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2015 nMP (7,1) Proposed Feature Wish List

C

cinealta

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 9, 2012
488
6
I thought we could start a running wish list of features for a proposed 2015 7,1 nMP refresh. I will start:

- 8-core Intel Haswell-EP CPU with 20Mb L3 cache, Wellsburg (X99) chipset & 40 lane PCIe 3.0
- native support for USB 3.0 (if not 3.1) on Haswell chipset [added]
- 1Tb PCIe SSD
- DDR4 RAM
- 10 Gbs USB [3.1] edited
- [10] Gb ethernet edited
- 802.11a(d) wifi
- HDMI 2.0
- quieter fan [<8dBA at idle] edited
- dual D900 GPUs (or equivalent to > 12Gb GDDR6, 3,072 stream processors, 512 bit wide memory bus, 396 Gb/sec bandwidth etc)
- ability to replace 2nd GPU with additional SSD [added]
 
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100 Gb Ethernet? hehehe. At least make the wish list a bit realistic

You might as well wish for a toaster module.
 
a second ssd would be nice then(v2) if we don't see it upon initial release.
it would (should/could) trickle down to the 6,1 as well.
 
Based on past updates, I'd expect a minor CPU spec bump. That's it. :D

Honestly, I would expect the starting processor to be a 6-core.

New next-gen GPUs based on 22nm. Note NVIDIA is not in the 2013 by their choice, so it will be interesting to see if they change their mind on it by then.

Dual SSDs is very likely... doubling throughput in RAID0.

This is total speculation but I might add Thunderbolt 3 with support for PCIe 3.0.

I wonder if 10GBE will find its way into widespread adoption by then. I wouldn't bet on it.
 
Not sure of the point in this? For those that like the new Mac Pro design, the answer is simply "faster/better everything", while for those that don't, well probably snarky comments about internal hard drives, PCIe slots etc. which simply aren't going to happen at this point.

flat five said:
why add ball bearings to a design which doesn't have ball bearings in an effort to make it quieter? I don't get it
Click to expand...
I was thinking the same thing; I mean I've tried PC case fans both with and without ball bearings and both can be extremely quiet. Personally I think fluid bearings may have a slight edge in terms of the noise the fans make at high speeds. Since we don't know how fast the new Mac Pro's fan will actually operate it's a bit difficult to say what it needs to improve it. If you want the Mac Pro super quiet, you could instead wish-list even cooler running components and a more convex design that doesn't need a fan at all ;)


The main things I'd like to see in a future Mac Pro (or really, future Macs in general, though the Pro makes most sense) would be 10gbps ethernet, and proper surround sound at last; currently Macs with TOSlink out can only offer 5.1 sound for things that are already encoded in the right format, but I'd like OpenAL based software (or games) to be able to do it too; the current controllers just don't seem to do this, which is crazy when the majority of PC motherboards now come with 5.1 or 7.1 surround as standard, albeit as a bunch of mini-jacks.

If we talk pure wish-list; I'd love if they could somehow move the CPU to be right on the bottom of the thermal core, leaving room for a third GPU and reorganising into a more equal triangular pattern. This would then leave ample room for more SSD blades (or maybe even 2.5" drives though that'd be a step backward in some ways, I just like actually having capacity in a machine). Obviously that's assuming the first generation can run without heat issues which is still unknown, but dammit it'd be sweet to have a mini workstation with yet another GPU as standard ;)
 
Last edited:
VirtualRain said:
Based on past updates, I'd expect a minor CPU spec bump. That's it. :D

Honestly, I would expect the starting processor to be a 6-core.

New next-gen GPUs based on 22nm. Note NVIDIA is not in the 2013 by their choice, so it will be interesting to see if they change their mind on it by then.

Dual SSDs is very likely... doubling throughput in RAID0.

This is total speculation but I might add Thunderbolt 3 with support for PCIe 3.0.

I wonder if 10GBE will find its way into widespread adoption by then. I wouldn't bet on it.
Click to expand...

Sounds reasonable, DDR4 too, 10GBE, new procs. Nothing terribly exciting really.
 
A second CPU socket - a wish for others
Larger hex core thermal core for more cards, 6 instead of 3.
A multi thunderbolt plug PCIe extender box to host the bigger can on top with complimentary thermal design, designed to host all the spaghetti with PCIe slots. 4 SATA/SAS sleds would be handy. Preferably a cheesegrater look on its face!
 
My wish is for this turd to flop, and then for Apple to go back to the old design. Not going to happen then... :(
 
10 bit colour

10-bit colour (in OS X)
h.265 decoding in hardware
Black keyboard, mouse, trackpad to match
 
cinealta said:
Although it hasn't been physically released, the specs for the 2013 nMP are already out. I thought we could start a running wish list of features for a proposed 2015 7,1 nMP (v2). I will start:

- 8-core Intel Haswell-EP CPU with 20Mb L3 cache, Wellsburg (X99) chipset & 40 lane PCIe 3.0
- 1Tb PCIe SSD
- DDR4 RAM
- 10 Gbs USB 3.0
- 100Gb ethernet
- 802.11a(d) wifi
- HDMI 2.0
- quieter fan with magnetic ball-bearings & fiberglass blades (<8dBA at idle)
- dual D900 GPUs (or equivalent to > 12Gb GDDR6, 3,072 stream processors, 512 bit wide memory bus, 396 Gb/sec bandwidth etc)

Edits to original wish list based on suggestions:
- downgraded to 10 Gb ethernet
- retain ball-bearingless fan
- 10Gbs USB 3.1 with smaller connector & 100 watts power
Click to expand...

price: 1000 is my wish list.
 
Redneck1089 said:
My wish is for this turd to flop, and then for Apple to go back to the old design. Not going to happen then... :(
Click to expand...

ha.. yeah.. i really really doubt it's going to happen.

if this # flops AND they still continue to keep the line going-- i imagine it would be a 3rd design which would still be different than the old mac pro.

but i have a hard time imagining they would try another round of it if this one fail$..
 
A case that looks like this:
mac-pro.jpg
 
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