New Mac Pro Announced at WWDC! - It's OFFICIAL!

[M Most]

FCP was the standard then Apple made a blunder with FCPX, Adobe became the new standard, now adobe has shot itself in the foot FcPX will become the new standard. This new Mac Pro unfortunately will not become the new standard, Hp and pro max are competing with subpar hackintoshes for that position. Apple has just given hackintosh manufacturers new brilliant ideas

Has it ever occurred to any of the "hackintosh" supporters here that their machines depend on an OS that is made by the company that doesn't want you building "hackintoshes"? And that there is absolutely no guarantee that you'll be able to continue to do so? And that future versions will likely have performance tuning that won't mean much if you're not on their hardware?

 

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Smaller than some prime lenses, this Mac Pro looks simply amazing. Can be carried in the cabin. Apple is back with a bang.

 

[M Most]

I'll have to add 1 more box to hold the external drives for projects I'm actually cutting (to replace the internal drives that I'll be giving up) and since TB2 can be daisy chained I can replace the medium & long term storage RAIDs and get rid of some clutter.
t.

Not to mention that the internal drives you're "giving up" can then be replaced over time with potentially faster storage that doesn't rely on SATA or SAS, is thus not limited to 6Gb, and doesn't have to conform to current form factors. Or any currently known form factor.

Hopefully at least some people are beginning to get the "big picture" here....

 

[dio Zafi]

i want one

 

[Scott Crawley]

While deconstructing this picture it occurs to me that we are speculating about a product, based upon a representation may not be entirely what it appears to be. That appearance is a reflection, maybe of a black room and a light source or two (or four). It is a bit of an enigma. That scenario resonates with me somehow...

The thing that is stupid about this exercise, is that this is likely a rendering, and not a photo at all.

Strike that. The fact that I can not tell the difference between a photo and a rendering may make ME the stupid part of this exercise. :-(

Over-analysis and self-criticism... that is in keeping with my design. yup.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The Mac Pro teaser page on apple.com is indeed a rendering.

The product shown at WWDC in the glass tube was said to be a functional unit, or representative of one they have running at Apple, but they had none out and actually running. The internals are pretty much all black. And you're right, the top of the housing with the vent and fan cover are black and shiny. The shroud or cover that goes over the unit, which covers all the internals, RAM modules, etc.. is indeed polished shiny aluminum. Reflective, like a mirror and bound to show finger prints and dust like nothing else. About as close to chrome as you can get and still be environmentally friendly and recyclable. The Apple logo is laser etched on it. Apple's web site also states it's polished aluminum.

IMO, the perspective / proportions shown on the Apple rendering vs. what was on the show floor seem a bit different. However, I did not attend WWDC this year, actually haven't been there the past couple years. So I'm only going off a few pictures posted online as well as a few sent to me by friends who were there and their comments.

 

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

Rumors talking of 1TB, 2.5 TB et 5 TB capacity for the PCIe SSD in the Mac PRO (at speeds up to 1.25 GB/s)

Pretty amazing computer !
Hope the price will be fair for those options.

 

[Dustin Cross]

SATA or SAS, is thus not limited to 6Gb

Come on, SATA is 6Gb per port and 12G is right around the corner. Most SAS devices have 4 ports in the cable so you can get up to 24Gb/s. It is very easy today to go buy a card with 16 SATA (4 SAS) ports. It is also easy and very inexpensive to get a SAS Expander that allows for many more devices to be added.

SATA and SAS are super fast and readily available and AWESOME.



Dusty

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Come on, SATA is 6Gb per port and 12G is right around the corner. Most SAS devices have 4 ports in the cable so you can get up to 2400Gb/s. It is very easy today to go buy a card with 16 SATA (4 SAS) ports. It is also easy and very inexpensive to get a SAS Expander that allows for many more devices to be added.

SATA and ASA are super fast and readily available and AWESOME.



Dusty

You accidentally bumped your 0 key a couple times up there.

Anyway, the per-port bandwidth of SATA/SAS isn't the question here. It boils down to the speeds of individual devices and the RAID or host controller that is managing them. See my note above on 2GB/s.

 

[Dustin Cross]

If this new Mac was rolled flat and stuck to the back of a bad ass 4k monitor, it would be Awesome.

Rolled into a tube, it just does not fit most of my needs.

I have been dealing with the limitations of the existing Mac Pro for years because I prefer OSX. This design does not improve any of the problems power users have with the current Mac Pro, it makes them worse. Well, it gives us USB3 and Thunderbolt. Form and power user functionality took a huge leap back from the already limited current Mac Pro.

I want a power user system. Built around something like the Supermicro X9DRG-QF that can have 4x GPUs or the Supermicro X9DRX+-F with 11 PCIe slots. Add Thunderbolt to those and the power users would be happy.

So now all Apple has is OSX. I really don't want to use a Hackintosh, but Apple is leaving me no choice. I could switch to Windows :-( I really wish more of the apps I use ran on Linux.


Dusty

 

[Dustin Cross]

I don't know of any real-world SAS RAID host that provides more than half of that. ATTO R680 tops out at 2GB/s.
Thunderbolt 2 can deliver up to about 1800MB/s on a 20Gbps channel and still run a 4K display off the same port.

Has anyone done any real world tests that show the real performance of TB2? Nothing everything ever goes as fast as the specs.


Dusty

 

[Gabor D.]

You accidentally bumped your 0 key a couple times up there.

Anyway, the per-port bandwidth of SATA/SAS isn't the question here. It boils down to the speeds of individual devices and the RAID or host controller that is managing them. See my note above on 2GB/s.

Hey Jeff,
I sent you a PM. If you have the time please take a look at it!
Really appreciated!
Thanks

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

Has it ever occurred to any of the "hackintosh" supporters here that their machines depend on an OS that is made by the company that doesn't want you building "hackintoshes"? And that there is absolutely no guarantee that you'll be able to continue to do so? And that future versions will likely have performance tuning that won't mean much if you're not on their hardware?

Yes.

This new machine is made for the "pros" and not the tinkerers, hence "MacPro".

No serious posthouse on earth would use "hackintoshes". No "pro" software manufacturer in our industry wants their customers to use "hackintoshes". Autodesk for instance have a clear no-hackintosh policy.

This machine will be a serious contender to HP and Dell. Good to know that Apple is finally back.

Hans

 

[paul schefz]

If this new Mac was rolled flat and stuck to the back of a bad ass 4k monitor, it would be Awesome.

Rolled into a tube, it just does not fit most of my needs.

I have been dealing with the limitations of the existing Mac Pro for years because I prefer OSX. This design does not improve any of the problems power users have with the current Mac Pro, it makes them worse. Well, it gives us USB3 and Thunderbolt. Form and power user functionality took a huge leap back from the already limited current Mac Pro.

I want a power user system. Built around something like the Supermicro X9DRG-QF that can have 4x GPUs or the Supermicro X9DRX+-F with 11 PCIe slots. Add Thunderbolt to those and the power users would be happy.

So now all Apple has is OSX. I really don't want to use a Hackintosh, but Apple is leaving me no choice. I could switch to Windows :-( I really wish more of the apps I use ran on Linux.


Dusty

that would be iMac 2015
i would rather have 6 TB2 ports then 11 pcie slots...but that's just me....
regardless, i haven't even looked at a Mac Pro in years, TB in general has taken care of most expansion needs for me (especially storage) so imacs and macbooks have been fine for me....this one could win me over again....
the fact that blackmagic and adobe have plenty of good things to say about these (and both really have an interest to NOT say anything good!), regarding raw 4K performance gives me hope that i might not even need a rocket with one of these....and at that point it will save me money even if it is quite a bit more then the existing/old mac pros....
there is so much we don't know and quite a bit we do....things will change until they ship which might be 5 months from now, so why not just let them come out and then make a call...

 

[Corey_O]

cover

cover

 

[Sergio Perez]

I know how paradise looks like... A room full of these :

A dark editing/grading room with nice and comfortable furniture.
The new Mac Pro (maxed out) paired with an Apple PCI expansion box (for RRX and other supercharged devices) matching the mac pro design.
3 Black aluminum 4K Cinema Display with TB2
80Tb of external SSD
OSX Mavericks
The next version of FCX
Resolve 10 with the big Control Surface
Adobe CC
Maya
Ableton Live 9 and the next version of Logic Pro + hardware
Dolby Surround Monitoring
Red Ray + Red Projector
Pop Corn
Champagne

A la votre !

How I see it too! Great to see Apple back !

 

[Antony Newman]

Who says they didn't? While it shows a single CPU in the online images, there are configurations that scale to 12 cores, according to current info. They have not announced which Xeon CPUs they are using specifically and as of this time, Intel has not announced any 12-core single-CPU Xeon product. The upcoming Ivy Bridge E5 chips come in 6 and 8 core flavors. I'm guessing we'll be able to choose from single or dual 6-core for up to 12 cores or a single 8-core CPU. Probably won't hit 16-cores with this generation of Xeon, the 8-core chips consume more power and put out considerably more heat, they are definitely not a linear progression in that department.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Intel-Xeon-Ivy-Bridge-EP-Server,21972.html

My earlier speculation was that if (based on rumour) Intel are due to release a 12 core 3GHz hyperthreading single chip E5 in October this year - I couldn't see any benefit in using two slightly higher clocked 6 core E5s.

My guess is that Apple are working with a limited wattage footprint, and 2 meaty GPUs pays more dividend than two CPUs.

I think the AMD deal is brilliant move on Apples part. They will force the highly optimised CUDA code to be translated into OpenCL, they probably got a fantastic deal from AMD (who are loosing sales to Nvidia + Adobe).
Adobe's CS6 probably won't support the new AMD cards fully ... or get shareholder approval for a GPU update - so FCP-X will run faster.
And Apple sends another message to Intel that High wattage CPUs is not what Apple are after. If Intel already have space for 15 cores at 22nm ... I think 2015 will bring an Apple 'base' update to the that Broadwell (14nm) Xeons with 20-60 cores.
Maybe Nvidia will be put under pressure to get AMD to agree on GPU-GPU standard (with 16 core ARM brains) .. and the 12 core E5's can pass over more of their CPU duties to the Denver - or AMD equivalent (if such an agreement is fleshed out).

AJ

 

[Drew Baird]

I have been relatively quiet and letting the new specs simmer. I've got to say that Jeff and Peter M are thinking progressively. After what I've seen from Apple's small public "sneak peak" the new Mac Pro is far from being a joke. The internal processing power and eliminating some of the most speed plaguing bottlenecks that pc's and your soon to be hackintosh's will experience is kind of a big deal. The graphics are a non issue for my workflow (and pretty much everyone else that I know). OpenCL has advanced and is very fast, as well as its support by adobe (Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Speedgrade...) and Black Magic Design, The Foundry (Nuke etc...) and of course Final Cut Pro 'X'. Avid will probably take a while to come around, but they live a decade behind the rest of us anyways... Peter is right when he says most PCIe cards aren't going to bottleneck with Thunderbolt 2 and the data rate is stackable anyways, so when needed just use 2 TB2 ports when we have 3rd party support for it - assuming apple won't release their own, and hopefully they are on the way. Which leads me to design. I'm not a fan of cables strung all over the place at all, but as silly as it looks now,mthis design makes sense. It is modular, and will kick your computers ass right out of the box. I can get over the cables. My DIT friends are looking forward to how much space this will open up on their carts. Not to mention from what I've heard the "fan noise" everyone complained so much about with the previous MacPro's - is gone.

There is still a lot to be known about this small funny looking machine, but to be fair lets hold off on the trash talk until its been released. This computer was built for 4k, and in theory, that is exactly what I'm looking for. And I'm going to go ahead and assume that most of the rest of you have very similar requirements to mine.

 

[Bruce Allen]

I think this thread is divided between:

1. folks who understand the new Mac Pro, accurately assess that it doesn't fit their needs and are complaining.

2. folks who don't understand the new Mac Pro and think i doesn't fit their needs when it actually does.

3. folks complaining at both of the above groups, not understanding that they are actually different.

Do you do high end VFX / rendering? Do you push GPUs to the limit, upgrade them often, etc? If so, new Mac Pro might not be for you. I fit into this category and it's definitely not suited for me (this version at least).

Do you do just want a nice little 4K editing / finishing / mid-level GFX system that's reasonably fast? Then sure, Mac Pro will probably be lovely.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Terry VerHaar]

I really don't understand why some people are defending this New MacProX. All their arguments is about finding or hoping for workarounds. There MIGHT be Nvidia cards in the future. Their MIGHT be Thunderbolt 2 boxes for RRX. You JUST have to buy external boxes for hard drives. Now third party companies will PROBABLY propose more thundernolt devices. You JUST have to buy thunderbolt to firewire adapters. You can JUST put all the parts in a regular chassis if you want internal expandability. The fact is that why would i have to bother with all this? The only answer is because they have built it wrong and it has absolutely no purposes than being pretty (which i don't care), smaller (which is false since everything i need to put outside will make it a lot bigger... and noisier) and above all faster obsolete. When the size of the old MacPro was ever a problem? When did some of you said "oh if ever i could have the equivalent of a box shoe size more in my room, i would work so much better"? I'm sorry but it's a big step behind one more time, like removing ethernet and firewire ports from the MacBook Pro, or removing their replaceable batteries, hard disk drives and ram. Please stop excusing them. They just made everything more complicated for us to spend more. There is no other purpose. Mac Pro previous design was great. Apple is not for pros anymore or really rich and forgiving ones.

Actually - I think you either missed, or are choosing to misrepresent, all the points being made in favor of the new Mac Pro. There is internal storage - very fast internal storage - it's flash-based.

External storage is pretty much always necessary for video work. TB2 is a very fast connector for that storage. There are as many form factors for external drives as you'd want to choose from. Choices...

There are already expansion chassis for TB, TB2 is just the next iteration. You really think there wont be any??

Whine, whine whine - for no reason whatsoever. Modular is good - modular is forward thinking. You can like the form factor or not but the functionality is massive.

If all this connect-ability is too darn complex for you to deal with, I'd suggest you do all your work on an iPad.