2016 nMP

[ManuelGomes]

Was BDW-EP officially launched yet? Was it a silent launch?
Haven't seen or heard anything.
Are those ES?

Sk Hynix will start mass production of 4GB HBM2 only in Q3, so where does that leave Polaris? 8GB in Q4.
Maybe nMP will be here by Xmas...

 

[koyoot]

Samsung started mass production of 4GB HBM2 chips in middle of January. 8GB cubes will come in Q3.

In other words. The companies that got the deal with Samsung to produce HBM2 chips are able to get their GPUs with up to 16 GB of VRAM. 32 GB versions - late Q3 at the earliest.

Manuel, those Broadwell-EP chips are not ES.

 

[pat500000]

Was BDW-EP officially launched yet? Was it a silent launch?
Haven't seen or heard anything.
Are those ES?

Sk Hynix will start mass production of 4GB HBM2 only in Q3, so where does that leave Polaris? 8GB in Q4.
Maybe nMP will be here by Xmas...

U can buy the chips on Amazon for about 2k.

 

[ManuelGomes]

Yep, Samsung is in the lead but I'd say AMD will stick with SK, since they co-developed HBM1.
Still, it shouldn't be written in stone, and AMD will be last out since NVidia will probably go with Samsung.
8GB might not come to consumer cards at first at least.

Strange that you can already get those Xeons since they weren't officially announced yet.
Someone jumped the gun, I don't believe Intel will silently release these.
At least some sort of announcement, even if not with fire works and all.

 

[wallysb01]

Broadwell-EP is available now... (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2016-nmp.1952250/page-28#post-22645411)

Or are you making a joke that Apple will continue in its penchant for offering last-generation components at premium prices?

Yes, just joking.

 

[ManuelGomes]

http://appleinsider.com/articles/16...rope-sparks-hopes-of-apple-refresh-once-again

 

[tomvos]

Ok guys, you can discuss your GPU of choice in the n2MP as long as you want.

But I want this in the n2MP. And the timing is just right: "expected for product launch in summer 2016".

 

[wallysb01]

Ok guys, you can discuss your GPU of choice in the n2MP as long as you want.

But I want this in the n2MP. And the timing is just right: "expected for product launch in summer 2016".

As long as it's not as unreliable as their hard drives...

 

[koyoot]

https://twitter.com/JCBaratault/status/707120093810073600 Fiji FirePro GPUs?

 

[Zarniwoop]

With Fiji, Apple has to redesign MP's thermal core (to Nuclear Thermal core?) or there's going to be a meltdown. Beefier PSU is needed too.

Intel has zero information about E5-EP v4 on their website.

But, if new displays are coming, we're gonna see updated MP and Mac mini as well. With USB type-c. (that can provide both TB3 and DP 1.3 from same connector)

 

[goMac]

I'm kind of doubting Apple would use Fiji for the high end cards. It's too hot compared to Polaris. My guess is they'll get some early Polaris stuff, and rebrand it as Firepro.

 

[AidenShaw]

I'm kind of doubting Apple would use Fiji for the high end cards. It's too hot compared to Polaris. My guess is they'll get some early Polaris stuff, emasculate it and rebrand it as Firepro.

Fixed it for you....

 

[goMac]

Fixed it for you....

Hey, if Polaris does run cooler I don't expect they'll have to do any underclocking at all, maybe they'll even overclock like they used to.

But there probably will be a very high TDP version of Polaris meant to be at the very top end that's a more direct replacement for the 390. So I wouldn't expect the nMP is going to be compatible with the very highest end Polaris card that will arrive eventually, but I'm guessing the Polaris flagship card won't have any trouble in the Mac Pro.

It would be nice if all the GPU makers would move back to the low-ish TDPs for their top ends they had in 2008 or 2009, but I think that cat is already out of the bag.

 

[pat500000]

I wonder how many people will pack up and go home if n.2MP comes with minor graphic upgrade.

 

[superdx]

All they need to do is bring back PCI-E expansion slots. Getting rid of them made no sense.

 

[goMac]

I wonder how many people will pack up and go home if n.2MP comes with minor graphic upgrade.

If Apple does Polaris it will be a major bump. The nMP will never get the very top end cards/high TDP cards, but if Apple had Crossfire or more automatic multi card graphics under OS X I think that would erase a lot of that pain.

I fully expect that if Apple goes Polaris, it will be a good upgrade, but that some members here will be upset they can't get the very highest end Polaris SKU in a nMP. But 2x better performance than what we have now is a really good upgrade.

Or Apple could go Fiji and screw everyone over.

 

[pat500000]

If Apple does Polaris it will be a major bump. The nMP will never get the very top end cards/high TDP cards, but if Apple had Crossfire or more automatic multi card graphics under OS X I think that would erase a lot of that pain.

I fully expect that if Apple goes Polaris, it will be a good upgrade, but that some members here will be upset they can't get the very highest end Polaris SKU in a nMP. But 2x better performance than what we have now is a really good upgrade.

Or Apple could go Fiji and screw everyone over.

Aren't they making two types:10 and 11? I was reading few website and on of the, stated that 11 is high ended computer...

 

[koyoot]

Aren't they making two types:10 and 11? I was reading few website and on of the, stated that 11 is high ended computer...

Polaris 10 is small GPU, for laptops with lower than 75W TDP.
Polaris 11 is Pitcairn(FirePro D300) replacement.

In late Q3 there will come Vega 10(Greenland), that will supposedly replace Tahiti/Tonga in their lineup, as high-end GPU.

 

[ManuelGomes]

tomvos, there are already not enough lanes for everything else and you want that?!
Everyone does I guess but no can do.

The stars are not aligned yet for the nMP, maybe by the year's end if the proper GPUs are released.

 

[tomvos]

tomvos, there are already not enough lanes for everything else and you want that?!
Everyone does I guess but no can do.

The stars are not aligned yet for the nMP, maybe by the year's end if the proper GPUs are released.

Actually, I would like to have two of these ridiculous fast SSDs in the nMP.

But I see your point. Perhaps it is possible to allocate PCIe lanes dynamically? Apple had the Expansion Slot Utility for the Mac Pro 1.1 and 2.1. Having a similar utility for a hypothetical nMP would allow the user to assign the available bandwidth between GPUs, TB3, storage and the rest according to your own requirements. However I did not review the current technology documentation whether such a dynamic allocation is still possible.

 

[AidenShaw]

Actually, I would like to have two of these ridiculous fast SSDs in the nMP.

But I see your point. Perhaps it is possible to allocate PCIe lanes dynamically? Apple had the Expansion Slot Utility for the Mac Pro 1.1 and 2.1. Having a similar utility for a hypothetical nMP would allow the user to assign the available bandwidth between GPUs, TB3, storage and the rest according to your own requirements. However I did not review the current technology documentation whether such a dynamic allocation is still possible.

Dynamic allocation is exactly what PCIe switches (like the PLX switch in the MP6,1) do.

Everything is connected via a full bandwidth port (your description sounds like static manual allocation). Everything runs full speed until upstream connection hits its max bandwidth - at which point the downstream connections are throttled.

For example:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E54943_01/html/E54944/gouab.html​

This setup shows a PCIe 3.0 x8 card that contains a PCIe switch to send four PCIe 3.0 x4 connections to four NVMe disks (8 lanes to 16 lanes).

 

[Zarniwoop]

This is curiously familiar desktop concept: http://www.dunecase.com



And you can fit there a PCI-E Display card. It will be out for July 2016. Before the update of the original?

 

[Bubba Satori]

I wonder how many people will pack up and go home if n.2MP comes with minor graphic upgrade.

How many are left?

 

[poematik13]

With USB type-c. (that can provide both TB3 and DP 1.3 from same connector)

This is definitely happening. Expect TB3 in a USB-C connector for all new macs this year.

 

[pat500000]

How many are left?

I dunno...# of MR members using mp.