MP 7,1 apple should lower the price of entry level mac pro

[OkiRun]

OkiRun, it isn't going to be like the 5,1. Since the 5,1 was released, tech wasn't moving very fast. At best, one would see a 5% improvement in IPC and core clock speeds. We also only jumped 1 level for PCIe, from 2.0 to 3.0.

In 2019 we moved from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 4.0. By the end of 2021, even Intel will be on PCIe 5.0. That will be a 40% jump in I/O in 36 months. CPUs from AMD are showing a 10% IPC increase for each generation, which has shrunk to a 15 to 18 month release cadence.

That isn't going to stop. Zen 3 is done. TSMC is already seeing good results on 5nm (the process for Zen 4).

AMD HAS to make hay now, because Intel will be on 10nm by the end on 2021. That $6,000 7,1 will have roughly the same performance as the upcoming PS5 and Xbox due out next year.

My 12 core Mac Pro (see sig) has a lower multi core score on Cinebench R20 than a Ryzen 2700. The Ryzen 2700 is a 65watt, 8 core, 12 thread consumer grade CPU that has already been replaced by the Zen 2 series. And those will be replaced by the Zen3 series by the end of 2020. Good news is that I can drop a Zen 3 into an AM4 motherboard.

The 7,1 is on a dead man walking socket (14nm+++).

The low end is outperformed by consumer grade silicon at the low end and HEDT silicon at the high end. And the highest end HEDT hasn't even been released yet.

Right now, it appears that if your use case needs lots of ram, but not a lot in the way of IPC, but using high clock speeds (Hi Adobe!), and OSX specific hardware, then there is actually a very good use case.

Now, if Intel had made a Xeon version of the i9-10900X series, that would have been a much better bet for a 7,1.

More PCIe lanes (4), and going with quad channel memory (256Gb max). Put it in the same 7,1 box, using an apple variant of the X299 motherboard, start with the 10 core/20 thread 3.7Ghz, CPU, sell it at $4,000. I think they would have sold a LOT.

I think that Tim Cook hopes that one day he wakes up from the nightmare that he considers the Mac Pro line.

 

[ssgbryan]

I think that Tim Cook hopes that one day he wakes up from the nightmare that he considers the Mac Pro line.

This would have happened even if P.T. Barnum was still running the company. He didn't learn from the failure that was the G4 Cube. He was also the one that changed Appple Computing to Apple.

Apple is now a 1 trick pony.

1 really bad iPhone & the company will be come a LOT smaller, because Timmy weakened the ecosystem with dropping products that were important to building the walled garden, but didn't pull in 40% profit.

 

[Coyote2006]

When you purchase the 7.1, you are GONE! And Apple knows it. You don't need to make another purchase from them for this machine for the next 5 to 12 years (for the dedicated mac pro hanger oners). They are getting their money upfront with an expensive base model and waving you adios and anticipate you will enjoy the ride for the coming decade. Not a bad quid pro quo.

Depends on Apple selling newer version of the motherboard in the future or not. Even if it's a fast machine, if you can't upgrade your CPU in 3-4 years to the actual version the MacPro is some kind of dead end again.

 

[Pro7913]

If Apple cut down the price of each part, then it might be possible but we dont know about that.

1. CPU: Non-Xeon would be a lot cheaper but are they interested? I guess not. 8 core is at least $750.
2. GPU: Radeon Pro 580X would be a good start. $400 or cheaper.
3. RAM: 32gb of RAM is $800. They can start at 16gb which is $400. You can upgrade by yourself anyway.
4. PSU: You dont need 1400W. It can be lower than $300.
5. SSD: I dont think they gonna lower the price for 256gb SSD. $400.
6. Accessories: Nope. You can save $250.
7. Motherboard: $500
8. Case: $250

Approx $3000 for low-end Mac Pro. It's up to Apple to make one tho...

 

[ssgbryan]

1. Apple doesn't pay anywhere near that price. OEMs like Dell & HP pay less than $100 ea for the i9 10920X. Those Xeons will be in the same territory.
2. The 580X is a sub $200 card for anybody on Amazon or NewEgg. Any additional cost is for the rube goldberg MPX connector - Yet another Apple solution in search of a problem.
3. 32Gb ECC Ram sticks go for $168 over on Crucial.com. I am sure Apple pays less.
4. A 1600 watt Platinum Rated (who comes up with these garbage naming conventions) is around $200.
5. It isn't even an SSD, it is just a memory module. T2 - Yet another Apple solution in search of a problem.
6. Accessories - meh, maybe. Certainly neither the keyboard or mouse is worth what Apple asks.
7. Motherboard. Go with an Intel Reference board with 4 PCIe slots, and Bob's your uncle.
8. The Case is certainly more than $250, BUT, if they use the same case, the cost is amortized over a lot more units.


Yeah, they could easily build one for between $3,000 & $4,000. But they won't.

 

[bosozoku]

You can get same spec'd 16inch MacBook Pro with for twice as little as base model MacPro and WITH built-in DISPLAY!
It's easier to build a hack with better performance for twice as less!