Anyone care to take a guess how much the 32GB, 12 core, D700 Mac Pro will cost with 256gb of pcie storage?
I'll start with $6000.![]()
If they don't price it at at LEAST $7,000 then they will be overrun with Windows folks buying 2 FirePros and getting the rest of machine as a Freebie.
In fact, seems like it has to be $9K for base and D700s, without any other trimmings.
In short, I imagine AMD has given them a minimum for the D700s, otherwise they poach sales of those $3,500 beauties.
Seriously think of what will happen if people being forced (by Windows software) to purchase W9000/D700 cards see a chance to buy 2 of them for LESS than retail AND IT COMES WITH A FREE MINI WORKSTATION...wouldn't you buy them up fast and leave the AMD folks selling their candy elsewhere?
Perhaps Apple is really going after Dell in the Mid Power workstation market? That would be the way to do it.
I don't think this is seriously what they are up to. But if the package with Dual D700s is seriously THOUSANDS less than just buying the same cards alone, will create a weird demand vacumn.
Imagine if Dell offered a 1/2 price Asus 4K with purchase? Heck, two of them.
If it turns out that the cards have been handicapped in some way, like the D300/500 are, then maybe not so weird.
Innocent question, but is the only thing preventing people from putting whatever GPU card they want in the nMP the fact that the case is 9.9 inches tall.. and not 12? (titan is 10.5 by itself).
And could you rip the d700 out and stick it in any computer with a PCIe slot? Obviously the WIN people have just as few TB compatible peripherals as we doso that is a slight deterrent. Though they probably have more USB 3 stuff.
No, they are custom cards that will only fit in the new Mac Pro enclosure.
OK, so you think the D-series cards cannot plug into the PCIe slots of a workstation 8x the size?.
Lets say I want to run my nMP with the case (enclosure) off. Whats preventing me from plugging in a 780, 7950 etc? is the interface difference, will it not accommodate a double-wide card?
....
If it turns out that the cards have been handicapped in some way, like the D300/500 are, then maybe not so weird.
What in the world are you talking about??? Have you seen the thing? They're tiny square cards plugged into a larger base that plugs into the bottom of the cylindrical system. Of course you can't plug in a normal card let alone a double wide. Nothing about it is designed for the typical linear card slot system. Sounds to me like you want an old Mac Pro or a custom PC...![]()
If you looked up a few posts, there was a theory that the D700 cards needed to be a multi-thousand dollar upgrade otherwise PC users would no longer buy the W9000 cards from AMD and would just cannibalize a nMP. So I was just asking about the feasibility of that. It seems then that the D-series are completely custom then. They will only connect in a nMP. So you can't ripe them out and use them elsewhere. You would be stuck running windows or maybe linux on the nMP, with potentially questionable driver support. And having to buy lots of TB conversion cables. This doesn't seem a very likely scenario for a windows user with a workstation - far less options and sacrifice for a cheaper, but likely down geared W9000.
So here's hoping the they got an amazing deal on the D700 and it is less than $1500 BTO.
Couldn't AMD/Apple do something as simple as a resistor or firmware bit that prevent the Catalyst Pro drivers from recognizing the card in Windows? That would solve all the potential problems... They could offer Apple great pricing and expand market share without cannibalizing Windows workstation card sales at all.