I've had money burning a hole in my pocket for a new MacPro as well and I will not buy their current model. So APPLE if you're listening release the new MacPro already and you will have a ton of sales! This update to the MacPro line is way overdue!
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I've had money burning a hole in my pocket for a new MacPro as well and I will not buy their current model. So APPLE if you're listening release the new MacPro already and you will have a ton of sales! This update to the MacPro line is way overdue!
Maybe Tuesday will finally be the day...
I sure do hope so! I will chunk down my money for a dual in a heartbeat on Tuesday if that's the case.
Update coming on July 13th...what Mac will it be?
Based on Apple's update methodology this summer a Mac computer has been updated every month on the Tuesday that falls closest to the middle of the month...
April 13th - MacBook Pro
May 18th - MacBook
June 15th - Mac Mini
July 13th - ????
August 17th - ????
September 14th - ????
My money is on the MacAir in July and the iMac in August. Both of those computers would benefit from being on sale prior to the start of school this fall. The MacPro is surely to get updated after the other two...so I will peg September for the MacPro release.
I purchased a MacBook Pro for my wife last month and am holding out for an iMac for myself and want the latest version due in the next 5-6 weeks if my timeline above is correct. I have the cash for an i7 27" iMac and intend on purchasing one as soon as they are updated. Come on Apple - don't disappoint!!!
Based on Apple's update methodology this summer a Mac computer has been updated every month on the Tuesday that falls closest to the middle of the month...
April 13th - MacBook Pro
May 18th - MacBook
June 15th - Mac Mini
July 13th - ????
August 17th - ????
September 14th - ????
My money is on the MacAir in July and the iMac in August. Both of those computers would benefit from being on sale prior to the start of school this fall. The MacPro is surely to get updated after the other two...so I will peg September for the MacPro release.
I purchased a MacBook Pro for my wife last month and am holding out for an iMac for myself and want the latest version due in the next 5-6 weeks if my timeline above is correct. I have the cash for an i7 27" iMac and intend on purchasing one as soon as they are updated. Come on Apple - don't disappoint!!!
You can order an iMac 27" i7 right now on apples website
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MB953LL/A?mco=MTM3NDc2NjA
Configure your iMac 27-inch
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Processor
Get amazing performance from the quad-core Intel Core i5 or i7 "Nehalem" processor, which features four processor cores on a single chip. Choose the speed and processor you want.
Learn more
The Intel Core i5 or i7 processor incorporates four processing cores onto one die, so data doesn't have to travel far to get from core to core. These "Nehalem" processors include the following features:
o 8MB of shared L3 cache, which boosts performance by keeping data and instructions in a fast-access cache that is available to all four processor cores.
o An integrated memory controller, which allows faster access to data stored in memory by connecting the memory controller directly to the processor, eliminating any middle man and significantly increasing memory bandwidth.
o Turbo Boost, a dynamic performance technology that automatically speeds up the cores in use when other cores aren't needed.
The Intel Core i7 processor also features Hyper-Threading technology, which allows two threads to run simultaneously on each processor core, providing eight virtual cores for increased performance.
Processor
o 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
o 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 [Add $200.00
A computer doesn't run on CPU alone; the current crop of GPU's, although perfectly adequate for the job is behind the trend - when you purchase a computer you want to have it last at least 3 years - right now the current GPU simply won't last that long in terms of longevity. Once Apple provides an iMac with an ATI 5000 or nVidia 400 series GPU then I'll jump on board asap.
A greater indictment of a piece of useless iCrap could never have been written.
iPad... the Apple for idiots and grandma.
And Morphing Dragons.
Poor Justin Long...
Thanks!
A greater indictment of a piece of useless iCrap could never have been written.
iPad... the Apple for idiots and grandma.
And Morphing Dragons.
Poor Justin Long...
Thanks!
Cute.
You missed the point, and the hidden insult.
There's a vast difference between missing and dismissing.
Sorry, but can you turn down the "Douche" a little? Thanks
I think this post may sum up and be of interest to those that are wondering why many professional users, like myself, have decided to leave the Mac Pro. NOTE: I LOVE the Apple Mac Pro and have one that has been made part of my "render network" but this should be a good read for those asking the question just what would someone do with all that CPU/GPU power?
I am a 3D artist and use many high-end 3D programs that cost between $1,000-3000 each. These include Maxon Cinema 4D, Autodesk Max, ZBrush, Vue Infinite, Poser Pro 2010 and Adobe Photoshop CS5 "Extended".
Now, most of these programs are 64bit and are capable of using as much RAM as you can throw at them. Then the Xeon CPUs REALLY come into play with their multi-cores. Having two 5680 Xeon CPUs with 12 cores and 24GB of memory with an nVidia 480x or professional series graphics card with "CUDA" support and "Shader 3". These types of programs can and will eat as much as you have. If one checks benchmarks such as "Cinebench" and other render testing you will see where all of this comes into play and it is drastic the difference all of this high-end hardware makes.
What does this mean? A few things, but most important is the amount of material a single scene can handle, rather static or animated and the time it takes to render those scenes. Those two things alone make a LOT of difference in being hindered in what you can do.
The other thing it is worth noting is that nVidia is typically the champ when it comes to best performance for 3D rendering. One reason is some programs will take advantage of specific codecs and processes such as "CUDA". Going with anything other than nVidia for a 3D workstation would not be quite as good and in some cases cripple some features in select 3D programs, which if you spent thousands on is not an option.
Now, lets take this one step further to what I do. Some of those 3D software programs have programs included or sold separately that you can install on other systems dedicated to 3D rendering. You build a "render farm" and those sub-systems are put on your local network. My network, as most high-end 3D artists consists of Cat 6e (NOT 5e) Ethernet and are hard wired connection for best speed and reliability. This means you can setup as many "render nodes" as you want with each one processing a rendering task. A simple way to think of it is something like "SETI at home" where they use your unused CPU cycles to make a large pool of processing power.
There is also another problem with using an Apple Mac computer and that is the fact of some 3D applications work better under Windows 7 64bit. The reason is that is where the majority of their user base is at and therefore more focused on fixing bugs on that platform. If the Mac version does get fixed, which may or may not, it can be months later. Also, some programs and plug-ins simply are not available on the Mac.
What this means for someone like myself is I am VERY dependent upon new hardware. Since Apple has left the Mac Pro behind with very late product cycles it makes it impossible for me to continue their support. The Macs I have now are relegated to server status for part of my render farm. At this time I have gone back to building my own custom computers and most likely will never go back. For family and others that do not work with programs like this, I would certainly recommend a Mac. But if you are really into 3D art design, then the choice is clear in my opinion.
This was long, but I hope it explains just what those high-end computers can and are used for.
I am a 3D artist and use many high-end 3D programs that cost between $1,000-3000 each. These include Maxon Cinema 4D, Autodesk Max, ZBrush, Vue Infinite, Poser Pro 2010 and Adobe Photoshop CS5 "Extended".
Now, most of these programs are 64bit and are capable of using as much RAM as you can throw at them. Then the Xeon CPUs REALLY come into play with their multi-cores. Having two 5680 Xeon CPUs with 12 cores and 24GB of memory with an nVidia 480x or professional series graphics card with "CUDA" support and "Shader 3". These types of programs can and will eat as much as you have. If one checks benchmarks such as "Cinebench" and other render testing you will see where all of this comes into play and it is drastic the difference all of this high-end hardware makes.
What does this mean? A few things, but most important is the amount of material a single scene can handle, rather static or animated and the time it takes to render those scenes. Those two things alone make a LOT of difference in being hindered in what you can do.
The other thing it is worth noting is that nVidia is typically the champ when it comes to best performance for 3D rendering. One reason is some programs will take advantage of specific codecs and processes such as "CUDA". Going with anything other than nVidia for a 3D workstation would not be quite as good and in some cases cripple some features in select 3D programs, which if you spent thousands on is not an option.
Now, lets take this one step further to what I do. Some of those 3D software programs have programs included or sold separately that you can install on other systems dedicated to 3D rendering. You build a "render farm" and those sub-systems are put on your local network. My network, as most high-end 3D artists consists of Cat 6e (NOT 5e) Ethernet and are hard wired connection for best speed and reliability. This means you can setup as many "render nodes" as you want with each one processing a rendering task. A simple way to think of it is something like "SETI at home" where they use your unused CPU cycles to make a large pool of processing power.
There is also another problem with using an Apple Mac computer and that is the fact of some 3D applications work better under Windows 7 64bit. The reason is that is where the majority of their user base is at and therefore more focused on fixing bugs on that platform. If the Mac version does get fixed, which may or may not, it can be months later. Also, some programs and plug-ins simply are not available on the Mac.
What this means for someone like myself is I am VERY dependent upon new hardware. Since Apple has left the Mac Pro behind with very late product cycles it makes it impossible for me to continue their support. The Macs I have now are relegated to server status for part of my render farm. At this time I have gone back to building my own custom computers and most likely will never go back. For family and others that do not work with programs like this, I would certainly recommend a Mac. But if you are really into 3D art design, then the choice is clear in my opinion.
This was long, but I hope it explains just what those high-end computers can and are used for.
There's a vast difference between missing and dismissing.
What was the point and the insult then?
I think this post may sum up and be of interest to those that are wondering why many professional users, like myself, have decided to leave the Mac Pro. NOTE: I LOVE the Apple Mac Pro and have one that has been made part of my "render network" but this should be a good read for those asking the question just what would someone do with all that CPU/GPU power?
I am a 3D artist and use many high-end 3D programs that cost between $1,000-3000 each. These include Maxon Cinema 4D, Autodesk Max, ZBrush, Vue Infinite, Poser Pro 2010 and Adobe Photoshop CS5 "Extended".
Now, most of these programs are 64bit and are capable of using as much RAM as you can throw at them. Then the Xeon CPUs REALLY come into play with their multi-cores. Having two 5680 Xeon CPUs with 12 cores and 24GB of memory with an nVidia 480x or professional series graphics card with "CUDA" support and "Shader 3". These types of programs can and will eat as much as you have. If one checks benchmarks such as "Cinebench" and other render testing you will see where all of this comes into play and it is drastic the difference all of this high-end hardware makes.
What does this mean? A few things, but most important is the amount of material a single scene can handle, rather static or animated and the time it takes to render those scenes. Those two things alone make a LOT of difference in being hindered in what you can do.
The other thing it is worth noting is that nVidia is typically the champ when it comes to best performance for 3D rendering. One reason is some programs will take advantage of specific codecs and processes such as "CUDA". Going with anything other than nVidia for a 3D workstation would not be quite as good and in some cases cripple some features in select 3D programs, which if you spent thousands on is not an option.
Now, lets take this one step further to what I do. Some of those 3D software programs have programs included or sold separately that you can install on other systems dedicated to 3D rendering. You build a "render farm" and those sub-systems are put on your local network. My network, as most high-end 3D artists consists of Cat 6e (NOT 5e) Ethernet and are hard wired connection for best speed and reliability. This means you can setup as many "render nodes" as you want with each one processing a rendering task. A simple way to think of it is something like "SETI at home" where they use your unused CPU cycles to make a large pool of processing power.
There is also another problem with using an Apple Mac computer and that is the fact of some 3D applications work better under Windows 7 64bit. The reason is that is where the majority of their user base is at and therefore more focused on fixing bugs on that platform. If the Mac version does get fixed, which may or may not, it can be months later. Also, some programs and plug-ins simply are not available on the Mac.
What this means for someone like myself is I am VERY dependent upon new hardware. Since Apple has left the Mac Pro behind with very late product cycles it makes it impossible for me to continue their support. The Macs I have now are relegated to server status for part of my render farm. At this time I have gone back to building my own custom computers and most likely will never go back. For family and others that do not work with programs like this, I would certainly recommend a Mac. But if you are really into 3D art design, then the choice is clear in my opinion.
This was long, but I hope it explains just what those high-end computers can and are used for.
Let us know what you're replacing your Mac Pros with, please. VERY interested.
Thanks!
One of the FIRST things they teach you in debate and PR school is to NEVER repeat your opponents' claims, insults, or arguments against you.
DIS-missed.
One of the FIRST things they teach you in debate and PR school is to NEVER repeat your opponents' claims, insults, or arguments against you.
DIS-missed.
Didn't this great school of yours teach you that red herrings are a fallacy?
Well red herrings are a fallacy, so once again. What was my point and hidden insult?
Dear Apple,
Please release the next-generation Mac Pro this Tuesday. It would be much appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
A G5 owner who refuses to buy the current Mac Pro
Please release the next-generation Mac Pro this Tuesday. It would be much appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
A G5 owner who refuses to buy the current Mac Pro
SOLD! My new render farm. I'll take 100, please.
Up yours Jobs.
They'll be cheaper without the 100 LCD monitors - or you can just use those bucks to bump up the RAM.
I am thinking about building a hackintosh with i7 chip and ATI 5870 graphics card. Maybe that would work once they released it on the mac pro.
Who cares - its a computer aint it? The only reason I'm holding out for the new iMacs is for space saving, but a computer of that spec and price is fantastic
^^ pretty decent computer. too bad its a Dell
Yeah... probably won't have to hold it a certain way to get it to work.
Where's the fun in that?
Yeah... probably won't have to hold it a certain way to get it to work.
Where's the fun in that?
makes it challenging! mwahahaLet us know what you're replacing your Mac Pros with, please. VERY interested.
Thanks!
As I said, I have gone back to custom building my computers. Here is the spec to my most recent build for my main 3D render computer. My Mac Pro and two other PCs are part of my render farm.
Specs:
Chassis Model: Custom metal design for EVGA SR2
Processor: 2x Dual (Intel Xeon X5650 2.66GHz (Six-Core) (12MB Cache)
Processor Overclock: 4.0GHz
Motherboard: EVGA Classified SR-2 Workstation Board (Chipset: Intel 5520) (Supports Quad-Core and Six-Core CPUs)
System Memory: 24GB DDR3 1333MHz (4GBx6 Configuration)
Power Supply: 1200W Corsair (AX 1200 Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Hard Drive Set Primary: Operating System: 2x OCZ Vertex 2 series 200GB in RAID 0 (400GB total primary)
Hard Drive Set Secondary: 1x (2TB Western Digital Carvier "Black" WD2001FASS)
Mass Storage: Drobo - 1.5 TB WD Carvier "Black" drives x 5.
Optical Drive 1: Plextor Blu-Ray Writer/Reader
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion (Includes Front I/O) (PCI-Express Slot Based)
CPUs Cooling: Liquid cooling H50 Corsair
H50 Tube Color:Blue Tubing with High-Performance Fluid
Chassis Fans: Upgraded Chassis With Zalman Fans (6 total)
Tempature Control: Touch 2000 Aerocool Temperature Display & Fan Controller
Noise Reduction: Noise suppression via custom sound proofing using material from Lowes.
I am thinking of sending my case off to smooth creations for some custom art work too. Granted, not your typical consumer, but then again most 3D artists like myself need as much power and networked operations as we can get. Apple has simply been way too long between updates and doesn't offer near the video power I need either. I still would recommend a Mac Pro or iMac for others not needing what I do, but some artists out there like myself simply must have a lot more than Apple offers.
Hope that helps some, good luck.