I hate to say it, but even the failing Apple of the late 90's made better desktops. My PPC 7600 had expansion ports, upgradeable everything. Even the frigging CPU was on a card.
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Apple's Revamped Mac Pro to Launch in 2019
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I hate to say it, but even the failing Apple of the late 90's made better desktops. My PPC 7600 had expansion ports, upgradeable everything. Even the frigging CPU was on a card.
Modular as Apple can easily swap components each year without having to create a wholly new machine. Users swap components? sorry, in Apple land that is called buying the current year model
I'm sure there will be a dedicated group of people willing to buy it, but I also think the long wait has heightened expectations to a degree that many people will be very disappointed, i.e., reaction of "I waited 2 years for that???"
I'd like it see a new pro display with it's own, built-in GPU. You'd plug in via Thunderbolt 3 which would not only power/charge your MacBook, but also access the extra GPU resources just like an eGPU device.
Perfect for MacBooks, etc, that don't exactly have desktop class graphics.
Perfect for MacBooks, etc, that don't exactly have desktop class graphics.
Wondering why all of this info wouldn’t come directly from Apple rather than via a third party. Also the current MacPro trash can was annoinced at WWDC and didn’t ship until January 2014, even though it was named late 2013 which it clearly wasn’t. So why would it be so hard to do the same. I’d rather them get it right. My trash can is slowly degrading and desperately needs an upgrade.
If there is not going to be at least some details and a release date announcement at WWDC 2018, who in their right mind is going to be waiting for it?
It doesn't take a firm the size of Apple 2+ years to come up with a sanctioned Hackintosh (which is probably what people want).
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Looks to me like its a very unsubtle attempt at a deliberate "leak" to manage market/press expectations of having any concrete announcement at WWDC.
I'm sure that you can see why nobody senior at Apple would want to stand up and say "Magical news folks, the modular Mac Pro is still vapourware!" (which is what anybody with an ounce of realism would read into this leak).
We don't say "Cue the.." anymore. It's 2018, didn't you get the memo.
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Seriously, what else?
That's not a "pro" display - its a gaming display for consumers with laptops.
Pro customers will have their own specialist requirements for both GPU (single, dual, Nvidia/AMD, compute optimised, graphics optimised...) and display screens (UHD, true 4k, 5k, 8k, size, matt, glossy, built in colorimeter, hood, which colour gamut...) and the GPU will probably become obsolete before the screen does.
Also, last time I looked, you can only get 4 lanes worth of PCIe bandwidth down a Thunderbolt cable, whereas high-end GPUs can use 16 lanes direct from the processor. 4 lanes is probably fine for games and Photoshop, but for pro/scentific work where the GPU can be as much an extension of the CPU as a graphics device...?
If you really want an eGPU and a display, just use VESA mountings to bolt the eGPU to the back of the display.
Meanwhile, the latest Thunderbolt controllers support DisplayPort 1.4 which greatly reduces the bottlenecks when connecting displays to computers via TB3 or USB-C.
Bundling things together just reduces choice and flexibility so.... oh, wait, hold the press, that's exactly what the present day Apple would do!
Isn't this what it's all about? The ISV's have moved away from the Mac. We see it here and it's true for Adobe and Avid. I bet you can make that case for just about all of them. I believe it started with the change from Final Cut pro to Final Cut Pro X. Both customers and ISV's took that as a sign that Apple was no longer serious about this market. Customers became open to looking on the other side and moving to windows. Microsoft was ready to help. Now ISV's look at their customer base and it's mostly Windows. Not much incentive to invest with Mac releases in that situation.
Add to this the financial situation at Apple. As we will hear again in a few days, Apple makes over 90% of it's money on iDevices+services. If you included Apple TV and watch (both running iOS derivatives for their OS's) it would be well over 90%. So in that situation, if you are having to decide where to invest in product development and R and D costs, that 's not that hard of a choice. And it's not in Mac's. Especially expensive ones that sell at low volumes.
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The gap in time truly tells me Apple doesn't know what it's doing or wants to do with this machine. They know what pro users want, but they're unwilling to do that for various reasons. So they're throwing around ideas instead of building the machine people want.
What Apple will do is release an INTEL Mac Pro just months before releasing ARM Macs, making it virtually obsolete within the first years as Apple previously did with the silver Mac Pros. Those never had any of the new features that Apple announced just a year later due to Bluetooth and Wifi issues. Then they let them stagnate as people ran to more powerful Wintel pro machines.
Will the last Apple pro user turn the lights out?
As many have said here: Apple, just put the most recent components into the cheese grater MP case and do that every time Intel / AMD / nVidia upgrade their components (or let users do that themselves).
Oh, and just call the trash can MP the new Mac mini (keeping Xeon CPU options and discrete GPU [more expensive version], and adding a consumer-CPU/integrated graphics option [cheap version]). That way the R&D resources that went into producing a silent, compact machine, will not be wasted.
Amen.
Oh, and just call the trash can MP the new Mac mini (keeping Xeon CPU options and discrete GPU [more expensive version], and adding a consumer-CPU/integrated graphics option [cheap version]). That way the R&D resources that went into producing a silent, compact machine, will not be wasted.
Amen.
I've owned Mac Pros before; iirc the first one, my Powermac G3 was in the $2000's range. I actually still have that one in my basement somewhere; I've been meaning to mod the case to take an ATX board. I loved the cheese grater style.
In 2015 I put together a $3000 windows workstation, and I would have happily gone as high as $5000 for a mac pro with comparable capabilities. In the $5000 price range, I may well still consider a Mac Pro in 2019 -- does that mean I get to complain?
More seriously though, it's way too early to say much because we don't know anything about what Apple means by "modular". If they mean one big box where you can install industry standard modules (for example video cards, ram, HDDs and SDDs) and it has plenty of modern ports it's something I'd be interested in buying (obviously I'm not going to promise how I'll feel before I see price and specs though.)
On the other hand, if "modular" means a desktop strewn with Apple proprietary modules like $600+card video card boxes, external drives, etc and a CPU "module" like a mac mini on steroids, then no, all I'll do is criticize Apple and Timmy for ruining a product I've enjoyed for 20+ years.
The reality though is we don't know anything about what Apple plans for the Pro, it's too early to speculate. But that in itself is a huge problem with Apple. For a major purchase like a $5000 or more computer, I should be planning my budget now; not a month before release day. I'm considering buying a GTX1080 at the moment for my 2015 machine; knowing what Apple has in store with the pro could help with that decision.
Also, at this point if Apple releases my dream mac pro and still leaves us in limbo wondering about these arm rumours, I'd still be very reluctant to drop $5k or more in what may or may not be a deal product line (imo). And since I'm currently running my "windows pro" machine, a move back to mac will be a harder sell for me than it would have been in 2015 when I would have spent the $5,000 without a second thought.
This is not going to be a sanctioned Hackintosh. It will be a sealed unit with some modularity, probably with external (Apple-built) modules connected via an Apple-built interconnect.
If anyone reading this is waiting for a standard tower Mac Pro with PCIe slots like the cheese grater, stop waiting now and switch to PC. I firmly expect that will never happen again.
Yeah, Tim Cook, Mr. SJW, takes full advantage of naïve and ignorant people in his customer base. Business ethics at their finest.
Apple: Hey Foxcom, build us a Mac Pro computer our Pro customers will love!
Foxcom: Sure, when do you need it, in 30 minutes or in 1 hour?
Apple: Wait...what...that...not possible....
Apple: Hey Foxcom, we are deep in **** here, remember that old case from 2012 which our Pro customers loved?
Foxcom: Sure
Apple: In how many years can you place new hardware in it?
Foxcom: Sure, when do you need it, in 30 minutes or in 1 hour?
Apple: Wait...what...that...not possible....
Apple: We have designed this stupid new modular Mac Pro which our Pro customers will hate anyway bu it has Apple DNA
Foxcom: Sure, we can manufacture it but we need to employ more people and educate them on how to build your new stupid system which all you customers will hate
Apple: Perfect, how long will it take?
Foxcom: 2-3 weeks
Apple: Wait...what...that...not possible....can we not say 4 years instead?
Foxcom: Sure, only for you Apple!
Apple: Thank you Foxcom, exactly what we want!
#facepalm
Foxcom: Sure, when do you need it, in 30 minutes or in 1 hour?
Apple: Wait...what...that...not possible....
Apple: Hey Foxcom, we are deep in **** here, remember that old case from 2012 which our Pro customers loved?
Foxcom: Sure
Apple: In how many years can you place new hardware in it?
Foxcom: Sure, when do you need it, in 30 minutes or in 1 hour?
Apple: Wait...what...that...not possible....
Apple: We have designed this stupid new modular Mac Pro which our Pro customers will hate anyway bu it has Apple DNA
Foxcom: Sure, we can manufacture it but we need to employ more people and educate them on how to build your new stupid system which all you customers will hate
Apple: Perfect, how long will it take?
Foxcom: 2-3 weeks
Apple: Wait...what...that...not possible....can we not say 4 years instead?
Foxcom: Sure, only for you Apple!
Apple: Thank you Foxcom, exactly what we want!
#facepalm
This sounds about right. There'll be proprietary "modules" you can buy. I'll be very surprised if they allow the Mac Pro to be a "free for all" in the way that PC towers are.
They're right, I did just that and didn't buy an iMac Pro because I want the modular Mac Pro. Had they updated us earlier I would have don't just that. I'm feeling a bit spiteful though (in a cut off my nose sense) and almost don't want to buy an iMac Pro at this point just because they now want me to.
Anyway, the big question is when in 2019 and if it's late 2019 what are the chances it delays to 2020.
I should probably just order the iMac Pro today.
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I laughed. Flextronics build the Mac Pros though, not Foxconn.
Anyway, the big question is when in 2019 and if it's late 2019 what are the chances it delays to 2020.
I should probably just order the iMac Pro today.
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I laughed. Flextronics build the Mac Pros though, not Foxconn.
Thx! I think I've decided to quit waiting and just got iMac Pro. Will see how the Mac Pro develops over the next 4 years and maybe return to it then. My 2008 MP is 2 OS releases behind and really showing its age but it did get 10 years of life with three graphics cards and multiple SSDs!
I shall miss my 2010 cMP although its hard to imagine any new Mac product going over 10 years and still functioning perfectly (I have added a SSD boot drive and filled the other drive bays but thats it)
I think we do know. ARM chips were designed for power saving so why would you expect them to perform any better than chips designed to favor performance over power savings? Kind of like building a racing car based on a diesel engine. It could be a fun experiment but you would never win any races so what's the point?
Hows about...
Take Intels latest chipset which supports everything Apple needs.
Stick it all to a motherboard in a way that works.
Add in a few PCI slots to make it modular.
Design a nice case that is easy to access
Use decent thermal paste and cooling
ASUS manage it numerous times a year as do every other computer hardware company.
I think this is Apple trying its best to design something so locked down it will hardly be modular and wont support PC standard cards
Take Intels latest chipset which supports everything Apple needs.
Stick it all to a motherboard in a way that works.
Add in a few PCI slots to make it modular.
Design a nice case that is easy to access
Use decent thermal paste and cooling
ASUS manage it numerous times a year as do every other computer hardware company.
I think this is Apple trying its best to design something so locked down it will hardly be modular and wont support PC standard cards
1) bogus comment. yes, the performance made the MPro's great, but performance in computer world is moving forward every single day. being stuck with a set of hardware for 5 years, puts a significant dent on the capability of keeping up. Many of the cheese graters that are still around today are keeping up with competition because of the easily swappable components. ANd to say just because it's 3rd party RAM it's "garbage" is ridiculous. There are some extremely high quality companies out there who use far better RAM than what apple provides. Heck, anything from Kingston I'd take in a heartbeat. LIfetime warranties and all. Do some research on RAM availability and quality before making comments like this.
And it's not just RAM. using industry standard connectivity allows for industry standard parts. that means that a user wants to put in a new GPU? sure, they could get a really cheap part, or they could go and buy a high end part. it's the users option. And it makes a massive difference in today's computing. a GPU from 5 years ago (that was already out of date on launch) is several generations behind. AMD alone has released not just new lineups of faster cards, but whole new iterations of their chip designs. 2xx and 3xx platforms, then the 4xx and 5xx platforms and even the new (and I forget the name) platform. if the cheese grater mac was the current one, users would have easily been able to swap these out and keep up to date with GPU performance.
2) Mechanical hard drives are not the best tech, but do offer significant benefits for data storage than SSD's. especially in the price point. When we're talking pure data storage, or even basic media storage capabilities, speed of the bus and raw IO performance isn't the biggest consideration. How MUCH storage is. and when you need multiple terrabytes of storage (think 20+tb), there's absolutely no feasible way of doing this in a cost effective manner with SSD. maybe one day, but not this day.Until SSD prices per GB match that of Spinners, spinners will have a place. Here's a tip, most, if not majority of all cloud services are using spinners in some form of array.