…
We don't know what Apple has planned for the Mac Pro, but for many users a "Mac Studio with thrice the graphics" actually still doesn't meet their needs.
_Some_ of these people need some multiple of that in GPU power. Some need far more RAM than the SoC's support. Some need things like afterburner cards (which are basically FPGAs). And some extend their system via a massive amount of external I/O …
Yeah, I think what many are missing is just how big the gap is between a decked out Studio and even modest PCs w/ GPUs or the Intel Mac Pros (let alone a Mac Pro with 4x GPUs!).
Most people don’t need that power, so the current lineup is fine. But, there are a number of market segments that do utilize quite a bit of GPU power, as well as special features like ray-tracing. It isn’t just gamers (which is a whole other mixture of issues).
Apple’s focus on improving GPU performance has been known for some time because it is crucial to their AR and VR products in development. Other products using Apple silicon will benefit, but they aren’t the focus.
.…
I just don’t know, but I hope there is more driving it than that. There are certainly some important applications for AR/VR, but I think in terms of mass-consumption, it is a tech that isn’t far behind the 3D TV.
Because it isn't difficult to create a Nvidia or AMD-class gaming GPU. Just create a card that eats up nearly 500W max, and tell system integrators they gotta cope with that power requirement and the resulting heat. If you're Apple making it for your own machines, it becomes Mac Pro exclusive, and you can support two of them before your machine has need to move to dedicated power infrastructure in the home or business.
Instead, Intel and Apple don't have competing GPUs because they don't have a business reason to do so. The trade-offs don't make sense for the majority of their market, and there's not enough volume for the high-end-gaming market to justify more competitors. In fact, I suspect the entire PC gamer market is too small for Apple to care about, even if gamers were willing to consider switching to Apple en masse.
Hardware ray tracing makes a very specialized task more efficient. ...
Hopefully it goes beyond the Mac Pro, given the level of pricing (unless it comes way down). I can buy a $2k PC that has pretty acceptable 3D/GPU performance. Hopefully Apple will have something competitive for like $2.5k or less.
Gaming aside (a whole other set of issues), there are many professional uses in several industries that depend on 3D and ray-tracing capabilities. It would be sad to see those whole markets fall away from the Mac being included.
With my Intel Mac mini, I simply added an eGPU, and I suddenly had a comparable system to a mid-level PC. I really hope some solution will remain viable on the Mac platform, and it doesn’t look like Apple Silicon is poised to do that any time soon.
Yes, I can comment on Unity. … but for the day to day use: hit play and pause often, switch application to model something in blender (everything is faster except cycles rendering in practice), switch to FCP to edit some captures in-game video, substance designer, affinity etc etc at the speed of thought hands down beats all those theoretical synthetic scores.
EDIT: forgot to add Houdini to that list too. I don’t do millions of polygons crazy things though.
Thanks for that report, and it is encouraging! From everything I’ve seen, the performance of the Mac Studio is a mixed-bag. Some apps seem to run well, others run well except some features, while still others aren’t acceptable, at least not yet.
Even with optimization, I think we’ll need some of those hardware-based features found on AMD/Nvidia to stay competitive. Some aspects, Apple Silicon even seems to outpace them (I’ve seen some impressive ‘moving a bunch of complex objects in space’ demos), but we need a certain level of consistency.
But, again, how many augmented reality headsets will they sell per iPhone? Raytracing benefits a tiny niche but penalizes every mobile user.
Keep in mind that there is a lot of use for ray-tracing (and other GPU features) beyond AR/VR. I agree that is a niche market (and I think will be for a long time). Pretty much every 3D app in several fields is going to incorporate ray-tracing into the pipeline these days.
