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Worst Fear

D

deathshrub

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 30, 2007
360
0
Christmas Island
Yes, you know what I'm about to say.

Trying to not be so nearsighted, I've thought up this terrible possibility - what if the Mac Pro is not updated in January? Would it then likely be April? August?

I only raise the question because Apple does not seem very committed to their Pro line of desktops at all. The only revision in 2007 only added twice the cores, and left everything else unchanged. This is completely unacceptable for a workstation in my opinion.. letting machines being sold at the end of 2007 have components from the start of 2006 in them. Apple should be updating these machines at LEAST a few times a year. Also in the past it seems that the line is updated a few months into the year, not in Jan.

So what do you think? What are the chances Apple is going to leave us hanging? :mad: (i guess no one really knows this, but it would be nice to get some feedback.)
 
I don't know if that is my worst fear. Wait...nope not even a fear. I'm sure they'll update it though in due time. The pro line isn't a huge seller around Christmas as the consumer line would be. That's just a thought. I could be wrong as I haven't any data to support my claims or calm your fears.
 
jessica. said:
The pro line isn't a huge seller around Christmas as the consumer line would be.
Click to expand...


Wrong.

The end of the year is the time for many companies to spend the remaining budget or get the taxcuts from investments.
Now,apple skimping on the update is a real biatch for many companies.
I know personally few instances that has had to spend the money elsewhere, (even on PC products ,cough..) because people see the current MP as bad investment/poor ROI.
 
ob81 said:
I am inches away from just buying one. My only fear is of my impatience.
Click to expand...

x2 (although you have a new iMac and MBP...I have no sympathy for you)


Yes, that is my biggest fear. But if you hide under the covers and put the pillow over your head, the big monster can't get you.
 
It's fears like this (possibly ungrounded) that make me wish Apple would split into two entities: Apple Media (iPhones, iTunes, movie rentals..any consumer iGadget) and good ol' Apple Computer. The refresh cycle on the Pro hardware and Pro apps may naturally span a longer time, but it still feels like their resources have been directed elsewhere of late, much to the chagrin of those of us who are tired of hearing nothing but iPhone this, iGadget that.
 
deathshrub said:
Yes, you know what I'm about to say.

Trying to not be so nearsighted, I've thought up this terrible possibility - what if the Mac Pro is not updated in January? Would it then likely be April? August?

I only raise the question because Apple does not seem very committed to their Pro line of desktops at all. The only revision in 2007 only added twice the cores, and left everything else unchanged. This is completely unacceptable for a workstation in my opinion.. letting machines being sold at the end of 2007 have components from the start of 2006 in them. Apple should be updating these machines at LEAST a few times a year. Also in the past it seems that the line is updated a few months into the year, not in Jan.

So what do you think? What are the chances Apple is going to leave us hanging? :mad: (i guess no one really knows this, but it would be nice to get some feedback.)
Click to expand...

The only revisions other Workstation vendors made were to offer double the cores (obviously they nearly all have a larger range, but still) and to add the new Quadro cards when they came out. Some added the new ATI Fire GL cards too. Maybe there should have been a GPU revision, but I doubt it made sense financially from the point of view of any party involved in the process (Apple, manufacturer, Nvidia/ATI). I also doubt the number of customers who were demanding new cards is large enough to have any impact. I'm not defending Apple's position, I'd love them to have a full range of processors and consumer and workstaion graphics cards, but it is easy to see why things are the way they are. And I don't think any of them indicate Apple has abandonded or given up on the Mac Pro.
 
Macinposh said:
Wrong.

The end of the year is the time for many companies to spend the remaining budget or get the taxcuts from investments.
Now,apple skimping on the update is a real biatch for many companies.
I know personally few instances that has had to spend the money elsewhere, (even on PC products ,cough..) because people see the current MP as bad investment/poor ROI.
Click to expand...

I could say wrong to this as well.

Most larger companies that are publicly traded freeze spending in December. Getting approval to buy something in December in a large corporation is a challenge.

I guess you could argue that buyers of mac pros generally aren't publicly traded companies.
 
The next Mac Pro should be based around this chipset

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/5400/index.htm

Edit: Likely to be updated real soon, though because of the nature of this machine ... expect the GPUs to fall behind quick, that R&D ball and chain.

One Low power 35W card standard, a fast GPU, and a Quadro.

Though Apple could be waiting on a PCIe 2.0 card or a Nvidia SLI card.
 
Pressure said:
The G92 chip used on the Geforce 8800GT and Geforce 8800 GTS 512MB are both PCI-Express v2 and so are the Radeon HD 3800 series.
Click to expand...

But alas they still would need to become Apple compatible cards, that nasty driver issue.

Though likely neither of these cards will be the "standard" card, unless Apple finally elects to make the low power card the optional low volume card.

We got the info on the chipset now, the big question left is basically the Nvidia SLI option (the one Intel has been playing with) and the GPUs. As well as the intro date, which should be early to mid first quarter of 2008.
 
Sun Baked said:
But alas they still would need to become Apple compatible cards, that nasty driver issue.
Click to expand...

The odds are extremely good that Apple picked three video cards a few months ago. I am sure Apple has the new drivers ready to go.

Though likely neither of these cards will be the "standard" card, unless Apple finally elects to make the low power card the optional low volume card.
Click to expand...

True, but I'm not sure where you are going with that.

We got the info on the chipset now, the big question left is basically the Nvidia SLI option (the one Intel has been playing with) and the GPUs.
Click to expand...


What SLI option? There will not be an nVidia SLI card in the new Mac Pro; therefore, it is a non-issue.
 
I have no reason to believe that Apple will offer SLI graphics. Instead, I think they'll offer a single card option that will be more expensive and will run slower than two lesser cards combined :rolleyes:
 
Sun Baked said:
But alas they still would need to become Apple compatible cards, that nasty driver issue.

Though likely neither of these cards will be the "standard" card, unless Apple finally elects to make the low power card the optional low volume card.

We got the info on the chipset now, the big question left is basically the Nvidia SLI option (the one Intel has been playing with) and the GPUs. As well as the intro date, which should be early to mid first quarter of 2008.
Click to expand...

The Radeon HD 3850 is really cheap here in Denmark, I reckon they could have it as the base card. Trying to remember the price of the Geforce 7300GT two years ago, which properly is the same as the Radeon HD 3850 can be had for now.

We can only hope!
 
Topper said:
What SLI option? There will not be an nVidia SLI card in the new Mac Pro; therefore, it is a non-issue.
Click to expand...

Intel was playing around with the 5400 chipset, one of the designs included an Nvidia SLI chip.

A design option silly enough to be something Apple cooked up, and odd coming from Intel.

I don't hold out much hope for it, just the method of the design is strange, odd, and makes me wonder why.

>Pressure

I don't think the base card is about price, it seems to be about it being a card that fits in with the power requirements of all the slots for those 8 monitor machines.

If the 3850 has dropped to 35W, it may become that card.

Just look back a few generations and the low end card was always "low power" ...

http://developer.apple.com/document...l/HWTech_Video/Introduction/Introduction.html
 
Sun Baked said:
>Pressure

I don't think the base card is about price, it seems to be about it being a card that fits in with the power requirements of all the slots for those 8 monitor machines.

If the 3850 has dropped to 35W, it may become that card.

Just look back a few generations and the low end card was always "low power" ...

http://developer.apple.com/document...l/HWTech_Video/Introduction/Introduction.html
Click to expand...

Oh ok :)

But seeing the Radeon HD 3850 consuming about the same power as the Geforce 8600 GTS while totally, excuse my language, raping it I just got all giddy inside with hope ;)

For no apparent reason it would seem :p
 
Sun Baked said:
Intel was playing around with the 5400 chipset, one of the designs included an Nvidia SLI chip.

A design option silly enough to be something Apple cooked up, and odd coming from Intel.

I don't hold out much hope for it, just the method of the design is strange, odd, and makes me wonder why.
Click to expand...

Not odd at all. Intel have no current chipset with native SLI. If you want it with Intel you have to go with Nvidia's own chipset. This also means that anyone wanting to use SLI'd Quadro cards (where SLI can really show it's benefits) has only an option of desktop chipset/processors with an 8GB memory limit or an AMD system. I doubt Apple are that bothered about SLI.
 
Have to agree with you there. Not sure why Apple is so committed to shipping each one of their computers with outdated, weak GPUs. Kinda makes them a laughingstock.
 
I'm not looking to buy a Mac Pro until March 2009, but I'm still keeping an eye on the next revision as some sort of indication of when the one after that will come. :p

And man, Apple are being slow... if January comes and goes and there's no Mac Pro, that'll be about 18 months without an update - I can only hope it doesn't take them another 18 months to bring out the one after that!
 
jnc said:
I'm not looking to buy a Mac Pro until March 2009, but I'm still keeping an eye on the next revision as some sort of indication of when the one after that will come. :p

And man, Apple are being slow... if January comes and goes and there's no Mac Pro, that'll be about 18 months without an update - I can only hope it doesn't take them another 18 months to bring out the one after that!
Click to expand...

If Apple waits any longer, it will be a Nehalem Mac Pro instead of a Harpertown Mac Pro.
 
funny, if the OP had gone and searched the forums for similar threads before posting, and he resurrected a long-dead thread instead of starting a new one, he would have probably been scolded by the forum police for bringing back a dead thread.

you can't win with the forum police.
 
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