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New Mac Pro thread (merged)

Joe The Dragon said:
But how many pci-e lanes are powering the TB bus?
Click to expand...

The current on is x4 lanes. Intel made no specific comments one way or other on the Thunderbolt v2.0 information dropped so far. It seems quite likely that it is still x4. Most of the "it is alot more bandwidth" comments were accompanied by talking about 4K video.

TB v2.0 is really the same overall aggregate bandwidth that was available in TB v1.0 only with the divider between PCI-e and Display Port data traffic removed. ( two 10 Gb/s channels turned into one logical 20 Gb/s channels. )

It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind the bandwidth of a x16 PCI-e v3.0 slot. With compression tricks and cache you may be able to game through TB v2.0 but still stuck at x4. OpenCL work would take a huge hit going outside. ( probably why they stuff two GPUs into the box. )

There are big time missing specs. ( from what I've seen so far). Which Firepro GPUs, how much VRAM , etc.
 
Three Thumbs DOWN

Looks like a garbage can. Should be treated as such. GPU will most likely NOT be upgradable. NO FW 800 for all of us audio professionals. Yuck.


HACKINT0SH here I come....

:mad:
 
td2243 said:
However, Apple again chooses form over function. What is the f$%&ing point of small if I have to have cables running everyone to support externals?!
Click to expand...

Just don't use external storage - remote storage via iSCSI / FC / whatever.

Rack a SAN / NAS and just use that as storage - simplifies corporate backups and security etc. as everything is centralized and keeps the clutter off the desktops.
 
leman said:
You think the GPU will be actually soldered on-board?
Click to expand...

Not only soldered but possibly the mobile versions.

( it isn't that hard to be 2-2.5x a single old Mac Pro video cards. They were older than the Mac Pro bump.... 2009 cards. )
 
deconstruct60 said:
The current on is x4 lanes. Intel made no specific comments one way or other on the Thunderbolt v2.0 information dropped so far. It seems quite likely that it is still x4. Most of the "it is alot more bandwidth" comments were accompanied by talking about 4K video.

TB v2.0 is really the same overall aggregate bandwidth that was available in TB v1.0 only with the divider between PCI-e and Display Port data traffic removed. ( two 10 Gb/s channels turned into one logical 20 Gb/s channels. )

It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind the bandwidth of a x16 PCI-e v3.0 slot. With compression tricks and cache you may be able to game through TB v2.0 but still stuck at x4. OpenCL work would take a huge hit going outside. ( probably why they stuff two GPUs into the box. )

There are big time missing specs. ( from what I've seen so far). Which Firepro GPUs, how much VRAM , etc.
Click to expand...

so 6 ports all over X4 or does each port have it's own X4 pcie?
 
Can someone there confirm that you can or cannot upgrade the gfx card/ram in the new mac pro. It's basically a deal breaker if you can't. Why drop so much cash on a machine that is out of date in 2yrs and cannot be upgraded in such a basic way after that.
 
Doesn't sound like we have a lot of Thunderbolt users. The external options are already there, TB1 supports external video cards, sound cards, encode cards, SSD / HDD and networking. Those expansion chassis already exist, here is one pf them:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresschassis.html).

Of course the best chassis will be TB2 ones which will still need to come to market, to allow for the faster speeds. So, in the end those that want Nvidia cards or HDD / SSD storage towers won't have an issue. The only issue that is really valid is the clutter... :mad:

Other than that though I reserve judgement until I see it in person and the performance live in my hands.
 
The suspense and waiting is over but it was not what I was expecting in terms of design and function. Will the external expansion work for everyone that may put more clutter. And this will be the first gen design so we may expect some bugs. Was wondering what material would the cylindrical chassis be. It's now I've realized the value of the current and older Mac Pros.
 
Guys, you are focusing too much on these insignificant details and you are missing the big picture, just like the iMac crowd...

At least they made the Mac Pro smaller and the iMac thinner (late 2012). Does anything else really matter?
 
xSinghx said:
Can someone there confirm that you can or cannot upgrade the gfx card/ram in the new mac pro. It's basically a deal breaker if you can't. Why drop so much cash on a machine that is out of date in 2yrs and cannot be upgraded in such a basic way after that.
Click to expand...

It's the Apple xMac
 
qamaro said:
Doesn't sound like we have a lot of Thunderbolt users. The external options are already there, TB1 supports external video cards, sound cards, encode cards, SSD / HDD and networking. Those expansion chassis already exist, here is one pf them:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpresschassis.html).

Of course the best chassis will be TB2 ones which will still need to come to market, to allow for the faster speeds. So, in the end those that want Nvidia cards or HDD / SSD storage towers won't have an issue. The only issue that is really valid is the clutter... :mad:

Other than that though I reserve judgement until I see it in person and the performance live in my hands.
Click to expand...

Is external VGA options via TB2 faster than PCIe?
As far as I understand, even TB2 bandwidth is not enough for a PCIe VGA. not to mention the dual option.
 
New Mac

Nice, but where is the PRO part? This a mac mini on steroids. Only one CPU?
How do you get pro IO capacity? Apple without Jobs is not Apple. I now see the end of an era.
 
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xSinghx said:
Can someone there confirm that you can or cannot upgrade the gfx card/ram in the new mac pro. It's basically a deal breaker if you can't. Why drop so much cash on a machine that is out of date in 2yrs and cannot be upgraded in such a basic way after that.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be suprrised if NOTHING was upgradable, except at the time of purchase. No FW800 either.
 
No PICe extension no business, time to pack and go home.

First problem: No need to buy overpriced TB2 containers to expand/upgrade GPUs.

Second problem: All PCIe stuff might not even make it into TB2 container versions so there would be lack of HW

If they are smart enough they would make some kind of six pack holder to put those "cans" in for easier logistics.

This is just ridiculous, as much as that Sea Lion thing. No purpose what so ever.
 
Anon Tobin said:
Yes, but the performance would be lackluster. You're stuck with an ugly and underpowered trash can.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm only really fussed for gaming.

I'm an audio guy really so the update is welcome to me.
I certainly don't mind going down the TB chassis route for drives, UAD cards etc etc.
I'll probably update my 3.1 to it.
 
I am only an audio guy so really I probably don't need as much power as some of you guys. I think one Thunderbolt connection could handle all the SSD's I need. If someone just made a 1U rackmountable expansion that could take 4-6 SSD's + one or two PCIe cards connected by Thunderbolt I think that would be an elegant enough solution. Of course other people don't have racks and will hate this and really, they could have made two versions at least, one that could still hold PCI + HD's and then this one.
 
They better be under $1750. $1500 would be even better. I certainly can't imagine this being $2500 like the current low end Mac Pro.
 
GoCubsGo said:
After all of this waiting, they really should have spent time discussing it even more. Can you expand storage? How many drives? Etc.
Click to expand...

Expand as in more than one drive? Extremely likely no.
Buy a bigger capacity (likely proprietary dimensions) PCI-e card ? Probably eventually. There are a few Apple specific mSATA card updates for MBA and rMBP. They will probably so up for this one too if the Apple mark-up is super high. (which is likely).


I think they are going to try a misdirect away from capacity and into speed. It is going to how "super duper" fast this limited capacity is rather than what can store inside the box.
 
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