that apple will release a computer with internal SATA port in 2019, and it makes absolutely no sense to do so.

Thunderbolt 3 can handle at least 4 SATA drives per port, or 20 HDDs per port, and "storage" is usually expendable. You need a fast system drive and fast project drive.

Every video professional that i know works with external RAIDs, because the material is huge and more people work on it on different machines. Copying or opening the case everytime you need something is redundant work.

2 Video cards is only useful for video professionals, meaning wasted heat and resources for Audio professionals.

 

[Boil]

I really don't get the appeal of so much internal SSD storage, especially not SATA.

A Mac Pro should come with soldered/dual blade (like iMac Pro) secure system drive via T2 chip, and two-four m.2 slots.

SATA slots are irrelevant. There's no way in hell that apple will release a computer with internal SATA port in 2019, and it makes absolutely no sense to do so.

Thunderbolt 3 can handle at least 4 SATA drives per port, or 20 HDDs per port, and "storage" is usually expendable. You need a fast system drive and fast project drive.

Every video professional that i know works with external RAIDs, because the material is huge and more people work on it on different machines. Copying or opening the case everytime you need something is redundant work.

2 Video cards is only useful for video professionals, meaning wasted heat and resources for Audio professionals.

Just showing an example of what one could build up, if I were building the above for myself I would just go with the M.2 SSDs & have other storage as external...

The 'extra' 40TB of storage was more thrown for those who pine for the 'good old days' when Apple had Pro machines with a good portion of storage available...

I am on board with a quad M.2 storage solution, as I have said in other posts about the forums...

As for dual GPUs, 3D benefits as well, there is more than just audio & video...

 

[Ploki]

Just showing an example of what one could build up, if I were building the above for myself I would just go with the M.2 SSDs & have other storage as external...

The 'extra' 40TB of storage was more thrown for those who pine for the 'good old days' when Apple had Pro machines with a good portion of storage available...

I am on board with a quad M.2 storage solution, as I have said in other posts about the forums...

As for dual GPUs, 3D benefits as well, there is more than just audio & video...

3D is a part of video anyway, as far as computing needs go.
Still means the machines is pointless for audio like the 2013 trashcan

 

[chainmailr]

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263444/sales-of-apple-mac-computers-since-first-quarter-2006/

I don't think that's the case. Most people browse the internet and manage emails through an iPad. It's more convenient. Use of computers simply shifted back to "power users" like it was before the insurgence of mass media consumption, and we were doing fine...
Mass media consumption shifted to iPads and large-screen iPhones.

In the US, I feel like most people use a PC for work, even if it's only a laptop. Every job seems to require that skill.

I've mentioned this previously on this forum, but can only tell you that at the University of Texas, students are overwhelmingly using laptops - increasingly high quality PC laptops from Lenovo, Dell, and HP which sport plenty of ports and headphone/speaker jacks. In this 50000 student campus, the only tablets which I see (rarely) are Microsoft Surface convertible devices. This is also the case for faculty and staff. iPads are, as you mention, fine for consumption - email and browsing - but lack robust keyboards and mouse/trackpad interfaces for production, and are skimpy on ports. Apple's presence among university people consists largely of iPhones. iMacs still have significant desktop use, particularly in libraries, where economy of form factor and high quality displays are valued. I'd say one sees roughly 40% iMacs, 60% PC desktops in public library and study areas.

Same in UC Berkeley, except they all have MacBooks. Except for a few Surfaces (which are basically laptops) and other Windows PCs mainly in the mechanical engineering dept since a lot of their software depends on Windows. Nobody uses a full-on tablet like the iPad for their schoolwork.
[doublepost=1545503600][/doublepost]

Yeah, there are: No guts.

Say what you will about Apple; at least they have the chutzpah to swim upstream! Sometimes it's a hit, and when it is, it's a paradigm-shifter.

Sometimes it's a miss.

But at least they consistently TRY. Everyone one else just churns out the same "me too" crap, year after year, decade after decade. Them's the ones you should direct your Ire toward; not Apple!!!

It's gutsy if there's some potential reward. They built the 2013 Mac Pro knowing full well that you can't upgrade anything and that components (esp GPUs) were getting faster each year, meaning it'd be outdated very quickly.

Then it was clearly a "miss," but it's been 5 years with still no fix. They threw people a bone with the 2009+ Mac Pro firmware upgrades, as though they accepted people were sticking with them, or maybe their own employees were using them!
[doublepost=1545503694][/doublepost]

We just built an i9 9900 8-core 5Ghz Hackintosh that is Geekbenched at 6650 single-thread and 38,300 multicore.

But can it use iMessage?
[doublepost=1545504002][/doublepost]

The 2008 Mac Pro has been upgraded to the extent it could be. That 2009 will soon be in the same position, no higher upgrade.

2008-2009 was a strangely big leap. They're still releasing firmware upgrades for the 5,1, the second-latest model. The 2009 one basically is that once you've flashed it to 5,1 firmware (idk if the hardware is really different, but I haven't seen any diffs). The firmware upgrades were to keep it compatible with the latest macOS, as if they consider it the latest Mac Pro. Very unusual.

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 2950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor ($894.99 @ SuperBiiz)

[zillions of most expensive SSD drives attached.]

I'd like to ask if this is a serious theoretical build for any purpose. Maybe I'm a few years behind. Putting that many SSDs in there, as well as the most expensive possible almost seems like running up the cost with no performance gains.

I was part of a team which built a 40TB raid on a RedHat server on Dell rack server connected to fiber channel. The drives were all super-fast 2.5" spinning SCSI drives. The purpose was for an advertising firm, serving out image assets to roughly 40 to 60 graphic artists through the work day. This was making advertising catalogs and circulars, the "blue collar" version of advertising of churning out content which go into weeklies in store kiosks or mailed out.

Yeah, that was a super expensive computer, but it was rack-mounted and serving an entire office of designers.

A single PC with that much internal SSD storage seems like overkill. What would one single person be doing to require that much? Your SATA i/o wouldn't be able to use it, I would think.

If one person is working as, say, a movie editor, and constantly loading and working on large files, then you'd probably need one or more of those M2 drives, one of those 4TB drives, and then get much more bang/buck with an external RAID NAS attached by Thunderbolt.

Very few people work on assets that large by themselves, in which case you'd have one or more editors sharing assets from that NAS in an office, in which case the NAS makes even more financial sense when it's shared with people.

And a big NAS still makes sense to use spinning drives, which keep getting better, and are still great for this purpose.

I put together one movie editing suite. Which was for a single editor working on some basic commercials and publicity videos. In this case, we used the best 27" iMac we could get, (the benchmarks didn't justify getting a new MacPro for this purpose – and this was in the days before the iMac Pro), and attached a Thunderbolt RAID which sat next to it on the desk.

 

[R3k]

That article is pretty bad, and a lot of speculation.

I'd be happy to do some tests when i get mine. hopefully, it will arrive by 28th, if it throttles as bad as they assume it does it's going straight back.

Cool, hope it ends up working great for you.

 

[Ploki]

Cool, hope it ends up working great for you.

Me too.

Ordered an i7 MM and i5 13" after receiving a dud of an i9 (I got two computers for the price of a single i9). Been a funky couple of months here regarding computers.

 

[Boil]

3D is a part of video anyway, as far as computing needs go.
Still means the machines is pointless for audio like the 2013 trashcan

Wow, you are really stuck on audio for some reason, but I am here to tell you that there is more than just audio work being done on pro computers out there...

And you are also dismissing 3D as if it were just a subset of video work...

Unless you are being very narrow minded & place 3D with video because it has to be displayed on a monitor...?

3D modeling/animation/rendering takes a good bit of horsepower to work with, especially if you want fast viewport feedback...

There is a reason you see high-end GPUs (Quadros & WXs) in 3D workstations, but usually not the same in video editing workstations...

I'd like to ask if this is a serious theoretical build for any purpose. Maybe I'm a few years behind. Putting that many SSDs in there, as well as the most expensive possible almost seems like running up the cost with no performance gains.

A single PC with that much internal SSD storage seems like overkill. What would one single person be doing to require that much? Your SATA i/o wouldn't be able to use it, I would think.

I guess the point is, "hey. look what $10k can get me in a PC"; and then the question is, what will that same $10k get you from Apple in a headless workstation...?!?

My original post to another forum member is below; an example of what could be built, but the motherboard listed would handle five SATA drives, no problem...

And it was not a matter of placing the most expensive storage on the list, but the highest capacity...

Just showing an example of what one could build up, if I were building the above for myself I would just go with the M.2 SSDs & have other storage as external...

Personal MacOS workstation I would like to see would be built around a 7nm Ryzen CPU & 7nm Vega II FE GPU, more than enough power for what I want to do with it...

So I guess that means what I am looking for is an iMac Pro that has been updated to all AMD 7nm components (meaning CPU & GPU), but without the attached monitor; and if I can get end-user serviceable CPU/RAM/M.2 SSD(s)/GPU, that would be great...

 

[Ploki]

Wow, you are really stuck on audio for some reason, but I am here to tell you that there is more than just audio work being done on pro computers out there...

And you are also dismissing 3D as if it were just a subset of video work...

Unless you are being very narrow minded & place 3D with video because it has to be displayed on a monitor...?

3D modeling/animation/rendering takes a good bit of horsepower to work with, especially if you want fast viewport feedback...

There is a reason you see high-end GPUs (Quadros & WXs) in 3D workstations, but usually not the same in video editing workstations...

There's also powerful GPUs in color grading stations, and since most of video NLEs support GPU accel you start to see powerful GPUs in video stations as well.
These are all a subcategory of video in a technical sense.
Just like all music ******** and clarifications are a subcategory of audio...
One comes out of the speakers, and one comes out of the monitors.

Yes I'm stuck on audio because I do audio, I'm just saying that the 2006-2012 Mac Pro was suitable for all kinds of professional work because you could configure it with crazy dual GPUs or you could stick a GT120 in it and call it a day.

Buying a machine with dual GPUs is a waste of resources and money for audio, and if Apple makes another "Pro" machines like the 2013 Trashcan, it won't be optimally configured for Audio, might as well call it "Mac Pro but for 3D and video only"

edit:
So, I'm here to tell you that there's more than 3D/video done on pro machines.

If the 2013 trashcan would have come with i.e.: optional 2cpu board/1gpu board config instead of vice versa, it would have been better for audio.

So I guess that means what I am looking for is an iMac Pro that has been updated to all AMD 7nm components (meaning CPU & GPU), but without the attached monitor; and if I can get end-user serviceable CPU/RAM/M.2 SSD(s)/GPU, that would be great...

I know right?
I don't get the iMac Pro appeal.

All video editors, all colorists and all audio people i know (including myself) like to put fans *away from their face*. Apple then builds a stupid powerful machine and the only way to put it in a machine room (because most professional environments have one) is to waste the 5K display on it.

 

[Boil]

Yes I'm stuck on audio because I do audio, I'm just saying that the 2006-2012 Mac Pro was suitable for all kinds of professional work because you could configure it with crazy dual GPUs or you could stick a GT120 in it and call it a day.

Buying a machine with dual GPUs is a waste of resources and money for audio, and if Apple makes another "Pro" machines like the 2013 Trashcan, it won't be optimally configured for Audio, might as well call it "Mac Pro but for 3D and video only"

edit:
So, I'm here to tell you that there's more than 3D/video done on pro machines.

If the 2013 trashcan would have come with i.e.: optional 2cpu board/1gpu board config instead of vice versa, it would have been better for audio.


I know right?
I don't get the iMac Pro appeal.

All video editors, all colorists and all audio people i know (including myself) like to put fans *away from their face*. Apple then builds a stupid powerful machine and the only way to put it in a machine room (because most professional environments have one) is to waste the 5K display on it.

Again, I was giving an example of what US$10k could buy for a workstation in the PC / Windows / Hackintosh world...

One could hope Apple will have options on the GPUs, one can also hope that Apple actually allows us to swap out GPUs in a standard x16 PCIe slot (hopefully Gen4)...

For an audio workstation, just pull the GPUs from my build & replace with a single lower horsepower GPU & a Pro Tools PCIe hardware card, or with a Thunderbolt 3 PCIe card for other professional audio gear (Apogee, Universal Audio, etc.)...

I really hope Apple comes out with a truly upgradable Mac Pro at a not too unbearable price point, but I am also steeling myself for building up an all-AMD Hackintosh (in a NCASE M1 chassis)...