Seems like the moral of the story (especially after reading that forum member's experience) is to basically consider the memory not upgrade-able on this machine (its possible, but likely to be a serious pain in the behind) and get a regular iMac and max out its memory (only 128GB) after the purchase instead if you can get by with it.
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Upgrading an iMac Pro to 256GB of RAM Only Possible at Time of Purchase [Updated]
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iMac Pro shouldn't exist.
Mac Pro + Apple Display.
Mac Pro + Apple Display.
I am building a PC for everything related to graphics and video, and my Mac Book Pro for music. Macs are not using Nvidia anymore. If you need so much ram and processing power is to do 3D, and Macs do not use Navidia and nobody is going to get an expensive Mac to then get an external eGPU! All those apps run way faster on PC anyway.
So... for daily stuff... I can use the Mac I have and for rendering Adobe Suit, and 3D... a PC. Always upgradable and way cheaper.
So... for daily stuff... I can use the Mac I have and for rendering Adobe Suit, and 3D... a PC. Always upgradable and way cheaper.
For the set of people who truly need 256GB of RAM the $5k price tag isn't hard to justify anyway.
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Both hopefully coming soon (they say this year, I guess that could be Dec 31st though).
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Both hopefully coming soon (they say this year, I guess that could be Dec 31st though).
My IIsi didn't support the upgrades I had inside. Processor upgrade with a piggyback video card. Back then when there was a will, there was a way.
Not sure what is more alarming, you don't understand the benefit of being able to install that much RAM aftermarket, or you think OS X is efficient in using RAM.
You need a dongle for that son..
I’ve had my 18-core iMac Pro w/ 128GB of RAM for a year now and I love it. For those questioning why someone would ever need 256GB of RAM, well, you obviously don’t need it. And that’s okay. But there are users out there that can benefit from large amounts of RAM.
Production work with a fan spinning away right beside you?? yuck.
I still don’t see why a professional machine is made such that RAM/storage is inaccessible/soldered. Garbage engineering and greed is the only explanation.
Given how long the Mac Pro has gone without being a worthwhile product for professionals, do you have a sense on whether these professionals will even bother returning to the Mac at this point?
Windows 10 is not a miserable product and most software is available on both Mac/Windows (and sometimes Linux) anyway.
Technical guess: 64 GB registered DIMMs are usually quad rank and I believe the Xeon W can't support them. I know they are not supported in similar PC platforms.
Part of the issue is the slim design of the iMac limits Apple to 4 DIMMs, comparable Xeon W workstations from other manufacturers have 8 slots with a max of 256 GB via 32 GB DIMMs.
I think Skylake W does support LRDIMMs at 64 GB but LRDIMMs require more power and cooling (and have more latency) so the system has to be designed for them. The 256 GB system probably has changes for that. The larger PC workstations are designed for airflow over the DIMMs.
Part of the issue is the slim design of the iMac limits Apple to 4 DIMMs, comparable Xeon W workstations from other manufacturers have 8 slots with a max of 256 GB via 32 GB DIMMs.
I think Skylake W does support LRDIMMs at 64 GB but LRDIMMs require more power and cooling (and have more latency) so the system has to be designed for them. The 256 GB system probably has changes for that. The larger PC workstations are designed for airflow over the DIMMs.
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Wow, 256 GB of RAM what a time to be alive!
Is there a significant performance difference between 128 & 265? Has anyone seen benchmarks? I'm very curious.
Is there a significant performance difference between 128 & 265? Has anyone seen benchmarks? I'm very curious.
You could, but then Apple would harvest your organs while you sleep. Hey, you clicked "accept" without reading the fine print. What did you expect?
What does Apple do with the organs? They make rejuvenating smoothies for Tim so he will live forever and lead Apple into the next millennia. You don't get that kind of energy from carrot juice.
Hackintosh vanilla install. Its the only professional machine option out there right now. Also, its a heck of a lot more affordable.
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He learned from Steve that you don't eat fruit to cure your woes.
If you need > 256GB of RAM, you don't need more RAM. You need a new workflow/process/application architecture. At some point, if you need ~60GB/s throughput for that much data, you probably need to consider a distributed and scalable version of whatever it is that you're doing.
this 256GB RAM config is solely for corporate () bragging rights. I doubt they'll sell more than a couple of these.
Anyone who works with the kind of software that requires that much RAM, isn't working on an iMac. Or if they are, chances are high they wish they weren't
Anyone who works with the kind of software that requires that much RAM, isn't working on an iMac. Or if they are, chances are high they wish they weren't
i was just showing my colleague what a maxed out version of this guy runs. seems a bit insane to me for an unupgradable machine that you'll want to upgrade in a few years.
Ridiculous. I’m so sick of Apple’s consumer-hostile behavior / products.
Power needs to be given back to the consumer to upgrade their components whenever and however they need. We need the cheesegrater Mac Pro back!
Power needs to be given back to the consumer to upgrade their components whenever and however they need. We need the cheesegrater Mac Pro back!