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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 MacPro predictions? Hopes? Fears?

I like it, that's twin cards, or a twin height card?

The guy is in Northern Europe. I wonder his the cooling would go in a 30-43 degree Celsius environment.

It would need to go on its side with riser feet for cooling, but I don't know if it can work like that full tilt in hot weather. The location of the monitor onto related to the cooling is a concern too.

What I'm thinking of would be 40-50cm long on bigger monitors and take optical drive etc. This might he handy for a computer touch table also with 4k-8k.

I see a lot of space in that case. The Sony boss once filled a bucket of water and put a walk man cassette player in it because the engineers said there was no space left to make it smaller. When air bubbles came out he made his point. I would pit as many ports in as possible, maybe extra drives. That's what it lacks, an OLED front control panel and extra ports (which can.be drilled out).

I locked in awful lit, and seen similar sized cases, but don't know if they can take what this does. There is a coolermaster with similar case material. Ahh, yeah, there are some passively cooled small media PC cases I was looking at pretty small, but I forget what card options. That doesn't matter because of what we want to put in it. However, there us a truck to reduce the size even more, a passive block that covers the entire motherboard, maybe water cooled system. Another inch or so less. An expensive thing to get made. But what I'm thinking would be smallest with thus, custom board, custom card even. But you could line up the cards to the dude of the motherboard, drives in line too. However, this is an excellent start, as things can be rearranged with a drive box inserted on the front with a tapered edge to slip.over the edging of the original case to look like a thin line seoetates them. Internal support and hinged connection internal front and external connection on back. Anyway, that's just an idea. However, it is a good PC formfactor to get away from the priority All in one components.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Meh... I'm sure the physical real estate requirement to double the RAM capacity, double the space + a bit of overhead, is 100% the reason why most of these notebooks are not offering larger memory sizes. But it's a trade-off. They could most certainly have done it if they wanted to. We have higher density DDR4 chips from Micron and Samsung coming to market in the next few months. So 32GB will most likely happen with the next spec bump... In oh, maybe 8 to 12 months. That is, assuming everything else aligns for it happening in terms of thermals and such. I think I'm going to expect the 32GB to arrive with Kaby Lake CPUs. It's just such a sad state of affairs when I've been running 16GB in my Apple notebooks for 7 years now. Yep that's right, I had 16GB in my 2009 17" MBP. It was awesome at the time. 16GB was still awesome in 2011. It was starting to be a concern by 2012 with the retina release. And has been a real and growing issue since 2013. 32GB+ memory sizes have been specifically supported by Intel's mobile platform without additional control or extension since 2014.

To put the 32GB in there now in the same form factor we would have to give up something else, so less battery, or lose a port or two. More memory chips increasing thermal output will require increased cooling. But what this says to many of us here is that Apple and Microsoft and others are not listening to the needs of their professional users and are choosing certain features and configuration attributes over others based on a form over function principle or mass market appeal.

This mass market appeal combined with a starving pro market ready to snatch up whatever Apple brought to the table are the likely reasons why we're not seeing larger dissent over the memory capacity.
Click to expand...

The real reason Apple caps the RAM at 16Gb is technical https://twitter.com/DanFrakes/status/791754757404626944

Sad, I know.
 
Blair Thornton said:
The real reason Apple caps the RAM at 16Gb is technical https://twitter.com/DanFrakes/status/791754757404626944
Click to expand...

Now that's just bad info. Current LPDDR3 chips from all major manufacturers top out at 32Gb - that's GigaBit not GigaByte. In fact, I'd be surprised if Apple is not using the 32Gb chips in their arrangement as they're more efficient per capacity than the 16Gb ones. This also has no bearing on the maximum capacity of the system. Intel Skylake platform currently supports 64GB through the primary controller and is extensible to 256GB.

Bob Gundu said:
Yup.
http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/28/new-macbook-pros-no-32gb-ram-battery-life/
Click to expand...

That seems like what most of us are figuring. Combination of real-estate in the system, battery, power consumption, etc.. Didn't fit within Apple's grand vision. And while a lot of us might be grumpy over it, I can totally understand this reasoning from Apple. Those of us who need more than 16GB are the elite 1% of their current user base. But I still wish they would offer the option. Most of us power users don't necessarily care about "all day battery life" because our apps that tax the system usually drains the battery in and hour or so if we're really using it.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
There's a lot more in this new FCPX release. Things like using source timecode for window burns, remove effects and attributes, etc. I'll wait it out for a rev or two before jumping from 10.2.3 but promising that Apple is taking some of the feedback.
Click to expand...

The sad reality for me, as someone who jumped into FCPx on initial release, only to switch to MCP, is that I don't want to waste a large time investment for an application tied to a platform Apple is abandoning.
 
FCP 10.3 is arguably the biggest update to the app since launch - there is a ton of stuff in there that has no business serving "non-pros" - I wouldn't be so remose that the platform is being abandoned after seeing what they've come up with in 10.3. You just don't invest that much dev and testing time for something you don't care about. Sadly, apple has been held back by intel's chip cycle and we all await the next xeon workstation with built in TB3...
 
R.E. "Turning off Magnetic timeline" It's always been optional. Use the "Position" arrow tool and it acts like an old NLE, letting you put stuff wherever you want without the "magnets" turned on.
 
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Yowsa. Just priced out a 15" MBP with 16GB RAM, 1TB storage, 2.9GHz CPU, 4GB GPU, 3yr AppleCare and adapter cables at over $4,000 USD. Maybe it's just me, but for that kind of coin I expect a lot more of just about everything. Spent $2,800 in June of 2015 for a 15" rMBP with 16GB RAM, 2.5GHz CPU, 2GB GPU & 3yr AppleCare and thought that was pretty pricey for a laptop - even a nice one. (not comparing to mega-laptops that are essentially portable desktops).

As one wag noted, making the price this high will reduce unit sales so that Apple can justify getting out of the computer biz due to low demand. Irony? Myopia? Ego? ...?

Cheers - #19
 
I am still perplexed by Apples long term non-mobile computing plan.

Downers
+) They have exited the stand alone display market (allowing the panel OEM to create a Mac-only 5K screen) - presumably because Apple would not be able to complete and still make a hefty margin.
+) They have added Apple Pay to Laptops ... but the 'paring' in the factory would make inclusion in a stand alone keyboard impossible.
+) They have fragmented keyboard control : MacOS software will now either be sexy and new (supporting touch bar) ... but not have these features in the lower end 13" Laptop, or the trashcan.
+) New Laptops are not 4K UHD
+) They have an OS that is optimised for 12 core Xeons ... but no new device that can make use of this in the last 4 years.

Uppers
+) The have added ARM compatibility to MacOS - which could theoretically open up use of non-Xeon Chips from Cavium / or a multi-core home grown Hurricane chip (but the TIMING seems completely wrong, and Apple would surely need another 12 - 18 months to make such a bold move)
+) Apple have amassed a world class GPU design team (but are not likely in a position to make a GPU that can scale up to the Laptop needs, let alone a desktop)
+) Apple are still working on Final Cut X. What seems strange here is - people are not paying Apple a yearly chunk of change for this. I would guess that maintaining FCPx is costing them, or they believe that people are Buying Laptops to use FCPX. But if that was the case ... then a proportion of users would also buy a new trashcan.

iMac Pro
+) Could this Apples next move? Leave 5K screens to LG, and deliver and 8K screen with a boat load of GPU grunt?
+) With reduced wattage for screen displays, 14nm GPUs (although I would hope Nvidia), and a something with 12 cores from Intel's oven, perhaps Apple no longer 'need' a Mac Pro to connect to an LG screen .... and they can squeeze everything into an iMac?

AJ
 
Juiced iMac

Juiced iMac

It will be interesting to see if Apple does decide to make the iMac it's only desktop offering. With some clever design, and the use of new school process shrunk parts with better performance per watt, it could be an elegant solution.

Imagine the rear casing behind the panel came in both thin and thick versions. The thin version would have TDP limits, use mobile parts where possible, fewer I/O ports, etc to keep costs down and to serve the many folks who don't need max performance (or as a thin client for a bomb ass server). The thick version would have PCIe slots, liquid cooling (fan noise for a powerful config would be too annoying) and plenty of BTO options for power users.

Large, high resolution screens are going to be a key element of desktop computing for the foreseeable future - so why not use that real estate to host all the guts? Think how many square inches of heat sink one could put on the backside of a unit that is already a big rectangle due to the screen. It could use a modular design that allowed one to swap the rear section but keep the screen if desired.

Fun to think about anyway...

Cheers - #19
 
Blair S. Paulsen said:
Large, high resolution screens are going to be a key element of desktop computing for the foreseeable future - so why not use that real estate to host all the guts? Think how many square inches of heat sink one could put on the backside of a unit that is already a big rectangle due to the screen.
Click to expand...

Good thinking. I like that idea.
 
Antony Newman said:
I am still perplexed by Apples long term non-mobile computing plan.

iMac Pro
+) Could this Apples next move? Leave 5K screens to LG, and deliver and 8K screen with a boat load of GPU grunt?
+) With reduced wattage for screen displays, 14nm GPUs (although I would hope Nvidia), and a something with 12 cores from Intel's oven, perhaps Apple no longer 'need' a Mac Pro to connect to an LG screen .... and they can squeeze everything into an iMac?

AJ
Click to expand...

With the 2017, HEDT, Kaby Lake X (4 core, 112W, hedt) and Skylake X (6, 8, 10 core 140W) sharing the same LGA 2066 socket, that's a possibility.

Only need to make one motherboard.
 
There is a special SKU from AMD for a custom dual Vega GPU on a single non-standard board.
Many believe this is for the "Pro" iMac version - it aligns with Apple thermal and powers limits.
It is also believed to be one of the Apple design wins, and was expected to be made available to Apple near the end of Q1 2017, but it may have slipped into Q2

The dual Vega GPU will be a huge boost to FCPx cutters, but most will just use it for GUI only and run nVidia solutions for CUDA via TB3.

But since it will have dual current GPUs, Apple can say it is Pro, outperforms the Mac Pro, and do will do a similar thing as they did in the keynote yesterday regarding the MBAir.

CPU will most likely be SkyLake X 10 core CPUs as the top offering, for which Apple can also say it outperforms the Mac Pro again
The KabyLake X chips will be gimped on PCI-E lanes (16 for Kaby vs 48 for Sky) and not an ideal choice, but it does use less power and creates less heat (8 core is the max option for Kaby)
SO who knows, knowing the mind numbing dumb decision making over at Apple, they may just use KabyLake's 16 lanes solely for the video card.


Take the following with a lot of salt:
I've heard some talk of dual Apple proprietary SSD slots, that the iMac Pro will be will be in black, and will feature back panels to allowing users easier accessibility to some of the guts.

I've heard absolutely nothing about increasing the screen resolution, so expect the same 5K with more HDR and wide color gamut features.


The Cook in Fall 2017:
Will show an old mac tower from the side.
Then show an iMac Pro from the side.
"This is truly incredible, we have squeezed 45% more power then the Mac Pro into 90% less volume"
"Truly revolutionary, now for the first time every, you can work on a Mac and view HDR with wide color all in one unit"
"its Amazing, and the best Pro Mac we've ever made"
"We've unshackled the limits on creative professionals and we are so Proud"
The Cook will also somehow find a way to mention iPhone 8 thirty times while talking about the new iMacs.

It will never be updated, and will be the last time Apple holds an event and pretends to be interested in the professional creative market
 
I think the laptop announcements are kind of along these lines...

14724643_1153885294693273_2799185805017380755_n.jpg
 
Marc, is that the plans for the cheap ARM IOS version of the Pro Nac Book. It puts together the film and does the post for you, and if you don't like it you keep hitting that track pad until it gives you the right one, then you hit tje big red button for accept (secretly labeled, "The Will of Apple", or hit the Kadashian one beforehand, to see if it has their approval? :smiley:
 
The good solution for a pro IMac is as I described above. Originally a decade maybe more ago, I wanted to do a transportable all in one, where you just hangtje monitor panel on the side of a case. But you can use conventional cards and keep a skinny profile with a special skinny thermal cooled motherboard alongside the cards, possibly with riser. Get's the computer out of the way and uses standard components. You are up in 8k raw territory with this in a pseudo all in one platform.
 
Now about the Mac Pro. The solution is to allow for CPU, dram and GPU+ports upgrade. They don't want just anything in it, it produces conpatability issues the OS has to be programmed for. But they only need to have an official support for one new card per generation, maybe two or three. People just buy the card and swap, preliminary drivers on board download, until you do an connection to download the latest drivers. In this way, people can keep their systems up to date a bit while waiting for a new Pro. Frankly, not many people want to be bothered with buying a new pro every year. It should be every 5 years unless itbis really good.

Now, the thing about the custom ports. The card would allow for things like the latest thurderbolt and HDMI that can be routed to the back panel.

That would solve many of the issues people have with the current MacPro, but even if a pin comparable latest CPU with more cores and 2x the perfoulrmance was available, it is likely that requirements would advance ahead (Red 10-12k raw etc). But a fraction might not be happy of those not happy at the moment). Ultimately, you need a new main board and memory and complete shift in processing (like Phi, and xpiont).
 
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