New Mac Pro: Simultaneous Real-Time 4K Effect Rendering, +900MB/s Read/Write

[MMR]

What is the matter with some of you people? you just love to argue don't you, anyway you can add me to the list of those that have one on order and is looking forward to using it, feel free to argue about that if you like

 

[mk_in_mke]

I can build this computer cheaper. In fact I built last year in my personal CNC machine shop and chip fab in my garage: every component of this computer. I already have three of these at my house. They are cool I made them. I made the new Mac Pro, did I mention that?

I sent a letter to Tim Cook and asked him to look at the posts here… After all, one solution to resolve the long timeline for delivery is to hire all the people who claim can build a better computer than Apple did… I am convinced Apple could learn and benefit from them.

 

[Rogifan]

I can build this computer cheaper. In fact I built last year in my personal CNC machine shop and chip fab in my garage: every component of this computer. I already have three of these at my house. They are cool I made them. I made the new Mac Pro, did I mention that?

You probably built your chip fab for cheaper than the base nMP.

 

[mk_in_mke]

And what is not to understand about the fact that it costs too much for me and I'd much prefer a machine with internal expansion? Apparently saying that is pissing on your parade and whining and I should 'do you a favour' and stop. Now you're telling me I'm the irrational one that isn't making sense because I defended my right to post my opinions on a public forum?

Well... whatever. You quoted me first.

You claim you write books… What kind of books can a person with no understanding of a discussion write… Fantasy books?

With all due respect, you come on this forum, claim you are a creative person who works with words… And add that the nMP is too expensive… THINK: you are not the market for this baby! This is what I am criticizing… I will defend your right to post and express your opinion because i want and need the same right…

But prior to posting a negative comment on the puppy, analyze your situation: is this computer for me? Did Apple target users like me when they decided to market this product? Tell me I am wrong in my approach and let's have a serious discussion.

I cannot afford a Ferrari or an Aston Martin, I am not going on pro Ferrari or pro Aston Martin forums claiming that the car is not upgradable or too expensive… I am not the market!

 

[Renzatic]

You probably built your chip fab for cheaper than the base nMP.

All you need is a soldering gun and a scanning electron microscope.

 

[mk_in_mke]

Price is not an issue. I spent over $15,000 on my z820. And instead of ordering online, if you call and order through sales representative you can ask for discount. They have me about 17% discount on total price.

New mac pro just isn't for me. Gpu is removable but uses proprietary connectors, which is a deal breaker for me. I swap Gpu too often. Now I don't have any work to do during holidays, I removed quadros and installed 2x gtx690 and turned my z into gaming machine. Also, I don't like not having internal space for additional drives....maybe I can live with it BUT proprietary GPU is big no.

I'm also happy with HP support. There was one time my z820 failed. They sent tech to my place next day and replaced motherboard on site.

Finally a sound argumentation about why a user would not choose a Mac. Thanks. This is refreshing.

I am glad you enjoy your experience with your machine… At the office, I do Operations Research modeling using ILOG Cplex Studio on a Z820 and it requires some graphic representation (I upgraded the card to a top Nvidia Quadro..) the cost of the machine was close to $10K…

At home, I decided to go Mac Pro. I do minimal editing (hobbyist) but I do a lot of photography (Photoshop + Nik software + large files)… I have purchased the nMP.

I am happy with both OSes… One for work and one for pleasure.

 

[Renzatic]

But prior to posting a negative comment on the puppy, analyze your situation: is this computer for me? Did Apple target users like me when they decided to market this product? Tell me I am wrong in my approach and let's have a serious discussion.

If all he needed was a Macbook Air to bang out text documents with, you might have a point. But in this situation, it's more like...

"Will the new version fulfill my needs the same way the previous version did? If not, why not? This new version seems more like one step forward two steps back for my current needs and expectations. I've already invested tons in the platform, and now I feel like I'm being shorted with a product that's better at some things, but overall won't work as well for me as it previously did".

I'm not saying this is 100% the case, SO DON'T GET ALL RILED UP, but some people might have legitimate issues with the new Mac Pro.

Also, you can upgrade an Aston Martin and a Ferrari.

 

[roadbloc]

You claim you write books… What kind of books can a person with no understanding of a discussion write… Fantasy books?

With all due respect, you come on this forum, claim you are a creative person who works with words… And add that the nMP is too expensive… THINK: you are not the market for this baby! This is what I am criticizing… I will defend your right to post and express your opinion because i want and need the same right…

But prior to posting a negative comment on the puppy, analyze your situation: is this computer for me? Did Apple target users like me when they decided to market this product? Tell me I am wrong in my approach and let's have a serious discussion.

I cannot afford a Ferrari or an Aston Martin, I am not going on pro Ferrari or pro Aston Martin forums claiming that the car is not upgradable or too expensive… I am not the market!

Impressive. It really is a neato machine

But the Mac Pro is a really lovely machine none the less.

Its a great machine-

In all my posts I never said the Mac Pro was a bad machine. I actually admire it.

My opinion doesn't make the Mac Pro any less of a machine to them who use them. I actually LIKE the Mac Pro-

Negative!? Have you even read my posts? :S

So what you're saying is... I'm only allowed to post if I'm actually going to buy the product in question? Total nonsense. Especially the car analogies. I own Apple products and even them who don't have a full right to be here and to express their opinions on what is going on. That is what this forum is for.

Oh, would you look at that, we have contradictory opinions on what you can or can't post on a forum it seems. What a surprise.

 

[Djreversal]

My ship date on my mac pro is "January" hopefully its the earlier half. I own a few landscape companies and here in new york we finish up with our clean ups and all right about now.. got about 5 days of work left and then vacation for a few months which i usually use to get as much music production and vfx portfolio pieces done. Really want to play with Vray and Maya and Houdini on this new system.

I got the 6 core with 32gb ram and the D700 and 512GB SSD setup. Looking into the pegasys2 12TB RAID system for external fast storage.


Mark

 

[Spinland]

Guys.

Far be it from me to try to tell people what they can and cannot post, and I am certainly not a mod here, but please. Unless you really are enjoying having an audience for your spat, could you consider taking it to PM?

Thanks.

 

[imran5720]

How fast is it from IMAC 3.5

From geekbench scores it looks like imac 2013 3.5 is faster in many areas than MacPro 4 core version..

Is it correct..

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

Impressive. It really is a neato machine, but unfortunately the lack of expandability in the long tern ruins it for me.


But I wouldn't say no if someone were to buy it me. I could use it as an ashtray too.

I find it difficult to believe that someone who needs someone else to buy him a Mac Pro would have any need for internal expansion of any kind, but that's just me.

 

[DJJAZZYJET]

Why would you need Crossfire/SLI when OpenCL will already use all capable GPU's in the system?

Isn't Crossfire/SLI specific to gaming? This isn't designed to be used specifically for gaming.

Why the heck wouldn't you? Crossfire/SLI makes each GPU processes 1 frame each, essentially doubling graphics performance and sometimes even more.

Whats the point of just having OpenCL applications use both GPU's when the entire system could.

 

[roadbloc]

I find it difficult to believe that someone who needs someone else to buy him a Mac Pro would have any need for internal expansion of any kind, but that's just me.

I don't need somebody to buy it me. But it would be great if somebody did. I wouldn't say no.

 

[Spinland]

Why the heck wouldn't you? Crossfire/SLI makes each GPU processes 1 frame each, essentially doubling graphics performance and sometimes even more.

Whats the point of just having OpenCL applications use both GPU's when the entire system could.

Interesting. I've been mildly curious about the difference since I don't really understand it. I'm not a gamer by any means (my idea of gaming is relaxing for a few minutes with my iPad before sleep) but if this feature helped in other situations I would be cool with seeing Apple add support.

 

[DJJAZZYJET]

Interesting. I've been mildly curious about the difference since I don't really understand it. I'm not a gamer by any means (my idea of gaming is relaxing for a few minutes with my iPad before sleep) but if this feature helped in other situations I would be cool with seeing Apple add support.

Like the last guy said, crossfire/sli is most effective in gaming. CrossFire technology allows multiple AMD GPUs to work together on a single graphics rendering, however OpenCL requires it to be turned off for best performance to access all the GPU's

 

[Spinland]

Like the last guy said, crossfire/sli is most effective in gaming. CrossFire technology allows multiple AMD GPUs to work together on a single graphics rendering, however OpenCL requires it to be turned off for best performance to access all the GPU's

Okay, thanks for that. So, in my use case (3D modeling/animation/rendering, with video post processing in Premiere and After Effects) I'm not thinking I'm likely to consider Crossfire very useful.

 

[Gudi]

They found read speeds of 880MB/s from the Mac Pro's solid state storage, with impressive write numbers of 985.5MB/s.

Almost 1GB/s. And than there are people still buying brand new computers with spinning disks in them. Too bad the new Mac Pro has no optical drive. Which makes it absolutely useless to me.

 

[cgk.emu]

Of course people tested its 4K video editing capabilities as soon as they got their hands on it. But it is far from a single purpose machine.

What are general workstation duties?

This is a Mac Pro that runs OSX and Mac software just like any Mac Pro before it.

...that you can't upgrade the video card in, only has 4 slots for RAM, is single socket...the fact that it has dual fire pro graphic cards and even Apple is only touting is 4K video editing capabilities shows me they built this machine for a very specific purpose. This is NOT the same Mac Pro as the previous gen. It's much more specialized.

 

[DJJAZZYJET]

Okay, thanks for that. So, in my use case (3D modeling/animation/rendering, with video post processing in Premiere and After Effects) I'm not thinking I'm likely to consider Crossfire very useful.

Eh, its not even supported so I wouldn't worry about it

 

[cgk.emu]

Sorry. I must have mistaken this for an Apple Forum. Where I post my opinions on articles of Apple news and discuss it with the rest of the user base. But after my comments (comments that aren't even negative and are just expressing my opinion) have been shot down time after time by everybody, I can clearly see this must be an Apple forum where you're only allowed to post praise.

Oh wait, IT ISN'T! Get off my back. The majority of users are clearly enthusiastic about Apple products here and that is great as so am I. But most of you need to learn that there is such thing as an opinion, which is something that differs from person to person. Just because I don't want to buy a new gen Mac Pro (something that I was seriously considering before its unveiling and price details), doesn't mean I'm whining or bashing Apple. Its just my opinion. Never before have I had to deal with such ******** because I made a comment that it isn't internally expandable.

So sorry to piss on your parade, but for as long as my opinions differ from yours it seems like I'm going to continue doing it. Get used to it. You're likely to meet other people in life who don't agree with you and most likely it'll be over something a little less trivial than a cylinder shaped computer with a ****ing Apple logo on it. Don't like my posts? Add me to your blacklist and you'll never have to see me piss on your parade ever again.

Excellent. I'm glad someone else feels the same was, you put it much more concisely as I have in the past...hence my timeouts

 

[DJJAZZYJET]

No, for gaming nVidia might be better. If you buy the high end cards (Quadro and Tesla, NOT GeForce) for Cuda, they are better for GPGPU work. AMD enthusiast cards (NOT FirePro) are much better at GPGPU than GeForce because nVidia crippled the double precision handling in GeForce not to cannibalise the sales of the pricier cards.

Apple is one of the stronger pushers for OpenCL. Right now Cuda is better but only because of better tooling and first mover advantage. Apple is making their own CPU's now (A7) and in the little longer perspective I think they want to make use of OpenCL in that segment as well. They don't get that benefit if they leave their fortune in nVidia's hands. What Apple really need to step up now is the OpenCL tooling in Xcode. OpenCL has the potential to kick Cuda's butt, even though it doesn't yet but that is due to lack of tooling as stated.

Also, remember that Intel is getting better and better at graphics (sure they are way behind, but their progress the last year is stronger than the other two players). OpenCL speeds up computations if you have an Iris or Iris Pro in your system. If no discrete GPU from nVidia, Cuda does diddly squat. Oh, also FPGA systems are getting OpenCL support, look at what Altera are doing. Seriously, it is like saying DirectX is better than Open GL. Sure it is... on Windows...

Well that cleared that up.

My original point being was that if you didn't want/need two GPU's for the work you wanted to do then you still have to pay for them. You also can't change them or swap them out. The NMP is just biased towards video editors and graphic designers, Apple seem to have forgotten about the audio guys (unless they somehow update Logic Pro X to take advantage of OpenCL, but I don't really see that happening)

 

[mrxak]

Really, this is just an ad for the new FCPX, which has had some significant optimizations to make it scream on the new Mac Pros. But, we should still pay close attention, because while this is largely a tech demo, what we can learn from it is that other apps optimized for crazy OpenCL usage will also scream on the new Mac Pros. Other developers will be rapidly following suit.

I have a feeling that we'll look back at this someday and realize this is when OpenCL revolutionized high end computing. CUDA may have a lot of advantages for certain kinds of computing, right now, but OpenCL-grinding beasts like the Mac Pro are taking GPU computing mainstream for professional use. Mac OS X has been headed this way for a few versions now, and here's the hardware to back it up.

 

[i.mac]

From geekbench scores it looks like imac 2013 3.5 is faster in many areas than MacPro 4 core version..

Is it correct..

No.

 

[Spinland]

Really, this is just an ad for the new FCPX, which has had some significant optimizations to make it scream on the new Mac Pros. But, we should still pay close attention, because while this is largely a tech demo, what we can learn from it is that other apps optimized for crazy OpenCL usage will also scream on the new Mac Pros. Other developers will be rapidly following suit.

From what I'm given to understand several of my CS6 apps currently support OpenCL to some degree, and I'm hoping to see them do so on the nMP GPUs. I don't work in 4K (not yet) but I do a lot of 1080p rendering and post processing and I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of speed boosts I get in apps like Premiere and After Effects.