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I'm seriously thinking of getting nMP 6 core D700...Still thinking, but I just hope Apple will stick with AMD in the future MP. I'd be pissed if next MP gets Nvidia card or option to upgrade to it...

Why would you be pissed? If you need Nvidia, then get a PC or old Mac Pro.


I went for the 6-Core, 16GB RAM (to be upgraded later), D700, 1TB

I am very very happy with my purchase. in terms of heavy apps, I run MotionBuilder, Maya, DAZ, MATLAB, SAS, Vicon Nexus (MOCAP) and i'm currently able to run them pretty darn well in Parallels to be honest, no lag at all in fact. I use Bootcamp to do the final renders for a little extra speed but i see no slow down at all.

It boots to OSX with resumed apps faster than my router can assign it an IP, it is always whisper silent and the footprint is amazingly small and pretty!

Hope this helps your decision!

What do you think of the Maya performance? Also, which version are you running?
 
Why would you be pissed? If you need Nvidia, then get a PC or old Mac Pro.

I do have my PC gaming machine with EVGA Nvidia GTX680 4gb, but I need Mac Pro for work purpose. Since all the softwares I bought are in Mac. I thought about old MP, but I don't want to spend +$2800 (12 core) for 2010 tech (No thunderbolt either). Once I buy Mac Pro, I usually hold it for 4-5 years.
 
If you want to deploy in a multi-monitor or 4K environment, I would suggest waiting as there are some issues still outstanding. The d300 seems less prone however according to some posts on the apple community site.
 
D300 has problems as well

I have a 4-core Mac Pro with D300 since the end of May. It has the following three problems:

1. When I wake up the Mac Pro from the sleep mode, it does not always wake up both monitors connected to it. I then try to unplug and re-insert the monitor connector. It sometimes works, but sometimes does not. So I have to reboot the computer, which leads to the 2nd problem.

2. Mac Pro does not boot up reliably when more than 1 monitor is connected. It sometimes freezes and shows glitches on one of the monitors. The work-around is to do a SMC reset when it happens.

3. Mac Pro does not enter sleep mode reliably. It took me 6 weeks to figure out a work-around. Apparently, Spotlight tries to index the external HDs which are in sleep mode already. So Spotlight keeps on trying and thus keeps the Mac Pro awake. The work-around is to exclude external HDs from Spotlight.

Quite a few people on Apple Forum stated they have the same problems. Based on my personal experience and those of others on Apple Forum, I would recommend one should wait....

Note that my Mac Pro is a replacement unit already. The first one had the same problem. I had a wishful thinking that Apple would fix these problems and kept the 2nd unit.... Mistake...
 
I actually don't have a nMac pro but I was thinking to buy one!! Now definitely I will wait to se what happens in the future and if they release a update of the nMP. Actually I have an iMac late 2011 but with this computer I have several problems... (Display change it 2 time and in one week I will change it the third time, CPU broken, SuperDrive broken, Gpu malfunction, Ethernet port not working) with all this they will repair it again, they told me that it will be the last time that they will repair it, if I have more issues they will replace it.
Should I ask them to replace it one and don't keep procrastinating??
My apple care finish in October 2015... What should I do then?? Pay reparations every time is broken?? I like apple products but sometimes drive me crazy
 
I have a 4-core Mac Pro with D300 since the end of May. It has the following three problems:

1. When I wake up the Mac Pro from the sleep mode, it does not always wake up both monitors connected to it. I then try to unplug and re-insert the monitor connector. It sometimes works, but sometimes does not. So I have to reboot the computer, which leads to the 2nd problem.

2. Mac Pro does not boot up reliably when more than 1 monitor is connected. It sometimes freezes and shows glitches on one of the monitors. The work-around is to do a SMC reset when it happens.

3. Mac Pro does not enter sleep mode reliably. It took me 6 weeks to figure out a work-around. Apparently, Spotlight tries to index the external HDs which are in sleep mode already. So Spotlight keeps on trying and thus keeps the Mac Pro awake. The work-around is to exclude external HDs from Spotlight.

Quite a few people on Apple Forum stated they have the same problems. Based on my personal experience and those of others on Apple Forum, I would recommend one should wait....

Note that my Mac Pro is a replacement unit already. The first one had the same problem. I had a wishful thinking that Apple would fix these problems and kept the 2nd unit.... Mistake...

Bummer. I suspect it's your displays and not the nMP. On the other hand my 6c, 64gb, 1tb, D700 has been flawless with dual 27" thunderbolt displays since April. Even the Win 8.1 pro encrypted partition runs solidly.
 
It is very hard to guess monitor or Mac Pro. But others on Apple Forum reported that their Mac Pros had problems with Apple monitors as well.

Additionally, according to Apple's own publication, OS X 10.9.4 was supposed to fix the wake up from sleep problem. See Apple's own publication below:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6281

So it is fair to assume that Apple agreed that there was a problem. I and others on Apple Forum think the fix from Apple does not address the problem reliably. It was an improvement nevertheless, to give some credit to Apple.
 
Why not spend $1000 less and buy an iMac G5? It will still last 5 more years. Then repeat (5 years from now) with the now "ancient" Mac Pro.

Because if you're doing video editing and gaming on a maxed-out iMac it's not going to last five years. Those things are not meant for heavy workloads, as the OP already figured out.
 
What about OpenCL 2.0. Is it supported in the current MPs? As far as I understand the firepro w9000 (i.e. the d700 in nMP) doesn't support OpenCL 2.0, while the new w9100 does. ....

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/workstation/firepro-3d/9100

Pragmatically, currently the w9100 does not. There will eventually be OpenCL 2.0, but does not now. From the URL linked:

" It’s expected to support OpenCL 2.03, ..."

if dive into the footnote associated it is about drivers coupled to the underlying hardware foundation. Minimally though some shared memory hardware support needs to be present. Part of the difference between AMD GCN 1.0 and 1.1 is more robust shared memory support.

differences thread here:
http://semiaccurate.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7389

shared memory (from AMD terminology perspective) here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7825/amd-updates-driver-roadmap-for-supporting-hsa-features-in-kaveri
(there is a deeper dive into HSA at that link that briefly covers how Intel/Nvidia/AMD are progressing. )

So the current D300-D700 cards probably will not get a driver update to OpenCL 2.0 as they are GCN 1.0 based.


With Apple's classic slow adoption of Khronos standards ( OpenGL/OpenCL ), I wouldn't hold my breath even if new GCN 1.1 hardware lands in new Mac Pro. Until the Intel OpenCL 2.0 stuff is ready to show and be weaved into the rest of the Mac line up I suspect general OS X support will be on a slow boat. Wouldn't be shocking at all if this support doesn't show up until OS X 10.11 (or later).

Intel is still in "we can't comment" stage
https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/topic/520000 and https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/topic/515739 (**)
which is coupled to Broadwell support is likely required. If the majority of the Mac line up is not going to Broadwell any time soon.... then OS X is probably not getting OpenCL 2.0 any time soon either. If not going to be substantial amounts of Mac hardware capable until well into 2015 then can easily see Apple sliding sliding support to OS X 10.11 which is the "2015" version of the OS.


(**) Although someone at Intel seems to have commented in some of the recent 'deep dive' technical press previews they have been doing.
"... Meanwhile on the compute front, Intel has confirmed that Broadwell’s GPU will offer support for OpenCL 2.0, i ..."
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8355/intel-broadwell-architecture-preview/3
 
...
So the current D300-D700 cards probably will not get a driver update to OpenCL 2.0 as they are GCN 1.0 based.
...
With Apple's classic slow adoption of Khronos standards ( OpenGL/OpenCL ), I wouldn't hold my breath even if new GCN 1.1 hardware lands in new Mac Pro. Until the Intel OpenCL 2.0 stuff is ready to show and be weaved into the rest of the Mac line up I suspect general OS X support will be on a slow boat. Wouldn't be shocking at all if this support doesn't show up until OS X 10.11 (or later).
...[/url]

I guess you're right. But, it feels like Apple have pushed the idea of GPU-computing with the release of nMP and since they dropped the nvidia/cuda option it should be in their interest to get opencl 2.0 working as fast as possible. I have coded both opencl and cuda and prefer cuda. My applications can relatively easy be implemented in both, but cuda is easier in my experience. I would very much appreciate the option of sharing more complex data with the kernels which appears in opencl 2.0*. Therefore I am waiting for upgrade until they either have hardware that is supported by opencl 2.0 or cuda (i.e. nvidia).

*Shared Virtual Memory
Host and device kernels can directly share complex, pointer-containing data structures such as trees and linked lists, providing significant programming flexibility and eliminating costly data transfers between host and devices.

https://www.khronos.org/news/press/khronos-releases-opencl-2.0
 
Bummer. I suspect it's your displays and not the nMP. ....

The monitor wakeup problem happened again last night. So I did the following test to conclude the problem is the nMP.

I unplugged the miniDisplay connector for that monitor from the Mac Pro and turned off the monitor. A few seconds later, I turned on the monitor and then reconnected the miniDisplay connector to Mac Pro. There was still no signal from Mac Pro to the monitor.

I did the above 3 times and concluded that Mac Pro does not send signal (EDIDs) to monitor. So the problem has to be the Mac Pro. Otherwise, after the above steps, the monitor should get a signal from the Mac Pro.

I contacted Apple Care again last night. One senior advisor contacted me this morning and collected more traces for their Engineering team to analyze.
 
I'm seriously thinking of getting nMP 6 core D700...Still thinking, but I just hope Apple will stick with AMD in the future MP. I'd be pissed if next MP gets Nvidia card or option to upgrade to it...

Why would having choice anger you?
 
... But, it feels like Apple have pushed the idea of GPU-computing with the release of nMP

Apple is more so pushing the uniformity of the availability. Two GPUs standard on higher end MBP and MP ( and iMac although Apple appears to be suppressing that tandem a bit) should make it a more standard model for developers to plan for.

Besides that Apple isn't doing much that isn't already flowing out of the industry wide GPGPU trends as a whole.

The other part that Apple is pushing on is not getting into single vendor proprietary tar-pits with this new movement/trend-line. OpenCL as an option.
Broad application adoption of any form of OpenCL is going to give the overall GPGPU market more flexibility.


and since they dropped the nvidia/cuda option it should be in their interest to get opencl 2.0 working as fast as possible.

Not really. There are zero production deployed OpenCL 2.0 hardware right now. OpenCL 1.2? Yes. And they have since there is a significant fraction of the deployed/operational Mac hardware population that actually can support OpenCL 1.2 (e.g., http://www.anandtech.com/show/6886/intel-updates-opencl-driver-and-tools-for-ivy-bridge-and-haswell ). The millions of HD4000 and HD5000 Macs out there can take advantage with Mavericks' broad spectrum OpenCL 1.2 enablement.

Nvidia either didn't offer Apple a OpenCL 2.0 capable GPU card for the Mac Pro's previous design bake off or lost the desk bake off ( or both ). Nvidia is shooting itself in the head for Apple Design bake-offs by dragging their feet on OpenCL support isn't Apple's problem with OpenCL scheduling.

What Apple should be far more concerned about is better and more robust OpenCL tools. To be one of the founders of OpenCL Apple's supportive environment ( tools , education/support, etc.) around OpenCL seems at best "ordinary" and in some extent lagging.

To some extent not surprising since the "computation focused" GPGPU cards have largely been missing from the Mac and OS X line up while the Mac Pro product line was comatose for several years. So it is not all that surprising that the toolchains coupled to that computation focused hardware on other platforms is in a bit better shape than Apple's.

I would very much appreciate the option of sharing more complex data with the kernels which appears in opencl 2.0*. Therefore I am waiting for upgrade until they either have hardware that is supported by opencl 2.0 or cuda (i.e. nvidia).

It would be nice of the Mac Pro moved to OpenCL 2.0 capable hardware before any other Mac model, but given the track record over last 4 years a move within a same 6-10 month window would be progress. I think Apple is going to have to 'walk' before they start 'running'.

Did Nvidia ever get around to supporting OpenCL 1.2? As long as they play the "OpenCL has to loose for CUDA to win" game the number of design wins will continue to go down ( have disappeared from low end iMacs an MBP 15" models ).

OpenCL 2.0 is coming from Intel and AMD on next iteration parts. I don't think Apple is going to change upgrade timing just for OpenCL 2.0 though. The next set of hardware upgrades when delivered will probably have OpenCL 2.0 uniformity across the whole line up ( just not any particular role played there by Nvidia at all).
 
Not saying this is the solution for everyone, but for me it solved everything.

I had all sorts of issues with dropped sync, random disconnects, random wake ups and a few graphics glitches here and there.

Since 2011 I have tried different macs, different monitors and even exchanged the cable for a new one just to be shure.. Nothing helped, still a lot of glitches.

A few moths ago I needed a longer cable and bought a different (and more expensive) cable than the first two.

Not a single glitch since.. :)
 
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