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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

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

Uhg. We've been through this before.

I hope some of the limitations get tackled this time:

153341-cube1_original.jpg


cube_open.jpg


I am a bit scared of GPUs on proprietary card form factor. Latest and greatest cards, if even avail, will not be priced on par with regular PCI cards.
 
seems great for editing with prores or dnxhd files (though an imac with a lacie 20 tb tb raid does too)
but the cable daisy chaining starts again...mixed feelings here. tb peripherie is expensive.
rocket x seems to be ignored.

no powerful graphic cards.
looks very expensive and cable heavy to turn the macpro from an editing station to a finishing station plus rendering dailies and offline files before.

maybe i miss something obvious

---
my biggest concern is that the alexa workflow now looks even more attractive...1 thunderbolt reader for the sxs cards, 1080p prores should be able to be edited immediatly, maybe 4k prores files too.
 
Not really, most of us don't use Red Rockets. Debayer and transcode times have been cut drastically in the past year. Plus most post work is not R3D centric any more. There are many other camera codecs to deal with. The faster the CPU GPU combo plus fast raid drives who needs a rocket.
 
OK posted in some other threads about this however I'm now only posting in this thread because it has "official" in thread title ; )
 
shashbugu said:
Not really, most of us don't use Red Rockets. Debayer and transcode times have been cut drastically in the past year. Plus most post work is not R3D centric any more. There are many other camera codecs to deal with. The faster the CPU GPU combo plus fast raid drives who needs a rocket.
Click to expand...

i only shoot red, because i like how it looks, but how do you do the last rendering in full debayer without a rocket? or better to ask 6k full debayer when dragon arrives?
 
Cüneyt Kaya said:
seems great for editing with prores or dnxhd files (though an imac with a lacie 20 tb tb raid does too)
but the cable daisy chaining starts again...mixed feelings here. tb peripherie is expensive.
rocket x seems to be ignored.

no powerful graphic cards.
looks very expensive and cable heavy to turn the macpro from an editing station to a finishing station plus rendering dailies and offline files before.

maybe i miss something obvious

---
my biggest concern is that the alexa workflow now looks even more attractive...1 thunderbolt reader for the sxs cards, 1080p prores should be able to be edited immediatly, maybe 4k prores files too.
Click to expand...

Hi Kaya!

You did (miss)...
It does have 2 extremely powerful GPUs that "scream" in Resolve according to BMD's CEO.
It also has an amazing fast internal storage for "in a flash" boot up and app launch - and combined with new super-fast RAM - CPU - GPU interconnect it should run the apps amazingly fast as well...
That leaves storage - and with 6x TB2 ports this is more then enough...
...and Displays - it supports 3x 4K (and just for the record proper 4K - as in 4096x2160) displays out of the box...

The only remaining question is how well will the new RRX work with it. Hopefully by the time the Mac Pro is ready to ship, someone (knock knock MAGMA!) will release a dual TB2 interconnect chassis to accommodate it...

That would leave 2x TB2 for 2x 4K displays for UI,
one TB2 for ultra-fast external storage,
and one TB2 for A/V AJA/BMD 4K play-out device.
The additional peripheral ports on the (yet to be announced) 4K Cinema Displays will take care of the rest...

:sifone: Peter
 
thanks peter :)

are there possibilities to add proper grading monitors to that thing? guess through tb2.


Peter Majtan said:
Hi Kaya!

You did (miss)...
It does have 2 extremely powerful GPUs that "scream" in Resolve according to BMD's CEO.
It also has an amazing fast internal storage for "in a flash" boot up and app launch - and combined with new super-fast RAM - CPU - GPU interconnect it should run the apps amazingly fast as well...
That leaves storage - and with 6x TB2 ports this is more then enough...
...and Displays - it supports 3x 4K (and just for the record proper 4K - as in 4096x2160) displays out of the box...

The only remaining question is how well will the new RRX work with it. Hopefully by the time the Mac Pro is ready to ship, someone (knock knock MAGMA!) will release a dual TB2 interconnect chassis to accommodate it...

:sifone: Peter
Click to expand...
 
Cüneyt Kaya said:
i only shoot red, because i like how it looks, but how do you do the last rendering in full debayer without a rocket? or better to ask 6k full debayer when dragon arrives?
Click to expand...

What, on output? The rocket actually makes the footage a hair softer than using only the CPU. Using only CPU just takes longer than using the Rocket, is all. Rocket doesn't give you any additional abilities, just time factor. If you hit Export, then walk away, the end result is going to be the same, it's just that with the Rocket you get to come back sooner.

Give it a few years, and that will change. Unless resolutions keep increasing exponentially. But unless lenses (and thus image circles) also increase with it, there's a limit to that too; even with increase quality per pixel (as in, per photoreceptor site), weird things start to happen the smaller you make the individual pixels/photoreceptors. Practically speaking, I think there will be a limit to resolution in another jump or three after 6K. Could be wrong. But if I'm not, then once Resolution maxes out, if CPU power just keeps increasing, as does I/O bandwidth and GPU, well, in ~10 years your 2 year old nephew's throw-away $300 laptop will be able to work with Red footage.

Sounds crazy, but 10 years ago did you think everyone would have a smartphone in their pocket that's faster and more powerful than the top of the line 2007 laptops?
 
Sorry, but it's a 'meh' from me. For the type of work and expansion options that I need, this just doesn't do it. It's a really nice, powerful system and if I was a one-man-band, photographer or illustrator I'd already be putting back the money for its release as this system (depending on price point) would be kicking some ass. As it is now, the PC platform offers me better options and better growth than this form factor. I was really hoping Apple would give me a reason to update at the end of the year, oh well.

And, just as an aside, I'm not irritated by the ATI cards being used, I'm irritated that I wouldn't be able to easily and quickly switch, upgrade or remove the cards based on my needs. Sorry, but part of being a Professional workstation is that ability.
 
Zakaree Sandberg said:
can build a better hackintosh, with way more options.. for way less...

apple sucks
Click to expand...

Good to see that you have had the privilege of knowing the price of the Mac Pro unlike the rest of us... Seriously jealous ATM, do you mind sharing?

:sifone: Peter
 
Like many things around here, lots of conclusions jumped to and no testing. Got to love the spirit, but come on guys. How about some real world tests before we call this thing dead and useless. In my opinion, Apple could have bowed out of the desktop tower game and focused entirely on consumer gadgetry and apps and made billions more dollars. I give them credit for acknowledging their power user base. Are the specs perfect for the really high end users, no of course not. But let's wait until they are out in the wild before we put our foot on the throat of Apple. From what I am reading from the specs I think this machine will pay itself off very quickly. But specs only tell me so much.
 
I pilot an older Hackintosh, dual boot to Win8. Uses a gamer case so it is well ventilated, has Blu-Ray burner, 32-way card reader, swap bays for bare hard drives... I think it is practical. I'd love one of these new MacPro's but really, I'd be tempted to add wheels, camera and call it R2 Chrome!
 
Steve Sherrick said:
Like many things around here, lots of conclusions jumped to and no testing. Got to love the spirit, but come on guys. How about some real world tests before we call this thing dead and useless. In my opinion, Apple could have bowed out of the desktop tower game and focused entirely on consumer gadgetry and apps and made billions more dollars. I give them credit for acknowledging their power user base. Are the specs perfect for the really high end users, no of course not. But let's wait until they are out in the wild before we put our foot on the throat of Apple. From what I am reading from the specs I think this machine will pay itself off very quickly. But specs only tell me so much.
Click to expand...

I agree, i'll remain optimistic on these units for the time being. Price is going to be a HUGE factor on these. If they are reasonably priced I think it could make great sense at least for what i would do with it. But, there are many questions still and we won't know anything until later this year. So, for now, I wait...optimistically.
 
Sarah C. said:
We've seen this before... Let's hope Apple has a better long term business plan.

sgi-O2.png
Click to expand...

ha ha ha ha I remember those boxes, they were the craze when I was in film school. the 02 next to the Onyx Reality, next to the Intergraphs. What an investment disaster.
 
Peter Majtan said:
Good to see that you have had the privilege of knowing the price of the Mac Pro unlike the rest of us... Seriously jealous ATM, do you mind sharing?

:sifone: Peter
Click to expand...

My guess is that:
- Xeon-branded CPU
- custom-designed graphics PCBs with workstation-branded GPUs
- ECC RAM (that nobody needs)
- custom SSD

Will be more expensive than:
- i7-branded CPU (that's probably the same speed or faster for less $)
- mass-produced PCIe "gaming" GPU (again probably same speed or faster for less $)
- non-ECC RAM (that costs less and makes no difference)
- off-the-shelf, upgradeable SATA SSDs or PCIe SSD storage

So yeah, probably you will be able to build a faster Hackintosh for a lot less. No inside info needed for that guess.

And you'll be able to upgrade the GPUs by just buying newer ones when they come out. And upgrade the SSDs. Etc.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
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