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Nvidia Debuts New High-End Titan Xp Graphics Card With Mac Support

NY Guitarist said:
No information from Nvidia that this will work installed in a cMP?
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Yes it will. But...you will have an old CPU that can't feed the GPU fast enough. The cMP will be limited to Sierra (no more macOS updates for this old machine) which isn't a great 3D performer and has outdated OpenGL and OpenCL APIs, your Nvidia driver will probably remain in beta and have the same OpenCL bugs that Nvidia's Mac drivers have had for ages.
 
jblagden said:
I realize that very few Mac users use eGPUs, but we wanted to be able to use more powerful GPUs without having to leave the Mac. Though, I’ve recently discovered that the grass is pretty green on the Linux side.

And yeah, more Mac users care about upgradability than Apple originally thought.
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What job listing? Did they really have a job listing for an eGPU specialist or something like that?
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Sorry, I should have been more clear, I was referring to Nvidia being told by Apple about a modular Mac Pro they were working on. That would explain why the job listings were revised, including one that was revised from "working in partership with Apple" to "help produce the next revolutionary Apple products" to a generic metal AI development job listing.
 
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
Yes it will. But...you will have an old CPU that can't feed the GPU fast enough. The cMP will be limited to Sierra (no more macOS updates for this old machine) which isn't a great 3D performer and has outdated OpenGL and OpenCL APIs, your Nvidia driver will probably remain in beta and have the same OpenCL bugs that Nvidia's Mac drivers have had for ages.
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Where did you find the GTX 1080 compatibility info? Everything I've seen says compatible with eGPU or Hackintosh.

Also, where did you see that Sierra is the end of the line for cMP? Just trying to verify, not challenge the information. Thx.
 
slimothy said:
This could be HUGE for upcoming Macs. Everyone always says "you can't game on a Mac". Well this would put that to rest, and it would incentivize more developers to create Mac titles as well. Awesome to see.
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This card has been available for PC's for quite some time now. More importantly, the PC market has the 1080Ti. Equally as fast and costs about half as much. So for developers to jump on board you need the following to happen:

People who are willing AND able to buy it (already a small number)

Of those people, you need gamers

Of those gamers, you need them to be Mac gamers

Heck, I just put together a quick build at newegg and for another $300 over the cost of the Titan XP alone, you can have a full blown PC with a 1080Ti/Kaby Lake i7/16GB RAM/SSD. That price also includes a licensed copy of Windows 10 Pro.

Then you factor in the starting price of $3000 for a Mac Pro...

Still a LOOONG way to go before gaming comes to the Mac in any sort of significant way.
 
Awesome, I'll put a graphics card from 2017 into my Mac Pro from 2010 xD The whole Apple Pro thing turned into a comedy show.
 
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2IS said:
This card has been available for PC's for quite some time now. More importantly, the PC market has the 1080Ti. Equally as fast and costs about half as much. So for developers to jump on board you need the following to happen:

People who are willing AND able to buy it (already a small number)

Of those people, you need gamers

Of those gamers, you need them to be Mac gamers

Heck, I just put together a quick build at newegg and for another $300 over the cost of the Titan XP alone, you can have a full blown PC with a 1080Ti/Kaby Lake i7/16GB RAM/SSD. That price also includes a licensed copy of Windows 10 Pro.

Then you factor in the starting price of $3000 for a Mac Pro...

Still a LOOONG way to go before gaming comes to the Mac in any sort of significant way.
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Which would you say has a brighter future for gaming - Mac OS X or Linux?
 
pgiguere1 said:
Considering how old the tower Mac Pro that supports this card is, and how expensive the card is, I guess this makes more sense for a Hackintosh than a real Mac.
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I was thinking that too when I read this.. The only Macs this fits in are ancient! Makes no sense.
 
The Titan Xp. It is a freakin' monster!

No idea how it works with the mac beta drivers though. I gave up on mac gaming way back in '09 after my mac pro with the 8800gt became obsolete. Now I have a windows machine dedicated for gaming.
 
bladerunner2000 said:
LOL. You don't really think that card would be taken advantage of with something like Thunderbolt? This is where PCs, despite running on Windows (most of the time) thrive.
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If GPU options weren't absolute trash on Macs, you wouldn't care about eGPUs.
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I disagree, tech doesn't age well and mobile tech is worse. eGPU's on portables is great no matter how great the specs on the laptop.
 
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2IS said:
This card has been available for PC's for quite some time now. More importantly, the PC market has the 1080Ti. Equally as fast and costs about half as much. So for developers to jump on board you need the following to happen:

People who are willing AND able to buy it (already a small number)

Of those people, you need gamers

Of those gamers, you need them to be Mac gamers

Heck, I just put together a quick build at newegg and for another $300 over the cost of the Titan XP alone, you can have a full blown PC with a 1080Ti/Kaby Lake i7/16GB RAM/SSD. That price also includes a licensed copy of Windows 10 Pro.

Then you factor in the starting price of $3000 for a Mac Pro...

Still a LOOONG way to go before gaming comes to the Mac in any sort of significant way.
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Your whole post is written around the Titan Xp being needed to game on a Mac. Many of us have been gaming on Macs using other Nvidia products. The new drivers make the whole 1000 series accessible, including the Ti.

The real question is regarding how many games get Mac versions. My Steam account is rather large and about 51% have Mac versions, which isn't bad. There must be a significant number of people out there gaming on Macs or they wouldn't bother.
 
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lowendlinux said:
And next year no matter the manufacturer your GPU in any laptop will be outdated and in most non-replaceable.
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Most of us... or some of us anyway, have enough sense to accept that GPUs like the CPU won't be replaceable. But you can be sure Apple will use last year's tech and charge next year's prices.... and most Apple consumer's won't question why, they'll just accept getting robbed.

Makes no sense... but hey, that's how it's been for years.
 
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bladerunner2000 said:
The simple solution would be to not buy Apple.
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A suggestion like that in a Mac-centric forum like this? Poppycock. That is no "simple" decision for any diehard Mac user.

The simple, yet time consuming, approach for Mac users is to proceed based on the news we've read of late; namely, continue sending sound-yet-negative feedback to Apple. It is "time consuming" in that we must wait a long time for Apple to realize its own stupidity. Apple itself said it is rethinking the Mac Pro due to "constant negativity." I myself am more of an optimist, but if negativity works (which is all we have in Steve Jobs' absence), we ought not to fear it. So let the negativity flow freely:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

More specifically, I would recommend pounding on them for:

• Restoration of the SD card
• Better GPU
• Thicker case for bigger battery
• Restore 1 legacy USB port (USB3, 10Gbps)
• Good keyboard that is not merely "more stable" but also has more key travel, yet is silent in operation.
• A trackpad that spans the entire width of the machine so that your palms are never partly on partly off the trackpad (which can cause problems even with good palm rejection software). With the entire front of the MBP a trackpad, it would be easier to follow palms to reject them and you'd have all the trackpad space you'd like. Add Apple pencil compatibility and you've got a drawing tablet too -- all in mobile form.

Funny, but my suggestion really isn't negative at all, but Apple would take it that way because it rejects what they have now. So long as your feedback kicks Apple's fanny into gear, that's all that matters. It used to be Jobs who kicked it (and yes, some people kicked his fanny), but under Cook it almost seems like Johnny Ive is running the show. I too want a great looking computer, yet one that doesn't compromise key functionality.
 
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Nvidia clearly gets it.

Mac Users make up a small percent of all computer users. However, that small percentage will spend big money on hardware.
 
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Cougarcat said:
I picked it because it's probably the most well known, and Razer is roughly analogous to Apple in the PC world. I hadn't heard of the AKiTiO Node, but $300 is good, I guess.

Still, if we're talking about Mac gaming here, which was the original point, I am very skeptical about eGPUs' ability to make the Mac more appealing for gaming developers. How many non-nerds are going to buy an expensive case (the equivalent of a modern console) and an expensive graphics card on top of their already expensive mac? The psychological cost is much greater, even if the cost of an xMac with a good GPU might in reality be not much different.
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In bold you make a great point!

although I must counter with ... "how many non-nerd Mac users are going to use their Mac's heavily for gaming anyway?" ;)
 
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bladerunner2000 said:
Most of us... or some of us anyway, have enough sense to accept that GPUs like the CPU won't be replaceable. But you can be sure Apple will use last year's tech and charge next year's prices.... and most Apple consumer's won't question why, they'll just accept getting robbed.

Makes no sense... but hey, that's how it's been for years.
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But if I can make the GPU replaceable and better for a few hundred dollars then why not.
 
ZapNZs said:
Nvidia clearly gets it.

Mac Users make up a small percent of all computer users. However, that small percentage will spend big money on hardware.
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Not like gamers will.

And since this is supposedly not a gaming card it's aimed at enterprise there'll be companies buying them by the thousands.
 
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lowendlinux said:
But if I can make the GPU replaceable and better for a few hundred dollars then why not.
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In a laptop?! Good luck!

I don't mind the need for eGPU, options are a great thing... but with Mac laptop's that's becoming more of a necessity but even still, Thunderbolt sucks for eGPUs as it can't drive something like a GTX 980...
 
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